The Importance of Being Earnest
Description
'A Trivial Comedy for Serious People': its subtitle is the best summary of a play that is the theatrical equivalent of a butterfly. The verbal brilliance of its highly self-conscious characters hides deep anxieties about social and personal identity: Jack Worthing, found as a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station and named after a railway ticket, is prepared to be re-christened to obtain the Christian name - Earnest - his beloved Gwendolen requires in a husband; he then has to confront the stigma of being the illegitimate child of a servant, before fortune, and a benevolent dramatist, reveal his true and entirely respectable identity. This is the only one-volume edition of the play to include an appendix with earlier versions and additional scenes that allow an appreciation of Wilde's creative process.
Product details
| Published | 17 Nov 2014 |
|---|---|
| Format | Paperback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 176 |
| ISBN | 9789384052577 |
| Imprint | Methuen Drama |
| Illustrations | c 5 photographs/line drawings |
| Dimensions | 198 x 129 mm |
| Series | New Mermaids |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
