The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Illustrated)

By Oscar Wilde

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Wilde includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Wilde’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786561596

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was a Dublin-born poet and playwright who studied at the Portora Royal School, before attending Trinity College and Magdalen College, Oxford. The son of two writers, Wilde grew up in an intellectual environment. As a young man, his poetry appeared in various periodicals including Dublin University Magazine. In 1881, he published his first book Poems, an expansive collection of his earlier works. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was released in 1890 followed by the acclaimed plays Lady Windermere’s Fan (1893) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

Book preview

The Complete Works of

OSCAR WILDE

VOLUME 7 OF 41

The Importance of Being Earnest

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2013

Version 6

COPYRIGHT

‘The Importance of Being Earnest’

Oscar Wilde: Parts Edition (in 41 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 159 6

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

Oscar Wilde: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 7 of the Delphi Classics edition of Oscar Wilde in 41 Parts. It features the unabridged text of The Importance of Being Earnest from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Oscar Wilde, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Oscar Wilde or the Complete Works of Oscar Wilde in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

OSCAR WILDE

IN 41 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Plays

1, Vera

2, The Duchess of Padua

3, Lady Windermere’s Fan

4, A Woman of No Importance

5, Salomé

6, An Ideal Husband

7, The Importance of Being Earnest

8, La Sainte Courtisane

9, A Florentine Tragedy

The Poetry

10, The Complete Poems

The Novel

11, The Picture of Dorian Gray - the Original 13 Chapter Version

12, The Picture of Dorian Gray - the Revised 20 Chapter Version

The Short Stories

13, The Portrait of Mr. W. H.

14, The Happy Prince and Other Tales

15, A House of Pomegranates

16, Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories

The Non-Fiction

17, The Decay of Lying

18, Pen, Pencil and Poison - a Study in Green

19, The Critic as Artist

20, The Truth of Masks

21, The Rise of Historical Criticism

22, The English Renaissance of Art

23, House Decoration

24, Art and the Handicraftsman

25, Lecture to Art Students

26, London Models

27, Poems in Prose

28, The Soul of Man Under Socialism

29, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young

30, A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated

31, De Profundis

32, Oscar Wilde’s Letter to Robert Browning

33, Personal Impressions of America

34, The Decorative Arts

35, The House Beautiful

36, The Truth of Masks

The Journalism

37, The Articles and Reviews

Apocrypha

38, Teleny

The Biographies

39, Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions by Frank Harris

40, Memories of Oscar Wilde by G. Bernard Shaw

41, Oscar Wilde: an Idler’s Impression by Edgar Saltus

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The Importance of Being Earnest

A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

This play is generally considered to be Wilde’s masterpiece in drama. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James’s Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious characters in order to escape burdensome obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play’s major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways.

After the success of Lady Windermere’s Fan and A Woman of No Importance, Wilde’s producers urged him to write more comedies. In July 1894 he proposed his idea for The Importance of Being Earnest to Sir George Alexander, the actor-manager of St. James’s Theatre, who was keen with the premise. Wilde summered with his family at Worthing, where he wrote the play quickly in August. His fame now at its peak, he used the working title Lady Lancing to avoid any speculation of its content. Wilde hesitated about submitting the script to Alexander, concerned that it might be unsuitable for the St. James’s Theatre, whose typical repertoire was relatively serious, and explaining that it had been written in response to a request for a play with no real serious interest.

When Henry James’ play Guy Domville dismally failed, Alexander turned to Wilde and agreed to put on his play. Alexander began his usual meticulous preparations, interrogating the author on each line and planning stage movements with a toy theatre. In the course of these rehearsals Alexander asked Wilde to shorten the play from four acts to three. Wilde agreed and combined elements of the second and third acts. The largest cut was the removal of the character of Mr. Gribsby, a solicitor who comes from London to arrest the profligate Ernest (i.e., Jack) for his unpaid dining bills.

Contemporary reviews all praised the play’s humour, though some were cautious about its explicit lack of social messages, while others foresaw the modern consensus that it was the culmination of Wilde’s artistic career so far. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde’s most enduringly popular play. The successful opening night marked the climax of Wilde’s career, but also heralded his downfall. The Marquess of Queensberry, father of Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde’s lover, planned to present Wilde a bouquet of spoiling vegetables and disrupt the show. Wilde was tipped off and Queensberry was refused admission. Soon afterwards the feud came to a climax in court and Wilde’s new notoriety caused the play, despite its success, to be closed after just 86 performances. Following his imprisonment, he published the play from Paris, but chose to write no further comic or dramatic work.

A scene from the 1895 production with Allan Aynesworth as Algernon (left) and Alexander as Jack

Allan Aynesworth, Evelyn Millard, Irene Vanbrugh and George Alexander in the 1895 London premiere

Mrs George Canninge as Miss Prism and Evelyn Millard as Cecily Cardew in the first production

John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry (1844–1900) was a Scottish nobleman, remembered for his role in the downfall of Oscar Wilde.

CONTENTS

THE PERSONS IN THE PLAY