Importance of Being Earnest

By Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest is a witty and satirical play by Oscar Wilde that has entertained audiences for over a century. This edition features the original text and a beautifully designed cover. Follow the hilarious misadventures of two friends as they navigate the complexities of Victorian society and love.• Portrays Wilde's examination of societal norms and pretensions.• Features unforgettable characters.• Includes masterful use of language, with clever puns, double entendre, and sparkling dialogue.• Humorously exposes the hypocrisy and absurdity of rigid social conventions.• A timeless classic that will delight and entertain readers of all ages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fingerprint Publishing
• Release date: Aug 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9789358564310

Oscar Wilde

Born in Ireland in 1856, Oscar Wilde was a noted essayist, playwright, fairy tale writer and poet, as well as an early leader of the Aesthetic Movement. His plays include: An Ideal Husband, Salome, A Woman of No Importance, and Lady Windermere's Fan. Among his best known stories are The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Canterville Ghost.

Book preview

Born in Dublin in 1854 as Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, Oscar Wilde was educated at home till the age of nine. He attended the Portora Royal School, Enniskillen from 1864 to 1871. In 1874, he graduated from Trinity College, Dublin where he won many prizes including the Berkley Gold Medal for Greek. In the same year, with a scholarship, he entered the Magdalen College, Oxford. He became well known for his role in the aesthetic and decadent movements.

In 1878, Wilde won the Newdigate Prize for his poem Ravenna. His first play, Vera: or the Nihilists, printed privately in 1880, did not meet much success. Poems was published in 1881. He spent the next few years on lecture tours in U.S., Canada, and London. He came to be known for his glittering conversations, biting wit, and flamboyant attires. In early 1883, while he was in Paris, Wilde wrote The Duchess of Padua—a five-act melodramatic tragedy in Blank verse—for the actress Mary Anderson who turned it down. It was first performed after years under the title Guido Ferranti, at the Broadway Theatre, New York in 1891. In mid-1887 he became the editor of The Lady’s World magazine, renaming it The Woman’s World.

Wilde refined his ideas about art, its purpose and supremacy, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Continuing his interest in theatre he wrote Salome, a play in one act, in 1891. Originally written in French it tells the Biblical story of Salome, the stepdaughter of the tetrarch Herod Antipas. Published jointly in Paris and London in 1893, it was not performed until 1896. Wilde became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian London after producing four comedies—Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest. First performed in 1895 in collaboration with George Alexander at St. James’s Theater, London, The Importance of Being Earnest was considered Wilde’s masterpiece and continues to remain his most popular play.

In 1895, Wilde sued Queensberry for libel but evidences unearthed in the trial led to his own imprisonment. He was convicted and imprisoned for two years. In 1897, he wrote a long letter to Douglas, which was published in 1905 as De Profundis. After his release from the reading gaol in 1897, he lived abroad in exile. The Ballad of Reading Gaol, published in 1898, was his last work. In this long poem, he commemorates the prison life and narrates the execution of Wooldridge who murdered his wife for infidelity. Wilde died in 1900 at the age of 46, in Paris.

The celebrated playwright’s life and his works continue to fascinate the literary and non-literary world. Since his death a number of biographies have been published, the earliest being memoirs by those known to him. Many of his plays and his only novel have also been adapted into movies.

CHARACTERS

THE SCENES OF THE PLAY

ACT I. Algernon Moncrieff’s Flat in Half-Moon Street, W.

ACT II. The Garden at the Manor House, Woolton.

ACT III. Drawing-Room at the Manor House, Woolton.

TIME: The Present. PLACE: London

Act 1

SCENE—Morning-room in Algernon’s flat in Half-Moon Street. The room is luxuriously and artistically furnished. The sound of a piano is heard in the adjoining room. (Lane is arranging afternoon tea on the table, and after the music has ceased, Algernon enters.)

Algernon

Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?

Lane

I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir.

Algernon

I’m sorry for that, for your sake. I don’t play accurately—any one can play accurately—but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life.

Lane

Yes, sir.

Algernon

And, speaking of the science of Life, have you got the cucumber sandwiches cut for Lady Bracknell?

Lane

Yes, sir. (Hands them on a salver.)

Algernon

(Inspects them, takes two, and sits down on the sofa.) Oh! . . . by the way, Lane, I see from your book that on Thursday night, when Lord Shoreman and Mr. Worthing were dining with me, eight bottles of champagne are entered as having been consumed.

Lane

Yes, sir; eight bottles and a pint.

Algernon

Why is it that at a bachelor’s establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne? I ask merely for information.

Lane

I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir. I have often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand.

Algernon

Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralising as that?

Lane

I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience of it myself up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person.

Algernon

(Languidly.) I don’t know that I am much interested in your family life, Lane.

Lane

No, sir; it is not a very interesting subject. I never think of it myself.

Algernon

Very natural, I am sure. That will do, Lane, thank you.

Lane

Thank you, sir. (Lane goes out.)

Algernon

Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.

(Enter Lane.)

Lane

Mr. Ernest Worthing.

(Enter Jack. Lane goes out.)

Algernon

How are you, my dear Ernest? What brings you up to town?

Jack

Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere? Eating as usual, I see, Algy!

Algernon

(Stiffly.) I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o’clock. Where have you been since last Thursday?

Jack

(Sitting down on the sofa.) In the country.

Algernon

What on earth do you do there?

Jack

(Pulling off his gloves.) When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring.

Algernon

And who are the people you amuse?

Jack

(Airily.) Oh, neighbours, neighbours.

Algernon

Got nice neighbours in your part of Shropshire?

Jack

Perfectly horrid! Never speak to