اهمیت جدی بودن و نمایشنامه های دیگر

Combining epigrammatic brilliance and shrewd social observation, the works collected in Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays are edited with an introduction, commentaries and notes by Richard Allen Cave in Penguin Classics.To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune to lose both looks like carelessnessThe Importance of Being Earnest is a glorious comedy of mistaken identity, which ridicules codes of propriety and etiquette. Manners and morality are also victims of Wildes sharp wit in Lady Windermeres Fan, A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, in which snobbery and hypocrisy are laid bare. In Salomé and A Florentine Tragedy, Wilde makes powerful use of historical settings to explore the complex relationship between sex and power. The range of these plays displays Wildes delight in artifice, masks and disguises, and reveals the pretentions of the social world in which he himself played such a dazzling and precarious part.Richard Allen Caves introduction and notes discuss the themes of the plays and Wildes innovative methods of staging. This edition includes the excised Gribsby scene from The Importance of Being Earnest.