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The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays
First performed in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest is a play full of mix-ups, unexpected plot twists, mistaken identities, and extraordinary quickfire wit. It was Wilde's greatest work and represents the climax of his career.
This collection also contains Lady Windermere's Fan and An Ideal Husband, two brilliant comedies offering devastating social commentary on Victorian manners and morals.
In these three works, the wisdom, wit, and literary genius of the greatest conversationalist of his age are on full display. They have amused and entertained audiences and readers alike for over a century.
This collection also contains Lady Windermere's Fan and An Ideal Husband, two brilliant comedies offering devastating social commentary on Victorian manners and morals.
In these three works, the wisdom, wit, and literary genius of the greatest conversationalist of his age are on full display. They have amused and entertained audiences and readers alike for over a century.
318 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2020
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87 people want to read
About the author
Oscar Wilde
5,612 books39k followersOscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 23, 2021
Witty, funny... an absolute classic!
June 26, 2021
I really loved reading all these plays and plan on reading more of his works. I definitely will be putting this on my reread shelf. I found myself chuckling and smiling as I was reading the plays and would love to see the plays in person. :)
July 8, 2025
This collection was really fun! It was great to revisit Oscar Wilde again. When I was in high school and just starting out with my classic literature/dark academia craze, I used to love him a lot via The Picture of Dorian Gray, but now I can definitely say I appreciate his more humorous works a bit more than the angsty tragedy ones ("De Profundis" was good, but hella depressing. Definitely don't recommend it for summer reading, folks).
This book had a good mix of some of Wilde's best comedy plays, as well as decent Introduction -- considering this is just an Arcturus edition and not meant to be a serious scholastic one. That being said, I still wish I had supplementary notes for these plays since some references were too vague for me to catch; I think that's just a sign for me to reread these texts with a scholastic edition later on. I do appreciate Arcturus' simple formatting though; it made the book really straightforward, easy to read, and hard to put down since I just breezed through the pages like a spinning hot air balloon.
And now for the actual plays themselves:
Lady Windermere's Fan
I didn't like this one that much. I guess since this play was written early in Wilfe's comedy playwrighting career, I can understand why it's kind of slapdash, but nevertheless I can't say I enjoyed reading it. There were too many characters to keep track of that weren't worthwhile in the end. I also felt it was too melodramatic even for Wilde, but it was amusing enough and had a predictable yet satisfactory climax + ending. Kinda weird how Lady Windermere suspected her husband of fucking an older woman who turned out to be her literal mother. I feel like Mrs. Erlynne could've been fleshed out a bit more as a "fallen woman" who actually represents the play's focal point of kindness and morality, but most of the seriousness and pathos got absorbed by the outlandish, almost cartoonish sequence of nonsensical events in this play. Also, I understand why Lord Darlington was there, but he was a wet sock and useless.
An Ideal Husband
This one was my favorite out of the three in this volume. I found it just the right pinch of delightful, worldly, witty, and ridiculous. The dialogue was playful and brilliant to follow along without making you cringe too much at how painfully clever the characters are trying to be. I think this is one of Wilde's best. Truly Shakespearean how the entire plot plays out. While I did think Act Four dragged everything a bit too long in the end, I still had a lot of fun with this play. It's classed as a "comedy," but I think this one was the most serious and critical of Victorian society out of the three. Robert Chiltern's monologues about how men cannot live up to the idealized and over-romanticized pedestals their wives unconsciously build for them were gorgeous. Goring's subtle transformation from bumbling dandy bachelor to devoted fiancee to Mabel also had a certain austere gravity to it that I can't exactly explain. It felt more authentic than the regular rake-turned-husband tope.
Anyway, this one definitely had more decorum than LWF. Unlike Mrs. Erlynne, Mrs. Cheverley was a formidable villainess who deserved what she got and more. (An A-grade bitch, and not of the admirable girlboss variety). But still, above everything else, I loved Wilde's commentary on how women shouldn't idolize their husbands and instead accept them -- faults and all. I think that moral can definitely be taken overboard -- especially since it's men we're dealing with here, whom Wilde doesn't exactly worship either -- but in a way it was pretty gender nonconformist for his time. The husband was meant to be the literal ideal in the domestic and social spheres back then -- always right and perfect superiors to their wives, which has deluded people for thousands of years into thinking that must mean men naturally have brains. (They do not). Lady Chiltern had a rude awakening and almost had her marriage ruined, but it's vital to recognize the person you're married to is nothing more than a person. Wilde was ahead of his time in acknowledging this regard. I also appreciated that Chiltern didn't give up on his political ambitions after all, because, as much as love is blissful and forgiving, one must stay independent and pursue their own individual dreams. Wilde, being a Victorian man of his times, sadly does not extend this same type of inspired independence to Lady Chiltern, but at least she got her own happy ending and marital wisdom in the end.
My favorite character in this one was Viscount Goring (the son). He was a dramatic, intelligent, and sweet-tempered best friend to the Chilterns. I kept waiting for him to turn into an asshole, but he was just an awkward idiot. His witticisms amused me out of the three "smart-aleck" types in this volume. I didn't like any of the love affairs in these plays -- the comphet was strong in you, Wilde, I am sorry -- but I found Goring and Mabel Chiltern's relationship the most entertaining because of their dialogue. (Though I wouldn't have minded if Goring ended up with Mrs. Cheveley after all; I would've loved to see their toxic dynamic played out a bit more). As with Mabel and Goring themselves, I wanted to highlight most of the phrases and observations that came out of their mouths, but alas, I was too lazy. Perhaps next time when I inevitably reread AIH.
The last thing I want to say about this play is that Wilde has a character named Phipps, whom he calls the "Ideal Butler" type, which of course reminded me of the Book of Murder arc in Black Butler, where Yana Toboso's (femboy) version of Arthur Conan Doyle observes that Sebastian is like a character from an Oscar Wilde novel, which I found hilarious. Toboso basically confirmed that her demon looks like a frou-frou dandy (AKA gay) to outsiders. I don't know if the Black Butler fandom is aware of this maybe-literary reference. I don't know if Toboso has read AIH, but I wouldn't put it past her. I'm pretty sure "Phipps" is the name of one of her other butler characters as well. So that earned a snort from me.
The Importance of Being Earnest
This one was also Shakespearean with all its piece-of-shit characters (well, mostly Algernon Moncrieff, the bastard), false identities, melodramatic family reunions, gender wars, and colossal misunderstandings. Unlike in AIH, I felt the dialogue was a little over-the-top insufferable, especially when Algernon and Lady Bracknell were talking, but I still found myself smiling at some iconic lines. This one was definitely the funniest; the scene with the aggressive muffin-eating made me laugh. The switch-up between Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax over who is truly engaged to "Ernest" was a fun catfight-turned-sisterhood to witness. Even though I dislike the "battle of the sexes" trope, I liked them together going against Algernon and John. Gwendolen's aside of, "But I must have tea!" was also golden.
I can see why this is one of Wilde's most famous plays. Not much happens, hence why he self-advertises it as "trivial" but for "serious people," but I think it's contained nature lends it an air of allegory and small-world charm, especially considering the "big reveal" of Miss Prism being John's accidental kidnapper. Like, okay, I'm willing to believe that the woman who randomly abandoned a baby on the Brighton Line in a suitcase just so happened to be the same governess said baby-grown-up-into-a-gentleman-now hires for his ward eighteen years later -- except plot twist Miss Prism isn't actually his biological mother but that's okay because she ends up screwing the virginal celibate priest willing to hand out christenings like skittles to whoever arranges an appointment with him first! Oh, and John was also named Ernest so the play is still sort of a pun! One ridiculous coincidence after another, but I rolled with it. Sure, what the hell.
It would've been realy fun to see TIoBE performed on stage, especially since I felt there was a lot of room to break the fourth wall and actors' freedom of interpretation of the characters' personalities and line delivery. Though this wasn't my favorite, I do acknowledge it's the most "literary" of the three included in this volume. I wouldn't have liked analyzing it for a Drama course though; Wilde's plays are for amusement and languid philosophizing, not English undergrad classes.
This book had a good mix of some of Wilde's best comedy plays, as well as decent Introduction -- considering this is just an Arcturus edition and not meant to be a serious scholastic one. That being said, I still wish I had supplementary notes for these plays since some references were too vague for me to catch; I think that's just a sign for me to reread these texts with a scholastic edition later on. I do appreciate Arcturus' simple formatting though; it made the book really straightforward, easy to read, and hard to put down since I just breezed through the pages like a spinning hot air balloon.
And now for the actual plays themselves:
Lady Windermere's Fan
I didn't like this one that much. I guess since this play was written early in Wilfe's comedy playwrighting career, I can understand why it's kind of slapdash, but nevertheless I can't say I enjoyed reading it. There were too many characters to keep track of that weren't worthwhile in the end. I also felt it was too melodramatic even for Wilde, but it was amusing enough and had a predictable yet satisfactory climax + ending. Kinda weird how Lady Windermere suspected her husband of fucking an older woman who turned out to be her literal mother. I feel like Mrs. Erlynne could've been fleshed out a bit more as a "fallen woman" who actually represents the play's focal point of kindness and morality, but most of the seriousness and pathos got absorbed by the outlandish, almost cartoonish sequence of nonsensical events in this play. Also, I understand why Lord Darlington was there, but he was a wet sock and useless.
An Ideal Husband
This one was my favorite out of the three in this volume. I found it just the right pinch of delightful, worldly, witty, and ridiculous. The dialogue was playful and brilliant to follow along without making you cringe too much at how painfully clever the characters are trying to be. I think this is one of Wilde's best. Truly Shakespearean how the entire plot plays out. While I did think Act Four dragged everything a bit too long in the end, I still had a lot of fun with this play. It's classed as a "comedy," but I think this one was the most serious and critical of Victorian society out of the three. Robert Chiltern's monologues about how men cannot live up to the idealized and over-romanticized pedestals their wives unconsciously build for them were gorgeous. Goring's subtle transformation from bumbling dandy bachelor to devoted fiancee to Mabel also had a certain austere gravity to it that I can't exactly explain. It felt more authentic than the regular rake-turned-husband tope.
Anyway, this one definitely had more decorum than LWF. Unlike Mrs. Erlynne, Mrs. Cheverley was a formidable villainess who deserved what she got and more. (An A-grade bitch, and not of the admirable girlboss variety). But still, above everything else, I loved Wilde's commentary on how women shouldn't idolize their husbands and instead accept them -- faults and all. I think that moral can definitely be taken overboard -- especially since it's men we're dealing with here, whom Wilde doesn't exactly worship either -- but in a way it was pretty gender nonconformist for his time. The husband was meant to be the literal ideal in the domestic and social spheres back then -- always right and perfect superiors to their wives, which has deluded people for thousands of years into thinking that must mean men naturally have brains. (They do not). Lady Chiltern had a rude awakening and almost had her marriage ruined, but it's vital to recognize the person you're married to is nothing more than a person. Wilde was ahead of his time in acknowledging this regard. I also appreciated that Chiltern didn't give up on his political ambitions after all, because, as much as love is blissful and forgiving, one must stay independent and pursue their own individual dreams. Wilde, being a Victorian man of his times, sadly does not extend this same type of inspired independence to Lady Chiltern, but at least she got her own happy ending and marital wisdom in the end.
My favorite character in this one was Viscount Goring (the son). He was a dramatic, intelligent, and sweet-tempered best friend to the Chilterns. I kept waiting for him to turn into an asshole, but he was just an awkward idiot. His witticisms amused me out of the three "smart-aleck" types in this volume. I didn't like any of the love affairs in these plays -- the comphet was strong in you, Wilde, I am sorry -- but I found Goring and Mabel Chiltern's relationship the most entertaining because of their dialogue. (Though I wouldn't have minded if Goring ended up with Mrs. Cheveley after all; I would've loved to see their toxic dynamic played out a bit more). As with Mabel and Goring themselves, I wanted to highlight most of the phrases and observations that came out of their mouths, but alas, I was too lazy. Perhaps next time when I inevitably reread AIH.
The last thing I want to say about this play is that Wilde has a character named Phipps, whom he calls the "Ideal Butler" type, which of course reminded me of the Book of Murder arc in Black Butler, where Yana Toboso's (femboy) version of Arthur Conan Doyle observes that Sebastian is like a character from an Oscar Wilde novel, which I found hilarious. Toboso basically confirmed that her demon looks like a frou-frou dandy (AKA gay) to outsiders. I don't know if the Black Butler fandom is aware of this maybe-literary reference. I don't know if Toboso has read AIH, but I wouldn't put it past her. I'm pretty sure "Phipps" is the name of one of her other butler characters as well. So that earned a snort from me.
The Importance of Being Earnest
This one was also Shakespearean with all its piece-of-shit characters (well, mostly Algernon Moncrieff, the bastard), false identities, melodramatic family reunions, gender wars, and colossal misunderstandings. Unlike in AIH, I felt the dialogue was a little over-the-top insufferable, especially when Algernon and Lady Bracknell were talking, but I still found myself smiling at some iconic lines. This one was definitely the funniest; the scene with the aggressive muffin-eating made me laugh. The switch-up between Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax over who is truly engaged to "Ernest" was a fun catfight-turned-sisterhood to witness. Even though I dislike the "battle of the sexes" trope, I liked them together going against Algernon and John. Gwendolen's aside of, "But I must have tea!" was also golden.
I can see why this is one of Wilde's most famous plays. Not much happens, hence why he self-advertises it as "trivial" but for "serious people," but I think it's contained nature lends it an air of allegory and small-world charm, especially considering the "big reveal" of Miss Prism being John's accidental kidnapper. Like, okay, I'm willing to believe that the woman who randomly abandoned a baby on the Brighton Line in a suitcase just so happened to be the same governess said baby-grown-up-into-a-gentleman-now hires for his ward eighteen years later -- except plot twist Miss Prism isn't actually his biological mother but that's okay because she ends up screwing the virginal celibate priest willing to hand out christenings like skittles to whoever arranges an appointment with him first! Oh, and John was also named Ernest so the play is still sort of a pun! One ridiculous coincidence after another, but I rolled with it. Sure, what the hell.
It would've been realy fun to see TIoBE performed on stage, especially since I felt there was a lot of room to break the fourth wall and actors' freedom of interpretation of the characters' personalities and line delivery. Though this wasn't my favorite, I do acknowledge it's the most "literary" of the three included in this volume. I wouldn't have liked analyzing it for a Drama course though; Wilde's plays are for amusement and languid philosophizing, not English undergrad classes.
January 17, 2022
Positives: Very punny, absurd, and few characters at the beginning episodes
Each play was stripped of everything that didn't make it punny and/or absurd, which can be challenging at first. This made it difficult to get started into the plays, but makes the plays better
Endings: Chaotic which adds to the absurdity of it all. Also it felt like he had no idea how to finish plays without adding a character or 2 with 10 pages left. Unnecessary.
Each play was stripped of everything that didn't make it punny and/or absurd, which can be challenging at first. This made it difficult to get started into the plays, but makes the plays better
Endings: Chaotic which adds to the absurdity of it all. Also it felt like he had no idea how to finish plays without adding a character or 2 with 10 pages left. Unnecessary.
February 10, 2022
Ernest, Jack, Bunbury, Algernon:
September 30, 2020
Essentially there are 3 short plays here included:
1. Lady Windermere's fan
2. An ideal husband
3. The importance of being earnest.
I did enjoy reading them all, there's not much more than the funny side of the dialogues and the hillarious situations (and there's nothing wrong with that). Of course, the plays speak volumes about those times and the hypocrisy of the upper class, satisfied and Victorian .... lol
Reading these plays reminds me of a pleasant summer rain - revigorates the body and the brain. The plays are short, quick to read, and leave you refreshed.
1. Lady Windermere's fan
2. An ideal husband
3. The importance of being earnest.
I did enjoy reading them all, there's not much more than the funny side of the dialogues and the hillarious situations (and there's nothing wrong with that). Of course, the plays speak volumes about those times and the hypocrisy of the upper class, satisfied and Victorian .... lol
Reading these plays reminds me of a pleasant summer rain - revigorates the body and the brain. The plays are short, quick to read, and leave you refreshed.
March 21, 2023
I only read Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest since I found An Ideal Husband quite boring. 2/3 plays being quite good isn’t bad though
April 2, 2024
*3.75 ⭐️
April 15, 2024
Read - The importance of being Earnest
October 16, 2023
I love plays, and this one comes pretty close to the top. So satirical and ironic, it never fails! I had the opportunity to watch this play during the summer, so re-reading this was even better now that I can picture it! By far the best (and easiest) book this school year!!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews