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The importance of being earnest and other plays

Wilde, OscarCave, Richard(Notes by)Cave, Richard(Introduction by)Cave, Richard(Edited by)
Part of the Penguin classics series
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Combining epigrammatic brilliance and shrewd social observation, the works collected in Oscar Wilde'sThe Importance of Being Earnest and Other Playsare edited with an introduction, commentaries and notes by Richard Allen Cave in Penguin Classics.

'To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to losebothlooks like carelessness'

The Importance of Being Earnestis a glorious comedy of mistaken identity, which ridicules codes of propriety and etiquette. Manners and morality are also victims of Wilde's sharp wit in Lady Windermere's Fan,A Woman of No ImportanceandAn Ideal Husband, in which snobbery and hypocrisy are laid bare. InSaloméandA Florentine Tragedy, Wilde makes powerful use of historical settings to explore the complex relationship between sex and power. The range of these plays displays Wilde's delight in artifice, masks and disguises, and reveals the pretentions of the social world in which he himself played such a dazzling and precarious part.

Richard Allen Cave's introduction and notes discuss the themes of the plays and Wilde's innovative methods of staging. This edition includes the excised 'Gribsby' scene fromThe Importance of Being Earnest.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was educated in Dublin and Oxford and became the leading exponent of the new Aesthetic Movement. His work, including short fiction suchThe Happy Price(1888), his novelThe Picture of Dorian Gray(1891), gradually won him a reputation, which was cemented by his phenomenally successful plays, includingA Woman of No Importance(1893),An Ideal Husband(1895) andThe Importance of Being Earnest(1895). Imprisoned for homosexual acts, he died after his release, in exile in Paris.

If you enjoyedThe Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays, you might like George Bernard Shaw'sPygmalion, also available in Penguin Classics.

'Beneath the wit there is always an intense emotional reality. He criticised his audience while he entertained it'
Peter Hall,Guardian

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Product Details
Penguin
0141909315 / 9780141909318
eBook (EPUB)
822.8
25/05/2000
England
English
424 pages
Copy: 10%; print: 10%
Reprint. Description based on print version record.