Name: The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays
ISBN: 9780451531896

Oscar Wilde

Sylvan Barnet

Offers newly edited texts of five of the British playwright's works, including the great farcial comedy The Importance of Being Earnest.. Reissue.

The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays

Claudia | she/her

angie

Tija

The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain. 

It is always painful to part from people whom one has known for a very brief space of time. 

Then a passionate celibacy is all that any of us can look forward to. 

When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people.

Bart Veldhuijsen 

Jack: Oh, that's nonsense, Algy. You never talk anything but nonsense.

william wukkuan

I haven’t the smallest intention of doing anything of the kind. To begin with, I dined there on Monday, and once a week is quite enough to dine with one’s own relations.

I am glad to hear it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle men in London as it is. How old are you?

Oscar Wilde's brilliant play makes fun of the English upper classes with light-hearted satire and dazzling humour. It is 1890's England and two young gentlemen are being somewhat limited with the truth. To inject some excitement into their lives, Mr Worthing invents a brother, Earnest, as an excuse to leave his dull country life behind him to pursue the object of his desire, the ravishing Gwendolyn. While across town Algernon Montecrieff decides to take the name Earnest, when visiting Worthing's young ward Cecily. The real fun and confusion begins when the two end up together and their deceptions are in danger of being revealed.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Beth Cordall

I'm sure going to watch this as a play would be great. 3 stars accounts for this; 2 stars max as a reading experience.

Cameron Voytko

All I needed to yank me from my reading slump was 130-year-old Victorian pettiness. Sharp, witty, and probably always relevant. I ended up watching two productions of this in like one day after finishing it, and now I have some very specific opinions on how it should be performed. The organic give-and-take between live actors on stage lends itself well to Wilde's dialogue; witnessing a production hit its stride during a scene is so satisfying. I love plays! 

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and reader!=s notes to help the modern reader appreciate Wilde's wry wit and elaborate plot twists.Oscar Wilde's madcap farce about mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers? entanglements still delights readers more than a century after its 1895 publication and premiere performance. The rapid-fire wit and eccentric characters of The Importance of Being Earnest have made it a mainstay of the high school curriculum for decades.Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax are both in love with the same mythical suitor. Jack Worthing has wooed Gewndolen as Ernest while Algernon has also posed as Ernest to win the heart of Jack's ward, Cecily. When all four arrive at Jack's country home on the same weekend'the "rivals" to fight for Ernest's undivided attention and the "Ernests" to claim their beloveds'pandemonium breaks loose.Only a senile nursemaid and an old, discarded hand-bag can save the day

i love classy british comedy from a irish gay man

ラップの神 del ray🗡🐸

The importance of being earnest and other plays

'The truth is rarely pure and never simple.'

'I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.'

'All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.'

A timeless, witty, satirical play that mocks the conventional Victorian traditions and social customs. 

His critique of the upper class is palpable, highlighting the hypocrisy of marriage expectations and the superficialness of upper society, who are unauthentic to appease societal expectations and appear more alluring. The title itself mocks the Victorian upper classes as the character trait of ‘earnestness’ was very much desirable in nineteenth-century society. 

I just love Oscar Wilde’s work and his audacious critique of society, which still holds significance today.

Eleanor 

'The truth is rarely pure and never simple.'

'I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.'

'All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.'

A timeless, witty, satirical play that mocks the conventional Victorian traditions and social customs. 

His critique of the upper class is palpable, highlighting the hypocrisy of marriage expectations and the superficialness of upper society, who are unauthentic to appease societal expectations and appear more alluring. The title itself mocks the Victorian upper classes as the character trait of ‘earnestness’ was very much desirable in nineteenth-century society. 

I just love Oscar Wilde’s work and his audacious critique of society, which still holds significance today.

Wonderfully funny story! Short, but I couldn't put it down.

Cláudia Mateus

Patrick Book

why did algernon eat all the cucumber sandwiches

Wilde's witty and buoyant comedy of manners, filled with some of literature's most famous epigrams, reprinted from an authoritative British edition. Considered Wilde's most perfect work.

elizabeth

I remembered virtually nothing from the first time I read this (I think it was during a rushed I-read-classics phase in high school?), and it is such a delight. It's like reading an exceptionally well-written sitcom. A sitcom that comments on class and wealth and marriage and skewers Victorian society at large etc. It's goofy, but grounded in satire, and utterly pitch-perfect.

Sarah Sammis

Fandom is a double edged sword. It can be good for the ego and dangerous for body. Add to the mixture of a sexually repressed society, a homosexual extra marital affair and a homophobic father and you have a career ender. That's of course not the plot of Oscar Wilde's most famous play The Importance of Being Earnest but the true life drama surrounding the play.

The play itself is a pretty tame farce of mistaken identities and promises of marriage if only the parties involved can unravel who is who. At the heart of the matter is the question of who is Earnest and who is Jack Worthing. Jack is a foundling, having been left a train station in a bag as an infant.

The play is three short and silly acts with lots witty dialogue. Sometimes it's confusing to read but on stage it's a riot. I've seen it performed ages ago but this was the first time for me to read it.

Lindy

Christine

help it's been too long since i first read this it is exactly as funny and irreverent as i remember

Kat Albanese

Jun Angelo Cabuguas

it was cool reading so many classics, loved lady windermere’s fan + the importance of being earnest

Ubicada en la Inglaterra de la época victoriana, la trama se desarrolla alrededor del protagonista John (o Jack) y Ernest, su hermano ficticio.Las obras anteriores de Wilde lo habían encumbrado en la cima del éxito, por lo que no se esperaba algo nuevo del dramaturgo. En aquel entonces, la prensa era feroz en su búsqueda de nuevos personajes y argumentos, prestando gran atención a los detalles. Para combatirla, Wilde bautizó la obra bajo el título de Lady Lancing y usó nombres de pueblos costeros para los personajes principales y la ubicación de la obra (el apellido del protagonista, Worthing, está tomado de la ciudad donde Wilde residía cuando escribió la obra).Fue la última comedia que escribió Wilde y está considerada uno de sus mejores trabajos. Se estrenó por primera vez en el 14 de febrero de 1895 en el St. James' Theatre de Londres, tres meses antes de que Wilde fuera condenado a prisión por indecencia grave.

La Importancia de Llamarse Ernesto (Spanish Edition)

ariadna

Tenia miedo de leer este libro debido a que es un clásico de la literatura, pero la verdad que lo ame. Fue una lectura muy sencilla y rápida. La comedia es única y me hizo reír hasta que finalice de leerlo.

Laura Walden

Charlie Winchester 

 I'm not sure if I'm a fan of this work, but I do like the irony and wit in it! The title alone is genius! 

blue

It was fine, very short and entertaining. I can’t imagine doing multiple llce classes on it tho honestly its too silly a book for that. 

tam 🕴️

What's up with the ladies and the name Ernest? They really took that "Nomen est omen" to heart. Also, who leaves a baby in a bag by mistake? 

Jovana Gjekanovikj 

Wilde

Absolutely hilarious, anyone in need of a laugh should read this.

Het tweede toneelstuk dit jaar. Wel grappig dat dit stuk blijkbaar een inspiratie was voor waiting for godot. Verder goed stuk vooral de parallelen die steeds terugkomen.

The Importance of Being Earnest marks a central moment in late-Victorian literature, not only for its wit but also for its role in the shift from a Victorian to a Modern consciousness. The play began its career as a biting satire directed at the very audience who received it so delightedly, but ended its initial run as a harbinger of Wilde’s personal downfall when his lover’s father, who would later bring about Wilde’s arrest and imprisonment, attempted to disrupt the production. In addition to its focus on the textual history of the play, this Broadview Edition of Earnest provides a wide array of appendices. The edition locates Wilde’s work among the artistic and cultural contexts of the late nineteenth century and will provide scholars, students, and general readers with an important sourcebook for the play and the social, creative, and critical contexts of mid-1890s English life.

Colleen

I needed to read a play for my reading challenge, so I settled on The Importance of Being Earnest. I saw the movie version years ago and remembered it being funny. 

I haven't read a play since college. I'd say most of my lower rating is because I find trying to read a play as a novel has lost it's appeal to me. They're meant to be preformed and enjoyed via that performance not on the page. So although it was a fun story albeit a bit silly, it lacked resonance with me due to it's format. Next time I'll skip reading a play and just go see it.


This review fulfills the "A Play" category of the Popsugar reading challenge. http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-...

The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays

Reviews

Popular highlights