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The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays

By Oscar Wilde
Series: Oxford World's Classics
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Brief Description
"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious." The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) proclaims that it is "A Trivial Play for Serious People." In fact, collected here alongside Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Salome (1891, 1894), A Woman... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3800

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A new edition of Oscar Wilde's witty and radical major plays that elegantly challenge Victorian conceptions of social propriety. It contains an accessible and comprehensive new introduction that positions the plays in the context of Wilde's life, career, and the late-Victorian stage.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) proclaims that it is "A Trivial Play for Serious People." In fact, collected here alongside Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Salome (1891, 1894), A Woman of No Importance (1893), and An Ideal Husband (1895), Earnest shows that the questions raised by Wilde's plays are anything but trivial. Witty and radical, they elegantly challenge Victorian social proprieties, featuring lies, blackmail, illicit desires, seductions, and double lives.

This volume, edited by Kate Hext, positions Wilde's major plays in the context of Wilde's life, career, and late-Victorian culture. Its introduction provides a readable overview with stylistic analyses to help readers understand the plays and why they are still fresh and relevant today. This is followed by sections on each play which explain key figures, plot devices, and Wilde's evolution as a dramatist.

ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years, Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780192848024

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 13 March 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Oxford University Press

Edition: 2nd Revised edition

Illustration: 4 black-and-white illustrations

Contributors:

  • Edited by Kate Hext

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 24.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 342g

Pages: 496

Collections

Arts & Culture Classic Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Non-Fiction Oscar Wilde Series: Oxford World's Classics

About the Author

Kate Hext is an Associate Professor of Decadent Literature and the Arts at the University of Exeter and Visiting Professor of English at Ewha Womans University. Her publications include Wilde in the Dream Factory: Decadence and the American Movies (OUP), Walter Pater: Individualism and Aesthetic Philosophy, and, as co-editor, Decadence in the Age of Modernism. She is founding co-editor of the journal Cusp: Late 19th-/Early 20th-Century Cultures.

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