The Importance of Being Earnest (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Oscar Wilde
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Book Summary Information
Author: Oscar WildeBrand: Dover Publications
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1990-07-01
ISBN: 0486264785
Number of pages: 64
Publisher: Dover Publications
Book Reviews of The Importance of Being Earnest (Dover Thrift Editions)
Book Review: Wit is stronger than appearances
Summary: 5 Stars
Oscar Wilde gives us in this play one of his best instance of humor, or would I say wit ? Every situation, every word, every piece of this dialogue is full of smartness and intelligence. The only aim of the play is to show us how absurd strict social canons are. Life is extremely more fun than the respect of such rules that destroy any kind of pleasure or happy turns of events. Good society is thus turned upside down and the best instance of such humorous antics is the fact that the son of a general was officially born in a handbag deposited in the cloakroom of Victoria Station, the Brighton Line. How ridiculous ! How funny, ah ah and funny, strange ! Oscar Wilde shows how vain all appearances are because appearances may hide deeper things that are of far more important value than these appearances. This play is thus a constant and perfect example of comedy. But in spite of this light appearance of the play, we can feel the deeper suffering of Oscar Wilde who is very serious about the absurdity of keeping up appearances instead of taking only character into account. In other words, this comedy is a sign of the total decay of such higher society that is nothing but a pretty face with nothing behind, nothing in the head or the brain. It is a call for a real society based on human values like love, truthfulness, faithfulness. All twists in the social fabric create unconceivable embroglios that lead to entanglements and other difficulties. Things would be so simple if men and women could just follow their inclinations and their deep sentiments. We also find in this comedy a deep marivaux-ian influence : Marivaux loved in his play to alter identities, but among girls, to test the love of men. Here it is the men who have altered identities and it leads to testing their ability at sacrificing such entangled situations for the love of a girl. There is also a strong recollection of Shakespeare who enjoyed turning his girls into boys in his comedies, but once again to test the love of men, to see without being seen, for women. Oscar Wilde, in the social setting of a Victorian society, is just as witty and funny as Shakespeare in say As you Like It, or say again A Midsummer Night's Dream. And life turns Aunt Augusta, alias Lady Bracknell into the ass of the fable.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan
Summary of The Importance of Being Earnest (Dover Thrift Editions)
Witty and buoyant comedy of manners is brilliantly plotted from its effervescent first act to its hilarious denouement, and filled with some of literature's most famous epigrams. Widely considered Wilde's most perfect work, the play is reprinted here from an authoritative early British edition. Note to the Dover Edition.
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