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The Importance of Being Earnest | 
 enlarge | Author: Oscar Wilde
Publisher: Prestwick House Inc.
Category: Book
Buy New: $3.99
New (4) Used (10) from $3.99
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 7268
Media: Paperback
Pages: 76
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.3
ISBN: 158049580X
Dewey Decimal Number: 822
EAN: 9781580495806
ASIN: 158049580X
Publication Date: January 1, 2005
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Product Description
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!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Wilde's wittiest July 14, 2005
James Hiller (Beaverton, OR)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
One thing happens when you read Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest"; you are amazed to remember that this play was authored over 100 years ago. For most plays of that era, the average reader tends to lose references and it tends to be stodgy and irrelevant. Not so Earnest, due to the brilliance and imagination of it's playwright.
The Importance of Being Earnest is a tour de force of comedy, misidentifications, and farce. Algernon and Jack are friends, and each has invented an imaginary person as an excuse of getting out of engagements. Jack's person is Ernest, a brother with a wild past. The two conspire to woo the ladies that they love, and through a series of happenstances, must gently deceive to get want they want. The end result is a play of uncomperable quality, chock full of witticisms that are highly quotable out of context. In fact, I dare suggest the entire play is quotable, such its brilliance.
Wilde pulled no punches when writing Earnest. Often, when a play is filled with memorable quotes, it takes away from the realism of the scenes because the characters then become merely conduits for the writer's intellect. Not so in Earnest. Wilde manages to make the characters say exactly what they would say in each situation, true to their persona. That alone is quite an accomplishment, one not often seen.
Misidentities, witty banter, love, all conspire to one of English's most brilliant comedies ever to have seen the stage. We should be so lucky the world had Oscar Wilde in it, and even more so, that he wrote at all.
Great version of the Classic Play October 17, 2005
T. Kaufmann (USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The Importance of Being Earnest is a fantastic play. It is an easy read, and is not only well thought out, but hilarious.
I liked this book of the play especially, because it includes helpful notes in the beginning, but more because it has a glossary of difficult terms in the back. Every time I came to a word that I did not know, it was sure to be defined in the back.
If you love theatre, this is a great play to read. I would highly suggest this book.
Essential Wilde December 14, 2006
J. Brady (PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Funnier and more entertaining than you ever thought reading a play could be, and absolutely more relevant now than ever, The Importance of Being Earnest is Oscar Wilde at his best. Thankfully short ( you can read it in an hour or so ) and filled with brilliant, biting humor.
Best play I've ever read May 27, 2007
H
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The wit in which Wilde writes is incredible. It's a quick short play so you should definitely read it if you love plays. It's funny, and just quite great!
An Earnest Classic February 4, 2008
Valerie J. Saturen (Tacoma, WA)
A quick and entertaining read, Oscar Wilde's comic portrayal of 19th century upper-class intrigue is filled with witty, bantering dialogue. Two friends, Algernon and Jack, perfect the art of "Bunburying," which consists of inventing ill or troublemaking friends and relatives in order to get out of social engagements. Of course, this can only backfire and lead to confusion, particularly as Jack's fictitious brother Ernest shows up unexpectedly at the home of Cecily, Jack's ward and the woman Algernon hopes to marry. As Wilde pokes fun at the upper class and the deceptiveness inherent in its elaborate social protocol, the final irony comes when the hapless deceivers find they may have been inadvertently earnest all along.
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