The Importance of Being Earnest

After all, who has the right to cast a stone against one who has suffered? Cannot repentance wipe out an act of folly? Why should there be one law for me and another for women?

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, a 'trivial play for serious people', is a sparkling comedy of manners that epitomises wit and style. This brilliantly constructed satire, with its celebrated characters and much-quoted dialogue, turns accepted ideas inside out and is generally regarded as Wilde's masterpiece.

This Methuen Drama Student Edition of the play includes commentary and notes by Lucie Sutherland, Assistant Professor in Drama at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her insights investigate the play through a contemporary lens, incorporating contributions from queer scholarship and discussions of recent productions of the play.