THE ITEM:

"THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST"

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social 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. Some contemporary reviews praised the play's humour and the culmination of Wilde's artistic career, while others were cautious about its lack of social messages. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most enduringly popular play.

After the success of Wilde's plays Lady Windermere's Fan and A Woman of No Importance, Wilde's producers urged him to write further plays. In July 1894, he mooted his idea for The Importance of Being Earnest to George Alexander, the actor-manager of the St James's Theatre. Wilde spent the summer 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 preemptive speculation of its content. Many names and ideas in the play were borrowed from people or places the author had known; Lady Queensberry, Lord Alfred Douglas's mother, for example, lived at Bracknell. Wilde scholars agree the most important influence on the play was W. S. Gilbert's 1877 farce Engaged, from which Wilde borrowed not only several incidents but also "the gravity of tone demanded by Gilbert of his actors

(WIKIPEDIA)

AND OTHER PLAYS:

* LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN

* A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE

* AN IDEAL HUSBAND

* SALOMÉ

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THE AUTHOR:

OSCAR WILDE

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, the early 1890s saw him become one of the most popular playwrights in London. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for gross indecency for consensual homosexual acts, imprisonment, and early death from meningitis at age 46.

(WIKIPEDIA)

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ON THE COVER:

EDITH EVANS

AS LADY BRACKNELL IN THE FILM VERSION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

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THE PUBLISHER:

PENGUIN PLAYS

PENGUIN

LONDON

THE YEAR:

1986

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

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 SIZED

CENTIMETERS: 11 X 18

PAGES: 352

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  CONDITION

GENERAL:

REASONABLE TO GOOD

COVER:

BIT RUBBED, DIRTY AND DISCOLOURED, CORNERS AND EDGES LIGHTLY BUMPED, SMALL PAPER-DAMAGE ON BACK-SIDE, SOME LIGHTLY CRACKED BENDS

SPINE:

IDEM

PAGES: 

DISCOLOURED, HARDLY TO NO SIGNS OF USAGE

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