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</a> </div> <form action="/w/index.php" method="get" class="minerva-search-form"> <div class="search-box"> <input type="hidden" name="title" value="Special:Search"/> <input class="search skin-minerva-search-trigger" id="searchInput" type="search" name="search" placeholder="Search Wikipedia" aria-label="Search Wikipedia" autocapitalize="sentences" title="Search Wikipedia [f]" accesskey="f"> </div> <button id="searchIcon" class="cdx-button cdx-button--size-large cdx-button--icon-only cdx-button--weight-quiet skin-minerva-search-trigger"> Search </button> </form> <nav class="minerva-user-navigation" aria-label="User navigation"> </nav> </div> </header> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <div class="banner-container"> <div id="siteNotice"></div> </div> <div class="pre-content heading-holder"> <div class="page-heading"> <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading">The Importance of Being Earnest</h1> <div class="tagline"></div> </div> <ul id="p-associated-pages" class="minerva__tab-container"> <li class="minerva__tab selected"> <a class="minerva__tab-text" href="/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" rel="" data-event-name="tabs.subject">Article</a> </li> <li class="minerva__tab "> <a class="minerva__tab-text" href="/wiki/Talk:The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" rel="discussion" data-event-name="tabs.talk">Talk</a> </li> </ul> <nav class="page-actions-menu"> <ul id="p-views" class="page-actions-menu__list"> <li id="language-selector" class="page-actions-menu__list-item"> <a role="button" href="#p-lang" data-mw="interface" data-event-name="menu.languages" title="Language" class="cdx-button cdx-button--size-large cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--icon-only cdx-button--weight-quiet language-selector"> Language </a> </li> <li id="page-actions-watch" class="page-actions-menu__list-item"> <a role="button" id="ca-watch" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=The+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" 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class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><section class="mf-section-0" id="mf-section-0"> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">For other uses, see <a href="/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest_(disambiguation)" class="mw-disambig" title="The Importance of Being Earnest (disambiguation)">The Importance of Being Earnest (disambiguation)</a>.</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1257001546">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme)>div:not(.notheme)[style]{background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data:not(.notheme) div:not(.notheme){background:#1f1f23!important;color:#f8f9fa}}@media(min-width:640px){body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table{display:table!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>caption{display:table-caption!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table>tbody{display:table-row-group}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table tr{display:table-row!important}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table th,body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .infobox-table td{padding-left:inherit;padding-right:inherit}}</style>The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by <a href="/wiki/Oscar_Wilde" title="Oscar Wilde">Oscar Wilde</a>, the last of his four <a href="/wiki/Drawing-room_play" class="mw-redirect" title="Drawing-room play">drawing-room plays</a>, following <a href="/wiki/Lady_Windermere%27s_Fan" title="Lady Windermere's Fan">Lady Windermere's Fan</a> (1892), <a href="/wiki/A_Woman_of_No_Importance" title="A Woman of No Importance">A Woman of No Importance</a> (1893) and <a href="/wiki/An_Ideal_Husband" title="An Ideal Husband">An Ideal Husband</a> (1895). First performed on 14 February 1895 at the <a href="/wiki/St_James%27s_Theatre" title="St James's Theatre">St James's Theatre</a> in London, it is a <a href="/wiki/Farce" title="Farce">farcical comedy</a> depicting the tangled affairs of two young <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/man_about_town" class="extiw" title="wiktionary:man about town">men about town</a> who lead double lives to evade unwanted social obligations, both assuming the name Ernest while wooing the two young women of their affections. <table class="infobox vevent"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above summary" style="font-style: italic">The Importance of Being Earnest</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><a href="/wiki/File:Algy-and-Jack-1895.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="Two young white men in a drawing room, wearing Victorian morning dress. One man is turned around in a seat, attempting in vain to snatch a cigarette case from the standing man." src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/49/Algy-and-Jack-1895.jpg/220px-Algy-and-Jack-1895.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="315" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/49/Algy-and-Jack-1895.jpg/330px-Algy-and-Jack-1895.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/49/Algy-and-Jack-1895.jpg/440px-Algy-and-Jack-1895.jpg 2x" data-file-width="582" data-file-height="833"></a><div class="infobox-caption">Original production, 1895 <a href="/wiki/Allan_Aynesworth" title="Allan Aynesworth">Allan Aynesworth</a> as Algernon (left) and <a href="/wiki/George_Alexander_(actor)" title="George Alexander (actor)">George Alexander</a> as Jack</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space: nowrap">Written by</th><td class="infobox-data description"><a href="/wiki/Oscar_Wilde" title="Oscar Wilde">Oscar Wilde</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space: nowrap">Date premiered</th><td class="infobox-data">14 February 1895</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space: nowrap">Place premiered</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/St_James%27s_Theatre" title="St James's Theatre">St James's Theatre</a>, London, England</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space: nowrap">Genre</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/Comedy" title="Comedy">Comedy</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space: nowrap">Setting</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/wiki/Mayfair" title="Mayfair">Mayfair</a>, London, and a country house in <a href="/wiki/Hertfordshire" title="Hertfordshire">Hertfordshire</a></td></tr></tbody></table> The play, celebrated for its wit and repartee, parodies contemporary dramatic norms, gently satirises late <a href="/wiki/Victorian_era" title="Victorian era">Victorian</a> manners, and introduces – in addition to the two pairs of young lovers – the formidable Lady Bracknell, the fussy <a href="/wiki/Governess" title="Governess">governess</a> Miss Prism and the benign and scholarly <a href="/wiki/Canon_(title)#Church_of_England" title="Canon (title)">Canon</a> Chasuble. Contemporary reviews in Britain and overseas praised the play's humour, although some critics had reservations about its lack of social messages. The successful opening night marked the climax of Wilde's career but was followed within weeks by his downfall. The <a href="/wiki/John_Douglas,_9th_Marquess_of_Queensberry" title="John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry">Marquess of Queensberry</a>, whose son <a href="/wiki/Lord_Alfred_Douglas" title="Lord Alfred Douglas">Lord Alfred Douglas</a> was Wilde's lover, unsuccessfully schemed to throw a bouquet of rotten vegetables at the playwright at the end of the performance. This feud led to <a href="/wiki/Oscar_Wilde#Trials" title="Oscar Wilde">a series of legal trials</a> from March to May 1895 which resulted in Wilde's conviction and imprisonment for homosexual acts. Despite the play's early success, Wilde's disgrace caused it to be closed in May after 86 performances. After his release from prison in 1897 he published the play from exile in Paris, but he wrote no more comic or dramatic works. From the early 20th century onwards the play has been revived frequently in English-speaking countries and elsewhere. After the first production, which featured <a href="/wiki/George_Alexander_(actor)" title="George Alexander (actor)">George Alexander</a>, <a href="/wiki/Allan_Aynesworth" title="Allan Aynesworth">Allan Aynesworth</a> and <a href="/wiki/Irene_Vanbrugh" title="Irene Vanbrugh">Irene Vanbrugh</a> among others, many actors have been associated with the play, including <a href="/wiki/Mabel_Terry-Lewis" title="Mabel Terry-Lewis">Mabel Terry-Lewis</a>, <a href="/wiki/John_Gielgud" title="John Gielgud">John Gielgud</a>, <a href="/wiki/Edith_Evans" title="Edith Evans">Edith Evans</a>, <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Rutherford" title="Margaret Rutherford">Margaret Rutherford</a>, <a href="/wiki/Martin_Jarvis_(actor)" title="Martin Jarvis (actor)">Martin Jarvis</a>, <a href="/wiki/Nigel_Havers" title="Nigel Havers">Nigel Havers</a> and <a href="/wiki/Judi_Dench" title="Judi Dench">Judi Dench</a>. The role of the redoubtable Lady Bracknell has sometimes been played by men. The Importance of Being Earnest has been adapted for radio from the 1920s onwards and for television since the 1930s, filmed for the cinema on three occasions (directed by <a href="/wiki/Anthony_Asquith" title="Anthony Asquith">Anthony Asquith</a> in 1952, Kurt Baker in 1992 and <a href="/wiki/Oliver_Parker" title="Oliver Parker">Oliver Parker</a> in 2002) and turned into operas and musicals. <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r886046785">.mw-parser-output .toclimit-2 .toclevel-1 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-3 .toclevel-2 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-4 .toclevel-3 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-5 .toclevel-4 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-6 .toclevel-5 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-7 .toclevel-6 ul{display:none}</style><div class="toclimit-2"><div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="display:none"><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox"></label></div> <ul> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="#Synopsis">1 Synopsis</a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2"><a href="#Act_I">1.1 Act I</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3"><a href="#Act_II">1.2 Act II</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4"><a href="#Act_III">1.3 Act III</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="#Composition">2 Composition</a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="#First_productions">3 First productions</a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="#Critical_opinion">4 Critical opinion</a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8"><a href="#Revivals">5 Revivals</a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9"><a href="#1895%E2%80%931929">5.1 1895–1929</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10"><a href="#1930%E2%80%932000">5.2 1930–2000</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11"><a href="#21st_century">5.3 21st century</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12"><a href="#Publication">6 Publication</a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-13"><a href="#First_edition">6.1 First edition</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-14"><a href="#In_translation">6.2 In translation</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-15"><a href="#Analysis">7 Analysis</a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-16"><a href="#Structure_and_genre">7.1 Structure and genre</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-17"><a href="#Triviality">7.2 Triviality</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-18"><a href="#Satire_and_parody">7.3 Satire and parody</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-19"><a href="#Conjectural_homosexual_subtext">7.4 Conjectural homosexual subtext</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-20"><a href="#Bunbury">7.5 Bunbury</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-21"><a href="#Use_of_language">7.6 Use of language</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-22"><a href="#Characterisation">7.7 Characterisation</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-23"><a href="#Adaptations">8 Adaptations</a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-24"><a href="#Film">8.1 Film</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-25"><a href="#Operas_and_musicals">8.2 Operas and musicals</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-26"><a href="#Stage_derivatives">8.3 Stage derivatives</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-27"><a href="#Radio_and_television">8.4 Radio and television</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-28"><a href="#Commercial_recordings">8.5 Commercial recordings</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-29"><a href="#Notes,_references_and_sources">9 Notes, references and sources</a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-30"><a href="#Notes">9.1 Notes</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-31"><a href="#References">9.2 References</a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-32"><a href="#Sources">9.3 Sources</a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-33"><a href="#Books">9.3.1 Books</a></li> <li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-34"><a href="#Journals">9.3.2 Journals</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-35"><a href="#External_links">10 External links</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </section><div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 section-heading" onclick="mfTempOpenSection(1)"><h2 id="Synopsis">Synopsis</h2></div><section class="mf-section-1 collapsible-block" id="mf-section-1"> The play is set in "The Present" (1895 at the time of the premiere).<a href="#cite_note-auto1-1">[1]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Act_I">Act I</h3></div> Algernon Moncrieff's flat in <a href="/wiki/Half_Moon_Street,_London" title="Half Moon Street, London">Half Moon Street</a> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Importance-Act-1-Jack-Gwendolen-Algernon.png" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="young white male and female couple in Victorian costume conversing; she writes in a small notebook, left, while a young white male, right, listens to them, secretly, and writes in his notebook" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b8/Importance-Act-1-Jack-Gwendolen-Algernon.png/220px-Importance-Act-1-Jack-Gwendolen-Algernon.png" decoding="async" width="220" height="306" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="264" data-file-height="367"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 220px;height: 306px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b8/Importance-Act-1-Jack-Gwendolen-Algernon.png/220px-Importance-Act-1-Jack-Gwendolen-Algernon.png" data-alt="young white male and female couple in Victorian costume conversing; she writes in a small notebook, left, while a young white male, right, listens to them, secretly, and writes in his notebook" data-width="220" data-height="306" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b8/Importance-Act-1-Jack-Gwendolen-Algernon.png 1.5x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a><figcaption>Jack (<a href="/wiki/George_Alexander_(actor)" title="George Alexander (actor)">George Alexander</a>) tells Gwendolen (<a href="/wiki/Irene_Vanbrugh" title="Irene Vanbrugh">Irene Vanbrugh</a>) the address of his country house, while Algernon (<a href="/wiki/Allan_Aynesworth" title="Allan Aynesworth">Allan Aynesworth</a>) secretly overhears.</figcaption></figure> Algernon Moncrieff, a young <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/man_about_town" class="extiw" title="wiktionary:man about town">man about town</a>, is visited by a friend whom he knows by the name of Ernest Worthing. The latter has come from the country to propose to Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. Algernon refuses to consent until Ernest explains why his cigarette case bears the inscription, "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack". Worthing is forced to admit to living a double life. In the country, he assumes a serious attitude for the benefit of his young <a href="/wiki/Ward_(law)" title="Ward (law)">ward</a>, the <a href="/wiki/Inheritance" title="Inheritance">heiress</a> Cecily Cardew, and goes by the name of John or Jack, while pretending that he must worry about a wastrel younger brother in London, named Ernest. Meanwhile, he assumes the identity of the profligate Ernest when in town. Algernon confesses a similar deception: he pretends to have a sickly friend named Bunbury in the country, whom he can "visit" whenever he wishes to avoid an unwelcome social obligation. Jack refuses to tell Algernon the location of his country estate.<a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a> Gwendolen and her formidable mother, Lady Bracknell, now call on Algernon, who distracts Lady Bracknell in another room while Jack proposes to Gwendolen. She accepts but says she could not love him if his name were not Ernest. He resolves secretly to be rechristened. Discovering the two in this intimate exchange, Lady Bracknell interviews Jack as a prospective suitor for her daughter. Horrified to learn that he was adopted – having been found as a baby in a handbag deposited at <a href="/wiki/London_Victoria_station" title="London Victoria station">Victoria Station</a> in London – she refuses him and forbids further contact with her daughter. Gwendolen manages to covertly promise to him her undying love. As Jack gives her his address in the country, Algernon surreptitiously notes it on the cuff of his sleeve: Jack's revelation of his pretty young ward has motivated his friend to meet her.<a href="#cite_note-3">[3]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Act_II">Act II</h3></div> The Garden of the Manor House, Woolton <figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-left" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Alexander-Worthing-1909.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="white man with side whiskers in a garden setting, wearing full Victorian morning dress, including long coat, tophat, gloves and cane" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/75/Alexander-Worthing-1909.jpg/170px-Alexander-Worthing-1909.jpg" decoding="async" width="170" height="444" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="542" data-file-height="1415"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 170px;height: 444px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/75/Alexander-Worthing-1909.jpg/170px-Alexander-Worthing-1909.jpg" data-alt="white man with side whiskers in a garden setting, wearing full Victorian morning dress, including long coat, tophat, gloves and cane" data-width="170" data-height="444" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/75/Alexander-Worthing-1909.jpg/255px-Alexander-Worthing-1909.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/75/Alexander-Worthing-1909.jpg/340px-Alexander-Worthing-1909.jpg 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a><figcaption>Alexander in Act II (1909 revival)</figcaption></figure> Cecily is studying with her governess, Miss Prism, in the (fictitious) village of Woolton, Hertfordshire. Algernon arrives, pretending to be Ernest Worthing, and soon charms Cecily. Long fascinated by her uncle Jack's hitherto-absent dissolute brother, she is predisposed to fall for Algernon in his role of Ernest. Algernon plans for the <a href="/wiki/Rector_(ecclesiastical)" title="Rector (ecclesiastical)">rector</a>, Dr Chasuble, to rechristen him "Ernest". Jack has decided to abandon his double life. He arrives in full mourning and announces his brother's death in Paris, from a severe chill, a story undermined by Algernon's presence in the guise of Ernest. Gwendolen now enters, having left the Bracknells' London house without her mother's knowledge. During the temporary absence of the two men she meets Cecily. They get along well at first, but when they learn of the other's engagement each indignantly declares that she is the one engaged to Ernest. When Jack and Algernon reappear together, Gwendolen and Cecily realise they have been deceived; they leave the men in the garden and withdraw to the house.<a href="#cite_note-4">[4]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Act_III">Act III</h3></div> Morning-room at the Manor House, Woolton Gwendolen and Cecily forgive the men's trickery. Arriving in pursuit of her daughter, Lady Bracknell is astonished to be told that Algernon and Cecily are engaged. The revelation of Cecily's wealth soon dispels Lady Bracknell's initial doubts over the young lady's suitability, but any engagement is forbidden by her <a href="/wiki/Legal_guardian" title="Legal guardian">guardian</a>, Jack: he will consent only if Lady Bracknell agrees to his own union with Gwendolen – something she declines to do. The impasse is resolved by the return of Miss Prism, whom Lady Bracknell recognises as the person who, 28 years earlier as a family nursemaid, had taken a baby boy out in a <a href="/wiki/Baby_transport#Prams" title="Baby transport">perambulator</a> from Lord Bracknell's house and never returned. Challenged, Miss Prism explains that she had absent-mindedly put into the perambulator the manuscript of a novel she was writing, and put the baby in a handbag, which she later left at Victoria Station. Jack produces the same handbag, showing that he is the lost baby, the eldest son of Lady Bracknell's late sister, and thus Algernon's elder brother. Having acquired such respectable relations, he is acceptable as Gwendolen's suitor.<a href="#cite_note-5">[5]</a> Gwendolen continues to insist that she can love only a man named Ernest. Lady Bracknell tells Jack that, as the firstborn, he would have been named after his father, General Moncrieff. Jack examines the <a href="/wiki/Army_List" title="Army List">Army Lists</a> and discovers that his father's name – and hence his own original christening name – was, in fact, Ernest. As the happy couples embrace – Ernest and Gwendolen, Algernon and Cecily, and even Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism – Lady Bracknell complains to her newfound relative: "My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality". He replies, "On the contrary, Aunt Augusta: I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest".<a href="#cite_note-6">[6]</a> </section><div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 section-heading" onclick="mfTempOpenSection(2)"><h2 id="Composition">Composition</h2></div><section class="mf-section-2 collapsible-block" id="mf-section-2"> <figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-right" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Oscar_Wilde_(1854-1900)_1889,_May_23._Picture_by_W._and_D._Downey.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="Early middle aged white man in Victorian morning dress, seated with legs crossed, holding gloves and looking pensively towards the camera" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Oscar_Wilde_%281854-1900%29_1889%2C_May_23._Picture_by_W._and_D._Downey.jpg/220px-Oscar_Wilde_%281854-1900%29_1889%2C_May_23._Picture_by_W._and_D._Downey.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="333" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="1074" data-file-height="1625"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 220px;height: 333px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Oscar_Wilde_%281854-1900%29_1889%2C_May_23._Picture_by_W._and_D._Downey.jpg/220px-Oscar_Wilde_%281854-1900%29_1889%2C_May_23._Picture_by_W._and_D._Downey.jpg" data-alt="Early middle aged white man in Victorian morning dress, seated with legs crossed, holding gloves and looking pensively towards the camera" data-width="220" data-height="333" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Oscar_Wilde_%281854-1900%29_1889%2C_May_23._Picture_by_W._and_D._Downey.jpg/330px-Oscar_Wilde_%281854-1900%29_1889%2C_May_23._Picture_by_W._and_D._Downey.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Oscar_Wilde_%281854-1900%29_1889%2C_May_23._Picture_by_W._and_D._Downey.jpg/440px-Oscar_Wilde_%281854-1900%29_1889%2C_May_23._Picture_by_W._and_D._Downey.jpg 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a><figcaption>Oscar Wilde in 1889</figcaption></figure> The Importance of Being Earnest followed the success of Wilde's earlier <a href="/wiki/Drawing_room_play" title="Drawing room play">drawing room plays</a>, <a href="/wiki/Lady_Windermere%27s_Fan" title="Lady Windermere's Fan">Lady Windermere's Fan</a> (1892), <a href="/wiki/A_Woman_of_No_Importance" title="A Woman of No Importance">A Woman of No Importance</a> (1893) and <a href="/wiki/An_Ideal_Husband" title="An Ideal Husband">An Ideal Husband</a> (1895).<a href="#cite_note-wildeodnb-7">[7]</a> He spent the summer of 1894 with his family at <a href="/wiki/Worthing" title="Worthing">Worthing</a>, on the <a href="/wiki/Sussex" title="Sussex">Sussex</a> coast, where he began work on the new play.<a href="#cite_note-8">[8]</a> Wilde scholars generally agree that the most important influence on the play was <a href="/wiki/W._S._Gilbert" title="W. S. Gilbert">W. S. Gilbert</a>'s 1877 <a href="/wiki/Farce" title="Farce">farce</a> <a href="/wiki/Engaged_(play)" title="Engaged (play)">Engaged</a>,<a href="#cite_note-9">[9]</a> from which Wilde borrowed not only several incidents but also, in the words of Russell Jackson in his 1980 introduction to Wilde's play, "the gravity of tone demanded by Gilbert of his actors".<a href="#cite_note-10">[10]</a> Wilde's first draft was so long that it filled four <a href="/wiki/Exercise_book" title="Exercise book">exercise books</a>, and over the summer he continually revised and refined it, as he had done with his earlier plays.<a href="#cite_note-jackson163-11">[11]</a><a href="#cite_note-12">[12]</a> Among his many changes he altered the subtitle from "a Serious Comedy for Trivial People" to "a Trivial Comedy for Serious People",<a href="#cite_note-13">[13]</a> and renamed the characters Lady Brancaster and Algernon Montford as Lady Bracknell and Algernon Moncrieff.<a href="#cite_note-14">[14]</a> Wilde wrote the part of John Worthing with the actor-manager <a href="/wiki/Charles_Wyndham_(actor)" title="Charles Wyndham (actor)">Charles Wyndham</a> in mind. Wilde shared <a href="/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw" title="George Bernard Shaw">Bernard Shaw's</a> view that Wyndham was the ideal comedy actor and based the character on his stage persona.<a href="#cite_note-wildeodnb-7">[7]</a> Wyndham accepted the play for production at <a href="/wiki/Wyndham%27s_Theatre" title="Wyndham's Theatre">his theatre</a>, but before rehearsals began, he changed his plans in order to help a beleaguered colleague, the actor-manager <a href="/wiki/George_Alexander_(actor)" title="George Alexander (actor)">George Alexander</a> of the <a href="/wiki/St_James%27s_Theatre" title="St James's Theatre">St James's Theatre</a>. In early 1895 Alexander's production of <a href="/wiki/Henry_James" title="Henry James">Henry James</a>'s <a href="/wiki/Guy_Domville" title="Guy Domville">Guy Domville</a> failed, and closed after 31 performances, leaving Alexander in urgent need of a new play to follow it.<a href="#cite_note-james-15">[15]</a><a href="#cite_note-rhd-16">[16]</a> Wyndham waived his contractual rights and allowed Alexander to stage Wilde's play.<a href="#cite_note-rhd-16">[16]</a><a href="#cite_note-17">[17]</a> After working with Wilde on stage movements, using a model theatre, Alexander asked the author to shorten the play from four acts to three. Wilde complied and combined elements of the second and third acts.<a href="#cite_note-e406-18">[18]</a> The largest cut was the removal of the character of Mr Gribsby, a solicitor who comes from London to serve a <a href="/wiki/Writ" title="Writ">writ</a> on the profligate "Ernest" Worthing for unpaid dining bills at the <a href="/wiki/Savoy_Hotel" title="Savoy Hotel">Savoy Hotel</a>.<a href="#cite_note-jackson163-11">[11]</a><a href="#cite_note-19">[19]</a> Wilde was not entirely happy with alterations made at Alexander's behest. He said, "Yes, it is quite a good play. I remember I wrote one very like it myself, but it was even more brilliant than this",<a href="#cite_note-e406-18">[18]</a> but the three-act version usually performed is widely considered more effective than Wilde's four-act original.<a href="#cite_note-Raby121-20">[20]</a><a href="#cite_note-mikhail-21">[21]</a><a href="#cite_note-22">[n 1]</a> </section><div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 section-heading" onclick="mfTempOpenSection(3)"><h2 id="First_productions">First productions</h2></div><section class="mf-section-3 collapsible-block" id="mf-section-3"> The play was first produced at the St James's Theatre, London, on 14 February – <a href="/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day" title="Valentine's Day">Valentine's Day</a> – 1895,<a href="#cite_note-gaye-23">[22]</a> preceded by a <a href="/wiki/Curtain-raiser" class="mw-redirect" title="Curtain-raiser">curtain-raiser</a>, a short comedy called In the Season, by <a href="/wiki/Langdon_Elwyn_Mitchell" title="Langdon Elwyn Mitchell">Langdon E. Mitchell</a>.<a href="#cite_note-era-24">[23]</a> During most of the month-long rehearsal period Wilde was on holiday in Algeria with his gay partner, <a href="/wiki/Lord_Alfred_Douglas" title="Lord Alfred Douglas">Lord Alfred Douglas</a>, but he returned in time for the <a href="/wiki/Dress_rehearsal" title="Dress rehearsal">dress rehearsal</a> on 12 February.<a href="#cite_note-jxliv-25">[24]</a> Douglas remained in Algiers; his father, the <a href="/wiki/John_Douglas,_9th_Marquess_of_Queensberry" title="John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry">Marquess of Queensberry</a>, planned to disrupt the premiere by throwing a bouquet of rotten vegetables at the playwright when he took his bow at the end. Wilde learned of the plan and Alexander cancelled Queensberry's ticket and arranged for the police to bar his entrance. Wilde wrote to Douglas, "He arrived with a <a href="/wiki/Prize_fighter" class="mw-redirect" title="Prize fighter">prize fighter</a>!!<a href="#cite_note-27">[n 2]</a> I had all <a href="/wiki/Scotland_Yard" title="Scotland Yard">Scotland Yard</a> to guard the theatre. He prowled around for three hours, then left chattering like a monstrous ape".<a href="#cite_note-28">[26]</a> Queensberry left the bouquet at the theatre entrance.<a href="#cite_note-adut-26">[25]</a> Wilde arrived for the premiere dressed in "florid sobriety", wearing a <a href="/wiki/LGBT_symbols#Plants_and_animals" class="mw-redirect" title="LGBT symbols">green carnation</a> in his lapel.<a href="#cite_note-29">[27]</a> <a href="/wiki/Allan_Aynesworth" title="Allan Aynesworth">Allan Aynesworth</a>, who played Algernon Moncrieff, recalled to <a href="/wiki/Hesketh_Pearson" title="Hesketh Pearson">Hesketh Pearson</a>: <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r996643573">.mw-parser-output .block-indent{padding-left:3em;padding-right:0;overflow:hidden}</style><div class="block-indent">In my fifty-three years of acting, I never remember a greater triumph than the first night of The Importance of Being Earnest ... The audience rose in their seats and cheered and cheered again.<a href="#cite_note-30">[28]</a></div> The theatrical newspaper <a href="/wiki/The_Era_(newspaper)" title="The Era (newspaper)">The Era</a> reported that the play "met with enthusiastic and unanimous approval" and confidently predicted "a long and prosperous run".<a href="#cite_note-era-24">[23]</a> Aynesworth was "debonair and stylish", and Alexander, who played Jack Worthing, "demure";<a href="#cite_note-jackson171-31">[29]</a> according to The Era, "Mr George Alexander played Worthing just as a part of this sort should be played, i.e., with entire seriousness and no indication of purposed irony".<a href="#cite_note-era-24">[23]</a> <a href="/wiki/The_Morning_Post" title="The Morning Post">The Morning Post</a> said that <a href="/wiki/Irene_Vanbrugh" title="Irene Vanbrugh">Irene Vanbrugh</a> and <a href="/wiki/Evelyn_Millard" title="Evelyn Millard">Evelyn Millard</a> could not be bettered and caught the required Gilbertian tone.<a href="#cite_note-32">[30]</a> <a href="/wiki/The_Observer" title="The Observer">The Observer</a> remarked on the "rapturous amusement" of the audience, and echoed The Era's prediction of a long run.<a href="#cite_note-33">[31]</a> According to the published text, the characters, descriptions and cast comprised:<a href="#cite_note-34">[32]</a><a href="#cite_note-auto1-1">[1]</a> <table class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"> <tbody><tr> <td>John Worthing, <a href="/wiki/Justice_of_the_Peace" class="mw-redirect" title="Justice of the Peace">JP</a> </td> <td>of the Manor House, Woolton, Hertfordshire </td> <td><a href="/wiki/George_Alexander_(actor)" title="George Alexander (actor)">George Alexander</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td>Algernon Moncrieff </td> <td>his friend </td> <td><a href="/wiki/Allan_Aynesworth" title="Allan Aynesworth">Allan Aynesworth</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td>Rev <a href="/wiki/Canon_(title)#Church_of_England" title="Canon (title)">Canon</a> Chasuble, <a href="/wiki/Doctor_of_Divinity" title="Doctor of Divinity">DD</a> </td> <td><a href="/wiki/Rector_(ecclesiastical)" title="Rector (ecclesiastical)">Rector</a> of Woolton </td> <td><a href="/wiki/H._H._Vincent_(actor)" title="H. H. Vincent (actor)">H. H. Vincent</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td>Merriman </td> <td>butler to Mr Worthing </td> <td><a href="/wiki/Franklin_Dyall" title="Franklin Dyall">Frank Dyall</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td>Lane </td> <td>Mr Moncrieff's manservant </td> <td><a href="/wiki/Kinsey_Peile" title="Kinsey Peile">F. Kinsey Peile</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td>Lady Bracknell </td> <td> </td> <td><a href="/wiki/Rose_Leclercq" title="Rose Leclercq">Rose Leclercq</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td><a href="/wiki/The_Honourable#United_Kingdom" title="The Honourable">Hon</a> Gwendolen Fairfax </td> <td>her daughter </td> <td><a href="/wiki/Irene_Vanbrugh" title="Irene Vanbrugh">Irene Vanbrugh</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td>Cecily Cardew </td> <td>John Worthing's <a href="/wiki/Ward_(law)" title="Ward (law)">ward</a> </td> <td><a href="/wiki/Evelyn_Millard" title="Evelyn Millard">Evelyn Millard</a> (succeeded by Violet Lyster)<a href="#cite_note-36">[n 3]</a> </td></tr> <tr> <td>Miss Prism </td> <td>her governess </td> <td>Mrs George Canninge </td></tr></tbody></table> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1237032888/mw-parser-output/.tmulti">.mw-parser-output .tmulti .multiimageinner{display:flex;flex-direction:column}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .trow{display:flex;flex-direction:row;clear:left;flex-wrap:wrap;width:100%;box-sizing:border-box}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .tsingle{margin:1px;float:left}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .theader{clear:both;font-weight:bold;text-align:center;align-self:center;background-color:transparent;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .thumbcaption{background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .text-align-left{text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .text-align-right{text-align:right}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .text-align-center{text-align:center}@media all and (max-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .tmulti .thumbinner{width:100%!important;box-sizing:border-box;max-width:none!important;align-items:center}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .trow{justify-content:center}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .tsingle{float:none!important;max-width:100%!important;box-sizing:border-box;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .tsingle .thumbcaption{text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .tmulti .trow>.thumbcaption{text-align:center}}@media screen{html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .tmulti .multiimageinner img{background-color:white}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .tmulti .multiimageinner img{background-color:white}}</style><div class="thumb tmulti tnone center"><div class="thumbinner multiimageinner" style="width:845px;max-width:845px"><div class="trow"><div class="tsingle" style="width:199px;max-width:199px"><div class="thumbimage"><a href="/wiki/File:Vanbrugh-Millard-The-Importance-1895.png" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="Two young white women, seated side by side, in Victorian costume with hats, in a garden setting" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a0/Vanbrugh-Millard-The-Importance-1895.png/197px-Vanbrugh-Millard-The-Importance-1895.png" decoding="async" width="197" height="277" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="573" data-file-height="806"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 197px;height: 277px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a0/Vanbrugh-Millard-The-Importance-1895.png/197px-Vanbrugh-Millard-The-Importance-1895.png" data-alt="Two young white women, seated side by side, in Victorian costume with hats, in a garden setting" data-width="197" data-height="277" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a0/Vanbrugh-Millard-The-Importance-1895.png/296px-Vanbrugh-Millard-The-Importance-1895.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a0/Vanbrugh-Millard-The-Importance-1895.png/394px-Vanbrugh-Millard-The-Importance-1895.png 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a></div><div class="thumbcaption text-align-center">Irene Vanbrugh as Gwendolen and <a href="/wiki/Evelyn_Millard" title="Evelyn Millard">Evelyn Millard</a> as Cecily</div></div><div class="tsingle" style="width:225px;max-width:225px"><div class="thumbimage"><a href="/wiki/File:Rose-Leclerq-as-Lady-Bracknell.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="Drawing of middle-aged white woman, dressed severely, looking imperiously through a lorgnette" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Rose-Leclerq-as-Lady-Bracknell.jpg/223px-Rose-Leclerq-as-Lady-Bracknell.jpg" decoding="async" width="223" height="276" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="658" data-file-height="815"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 223px;height: 276px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Rose-Leclerq-as-Lady-Bracknell.jpg/223px-Rose-Leclerq-as-Lady-Bracknell.jpg" data-alt="Drawing of middle-aged white woman, dressed severely, looking imperiously through a lorgnette" data-width="223" data-height="276" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Rose-Leclerq-as-Lady-Bracknell.jpg/335px-Rose-Leclerq-as-Lady-Bracknell.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Rose-Leclerq-as-Lady-Bracknell.jpg/446px-Rose-Leclerq-as-Lady-Bracknell.jpg 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a></div><div class="thumbcaption text-align-center"><a href="/wiki/Rose_Leclercq" title="Rose Leclercq">Rose Leclercq</a> as Lady Bracknell, from a sketch of the first production</div></div><div class="tsingle" style="width:219px;max-width:219px"><div class="thumbimage"><a href="/wiki/File:Cecily-and-Miss-Prism-1895.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="Elderly white woman, seated, with young white woman, standing, both in hats" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d5/Cecily-and-Miss-Prism-1895.jpg/217px-Cecily-and-Miss-Prism-1895.jpg" decoding="async" width="217" height="276" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="581" data-file-height="739"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 217px;height: 276px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d5/Cecily-and-Miss-Prism-1895.jpg/217px-Cecily-and-Miss-Prism-1895.jpg" data-alt="Elderly white woman, seated, with young white woman, standing, both in hats" data-width="217" data-height="276" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d5/Cecily-and-Miss-Prism-1895.jpg/326px-Cecily-and-Miss-Prism-1895.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d5/Cecily-and-Miss-Prism-1895.jpg/434px-Cecily-and-Miss-Prism-1895.jpg 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a></div><div class="thumbcaption text-align-center">Mrs George Canninge as Miss Prism, and Evelyn Millard as Cecily</div></div><div class="tsingle" style="width:194px;max-width:194px"><div class="thumbimage"><a href="/wiki/File:Algy-and-Jack-Act2-1895.png" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="Two young white men in a garden, standing and eating muffins, about which they bicker" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6a/Algy-and-Jack-Act2-1895.png/192px-Algy-and-Jack-Act2-1895.png" decoding="async" width="192" height="276" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="530" data-file-height="761"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 192px;height: 276px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6a/Algy-and-Jack-Act2-1895.png/192px-Algy-and-Jack-Act2-1895.png" data-alt="Two young white men in a garden, standing and eating muffins, about which they bicker" data-width="192" data-height="276" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6a/Algy-and-Jack-Act2-1895.png/288px-Algy-and-Jack-Act2-1895.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6a/Algy-and-Jack-Act2-1895.png/384px-Algy-and-Jack-Act2-1895.png 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a></div><div class="thumbcaption text-align-center">Aynesworth and Alexander as Algernon and Jack in Act II</div></div></div></div></div> Queensberry continued harassing Wilde, who within weeks launched a <a href="/wiki/Private_prosecution" title="Private prosecution">private prosecution</a> against him for <a href="/wiki/Criminal_libel" title="Criminal libel">criminal libel</a>, triggering a <a href="/wiki/Oscar_Wilde#Trials" title="Oscar Wilde">series of trials</a> that revealed Wilde's homosexual private life and ended in his imprisonment for <a href="/wiki/Gross_indecency_between_men" class="mw-redirect" title="Gross indecency between men">gross indecency</a> in May 1895. The <a href="/wiki/Victorian_era" title="Victorian era">Victorian</a> public turned against him after his arrest, and box-office receipts dwindled rapidly;<a href="#cite_note-37">[34]</a><a href="#cite_note-38">[35]</a> Alexander tried to save the production by removing the author's name from the playbills,<a href="#cite_note-40">[n 4]</a> but it closed on 8 May after only 83 performances.<a href="#cite_note-jxliv-25">[24]</a><a href="#cite_note-41">[37]</a> The play's original <a href="/wiki/Broadway_theatre" title="Broadway theatre">Broadway</a> production opened at the <a href="/wiki/Empire_Theatre_(41st_Street)" title="Empire Theatre (41st Street)">Empire Theatre</a> on 22 April 1895 but closed after sixteen performances. Its cast included <a href="/wiki/William_Faversham" title="William Faversham">William Faversham</a> as Algernon, <a href="/wiki/Henry_Miller_(actor)" title="Henry Miller (actor)">Henry Miller</a> as Jack, <a href="/wiki/Viola_Allen" title="Viola Allen">Viola Allen</a> as Gwendolen and Ida Vernon as Lady Bracknell.<a href="#cite_note-hischak-42">[38]</a> The Australian premiere was in Melbourne on 10 August 1895, presented by <a href="/wiki/Robert_Brough_(actor)" title="Robert Brough (actor)">Robert Brough</a> and <a href="/wiki/Dion_Boucicault_Jr." title="Dion Boucicault Jr.">Dion Boucicault Jr.</a>, with Cecil Ward as Jack, Boucicault as Algernon and Jenny Watt-Tanner as Lady Bracknell. The production was an immediate success.<a href="#cite_note-rf-43">[39]</a><a href="#cite_note-44">[40]</a> Wilde's downfall in England did not affect the popularity of his plays in Australia.<a href="#cite_note-f55-45">[41]</a><a href="#cite_note-46">[n 5]</a> The same company presented the New Zealand premiere in October 1895, when the play was enthusiastically received. Reviewers said, "in subtlety of thought, brilliancy of wit and sparkling humour, it has scarcely been excelled";<a href="#cite_note-47">[42]</a> and "its fun is irresistible ... increasing in intensity until in the third and last act it becomes uproarious".<a href="#cite_note-48">[43]</a> </section><div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 section-heading" onclick="mfTempOpenSection(4)"><h2 id="Critical_opinion">Critical opinion</h2></div><section class="mf-section-4 collapsible-block" id="mf-section-4"> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Archer-Walkley-Wells-Shaw.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="head and shoulders shots of four middle-aged men in Victorian costume and varying degrees of facial hair. One (Walkley) wears a monocle." src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/51/Archer-Walkley-Wells-Shaw.jpg/220px-Archer-Walkley-Wells-Shaw.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="220" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="400" data-file-height="400"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 220px;height: 220px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/51/Archer-Walkley-Wells-Shaw.jpg/220px-Archer-Walkley-Wells-Shaw.jpg" data-alt="head and shoulders shots of four middle-aged men in Victorian costume and varying degrees of facial hair. One (Walkley) wears a monocle." data-width="220" data-height="220" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/51/Archer-Walkley-Wells-Shaw.jpg/330px-Archer-Walkley-Wells-Shaw.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/51/Archer-Walkley-Wells-Shaw.jpg 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a><figcaption>Reviewers of the premiere, clockwise from top left: <a href="/wiki/William_Archer_(critic)" title="William Archer (critic)">William Archer</a>, <a href="/wiki/Arthur_Bingham_Walkley" title="Arthur Bingham Walkley">A. B. Walkley</a>, <a href="/wiki/H._G._Wells" title="H. G. Wells">H. G. Wells</a> and <a href="/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw" title="George Bernard Shaw">Bernard Shaw</a></figcaption></figure> In contrast with much theatre of the time, the light plot of The Importance of Being Earnest does not address serious social and political issues, and this troubled some contemporary reviewers. Though unsure of Wilde's seriousness as a dramatist, they recognised the play's cleverness, humour and popularity.<a href="#cite_note-Jackson_1997:172-49">[44]</a> Shaw found the play "extremely funny" but "heartless", a view he maintained all his life.<a href="#cite_note-50">[45]</a><a href="#cite_note-52">[n 6]</a> His review in the <a href="/wiki/Saturday_Review_(London)" class="mw-redirect" title="Saturday Review (London)">Saturday Review</a> argued that comedy should touch as well as amuse: "I go to the theatre to be moved to laughter, not to be tickled or bustled into it".<a href="#cite_note-53">[47]</a> In The World, <a href="/wiki/William_Archer_(critic)" title="William Archer (critic)">William Archer</a> wrote that he had enjoyed watching the play but found it to be empty of meaning: "What can a poor critic do with a play which raises no principle, whether of art or morals, creates its own canons and conventions, and is nothing but an absolutely wilful expression of an irrepressibly witty personality?"<a href="#cite_note-54">[48]</a> In <a href="/wiki/The_Speaker_(periodical)" title="The Speaker (periodical)">The Speaker</a>, <a href="/wiki/Arthur_Bingham_Walkley" title="Arthur Bingham Walkley">A. B. Walkley</a> admired the play and was one of few to see it as the culmination of Wilde's dramatic career. He denied that the term "farce" was derogatory or even lacking in seriousness and said, "It is of nonsense all compact, and better nonsense, I think, our stage has not seen".<a href="#cite_note-Beckson_196-55">[49]</a> <a href="/wiki/H._G._Wells" title="H. G. Wells">H. G. Wells</a>, in an unsigned review for <a href="/wiki/The_Pall_Mall_Gazette" title="The Pall Mall Gazette">The Pall Mall Gazette</a>, called the play one of the freshest comedies of the year, saying, "More humorous dealing with theatrical conventions it would be difficult to imagine".<a href="#cite_note-Beckson_1970:188-56">[50]</a> He also questioned whether people would fully see its message, "... how Serious People will take this Trivial Comedy intended for their learning remains to be seen. No doubt seriously".<a href="#cite_note-Beckson_1970:188-56">[50]</a> The play was so light-hearted that some reviewers compared it to comic opera rather than drama. <a href="/wiki/W._H._Auden" title="W. H. Auden">W. H. Auden</a> later (1963) called it "a pure verbal opera", and <a href="/wiki/The_Times" title="The Times">The Times</a> commented, "The story is almost too preposterous to go without music".<a href="#cite_note-jackson171-31">[29]</a> <a href="/wiki/Mary_McCarthy_(author)" title="Mary McCarthy (author)">Mary McCarthy</a>, in Sights and Spectacles (1959), despite thinking the play extremely funny, called it "a ferocious idyll"; "depravity is the hero and the only character".<a href="#cite_note-57">[51]</a> As Wilde's works came to be read and performed again in the early 20th century, it was The Importance of Being Earnest that received the most productions.<a href="#cite_note-58">[52]</a> The critic and author <a href="/wiki/Max_Beerbohm" title="Max Beerbohm">Max Beerbohm</a> called the play Wilde's "finest, most undeniably his own", saying that the plots of his other comedies – Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband – follow the manner of <a href="/wiki/Victorien_Sardou" title="Victorien Sardou">Victorien Sardou</a>,<a href="#cite_note-60">[n 7]</a> and are similarly unrelated to the theme of the work, while in The Importance of Being Earnest the story is "dissolved" into the form of the play.<a href="#cite_note-61">[54]</a> By the time of its centenary in 1995 the journalist <a href="/wiki/Mark_Lawson" title="Mark Lawson">Mark Lawson</a> described the piece as "the second most known and quoted play in English after <a href="/wiki/Hamlet" title="Hamlet">Hamlet</a>".<a href="#cite_note-62">[55]</a> </section><div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 section-heading" onclick="mfTempOpenSection(5)"><h2 id="Revivals">Revivals</h2></div><section class="mf-section-5 collapsible-block" id="mf-section-5"> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="1895–1929">1895–1929</h3></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Lilian_Braithwaite_as_Cecily.png" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="head and shoulders shot of young white woman with dark hair, seen in left profile" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/31/Lilian_Braithwaite_as_Cecily.png/110px-Lilian_Braithwaite_as_Cecily.png" decoding="async" width="110" height="157" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="500" data-file-height="713"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 110px;height: 157px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/31/Lilian_Braithwaite_as_Cecily.png/110px-Lilian_Braithwaite_as_Cecily.png" data-alt="head and shoulders shot of young white woman with dark hair, seen in left profile" data-width="110" data-height="157" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/31/Lilian_Braithwaite_as_Cecily.png/165px-Lilian_Braithwaite_as_Cecily.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/31/Lilian_Braithwaite_as_Cecily.png/220px-Lilian_Braithwaite_as_Cecily.png 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a><figcaption><a href="/wiki/Lilian_Braithwaite" title="Lilian Braithwaite">Lilian Braithwaite</a> as Cecily, 1901</figcaption></figure> The Importance of Being Earnest and Wilde's three other drawing room plays were performed in Britain during the author's imprisonment and exile by small touring groups. A. B. Tapping's company toured The Importance between October 1895 and March 1896,<a href="#cite_note-64">[n 8]</a> and Elsie Lanham's touring company presented it along with Lady Windermere's Fan, beginning in November 1899.<a href="#cite_note-65">[57]</a> The play was well received; one local critic described it as "sparkling with wit and epigrams",<a href="#cite_note-66">[58]</a> and another called it "a most entertaining comedy [with] some sparkling dialogue".<a href="#cite_note-67">[59]</a> The play was not seen again in London until after Wilde's death in 1900. Alexander revived it in the small Coronet theatre in <a href="/wiki/Notting_Hill" title="Notting Hill">Notting Hill</a>, outside the West End, in December the following year,<a href="#cite_note-68">[60]</a> after taking it on tour, starring as John Worthing, with a cast that included the young <a href="/wiki/Lilian_Braithwaite" title="Lilian Braithwaite">Lilian Braithwaite</a> as Cecily. <a href="/wiki/The_Manchester_Guardian" class="mw-redirect" title="The Manchester Guardian">The Manchester Guardian</a> called the piece "a brilliant play".<a href="#cite_note-69">[61]</a> The Importance of Being Earnest returned to the West End when Alexander presented a revival at the St James's in 1902. It was billed as "By the author of Lady Windermere's Fan", and few reviews mentioned Wilde's name, but his work was praised. <a href="/wiki/The_Sporting_Times" title="The Sporting Times">The Sporting Times</a> said: <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r996643573"><div class="block-indent">The trivial comedy revived at the St James's is as witty an evening's entertainment as any worldling could desire. It is all as light as a good soufflé. The ladies talk like Mr W. S. Gilbert's fairies do, and are supernaturally clever; the men emit sparkles of wit even when their mouths are full of cucumber sandwiches or crumpets ... I can guarantee that the most blasé young man of twenty-two will have one chuckle a minute at the St James's. You are tickled throughout with a feather, and it is a very pleasant and comforting sensation.<a href="#cite_note-70">[62]</a></div> The revival ran for 52 performances.<a href="#cite_note-jxlv-71">[63]</a> For the first Broadway revival, by <a href="/wiki/Charles_Frohman" title="Charles Frohman">Charles Frohman</a>'s Empire <a href="/wiki/Repertory_theatre" title="Repertory theatre">Stock Company</a> later in 1902, the playbills and the reviews restored the author's name.<a href="#cite_note-72">[64]</a> Alexander presented the work again at the St James's in 1909, when he and Aynesworth reprised their original roles;<a href="#cite_note-73">[65]</a> that revival ran for 316 performances.<a href="#cite_note-ga-39">[36]</a> Max Beerbohm said that the play was sure to become a classic of the English repertory and that its humour was as fresh then as when it had been written, adding that the actors had "worn as well as the play".<a href="#cite_note-Beerbohm510-74">[66]</a> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1923.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="stage scene in a garden setting with a man in full mourning costume centre, older woman to his right and an older man in clerical garb to his left, all wearing hats" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d9/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1923.jpg/390px-The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1923.jpg" decoding="async" width="390" height="229" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="1182" data-file-height="694"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 390px;height: 229px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d9/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1923.jpg/390px-The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1923.jpg" data-alt="stage scene in a garden setting with a man in full mourning costume centre, older woman to his right and an older man in clerical garb to his left, all wearing hats" data-width="390" data-height="229" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d9/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1923.jpg/585px-The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1923.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d9/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1923.jpg/780px-The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1923.jpg 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a><figcaption><a href="/wiki/Leslie_Faber_(actor)" title="Leslie Faber (actor)">Leslie Faber</a> (centre) as Jack, 1923 revival, with <a href="/wiki/Louise_Hampton" title="Louise Hampton">Louise Hampton</a> as Miss Prism and <a href="/wiki/H._O._Nicholson" title="H. O. Nicholson">H. O. Nicholson</a> as Dr Chasuble </figcaption></figure> The play was revived on Broadway in 1910 with a cast that included <a href="/wiki/Hamilton_Revelle" title="Hamilton Revelle">Hamilton Revelle</a>, <a href="/wiki/A._E._Matthews" title="A. E. Matthews">A. E. Matthews</a> and <a href="/wiki/Jane_Oaker" title="Jane Oaker">Jane Oaker</a>. <a href="/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a> commented that the play "has lost nothing of its humor … no one with a sense of humor can afford to miss it".<a href="#cite_note-75">[67]</a> For a 1913 revival at the St James's, the young actors <a href="/wiki/Gerald_Ames" title="Gerald Ames">Gerald Ames</a> and A. E. Matthews succeeded the creators as Jack and Algernon.<a href="#cite_note-76">[68]</a> <a href="/wiki/Leslie_Faber_(actor)" title="Leslie Faber (actor)">Leslie Faber</a> as Jack, <a href="/wiki/John_Deverell" title="John Deverell">John Deverell</a> as Algernon and <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Scudamore" title="Margaret Scudamore">Margaret Scudamore</a> as Lady Bracknell headed the cast in a 1923 production at the <a href="/wiki/Haymarket_Theatre" class="mw-redirect" title="Haymarket Theatre">Haymarket Theatre</a>.<a href="#cite_note-77">[69]</a> Revivals in the first decades of the 20th century treated "the present" as the current year. It was not until the 1920s that the case for 1890s costumes was established; as a critic in The Manchester Guardian put it, "Thirty years on, one begins to feel that Wilde should be done in the costume of his period – that his wit today needs the backing of the atmosphere that gave it life and truth. … Wilde's glittering and complex verbal felicities go ill with the <a href="/wiki/Bob_cut" title="Bob cut">shingle</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Flapper" title="Flapper">short skirt</a>".<a href="#cite_note-78">[70]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="1930–2000">1930–2000</h3></div> In <a href="/wiki/Nigel_Playfair" title="Nigel Playfair">Nigel Playfair</a>'s 1930 production at the <a href="/wiki/Lyric_Theatre_(Hammersmith)" title="Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith)">Lyric</a>, <a href="/wiki/Hammersmith" title="Hammersmith">Hammersmith</a>, <a href="/wiki/John_Gielgud" title="John Gielgud">John Gielgud</a> played Jack to the Lady Bracknell of his aunt, <a href="/wiki/Mabel_Terry-Lewis" title="Mabel Terry-Lewis">Mabel Terry-Lewis</a>.<a href="#cite_note-79">[71]</a> An <a href="/wiki/The_Old_Vic" title="The Old Vic">Old Vic</a> production in 1934 featured the husband-and-wife team of <a href="/wiki/Charles_Laughton" title="Charles Laughton">Charles Laughton</a> and <a href="/wiki/Elsa_Lanchester" title="Elsa Lanchester">Elsa Lanchester</a> as Chasuble and Miss Prism; others in the cast were <a href="/wiki/Roger_Livesey" title="Roger Livesey">Roger Livesey</a> (Jack), <a href="/wiki/George_Curzon_(actor)" title="George Curzon (actor)">George Curzon</a> (Algernon), <a href="/wiki/Athene_Seyler" title="Athene Seyler">Athene Seyler</a> (Lady Bracknell), <a href="/wiki/Flora_Robson" title="Flora Robson">Flora Robson</a> (Gwendolen) and <a href="/wiki/Ursula_Jeans" title="Ursula Jeans">Ursula Jeans</a> (Cecily).<a href="#cite_note-80">[72]</a> On Broadway, <a href="/wiki/Estelle_Winwood" title="Estelle Winwood">Estelle Winwood</a> co-starred with <a href="/wiki/Clifton_Webb" title="Clifton Webb">Clifton Webb</a> and <a href="/wiki/Hope_Williams" class="mw-redirect" title="Hope Williams">Hope Williams</a> in a 1939 revival.<a href="#cite_note-81">[73]</a> Gielgud produced and starred in a production at the <a href="/wiki/Gielgud_Theatre" title="Gielgud Theatre">Globe</a> (now the Gielgud) Theatre in 1939, in a cast that included <a href="/wiki/Edith_Evans" title="Edith Evans">Edith Evans</a> as Lady Bracknell, <a href="/wiki/Joyce_Carey" title="Joyce Carey">Joyce Carey</a> as Gwendolen, <a href="/wiki/Angela_Baddeley" title="Angela Baddeley">Angela Baddeley</a> as Cecily and <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Rutherford" title="Margaret Rutherford">Margaret Rutherford</a> as Miss Prism. The Times considered the production the best since the original and praised it for its fidelity to Wilde's conception and its "airy, responsive ball-playing quality".<a href="#cite_note-82">[74]</a> Later in the same year, Gielgud presented the work again, with <a href="/wiki/Jack_Hawkins" title="Jack Hawkins">Jack Hawkins</a> as Algernon, <a href="/wiki/Gwen_Ffrangcon-Davies" title="Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies">Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies</a> as Gwendolen and <a href="/wiki/Peggy_Ashcroft" title="Peggy Ashcroft">Peggy Ashcroft</a> as Cecily, with Evans and Rutherford in their previous roles.<a href="#cite_note-83">[75]</a> The production was presented in several seasons during and after the Second World War, with mostly the same principal players.<a href="#cite_note-gaye-23">[22]</a> During a 1946 season at the Haymarket, the <a href="/wiki/George_VI" title="George VI">King</a> and <a href="/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_The_Queen_Mother" title="Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother">Queen</a> attended a performance,<a href="#cite_note-84">[76]</a> which, as the journalist <a href="/wiki/Geoffrey_Wheatcroft" title="Geoffrey Wheatcroft">Geoffrey Wheatcroft</a> put it, gave the play "a final accolade of respectability".<a href="#cite_note-85">[77]</a><a href="#cite_note-87">[n 9]</a> Gielgud's London production toured North America and was successfully staged on Broadway in 1947.<a href="#cite_note-c333-88">[79]</a><a href="#cite_note-90">[n 10]</a> In 1975 <a href="/wiki/Jonathan_Miller" title="Jonathan Miller">Jonathan Miller</a>, who had been prevented for financial reasons the previous year from staging the play at the <a href="/wiki/Royal_National_Theatre" title="Royal National Theatre">National Theatre</a> with an all-male cast, directed a production in which Lady Bracknell, played by <a href="/wiki/Irene_Handl" title="Irene Handl">Irene Handl</a>, was given a German accent.<a href="#cite_note-91">[81]</a><a href="#cite_note-92">[82]</a> For <a href="/wiki/Peter_Hall_(director)" title="Peter Hall (director)">Peter Hall</a>'s 1982 production at the National Theatre the cast included <a href="/wiki/Judi_Dench" title="Judi Dench">Judi Dench</a> as Lady Bracknell,<a href="#cite_note-94">[n 11]</a> <a href="/wiki/Martin_Jarvis_(actor)" title="Martin Jarvis (actor)">Martin Jarvis</a> as Jack, <a href="/wiki/Nigel_Havers" title="Nigel Havers">Nigel Havers</a> as Algernon, <a href="/wiki/Zo%C3%AB_Wanamaker" title="Zoë Wanamaker">Zoë Wanamaker</a> as Gwendolen and <a href="/wiki/Anna_Massey" title="Anna Massey">Anna Massey</a> as Miss Prism.<a href="#cite_note-95">[84]</a> In 1987 a version of the play was given at the <a href="/wiki/Whitehall_Theatre" class="mw-redirect" title="Whitehall Theatre">Whitehall Theatre</a> starring <a href="/wiki/Hinge_and_Bracket" title="Hinge and Bracket">Hinge and Bracket</a> as Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell respectively.<a href="#cite_note-ms-96">[85]</a> <a href="/wiki/Nicholas_Hytner" title="Nicholas Hytner">Nicholas Hytner</a>'s 1993 production at the <a href="/wiki/Aldwych_Theatre" title="Aldwych Theatre">Aldwych Theatre</a>, starring <a href="/wiki/Maggie_Smith" title="Maggie Smith">Maggie Smith</a>, had occasional references to <a href="#Conjectural_homosexual_subtext">a conjectural gay subtext</a>.<a href="#cite_note-Bostridge-97">[86]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="21st_century">21st century</h3></div> The play was presented in Singapore in 2004 by the <a href="/wiki/British_Theatre_Playhouse" title="British Theatre Playhouse">British Theatre Playhouse</a>,<a href="#cite_note-98">[87]</a> and the same company took the production to <a href="/wiki/Greenwich_Theatre" title="Greenwich Theatre">Greenwich Theatre</a>, London, in 2005.<a href="#cite_note-99">[88]</a> In 2007 <a href="/wiki/Peter_Gill_(playwright)" title="Peter Gill (playwright)">Peter Gill</a> directed the play at the <a href="/wiki/Theatre_Royal,_Bath" title="Theatre Royal, Bath">Theatre Royal, Bath</a>. The production went on a short UK tour before playing in the West End in 2008.<a href="#cite_note-100">[89]</a> Since the 1987 Whitehall version, some other productions have cast a male actor in the role of Lady Bracknell. In 2005 the <a href="/wiki/Abbey_Theatre" title="Abbey Theatre">Abbey Theatre</a>, Dublin, presented the play with an all-male cast; it also featured Wilde as a character – the play opened with him drinking in a Parisian café, dreaming of his play.<a href="#cite_note-101">[90]</a> The <a href="/wiki/Melbourne_Theatre_Company" title="Melbourne Theatre Company">Melbourne Theatre Company</a> staged a production in 2011 with <a href="/wiki/Geoffrey_Rush" title="Geoffrey Rush">Geoffrey Rush</a> as Lady Bracknell.<a href="#cite_note-102">[91]</a> In the same year the <a href="/wiki/Roundabout_Theatre_Company" title="Roundabout Theatre Company">Roundabout Theatre Company</a> presented a Broadway revival based on the 2009 <a href="/wiki/Stratford_Shakespeare_Festival" class="mw-redirect" title="Stratford Shakespeare Festival">Stratford Shakespeare Festival</a> production featuring its director, <a href="/wiki/Brian_Bedford" title="Brian Bedford">Brian Bedford</a>, as Lady Bracknell.<a href="#cite_note-103">[92]</a> At the <a href="/wiki/Vaudeville_Theatre" title="Vaudeville Theatre">Vaudeville Theatre</a>, London, in 2015, <a href="/wiki/David_Suchet" title="David Suchet">David Suchet</a> took the role in a production directed by <a href="/wiki/Adrian_Noble" title="Adrian Noble">Adrian Noble</a>.<a href="#cite_note-ms-96">[85]</a> In 2014 at the <a href="/wiki/Harold_Pinter_Theatre" title="Harold Pinter Theatre">Harold Pinter Theatre</a>, London, <a href="/wiki/Lucy_Bailey" title="Lucy Bailey">Lucy Bailey</a> directed a production that followed a trend to "age-blind" casting:<a href="#cite_note-age-104">[93]</a><a href="#cite_note-105">[94]</a> the average age of the cast was nearly seventy, and Jarvis and Havers reprised the roles they had played at the National in 1982.<a href="#cite_note-age-104">[93]</a> In 2024 the <a href="/wiki/Royal_Exchange_Theatre" class="mw-redirect" title="Royal Exchange Theatre">Royal Exchange Theatre</a>, Manchester presented an updated version, described by <a href="/wiki/The_Guardian" title="The Guardian">The Guardian</a> as "a convincing stab at a 21st-century makeover".<a href="#cite_note-106">[95]</a> </section><div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 section-heading" onclick="mfTempOpenSection(6)"><h2 id="Publication">Publication</h2></div><section class="mf-section-6 collapsible-block" id="mf-section-6"> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="First_edition">First edition</h3></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Importance-of-Being-Earnest-title-pages.png" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="Texts on beige background reading: (i) "The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. By the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan" and (ii) "To Robert Baldwin Ross, In Appreciation, In Affection"" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Importance-of-Being-Earnest-title-pages.png/220px-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-title-pages.png" decoding="async" width="220" height="222" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="829" data-file-height="838"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 220px;height: 222px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Importance-of-Being-Earnest-title-pages.png/220px-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-title-pages.png" data-alt="Texts on beige background reading: (i) "The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. By the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan" and (ii) "To Robert Baldwin Ross, In Appreciation, In Affection"" data-width="220" data-height="222" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Importance-of-Being-Earnest-title-pages.png/330px-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-title-pages.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Importance-of-Being-Earnest-title-pages.png/440px-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-title-pages.png 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a><figcaption>Title pages of the first edition, 1899, with Wilde's name omitted from the first page, and the dedication to <a href="/wiki/Robbie_Ross" title="Robbie Ross">Robbie Ross</a> on the second</figcaption></figure> Wilde's two final comedies, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, were still on stage in London at the time of his prosecution in 1895, and they were soon closed as the details of his case became public. After two years in prison with hard labour, Wilde went into exile in Paris, sick and depressed, his reputation destroyed in England. In 1898 <a href="/wiki/Leonard_Smithers" title="Leonard Smithers">Leonard Smithers</a> agreed with Wilde to publish the two final plays.<a href="#cite_note-e527-107">[96]</a> Wilde proved to be a diligent reviser, sending detailed instructions on stage directions, character listings and the book's presentation and insisting that a playbill from the first performance be reproduced inside. Ellmann argues that the proofs show a man "very much in command of himself and of the play".<a href="#cite_note-e527-107">[96]</a> Wilde's name did not appear on the cover, which stated: "By the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan".<a href="#cite_note-108">[97]</a> His return to work was brief, as he refused to write anything else: "I can write, but have lost the joy of writing".<a href="#cite_note-e527-107">[96]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="In_translation">In translation</h3></div> The Importance of Being Earnest's popularity has meant it has been translated into many languages, but the pun in the title ("<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Ernest#Proper_noun" class="extiw" title="wikt:Ernest">Ernest</a>", a masculine proper name, and "<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/earnest#Etymology_1" class="extiw" title="wikt:earnest">earnest</a>", steadfast and serious) poses a special <a href="/wiki/Translation#Fidelity_and_transparency" title="Translation">problem for translators</a>. The simplest instance of a suitable translation of the pun is in German, where ernst (serious) and Ernst (given name) are the same.<a href="#cite_note-Pabl%C3%A9_2005:319-109">[98]</a><a href="#cite_note-111">[n 12]</a> <figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-left" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Oscar-Wilde-Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="Drawing of head and torso of white man, clean-shaven, with longish light-coloured hair, holding a large menu or folio, in semi-profile" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/60/Oscar-Wilde-Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg/180px-Oscar-Wilde-Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg" decoding="async" width="180" height="151" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="1000" data-file-height="841"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 180px;height: 151px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/60/Oscar-Wilde-Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg/180px-Oscar-Wilde-Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg" data-alt="Drawing of head and torso of white man, clean-shaven, with longish light-coloured hair, holding a large menu or folio, in semi-profile" data-width="180" data-height="151" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/60/Oscar-Wilde-Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg/270px-Oscar-Wilde-Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/60/Oscar-Wilde-Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg/360px-Oscar-Wilde-Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a><figcaption>Wilde by <a href="/wiki/Henri_de_Toulouse-Lautrec" title="Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec">Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec</a> (1896)</figcaption></figure> As wordplay is usually unique to the language in question, translators are faced with a choice of either staying faithful to the original or creating a similar pun in their own language.<a href="#cite_note-112">[100]</a> Some translators leave all characters' names unchanged and in their original spelling: readers are reminded of the original cultural setting, but the liveliness of the pun is lost.<a href="#cite_note-113">[101]</a> Others, favouring comprehensibility over fidelity to the original, have replaced Ernest with a name that also represents a virtue in the target language.<a href="#cite_note-Pabl%C3%A9_2005:319-109">[98]</a> For instance, Italian versions variously call the play L'importanza di essere Franco/Severo/Fedele, the given names being respectively the values of honesty, propriety and fidelity.<a href="#cite_note-114">[102]</a> Translators differ in their approach to the original English honorific titles; some change them all or none, but most leave a mix, partly as a compensation for the loss of Englishness.<a href="#cite_note-p317-115">[103]</a> French offers a closer pun. According to <a href="/wiki/Les_Archives_du_spectacle" title="Les Archives du spectacle">Les Archives du spectacle</a> in its listing of productions in French since 1954, the title of the play is most often given as L'Importance d'être Constant,<a href="#cite_note-117">[n 13]</a> but has also been rendered as L'Importance d'être sérieux, Il est important d'être aimé, Il est important d'être Désiré and Il est important d'être Fidèle.<a href="#cite_note-118">[105]</a><a href="#cite_note-119">[n 14]</a> </section><div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 section-heading" onclick="mfTempOpenSection(7)"><h2 id="Analysis">Analysis</h2></div><section class="mf-section-7 collapsible-block" id="mf-section-7"> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Structure_and_genre">Structure and genre</h3></div> The novelist and critic <a href="/wiki/Arthur_Ransome" title="Arthur Ransome">Arthur Ransome</a> argued that Wilde freed himself by abandoning the <a href="/wiki/Melodrama" title="Melodrama">melodrama</a> of his earlier drawing room plays and basing the story entirely on the Earnest/Ernest verbal conceit. Freed from "living up to any drama more serious than conversation", Wilde could now amuse himself to a fuller extent with "quips, bons mots, epigrams and repartee that had really nothing to do with the business at hand".<a href="#cite_note-120">[106]</a> The academic <a href="/wiki/Sos_Eltis" title="Sos Eltis">Sos Eltis</a> comments that although Wilde's earliest and longest handwritten drafts of the play are full of "farcical accidents, broad puns and a number of familiar comic devices",<a href="#cite_note-121">[107]</a> in his revisions "Wilde transformed standard nonsense into the more systematic and disconcerting illogicality which characterizes Earnest's dialogue".<a href="#cite_note-Eltis177-122">[108]</a> The genre of the Importance of Being Earnest has been debated by scholars and critics, who have variously categorised it as <a href="/wiki/High_comedy" title="High comedy">high comedy</a>, farce, parody and satire. In a 1956 critique Richard Foster argues that the play creates "an 'as if' world in which 'real' values are inverted, reason and unreason are interchanged and the probable defined by improbability".<a href="#cite_note-123">[109]</a> Contributors to The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde (1997) variously refer to the play as "high farce",<a href="#cite_note-124">[110]</a> "an ostensible farce",<a href="#cite_note-125">[111]</a> "farce with aggressive pranks, quick-paced action and evasion of moral responsibility",<a href="#cite_note-Jackson_1997,_p._173-126">[112]</a> and "high comedy".<a href="#cite_note-127">[113]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Triviality">Triviality</h3></div> Ransome described The Importance of Being Earnest as the most trivial of Wilde's society plays, and the only one that produces "that peculiar exhilaration of the spirit by which we recognise the beautiful ... It is precisely because it is consistently trivial that it is not ugly".<a href="#cite_note-r139-128">[114]</a> <a href="/wiki/Salome_(play)" title="Salome (play)">Salome</a>, An Ideal Husband and <a href="/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray" title="The Picture of Dorian Gray">The Picture of Dorian Gray</a> had dwelt on more serious wrongdoing, but vice in The Importance of Being Earnest is represented by Algernon's greedy consumption of <a href="/wiki/Cucumber_sandwich" title="Cucumber sandwich">cucumber sandwiches</a>.<a href="#cite_note-r139-128">[114]</a><a href="#cite_note-130">[n 15]</a> Wilde told his friend <a href="/wiki/Robbie_Ross" title="Robbie Ross">Robbie Ross</a> that the play's theme was "That we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things of life with a sincere and studied triviality".<a href="#cite_note-auto-131">[116]</a> The theme is glanced at in the play's title, and earnestness is repeatedly alluded to in the dialogue;<a href="#cite_note-Pabl%C3%A9_2005:302-132">[117]</a> Algernon says in Act II, "one must be serious about something if one is to have any amusement in life", but goes on to reproach Jack for being serious about everything and thus revealing a trivial nature.<a href="#cite_note-133">[118]</a> Blackmail and corruption had haunted the double lives of Dorian Gray and Sir Robert Chiltern (in An Ideal Husband), but in Earnest the protagonists' duplicity (Algernon's "Bunburying" and Worthing's double life as Jack and Ernest) is for more innocent purposes – largely to evade unwelcome social obligations.<a href="#cite_note-auto-131">[116]</a> While much theatre of the time tackled serious social and political issues, Wilde's writing in this play is the antithesis of that of <a href="/wiki/Didacticism" title="Didacticism">didactic</a> writers like Shaw who used their characters to present audiences with grand ideals and appeals for social justice.<a href="#cite_note-Jackson_1997:172-49">[44]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Satire_and_parody">Satire and parody</h3></div> The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs – marriage and the pursuit of love in particular.<a href="#cite_note-134">[119]</a> In Victorian times earnestness was considered by some to be the overriding societal value; originating in religious attempts to reform the lower classes, it spread to the middle and upper classes during the mid-19th century.<a href="#cite_note-Pabl%C3%A9_2005:301-110">[99]</a> The play's subtitle introduces the theme, which continues in the discussion between Jack and Algernon in Act I: "Yes, but you must be serious about it. I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them".<a href="#cite_note-135">[120]</a> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Gwendolen-Merriman-Cecily-1895.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><noscript><img alt="Butler between two young women, all dark-haired and all standing, in a garden setting; the women, both in hats, regard each other angrily" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1f/Gwendolen-Merriman-Cecily-1895.jpg/220px-Gwendolen-Merriman-Cecily-1895.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="279" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="601" data-file-height="763"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 220px;height: 279px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1f/Gwendolen-Merriman-Cecily-1895.jpg/220px-Gwendolen-Merriman-Cecily-1895.jpg" data-alt="Butler between two young women, all dark-haired and all standing, in a garden setting; the women, both in hats, regard each other angrily" data-width="220" data-height="279" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1f/Gwendolen-Merriman-Cecily-1895.jpg/330px-Gwendolen-Merriman-Cecily-1895.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1f/Gwendolen-Merriman-Cecily-1895.jpg/440px-Gwendolen-Merriman-Cecily-1895.jpg 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> </a><figcaption>Gwendolen (Irene Vanbrugh), Merriman (Frank Dyall) and Cecily (Evelyn Millard), in the original production, Act II</figcaption></figure> Wilde's inversion of values continues: when Algernon arrives in Woolton masquerading as Ernest he tells Cecily that he is not really wicked at all. <dl><dd>CECILY: If you are not, then you have certainly been deceiving us all in a very inexcusable manner. I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.<a href="#cite_note-136">[121]</a></dd></dl> In the final scene Jack asks Gwendolen if she can forgive him for not having been deceitful after all: <dl><dd>JACK: Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?</dd> <dd>GWENDOLEN: I can, for I feel that you are sure to change.<a href="#cite_note-137">[122]</a></dd></dl> In turn, Gwendolen and Cecily have the idea of marrying a man named Ernest. Gwendolen ignores her mother's methodical analysis of Jack Worthing's suitability as a husband and places her entire faith in a forename, declaring in Act I, "The only really safe name is Ernest".<a href="#cite_note-138">[123]</a> This is an opinion shared by Cecily in Act II: "I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest".<a href="#cite_note-139">[124]</a> Wilde portrayed society's rules and rituals in the figure of Lady Bracknell: according to the Wilde scholar Peter Raby, minute attention to the details of her style created a comic effect of assertion by restraint.<a href="#cite_note-140">[125]</a> She dismisses Jack's London address as on the unfashionable side of <a href="/wiki/Belgrave_Square" title="Belgrave Square">Belgrave Square</a> and is unmoved by Jack's explanation that the handbag in which he was found as a baby was deposited in the cloakroom of the socially superior half of Victoria Station.<a href="#cite_note-141">[126]</a><a href="#cite_note-143">[n 16]</a> Wilde parodies 19th-century melodrama, introducing exaggeratedly incongruous situations such as Jack's arrival in full mourning for the brother who has just walked into his house, and the sudden switch from fulsome affection between Cecily and Gwendolen to deep hostility on discovering that they are supposedly both engaged to the same man.<a href="#cite_note-144">[128]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Conjectural_homosexual_subtext">Conjectural homosexual subtext</h3></div> In <a href="/wiki/Queer_theory" title="Queer theory">queer theory</a> the play's themes of duplicity and ambivalence are inextricably bound up with Wilde's homosexuality, so that the play exhibits what one critic terms a "flickering presence-absence of ... homosexual desire".<a href="#cite_note-Craft-145">[129]</a> After his release from prison, Wilde wrote to <a href="/wiki/Reginald_Turner" title="Reginald Turner">Reginald Turner</a>, "It was extraordinary reading the play over. How I used to toy with that tiger Life!"<a href="#cite_note-146">[130]</a> In a 2014 study, William Eaton writes, "The Importance of Being Earnest is what it obviously is, a play about dissimulation, and that dissimulation – not seeming to be who one was – was extremely important for homosexuals of Wilde's time and place, and thus was an extremely non-trivial matter for Wilde".<a href="#cite_note-e220-147">[131]</a><a href="#cite_note-151">[n 17]</a> <a href="/wiki/Eve_Kosofsky_Sedgwick" title="Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick">Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick</a>, a proponent of queer theory, interprets linguistic aspects of the play as allusions to gay culture and stereotypes, such as references to the German language and the composer <a href="/wiki/Richard_Wagner" title="Richard Wagner">Richard Wagner</a>, both of which are allegedly associated with male homosexuality in Wilde's day.<a href="#cite_note-:0-152">[135]</a> In 1990 <a href="/wiki/Noel_Annan,_Baron_Annan" title="Noel Annan, Baron Annan">Noel Annan</a> suggested that the use of the name Ernest may have been a homosexual in-joke.<a href="#cite_note-annan-153">[136]</a> In 1892, two years before Wilde began writing the play, <a href="/wiki/John_Gambril_Nicholson" title="John Gambril Nicholson">John Gambril Nicholson</a> had published a book of <a href="/wiki/Pederast" class="mw-redirect" title="Pederast">pederastic</a> poetry, Love in Earnest. The sonnet "Of Boys' Names" included the verse: <div class="poem"> Though Frank may ring like silver bell and Cecil softer music claim they cannot work the miracle – 'tis Ernest sets my heart a-flame.<a href="#cite_note-154">[137]</a> </div> Annan speculated that "earnest" may also have been a private code-word among gay men, as in: "Is he earnest?" in the same way that "Is he musical?" is thought to have been used.<a href="#cite_note-annan-153">[136]</a> Eaton finds this theory unconvincing,<a href="#cite_note-e220-147">[131]</a> and in 2001 <a href="/wiki/Donald_Sinden" title="Donald Sinden">Sir Donald Sinden</a>, an actor who had met Lord Alfred Douglas and two of the play's original cast (Irene Vanbrugh and Allan Aynesworth), wrote to The Times to rebut suggestions that "earnest" held any sexual connotations:<a href="#cite_note-sinden-155">[138]</a><a href="#cite_note-156">[139]</a> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r996643573"><div class="block-indent">Although they had ample opportunity, at no time did any of them even hint that "Earnest" was a synonym for homosexual. The first time I heard it mentioned was in the 1980s, and I immediately consulted Sir John Gielgud, whose own performance of Jack Worthing in the same play was legendary, and whose knowledge of theatrical lore was encyclopaedic. He replied in his ringing tones: "No-No! Nonsense, absolute nonsense: I would have known".<a href="#cite_note-sinden-155">[138]</a></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Bunbury">Bunbury</h3></div> <a href="/wiki/Bunbury,_Cheshire" title="Bunbury, Cheshire">Bunbury</a> is a village in <a href="/wiki/Cheshire" title="Cheshire">Cheshire</a>.<a href="#cite_note-157">[140]</a> Several theories have been advanced to explain Wilde's use of the name to imply a secretive double life. It may have derived from Henry Shirley Bunbury, a hypochondriacal acquaintance of Wilde's youth.<a href="#cite_note-158">[141]</a> Another theory is that Wilde spotted the names of a Captain Bunbury and a magistrate, Mr Bunbury, in The Worthing Gazette in August and September 1894, found the surname pleasing and borrowed it.<a href="#cite_note-159">[142]</a> A suggestion put forward by <a href="/wiki/Aleister_Crowley" title="Aleister Crowley">Aleister Crowley</a> – who knew Wilde – was that Bunbury was a <a href="/wiki/Blend_word" title="Blend word">portmanteau word</a>, coined after Wilde had taken a train to <a href="/wiki/Banbury" title="Banbury">Banbury</a>, met a boy there and arranged a second meeting at <a href="/wiki/Sunbury-on-Thames" title="Sunbury-on-Thames">Sunbury</a>.<a href="#cite_note-160">[143]</a> Carolyn Williams, in a 2010 study, writes that for the word "Bunburying", Wilde "braids the 'Belvawneying' evil eye from Gilbert's Engaged" with Bunthorne from Gilbert (and <a href="/wiki/Arthur_Sullivan" title="Arthur Sullivan">Sullivan</a>)'s 1881 comic opera <a href="/wiki/Patience_(opera)" title="Patience (opera)">Patience</a>.<a href="#cite_note-161">[144]</a><a href="#cite_note-163">[n 18]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Use_of_language">Use of language</h3></div> Although Wilde had for several years been famous for dialogue and his use of language, Raby has argued that in this play the author achieved unity and mastery unmatched in his other plays, with the possible exception of Salome.<a href="#cite_note-Raby_1988:125-164">[146]</a> Raby comments that although the earlier comedies suffer from an unevenness resulting from the thematic clash between the trivial and the serious, The Importance of Being Earnest achieves "a pitch-perfect style" that allows these clashes to dissolve.<a href="#cite_note-Raby_1988:125-164">[146]</a> Raby identifies three different registers in the play: Algernon's exchange with his manservant conveying an underlying unity despite their differing attitudes. The imperious pronouncements of Lady Bracknell are as startling for her use of <a href="/wiki/Hyperbole" title="Hyperbole">hyperbole</a> and rhetorical extravagance as for her disconcerting opinions.<a href="#cite_note-Raby_1988:125-164">[146]</a> In contrast, the discourse of Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism is distinguished by "pedantic precept" and "idiosyncratic diversion".<a href="#cite_note-Raby_1988:125-164">[146]</a> The play is full of epigrams and paradoxes. Max Beerbohm described it as abounding in "chiselled apothegms – witticisms unrelated to action or character but so good in themselves as to have the quality of dramatic surprise".<a href="#cite_note-165">[147]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Characterisation">Characterisation</h3></div> Though Wilde deployed characters that were by now familiar – the upper-class dandy, the overbearing matriarch, the woman with a past, the puritanical young lady – his treatment is subtler than in his earlier comedies. Lady Bracknell, for instance, embodies respectable, upper-class society, but Eltis notes how her development "from the familiar overbearing duchess into a quirkier and more disturbing character" can be traced through Wilde's revisions of the play.<a href="#cite_note-Eltis177-122">[108]</a> For the two young men, Wilde presents not stereotypical stage "dudes" but intelligent beings who, as Russell Jackson puts it, "speak like their creator in well-formed complete sentences and rarely use slang or vogue-words".<a href="#cite_note-jxxix-166">[148]</a> Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism are, in Jackson's view, characterised by "a few light touches of detail", their old-fashioned enthusiasms and the Canon's fastidious pedantry pared down by Wilde during his many redrafts of the text.<a href="#cite_note-jxxix-166">[148]</a> </section><div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 section-heading" onclick="mfTempOpenSection(8)"><h2 id="Adaptations">Adaptations</h2></div><section class="mf-section-8 collapsible-block" id="mf-section-8"> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="/wiki/Music_based_on_the_works_of_Oscar_Wilde" title="Music based on the works of Oscar Wilde">Music based on the works of Oscar Wilde</a></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Film">Film</h3></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main articles: <a href="/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest_(1952_film)" title="The Importance of Being Earnest (1952 film)">The Importance of Being Earnest (1952 film)</a>, <a href="/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest_(1992_film)" title="The Importance of Being Earnest (1992 film)">The Importance of Being Earnest (1992 film)</a>, and <a href="/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest_(2002_film)" title="The Importance of Being Earnest (2002 film)">The Importance of Being Earnest (2002 film)</a></div> The Importance of Being Earnest has been adapted for the English-language cinema at least three times, first in 1952 by <a href="/wiki/Anthony_Asquith" title="Anthony Asquith">Anthony Asquith</a> who adapted the screenplay and directed it. The cast included <a href="/wiki/Michael_Denison" title="Michael Denison">Michael Denison</a> (Algernon), <a href="/wiki/Michael_Redgrave" title="Michael Redgrave">Michael Redgrave</a> (Jack), <a href="/wiki/Edith_Evans" title="Edith Evans">Edith Evans</a> (Lady Bracknell), <a href="/wiki/Dorothy_Tutin" title="Dorothy Tutin">Dorothy Tutin</a> (Cecily), <a href="/wiki/Joan_Greenwood" title="Joan Greenwood">Joan Greenwood</a> (Gwendolen), <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Rutherford" title="Margaret Rutherford">Margaret Rutherford</a> (Miss Prism), and <a href="/wiki/Miles_Malleson" title="Miles Malleson">Miles Malleson</a> (Dr Chasuble).<a href="#cite_note-167">[149]</a> In 1992 Kurt Baker directed a version using an all-black cast with Daryl Keith Roach as Jack, Wren T. Brown as Algernon, Ann Weldon as Lady Bracknell, <a href="/wiki/Lanei_Chapman" title="Lanei Chapman">Lanei Chapman</a> as Cecily, <a href="/wiki/Chris_Calloway" title="Chris Calloway">Chris Calloway</a> as Gwendolen, <a href="/wiki/CCH_Pounder" title="CCH Pounder">CCH Pounder</a> as Miss Prism and <a href="/wiki/Brock_Peters" title="Brock Peters">Brock Peters</a> as Dr Chasuble, set in the United States.<a href="#cite_note-168">[150]</a> In 2002 <a href="/wiki/Oliver_Parker" title="Oliver Parker">Oliver Parker</a>, a director who had previously adapted An Ideal Husband, made another film. It stars <a href="/wiki/Colin_Firth" title="Colin Firth">Colin Firth</a> (Jack), <a href="/wiki/Rupert_Everett" title="Rupert Everett">Rupert Everett</a> (Algernon), <a href="/wiki/Judi_Dench" title="Judi Dench">Judi Dench</a> (Lady Bracknell), <a href="/wiki/Reese_Witherspoon" title="Reese Witherspoon">Reese Witherspoon</a> (Cecily), <a href="/wiki/Frances_O%27Connor" title="Frances O'Connor">Frances O'Connor</a> (Gwendolen), <a href="/wiki/Anna_Massey" title="Anna Massey">Anna Massey</a> (Miss Prism) and <a href="/wiki/Tom_Wilkinson" title="Tom Wilkinson">Tom Wilkinson</a> (Canon Chasuble).<a href="#cite_note-169">[151]</a> Parker interpolated about twenty lines of his own into the script and restored the episode cut by Wilde before the premiere of the play, in which a solicitor attempts to serve a writ on the supposed Ernest.<a href="#cite_note-Bostridge-97">[86]</a> A 2008 <a href="/wiki/Telugu_language" title="Telugu language">Telugu language</a> romantic comedy film, titled <a href="/wiki/Ashta_Chamma" title="Ashta Chamma">Ashta Chamma</a>, is an adaptation of the play.<a href="#cite_note-170">[152]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Operas_and_musicals">Operas and musicals</h3></div> In 1963 <a href="/wiki/Erik_Chisholm" title="Erik Chisholm">Erik Chisholm</a> composed an opera from the play, basing the <a href="/wiki/Libretto" title="Libretto">libretto</a> on Wilde's text.<a href="#cite_note-171">[153]</a> <a href="/wiki/Gerald_Barry_(composer)" title="Gerald Barry (composer)">Gerald Barry</a> created the 2011 opera <a href="/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest_(opera)" title="The Importance of Being Earnest (opera)">The Importance of Being Earnest</a>, commissioned by the <a href="/wiki/Los_Angeles_Philharmonic" title="Los Angeles Philharmonic">Los Angeles Philharmonic</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Barbican_Centre" title="Barbican Centre">Barbican Centre</a> in London. It premiered in Los Angeles in 2011. The role of Lady Bracknell is sung by a <a href="/wiki/Bass_(voice)" class="mw-redirect" title="Bass (voice)">bass</a>.<a href="#cite_note-nmc-172">[154]</a> The stage premiere was given by the <a href="/wiki/Op%C3%A9ra_national_de_Lorraine" title="Opéra national de Lorraine">Opéra national de Lorraine</a> in <a href="/wiki/Nancy,_France" title="Nancy, France">Nancy</a> in 2013.<a href="#cite_note-173">[155]</a> A 2012 concert performance was recorded live at the Barbican by the BBC and released commercially in 2014.<a href="#cite_note-nmc-172">[154]</a> In 2017 <a href="/wiki/Odyssey_Opera" title="Odyssey Opera">Odyssey Opera</a> of Boston presented <a href="/wiki/Mario_Castelnuovo-Tedesco" title="Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco">Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco</a>'s opera The Importance of Being Earnest as part of a "Wilde Opera Nights" series, a season-long exploration of operatic works inspired by Wilde's writings and world.<a href="#cite_note-174">[156]</a> In 1964 <a href="/wiki/Gerd_Natschinski" title="Gerd Natschinski">Gerd Natschinski</a> composed a musical, Mein Freund Bunbury, based on the play.<a href="#cite_note-175">[157]</a> According to a study by <a href="/wiki/Robert_Tanitch" title="Robert Tanitch">Robert Tanitch</a>, by 2002, there had been at least eight adaptations of the play as a musical, though "never with conspicuous success".<a href="#cite_note-Bostridge-97">[86]</a> The earliest such version was a 1927 American show entitled Oh Earnest. The journalist Mark Bostridge comments, "The libretto of a 1957 musical adaptation, <a href="/wiki/Half_in_Earnest" title="Half in Earnest">Half in Earnest</a>, deposited in the <a href="/wiki/British_Library" title="British Library">British Library</a>, is scarcely more encouraging. The curtain rises on Algernon, strumming away at the piano, singing, 'I can play <a href="/wiki/Chopsticks_(waltz)" title="Chopsticks (waltz)">Chopsticks</a>, Lane'. Other songs include 'A Bunburying I Must Go'".<a href="#cite_note-Bostridge-97">[86]</a> Since Bostridge wrote his article, at least one further musical version of the play has been staged: a show with a book by Douglas Livingstone and score by Adam McGuinness and Zia Moranne was staged in December 2011 at the <a href="/wiki/Riverside_Studios" title="Riverside Studios">Riverside Studios</a>, Hammersmith; the cast included <a href="/wiki/Susie_Blake" title="Susie Blake">Susie Blake</a>, <a href="/wiki/Gyles_Brandreth" title="Gyles Brandreth">Gyles Brandreth</a> and <a href="/wiki/Edward_Petherbridge" title="Edward Petherbridge">Edward Petherbridge</a>.<a href="#cite_note-176">[158]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Stage_derivatives">Stage derivatives</h3></div> <a href="/wiki/Tom_Stoppard" title="Tom Stoppard">Tom Stoppard</a>'s 1974 stage comedy <a href="/wiki/Travesties" title="Travesties">Travesties</a> draws extensively on Wilde's play. Stoppard's central character, <a href="/wiki/Henry_Wilfrid_Carr" title="Henry Wilfrid Carr">Henry Carr</a>, was a real-life figure who played Algernon in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest produced by <a href="/wiki/James_Joyce" title="James Joyce">James Joyce</a> in Zurich in 1917.<a href="#cite_note-177">[159]</a> Stoppard reimagines him as an old man, reminiscing about the production and his days as a young man. The other characters include Carr's sister Gwendolen and the local librarian, Cecily; the action of the play, under the erratic control of the old Carr's fallible memory, continually mirrors that of Wilde's original.<a href="#cite_note-178">[160]</a> Carr has an exchange with <a href="/wiki/Tristan_Tzara" title="Tristan Tzara">Tristan Tzara</a> reminiscent of John Worthing's exchanges with Algernon,<a href="#cite_note-179">[161]</a> Tzara has a scene with Joyce that draws on Jack's interview with Lady Bracknell,<a href="#cite_note-180">[162]</a> and Gwendolen and Cecily have a falling out on the lines of that of their namesakes in Wilde's play (though to the tune of "<a href="/wiki/Mister_Gallagher_and_Mister_Shean" title="Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean">Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean</a>" rather than in prose).<a href="#cite_note-181">[163]</a> In 2016 the Irish actor/writers Helen Norton and Jonathan White wrote the comic play <a href="/wiki/To_Hell_in_a_Handbag" title="To Hell in a Handbag">To Hell in a Handbag</a> which retells the story of The Importance from the point of view of the characters Canon Chasuble and Miss Prism, giving them their own back story and showing what happens to them when they are not on stage in Wilde's play.<a href="#cite_note-182">[164]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Radio_and_television">Radio and television</h3></div> There have been many radio versions of the play. In 1925 the <a href="/wiki/BBC" title="BBC">BBC</a> broadcast an adaptation with Hesketh Pearson as Jack Worthing.<a href="#cite_note-183">[165]</a> Further broadcasts of the play followed during the 1920s and 1930s,<a href="#cite_note-184">[166]</a><a href="#cite_note-185">[167]</a> and in November 1937 the BBC broadcast the first television adaptation of the play, in an abridged version directed by <a href="/wiki/Royston_Morley" title="Royston Morley">Royston Morley</a>.<a href="#cite_note-186">[168]</a> In 1942 BBC radio broadcast scenes from the play, featuring two members of the original cast: the programme was introduced by Allan Aynesworth and starred Irene Vanbrugh as Lady Bracknell.<a href="#cite_note-187">[169]</a> A 1951 broadcast of the complete three-act play starred Gielgud, Evans and <a href="/wiki/Gwen_Ffrangcon-Davies" title="Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies">Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies</a>.<a href="#cite_note-188">[170]</a> A 1964 commercial television adaptation starred <a href="/wiki/Ian_Carmichael" title="Ian Carmichael">Ian Carmichael</a>, <a href="/wiki/Patrick_Macnee" title="Patrick Macnee">Patrick Macnee</a>, <a href="/wiki/Susannah_York" title="Susannah York">Susannah York</a>, <a href="/wiki/Fenella_Fielding" title="Fenella Fielding">Fenella Fielding</a>, <a href="/wiki/Pamela_Brown_(actress)" title="Pamela Brown (actress)">Pamela Brown</a> and <a href="/wiki/Irene_Handl" title="Irene Handl">Irene Handl</a>.<a href="#cite_note-189">[171]</a> A BBC television version in 1974 starred <a href="/wiki/Coral_Browne" title="Coral Browne">Coral Browne</a> as Lady Bracknell.<a href="#cite_note-190">[172]</a> In 1977 <a href="/wiki/BBC_Radio_4" title="BBC Radio 4">BBC Radio 4</a> broadcast the four-act version of the play for the first time, with <a href="/wiki/Fabia_Drake" title="Fabia Drake">Fabia Drake</a> as Lady Bracknell, <a href="/wiki/Richard_Pasco" title="Richard Pasco">Richard Pasco</a> as Jack, <a href="/wiki/Jeremy_Clyde" title="Jeremy Clyde">Jeremy Clyde</a> as Algy, <a href="/wiki/Maurice_Denham" title="Maurice Denham">Maurice Denham</a> as Canon Chasuble, <a href="/wiki/Sylvia_Coleridge" title="Sylvia Coleridge">Sylvia Coleridge</a> as Miss Prism, <a href="/wiki/Barbara_Leigh-Hunt" title="Barbara Leigh-Hunt">Barbara Leigh-Hunt</a> as Gwendolen and <a href="/wiki/Prunella_Scales" title="Prunella Scales">Prunella Scales</a> as Cecily. In 1988 a production of the four-act version was broadcast on BBC television, starring <a href="/wiki/Joan_Plowright" title="Joan Plowright">Joan Plowright</a>, <a href="/wiki/Paul_McGann" title="Paul McGann">Paul McGann</a>, <a href="/wiki/Gemma_Jones" title="Gemma Jones">Gemma Jones</a> and <a href="/wiki/Alec_McCowen" title="Alec McCowen">Alec McCowen</a>.<a href="#cite_note-191">[173]</a> In 1995, to mark the centenary of the first performance of the play, Radio 4 broadcast a new adaptation on 13 February; directed by <a href="/wiki/Glyn_Dearman" title="Glyn Dearman">Glyn Dearman</a>, it featured <a href="/wiki/Judi_Dench" title="Judi Dench">Judi Dench</a> as Lady Bracknell, <a href="/wiki/Michael_Sheen" title="Michael Sheen">Michael Sheen</a> as Jack, <a href="/wiki/Martin_Clunes" title="Martin Clunes">Martin Clunes</a> as Algernon, <a href="/wiki/John_Moffatt_(actor)" title="John Moffatt (actor)">John Moffatt</a> as Dr Chasuble, <a href="/wiki/Miriam_Margolyes" title="Miriam Margolyes">Miriam Margolyes</a> as Miss Prism, <a href="/wiki/Samantha_Bond" title="Samantha Bond">Samantha Bond</a> as Gwendolen and <a href="/wiki/Amanda_Root" title="Amanda Root">Amanda Root</a> as Cecily.<a href="#cite_note-192">[174]</a> In December 2000 <a href="/wiki/BBC_Radio_3" title="BBC Radio 3">BBC Radio 3</a> broadcast an adaptation directed by <a href="/wiki/Howard_Davies_(director)" title="Howard Davies (director)">Howard Davies</a> starring <a href="/wiki/Geraldine_McEwan" title="Geraldine McEwan">Geraldine McEwan</a> as Lady Bracknell, <a href="/wiki/Simon_Russell_Beale" title="Simon Russell Beale">Simon Russell Beale</a> as Jack Worthing, <a href="/wiki/Julian_Wadham" title="Julian Wadham">Julian Wadham</a> as Algernon Moncrieff, <a href="/wiki/Geoffrey_Palmer_(actor)" title="Geoffrey Palmer (actor)">Geoffrey Palmer</a> as Canon Chasuble, <a href="/wiki/Celia_Imrie" title="Celia Imrie">Celia Imrie</a> as Miss Prism, <a href="/wiki/Victoria_Hamilton" title="Victoria Hamilton">Victoria Hamilton</a> as Gwendolen and <a href="/wiki/Emma_Fielding" title="Emma Fielding">Emma Fielding</a> as Cecily.<a href="#cite_note-193">[175]</a> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Commercial_recordings">Commercial recordings</h3></div> Gielgud's performance is preserved on an <a href="/wiki/EMI_records" class="mw-redirect" title="EMI records">EMI</a> audio recording dating from 1952, which also captures Edith Evans's Lady Bracknell. The cast also includes <a href="/wiki/Roland_Culver" title="Roland Culver">Roland Culver</a> (Algernon), <a href="/wiki/Jean_Cadell" title="Jean Cadell">Jean Cadell</a> (Miss Prism), <a href="/wiki/Pamela_Brown_(actress)" title="Pamela Brown (actress)"> Pamela Brown</a> (Gwendolen) and <a href="/wiki/Celia_Johnson" title="Celia Johnson">Celia Johnson</a> (Cecily).<a href="#cite_note-194">[176]</a><a href="#cite_note-195">[177]</a> Other audio recordings include a "Theatre Masterworks" version from 1953, directed and narrated by <a href="/wiki/Margaret_Webster" title="Margaret Webster">Margaret Webster</a>, with a cast including <a href="/wiki/Maurice_Evans_(actor)" title="Maurice Evans (actor)">Maurice Evans</a> and <a href="/wiki/Lucile_Watson" title="Lucile Watson">Lucile Watson</a>;<a href="#cite_note-196">[178]</a><a href="#cite_note-197">[179]</a> a 1968 recording on the <a href="/wiki/Caedmon_Audio" title="Caedmon Audio">Caedmon</a> label with <a href="/wiki/Gladys_Cooper" title="Gladys Cooper">Gladys Cooper</a> as Lady Bracknell and Joan Greenwood, <a href="/wiki/Richard_Johnson_(actor)" title="Richard Johnson (actor)">Richard Johnson</a>, <a href="/wiki/Alec_McCowen" title="Alec McCowen">Alec McCowen</a>, <a href="/wiki/Lynn_Redgrave" title="Lynn Redgrave">Lynn Redgrave</a>, Irene Handl and <a href="/wiki/Robertson_Hare" title="Robertson Hare">Robertson Hare</a>;<a href="#cite_note-198">[180]</a> a 1989 version by California Artists Radio Theatre, featuring <a href="/wiki/Dan_O%27Herlihy" title="Dan O'Herlihy">Dan O'Herlihy</a>, <a href="/wiki/Jeanette_Nolan" title="Jeanette Nolan">Jeanette Nolan</a>, <a href="/wiki/Les_Tremayne" title="Les Tremayne">Les Tremayne</a> and <a href="/wiki/Richard_Erdman" title="Richard Erdman">Richard Erdman</a>;<a href="#cite_note-199">[181]</a> and one by <a href="/wiki/L.A._Theatre_Works" title="L.A. Theatre Works">L.A. Theatre Works</a> issued in 2009, featuring <a href="/wiki/Charles_Busch" title="Charles Busch">Charles Busch</a>, <a href="/wiki/James_Marsters" title="James Marsters">James Marsters</a> and <a href="/wiki/Andrea_Bowen" title="Andrea Bowen">Andrea Bowen</a>.<a href="#cite_note-200">[182]</a> </section><div class="mw-heading mw-heading2 section-heading" onclick="mfTempOpenSection(9)"><h2 id="Notes,_references_and_sources">Notes, references and sources</h2></div><section class="mf-section-9 collapsible-block" id="mf-section-9"> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Notes">Notes</h3></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-22"><a href="#cite_ref-22">^</a> The deleted scene with the solicitor was thought lost until it was found in some of Wilde's papers and was first performed on <a href="/wiki/BBC_radio" class="mw-redirect" title="BBC radio">BBC radio</a> on 27 October 1954.<a href="#cite_note-mikhail-21">[21]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-27"><a href="#cite_ref-27">^</a> Queensberry had been a prize fighter himself in his younger days, and retained what one historian calls "his band of bruisers".<a href="#cite_note-adut-26">[25]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-36"><a href="#cite_ref-36">^</a> Alexander released Millard from her contract at the St James's at the beginning of March to enable her to take over at short notice from the ailing <a href="/wiki/Marion_Terry" title="Marion Terry">Marion Terry</a> in the lead role in <a href="/wiki/Sydney_Grundy" title="Sydney Grundy">Sydney Grundy</a>'s Sowing the Wind at the <a href="/wiki/Harold_Pinter_Theatre" title="Harold Pinter Theatre">Comedy Theatre</a>. Millard's understudy, Violet Lyster, took over the role of Cecily.<a href="#cite_note-35">[33]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-40"><a href="#cite_ref-40">^</a> Removing Wilde's name from the play billing caused a breach between the author and Alexander that lasted for some years; the actor later paid Wilde small monthly sums and bequeathed his rights in the play to the author's son <a href="/wiki/Vyvyan_Holland" title="Vyvyan Holland">Vyvyan Holland</a>.<a href="#cite_note-ga-39">[36]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-46"><a href="#cite_ref-46">^</a> In a 2003 study, Richard Fotheringham writes that in Australia, unlike Britain and the US, Wilde's name was only briefly excluded from playbills, and the critics and public took a much more relaxed view of his crimes.<a href="#cite_note-f55-45">[41]</a> A <a href="/wiki/Royal_Command_Performance" title="Royal Command Performance">command performance</a> of the play was given by Boucicault's company in the presence of the <a href="/wiki/Governor_of_Victoria" title="Governor of Victoria">Governor of Victoria</a> and his wife.<a href="#cite_note-rf-43">[39]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-52"><a href="#cite_ref-52">^</a> In 1950, months before his death, he wrote: "Do not let yourself be trapped into the silly cliché that The Importance is Wilde's best play. It's a mechanical <a href="/wiki/Cat%27s_cradle" title="Cat's cradle">cat's cradle</a> farce without a single touch of human nature in it. It is Gilbert and Sullivan minus Sullivan".<a href="#cite_note-51">[46]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-60"><a href="#cite_ref-60">^</a> Sardou is described in The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French as a "Highly successful French dramatist, a brilliant manipulator of empty but complicated plots and spectacular theatrical effects ... the melodramas and historical plays are merely sumptuously dressed machines for producing <a href="/wiki/Glossary_of_literary_terms#Ce" title="Glossary of literary terms">coups de théâtre</a>".<a href="#cite_note-59">[53]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-64"><a href="#cite_ref-64">^</a> An article in The Wildean in 2015 speculated that Tapping's production of the play in Limerick in late October 1895 may have been the first staging of the piece in Wilde's native Ireland.<a href="#cite_note-63">[56]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-87"><a href="#cite_ref-87">^</a> <a href="/wiki/George_VI" title="George VI">George VI</a> was not the first British king who had attended a performance of the play: his grandfather <a href="/wiki/Edward_VII" title="Edward VII">Edward VII</a>, then <a href="/wiki/Prince_of_Wales" title="Prince of Wales">Prince of Wales</a>, was in the audience for the first production.<a href="#cite_note-86">[78]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-90"><a href="#cite_ref-90">^</a> Rutherford switched roles, from Miss Prism to Lady Bracknell for the North American production; <a href="/wiki/Jean_Cadell" title="Jean Cadell">Jean Cadell</a> played Miss Prism. <a href="/wiki/Robert_Flemyng" title="Robert Flemyng">Robert Flemyng</a> played Algernon.<a href="#cite_note-89">[80]</a> The cast was given a special <a href="/wiki/Tony_Award" class="mw-redirect" title="Tony Award">Tony Award</a> for "Outstanding Foreign Company".<a href="#cite_note-c333-88">[79]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-94"><a href="#cite_ref-94">^</a> Twenty-three years earlier, Dench had played Cecily to the Lady Bracknell of <a href="/wiki/Fay_Compton" title="Fay Compton">Fay Compton</a> in a 1959 <a href="/wiki/Old_Vic" class="mw-redirect" title="Old Vic">Old Vic</a> production that included in the cast <a href="/wiki/Alec_McCowen" title="Alec McCowen">Alec McCowen</a>, <a href="/wiki/Barbara_Jefford" title="Barbara Jefford">Barbara Jefford</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Miles_Malleson" title="Miles Malleson">Miles Malleson</a>.<a href="#cite_note-93">[83]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-111"><a href="#cite_ref-111">^</a> Nonetheless there are many different possible titles in German, mostly concerning sentence structure. The two most common are Bunbury oder ernst / Ernst sein ist alles and Bunbury oder wie wichtig es ist, ernst / Ernst zu sein Bunbury or Ernst/ Serious is everything and Bunbury or How Important it is to be Serious / To be serious.<a href="#cite_note-Pabl%C3%A9_2005:301-110">[99]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-117"><a href="#cite_ref-117">^</a> "<a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikt:Constant" class="extiw" title="fr:wikt:Constant">Constant</a>" is both a French first name and an adjective meaning steadfast.<a href="#cite_note-p317-115">[103]</a><a href="#cite_note-116">[104]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-119"><a href="#cite_ref-119">^</a> The Importance of Being Serious, It Is Important to be Loved, It Is Important to be Desired and It Is Important to be Faithful, Désiré and Fidèle being given names. </li> <li id="cite_note-130"><a href="#cite_ref-130">^</a> Wilde himself evidently took sandwiches with due seriousness. <a href="/wiki/Max_Beerbohm" title="Max Beerbohm">Max Beerbohm</a> recounted in a letter to <a href="/wiki/Reginald_Turner_(writer)" class="mw-redirect" title="Reginald Turner (writer)">Reggie Turner</a> Wilde's difficulty in obtaining a satisfactory offering: "He ordered a watercress sandwich, which in due course was brought to him: Not a thin, diaphanous green thing, such as he had meant, but a very stout, satisfying article of food. This he ate with assumed disgust (but evident relish) and when he paid the waiter, he said: 'Tell the cook of this restaurant with the compliments of Mr Oscar Wilde that these are the very worst sandwiches in the whole world and that, when I ask for a watercress sandwich, I do not mean a loaf with a field in the middle of it.'"<a href="#cite_note-129">[115]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-143"><a href="#cite_ref-143">^</a> At the time, <a href="/wiki/London_Victoria_station" title="London Victoria station">Victoria Station</a> consisted of two separate but adjacent terminal stations sharing the same name. To the east was the ramshackle <a href="/wiki/London,_Chatham_and_Dover_Railway" title="London, Chatham and Dover Railway">LC&D Railway</a>, on the west the up-market <a href="/wiki/London,_Brighton_and_South_Coast_Railway" title="London, Brighton and South Coast Railway">LB&SCR</a> – the Brighton Line, which went to Worthing, the fashionable town to which the gentleman who found baby Jack was travelling at the time (and after which Jack was named).<a href="#cite_note-142">[127]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-151"><a href="#cite_ref-151">^</a> <a href="/wiki/Deconstruction" title="Deconstruction">Deconstructionist</a> approaches to the play have interpreted the prominence of linguistic destabilisation, particularly punning, as reflecting the destabilisation of the social world in which heterosexuality is assumed, default and dominant.<a href="#cite_note-148">[132]</a> <a href="/wiki/Eve_Kosofsky_Sedgwick" title="Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick">Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick</a>, a proponent of queer theory, contends that the play continually undercuts the idea that there is a "natural" correspondence between what things or people are called and what they are (with particular reference to the importance of fathers and fathers' names).<a href="#cite_note-s53-149">[133]</a> She concurs with Christopher Craft that Wilde's persistent subversion of the normal meaning of words undermines the norms of society, including the assumption that all men should be heterosexual and conventionally masculine, and that there is a natural path for a man's story that ends in heterosexual family life.<a href="#cite_note-s53-149">[133]</a><a href="#cite_note-150">[134]</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-163"><a href="#cite_ref-163">^</a> It is sometimes thought that Gilbert's Bunthorne was a caricature of Wilde, but the Gilbert scholar Andrew Crowther calls this "a popular misconception". The opera was produced before Wilde was famous enough to be caricatured.<a href="#cite_note-162">[145]</a> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="References">References</h3></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239543626"><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-auto1-1">^ <a href="#cite_ref-auto1_1-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-auto1_1-1">b</a> Wilde (2000), p. 3 </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a> Wilde (2000), pp. 5–17 </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a> Wilde (2000), pp. 18–40 </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a> Wilde (2000), pp. 41–81 </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a> Wilde (2000), pp. 82–104 </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a> Wilde (2000), pp. 104–105 </li> <li id="cite_note-wildeodnb-7">^ <a href="#cite_ref-wildeodnb_7-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-wildeodnb_7-1">b</a> Edwards, Owen Dudley. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-29400">"Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills (1854–1900), writer"</a>, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004. (subscription or <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#public">UK public library membership</a> required) </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a> Ellmann, p. 421 </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a> Denisoff, p. 66; Feingold, Michael, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0418,feingold1,53206,11.html">"Engaging the Past"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061108131632/http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0418,feingold1,53206,11.html">Archived</a> 8 November 2006 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>; Hudson, pp. 101–105; Jackson (2000), p. xxxvi; Koerble, p. 144; Pearson, p. 63; Raby (1995) p. 28; Stedman, p. 151; Thompson, p. 255; and Williams, pp. 15 and 411 </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a> Jackson (2000) p. xxxvi </li> <li id="cite_note-jackson163-11">^ <a href="#cite_ref-jackson163_11-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-jackson163_11-1">b</a> Jackson (1997), p. 163 </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a> Eltis, pp. 60, 101 and 137 </li> <li id="cite_note-13"><a href="#cite_ref-13">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/galleries/written-word/item/5420">"A Serious Comedy for Trivial People, an early manuscript draft of The Importance of Being Earnest"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240828163825/https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/galleries/written-word/item/5420">Archived</a> 28 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, New York Public Library (1894). Retrieved 28 August 2024 </li> <li id="cite_note-14"><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a> Jackson (1980), pp. xxix and 4 </li> <li id="cite_note-james-15"><a href="#cite_ref-james_15-0">^</a> Horne, Philip. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-341502004">"James, Henry (1843–1916), writer"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230425205454/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-341502004">Archived</a> 25 April 2023 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 14 April 2021 (subscription or <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#public">UK public library membership</a> required) </li> <li id="cite_note-rhd-16">^ <a href="#cite_ref-rhd_16-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-rhd_16-1">b</a> Wilde (1962), pp. 418–419 </li> <li id="cite_note-17"><a href="#cite_ref-17">^</a> Raby (1988), p. 143 </li> <li id="cite_note-e406-18">^ <a href="#cite_ref-e406_18-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-e406_18-1">b</a> Ellmann, p. 406 </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a> Wilde (2000), p. 107 </li> <li id="cite_note-Raby121-20"><a href="#cite_ref-Raby121_20-0">^</a> Raby (1988), p. 121 </li> <li id="cite_note-mikhail-21">^ <a href="#cite_ref-mikhail_21-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-mikhail_21-1">b</a> Mikhail E. H. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/mdr.1968.0047">"The Four-Act Version of The Importance of Being Earnest"</a>, Modern Drama, Fall 1968 (subscription required) </li> <li id="cite_note-gaye-23">^ <a href="#cite_ref-gaye_23-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-gaye_23-1">b</a> Gaye, p. 1405 </li> <li id="cite_note-era-24">^ <a href="#cite_ref-era_24-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-era_24-1">b</a> <a href="#cite_ref-era_24-2">c</a> "The Importance of Being Earnest", The Era, 16 February 1895, p. 11 </li> <li id="cite_note-jxliv-25">^ <a href="#cite_ref-jxliv_25-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-jxliv_25-1">b</a> Jackson (2000), p. xliv </li> <li id="cite_note-adut-26">^ <a href="#cite_ref-adut_26-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-adut_26-1">b</a> Adut, p. 230 </li> <li id="cite_note-28"><a href="#cite_ref-28">^</a> Wilde (2003), p. 186 </li> <li id="cite_note-29"><a href="#cite_ref-29">^</a> Ellmann, p. 430 </li> <li id="cite_note-30"><a href="#cite_ref-30">^</a> Pearson, p. 257 </li> <li id="cite_note-jackson171-31">^ <a href="#cite_ref-jackson171_31-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-jackson171_31-1">b</a> Jackson (1997), p. 171 </li> <li id="cite_note-32"><a href="#cite_ref-32">^</a> "St James's Theatre", The Morning Post, 15 September 1895, p. 5 </li> <li id="cite_note-33"><a href="#cite_ref-33">^</a> "At the Play", The Observer, 17 February 1895, p. 6 </li> <li id="cite_note-34"><a href="#cite_ref-34">^</a> Wearing pp. 459–460; </li> <li id="cite_note-35"><a href="#cite_ref-35">^</a> "Theatrical Items", St James's Gazette, 1 March 1895, p. 12 </li> <li id="cite_note-37"><a href="#cite_ref-37">^</a> Gagnier, pp. 132–134 </li> <li id="cite_note-38"><a href="#cite_ref-38">^</a> "Oscar Wilde in a Cell", Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 6 April 1895, p. 2 </li> <li id="cite_note-ga-39">^ <a href="#cite_ref-ga_39-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-ga_39-1">b</a> Wearing, J. P. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/30370">"Alexander, Sir George (real name George Alexander Gibb Samson) (1858–1918), actor and theatre manager"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091800/https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30370">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2011 (subscription or <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#public">UK public library membership</a> required) </li> <li id="cite_note-41"><a href="#cite_ref-41">^</a> "St James's Theatre", The Westminster Gazette, 8 May 1895, p. 1 </li> <li id="cite_note-hischak-42"><a href="#cite_ref-hischak_42-0">^</a> Hischak, p. 2527 </li> <li id="cite_note-rf-43">^ <a href="#cite_ref-rf_43-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-rf_43-1">b</a> Fotheringham, p. 57 </li> <li id="cite_note-44"><a href="#cite_ref-44">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9370036">"Princess's Theatre"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822092640/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9370036">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, Melbourne Argus, 12 August 1895, p. 6 </li> <li id="cite_note-f55-45">^ <a href="#cite_ref-f55_45-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-f55_45-1">b</a> Fotheringham, pp. 55 and 57 </li> <li id="cite_note-47"><a href="#cite_ref-47">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18951010.2.9">"The Brough and Boucicault Season"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822092639/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18951010.2.9">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, Auckland Star, 10 October 1895, p. 2 </li> <li id="cite_note-48"><a href="#cite_ref-48">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18951128.2.153">"The Importance of Being Earnest"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091609/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18951128.2.153">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, Otago Witness, 28 November 1895, p. 43 </li> <li id="cite_note-Jackson_1997:172-49">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Jackson_1997:172_49-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Jackson_1997:172_49-1">b</a> Jackson (1997), p. 172 </li> <li id="cite_note-50"><a href="#cite_ref-50">^</a> Beckson (1970), p. 194 </li> <li id="cite_note-51"><a href="#cite_ref-51">^</a> Beckson (1998), p. 341 </li> <li id="cite_note-53"><a href="#cite_ref-53">^</a> Beckson (1970), p. 195 </li> <li id="cite_note-54"><a href="#cite_ref-54">^</a> Beckson (1970), pp.189–190 </li> <li id="cite_note-Beckson_196-55"><a href="#cite_ref-Beckson_196_55-0">^</a> Beckson (1970), p. 196 </li> <li id="cite_note-Beckson_1970:188-56">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Beckson_1970:188_56-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Beckson_1970:188_56-1">b</a> Beckson (1970), p. 188 </li> <li id="cite_note-57"><a href="#cite_ref-57">^</a> Raby (1988), p. xxiii </li> <li id="cite_note-58"><a href="#cite_ref-58">^</a> Gordon, p. 156 </li> <li id="cite_note-59"><a href="#cite_ref-59">^</a> John, S. Beynon. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198661252.001.0001/acref-9780198661252-e-4233">"Sardou, Victorien</a>", The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French, Oxford University Press, 2005 (subscription required) <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091615/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198661252.001.0001/acref-9780198661252-e-4233">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite class="citation book cs1">"Sardou, Victorien". <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091615/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198661252.001.0001/acref-9780198661252-e-4233">The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French</a>. Oxford University Press. 1995. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-866125-2" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-19-866125-2"><bdi>978-0-19-866125-2</bdi></a>. Archived from the original on 22 August 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Sardou%2C+Victorien&rft.btitle=The+New+Oxford+Companion+to+Literature+in+French&rft.pub=Oxford+University+Press&rft.date=1995&rft.isbn=978-0-19-866125-2&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oxfordreference.com%2Fdisplay%2F10.1093%2Facref%2F9780198661252.001.0001%2Facref-9780198661252-e-4233&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"><code class="cs1-code">{{<a href="/wiki/Template:Cite_book" title="Template:Cite book">cite book</a>}}</code>: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (<a href="/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_bot:_original_URL_status_unknown" title="Category:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown">link</a>) </li> <li id="cite_note-61"><a href="#cite_ref-61">^</a> Beerbohm, p. 509 </li> <li id="cite_note-62"><a href="#cite_ref-62">^</a> Lawson, Mark. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/out-of-gags-try-oscar-wilde-1573007.html">"Out of gags? Try Oscar Wilde"</a>, <a href="/wiki/The_Independent" title="The Independent">The Independent</a>, 14 February 1995 </li> <li id="cite_note-63"><a href="#cite_ref-63">^</a> Atkinson, p. 24 </li> <li id="cite_note-65"><a href="#cite_ref-65">^</a> Atkinson, p. 32 </li> <li id="cite_note-66"><a href="#cite_ref-66">^</a> "Pleasure Gardens Theatre", Folkestone Express, 16 November 1895, p. 5 </li> <li id="cite_note-67"><a href="#cite_ref-67">^</a> "The Opera House", Londonderry Sentinel, 9 January 1900, p. 5 </li> <li id="cite_note-68"><a href="#cite_ref-68">^</a> Bristow 2008, p. xxxviii </li> <li id="cite_note-69"><a href="#cite_ref-69">^</a> "Mr George Alexander at the Royal", The Manchester Guardian, 5 November 1901, p. 6 </li> <li id="cite_note-70"><a href="#cite_ref-70">^</a> "The Importance of Being Earnest", The Sporting Times, 11 January 1902, p. 3 </li> <li id="cite_note-jxlv-71"><a href="#cite_ref-jxlv_71-0">^</a> Jackson (2000), p. xlv </li> <li id="cite_note-72"><a href="#cite_ref-72">^</a> "Amusements", The New York Times, 13 April 1902, p. 15; Carew, Kate. "Here's Wit that Sparkles Ever Bright", The Evening World, 15 April 1902, p. 7; "The Theatres Last Night", The New York Times, 15 April 1902, p. 5 </li> <li id="cite_note-73"><a href="#cite_ref-73">^</a> "St James's Theatre", The Times, 2 December 1909, p. 12 </li> <li id="cite_note-Beerbohm510-74"><a href="#cite_ref-Beerbohm510_74-0">^</a> Beerbohm, p. 510 </li> <li id="cite_note-75"><a href="#cite_ref-75">^</a> "Oscar Wilde Comedy Revived at Lyceum", The New York Times, 15 December 1910, p. 11 </li> <li id="cite_note-76"><a href="#cite_ref-76">^</a> "St James's Theatre", The Times, 17 February 1913, p. 10 </li> <li id="cite_note-77"><a href="#cite_ref-77">^</a> "Haymarket Theatre", The Times, 22 November 1923, p. 12 </li> <li id="cite_note-78"><a href="#cite_ref-78">^</a> "The Importance of Being Earnest – a case for period costume", The Manchester Guardian, 3 May 1927, p. 14 </li> <li id="cite_note-79"><a href="#cite_ref-79">^</a> Gielgud, pp. 90–91 </li> <li id="cite_note-80"><a href="#cite_ref-80">^</a> "The Old Vic Goes Wilde", The Sketch, 14 February 1934, p. 36 </li> <li id="cite_note-81"><a href="#cite_ref-81">^</a> Barron, Mark. "Broadway", Buffalo Courier Express, 22 January 1939, p. 11 </li> <li id="cite_note-82"><a href="#cite_ref-82">^</a> "Globe Theatre", The Times, 1 February 1939, p. 12 </li> <li id="cite_note-83"><a href="#cite_ref-83">^</a> "Globe Theatre", The Times, 17 August 1939, p. 8 </li> <li id="cite_note-84"><a href="#cite_ref-84">^</a> "Court Circular", The Times, 12 April 1946, p. 7 </li> <li id="cite_note-85"><a href="#cite_ref-85">^</a> Wheatcroft, Geoffrey. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/05/not-green-not-red-not-pink/302729/">"Not green, not red, not pink"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130522160423/http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2003/05/wheatcroft.htm">Archived</a> 22 May 2013 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, <a href="/wiki/The_Atlantic_Monthly" class="mw-redirect" title="The Atlantic Monthly">The Atlantic Monthly</a>, May 2003 </li> <li id="cite_note-86"><a href="#cite_ref-86">^</a> "Court Circular", The Times, 30 May 1895, p. 12 </li> <li id="cite_note-c333-88">^ <a href="#cite_ref-c333_88-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-c333_88-1">b</a> Croall, p. 333 </li> <li id="cite_note-89"><a href="#cite_ref-89">^</a> Hayman, p. 155 </li> <li id="cite_note-91"><a href="#cite_ref-91">^</a> Hall, pp. 80–81, 122–123, and 151 </li> <li id="cite_note-92"><a href="#cite_ref-92">^</a> Hepple, Peter. "The Importance of Being Earnest at Greenwich", The Stage, 27 March 1975, p. 19 </li> <li id="cite_note-93"><a href="#cite_ref-93">^</a> "The Importance of Being Earnest revived", The Times, 14 October 1959, p. 4 </li> <li id="cite_note-95"><a href="#cite_ref-95">^</a> Wardle, Irving. "Theatre", The Times, 17 September 1982, p. 9 </li> <li id="cite_note-ms-96">^ <a href="#cite_ref-ms_96-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-ms_96-1">b</a> Shenton, Mark <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/the-importance-of-being-earnest2">"The Importance of Being Earnest"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240816065325/https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/the-importance-of-being-earnest2">Archived</a> 16 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, The Stage, 1 July 2015 </li> <li id="cite_note-Bostridge-97">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Bostridge_97-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bostridge_97-1">b</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bostridge_97-2">c</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bostridge_97-3">d</a> Bostridge, Mark. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/earnest-the-musical-earnest-the-sequel-don-t-laugh-175630.html">"Earnest the musical? Earnest the sequel? Don't laugh..."</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091740/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/earnest-the-musical-earnest-the-sequel-don-t-laugh-175630.html">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, The Independent, 1 September 2002 </li> <li id="cite_note-98"><a href="#cite_ref-98">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://britishtheatreplayhouse.com/productions/">"Past Productions"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822093153/https://britishtheatreplayhouse.com/productions/">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, British Theatre Playhouse. Retrieved 18 August 2024 </li> <li id="cite_note-99"><a href="#cite_ref-99">^</a> Morrison, John. "The Importance of Being Earnest", The Stage, 21 April 2005, p. 9 </li> <li id="cite_note-100"><a href="#cite_ref-100">^</a> Billington, Michael. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/feb/01/theatre">"The Importance of Being Earnest"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091740/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/feb/01/theatre">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, The Guardian, 1 February 2008 </li> <li id="cite_note-101"><a href="#cite_ref-101">^</a> Fricker, Karen. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/aug/08/theatre">"The Importance of Being Earnest"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091655/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/aug/08/theatre">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, The Guardian, 8 August 2005 </li> <li id="cite_note-102"><a href="#cite_ref-102">^</a> Middleton, Carol. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://australianstage.com.au/201111184961/reviews/melbourne/the-importance-of-being-earnest-%7C-melbourne-theatre-company.html">"The Importance of Being Earnest – Melbourne Theatre Company"</a> Australina Stage, 18 November 2011 </li> <li id="cite_note-103"><a href="#cite_ref-103">^</a> Jones, Kenneth. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://playbill.com/article/a-wilde-hit-broadways-earnest-gets-17-week-extension-bumping-people-musical-to-studio-54-com-175535">"A Wilde Hit! Broadway's Earnest gets 17 week extension, bumping People musical to Studio 54"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240816083210/https://playbill.com/article/a-wilde-hit-broadways-earnest-gets-17-week-extension-bumping-people-musical-to-studio-54-com-175535">Archived</a> 16 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, <a href="/wiki/Playbill" title="Playbill">Playbill</a>, 26 January 2011 </li> <li id="cite_note-age-104">^ <a href="#cite_ref-age_104-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-age_104-1">b</a> Masters, Tim. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28364946">"Havers recaptures youth in Importance of Being Earnest"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822092706/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-28364946">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, BBC, 20 July 2014 </li> <li id="cite_note-105"><a href="#cite_ref-105">^</a> John, Emma. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/aug/14/age-blind-casting-geraldine-james">"‘A 70-year-old skipping about pretending to be 20’: the new era of age-blind casting"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822092701/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/aug/14/age-blind-casting-geraldine-james">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, The Guardian, 14 August 2024 </li> <li id="cite_note-106"><a href="#cite_ref-106">^</a> Fisher, Mark. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/jun/20/the-importance-of-being-earnest-review-royal-exchange-manchester">The Importance of Being Earnest review – Algernon et al get a 21st-century makeover"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240822092639/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/jun/20/the-importance-of-being-earnest-review-royal-exchange-manchester">Archived</a> 22 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, The Guardian, 20 June 2024 </li> <li id="cite_note-e527-107">^ <a href="#cite_ref-e527_107-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-e527_107-1">b</a> <a href="#cite_ref-e527_107-2">c</a> Ellmann, p. 527 </li> <li id="cite_note-108"><a href="#cite_ref-108">^</a> Mason, p. 429 </li> <li id="cite_note-Pablé_2005:319-109">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Pabl%C3%A9_2005:319_109-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Pabl%C3%A9_2005:319_109-1">b</a> Pablé, p. 319 </li> <li id="cite_note-Pablé_2005:301-110">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Pabl%C3%A9_2005:301_110-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Pabl%C3%A9_2005:301_110-1">b</a> Pablé, p. 301 </li> <li id="cite_note-112"><a href="#cite_ref-112">^</a> Pablé, p. 299 </li> <li id="cite_note-113"><a href="#cite_ref-113">^</a> Pablé, p. 318 </li> <li id="cite_note-114"><a href="#cite_ref-114">^</a> Pablé, p. 314 </li> <li id="cite_note-p317-115">^ <a href="#cite_ref-p317_115-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-p317_115-1">b</a> Pablé, p. 317 </li> <li id="cite_note-116"><a href="#cite_ref-116">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9C3742">"constant"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240825133611/https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9C3742">Archived</a> 25 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, Dictionnaire de l'Académie française. Retrieved 25 August 2024 </li> <li id="cite_note-118"><a href="#cite_ref-118">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://lesarchivesduspectacle.net/recherche?q=Oscar+Wilde+Importance">"Oscar Wilde: Importance"</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240823104022/https://lesarchivesduspectacle.net/recherche?q=Oscar+Wilde+Importance">Archived</a> 23 August 2024 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a>, L'Archives du spectacle. Retrieved 23 August 2024 </li> <li id="cite_note-120"><a href="#cite_ref-120">^</a> Ransome, p. 136 </li> <li id="cite_note-121"><a href="#cite_ref-121">^</a> Eltis, p. 175 </li> <li id="cite_note-Eltis177-122">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Eltis177_122-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-Eltis177_122-1">b</a> Eltis, p. 177 </li> <li id="cite_note-123"><a href="#cite_ref-123">^</a> Foster, pp. 19–20 </li> <li id="cite_note-124"><a href="#cite_ref-124">^</a> Raby (1997), p. 18 </li> <li id="cite_note-125"><a href="#cite_ref-125">^</a> Raby (1997), p. 159 </li> <li id="cite_note-Jackson_1997,_p._173-126"><a href="#cite_ref-Jackson_1997,_p._173_126-0">^</a> Jackson (1997), p. 173 </li> <li id="cite_note-127"><a href="#cite_ref-127">^</a> Cave, p. 227 </li> <li id="cite_note-r139-128">^ <a href="#cite_ref-r139_128-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-r139_128-1">b</a> Ransome, p. 139 </li> <li id="cite_note-129"><a href="#cite_ref-129">^</a> Lyttelton and Hart-Davis, p. 141 </li> <li id="cite_note-auto-131">^ <a href="#cite_ref-auto_131-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-auto_131-1">b</a> Ellmann, p. 422 </li> <li id="cite_note-Pablé_2005:302-132"><a href="#cite_ref-Pabl%C3%A9_2005:302_132-0">^</a> Pablé, p. 302 </li> <li id="cite_note-133"><a href="#cite_ref-133">^</a> Wilde (2000), p. 77 </li> <li id="cite_note-134"><a href="#cite_ref-134">^</a> Raby (1997), p. 169 </li> <li id="cite_note-135"><a href="#cite_ref-135">^</a> Wilde (2000), p. 17 </li> <li id="cite_note-136"><a href="#cite_ref-136">^</a> Wilde (2000), p. 46 </li> <li id="cite_note-137"><a href="#cite_ref-137">^</a> Wilde (2000), p. 104 </li> <li id="cite_note-138"><a href="#cite_ref-138">^</a> Pablé, p. 303 </li> <li id="cite_note-139"><a href="#cite_ref-139">^</a> Wilde (2000), p. 64 </li> <li id="cite_note-140"><a href="#cite_ref-140">^</a> Raby (1997), p. 170 </li> <li id="cite_note-141"><a href="#cite_ref-141">^</a> Wilde (2000), pp. 29 and 31 </li> <li id="cite_note-142"><a href="#cite_ref-142">^</a> Dennis, p. 123 </li> <li id="cite_note-144"><a href="#cite_ref-144">^</a> Patterson, Michael. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191760082.001.0001/acref-9780191760082-e-663">"Importance of Being Earnest, The"</a>, The Oxford Dictionary of Plays, Oxford University Press, 2015 (subscription required) </li> <li id="cite_note-Craft-145"><a href="#cite_ref-Craft_145-0">^</a> Craft, pp. 116–118 </li> <li id="cite_note-146"><a href="#cite_ref-146">^</a> Wilde (2003), p. 340 </li> <li id="cite_note-e220-147">^ <a href="#cite_ref-e220_147-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-e220_147-1">b</a> Eaton, p. 220 </li> <li id="cite_note-148"><a href="#cite_ref-148">^</a> Craft 1990, p. 38; Sedgwick 1993, pp. 54–55 </li> <li id="cite_note-s53-149">^ <a href="#cite_ref-s53_149-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-s53_149-1">b</a> Sedgwick, pp. 53–55 </li> <li id="cite_note-150"><a href="#cite_ref-150">^</a> Craft, p. 38 </li> <li id="cite_note-:0-152"><a href="#cite_ref-:0_152-0">^</a> Sedgwick (1993), p. 59 </li> <li id="cite_note-annan-153">^ <a href="#cite_ref-annan_153-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-annan_153-1">b</a> Annan, p. 104 </li> <li id="cite_note-154"><a href="#cite_ref-154">^</a> Nicholson, p. 61 </li> <li id="cite_note-sinden-155">^ <a href="#cite_ref-sinden_155-0">a</a> <a href="#cite_ref-sinden_155-1">b</a> Sinden, Donald. 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Retrieved 16 August 2024 </li> <li id="cite_note-194"><a href="#cite_ref-194">^</a> WorldCat <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/645708270">645708270</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-195"><a href="#cite_ref-195">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/wilde-the-importance-of-being-earnest-1963-gielgud-evans">"Wilde – The Importance of Being Earnest – 1953 Gielgud Evans"</a>, Internet Archive. Retrieved 1 September 2024 </li> <li id="cite_note-196"><a href="#cite_ref-196">^</a> WorldCat <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10935711">10935711</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-197"><a href="#cite_ref-197">^</a> Barranger, p. xvii </li> <li id="cite_note-198"><a href="#cite_ref-198">^</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/lp_the-importance-of-being-earnest_oscar-wilde-peter-wood-gladys-cooper-joan">"The Importance of Being Earnest</a>". Internet Archive. Retrieved 1 September 2024 </li> <li id="cite_note-199"><a href="#cite_ref-199">^</a> WorldCat <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/36827267">36827267</a> </li> <li id="cite_note-200"><a href="#cite_ref-200">^</a> WorldCat <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/610192185">610192185</a> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Sources">Sources</h3></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Books">Books</h4></div> <ul><li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFAnnan1990" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Noel_Annan" class="mw-redirect" title="Noel Annan">Annan, Noel</a> (1990). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/ourageportraitof00anna">Our Age: Portrait of a Generation</a>. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-297-81129-0" title="Special:BookSources/0-297-81129-0"><bdi>0-297-81129-0</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Our+Age%3A+Portrait+of+a+Generation&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Weidenfeld+and+Nicolson&rft.date=1990&rft.isbn=0-297-81129-0&rft.aulast=Annan&rft.aufirst=Noel&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fourageportraitof00anna&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFBarranger2004" class="citation book cs1">Barranger, Milly S. (2004). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/margaretwebsterl00barr_0/page/n19/mode/2up?q=Earnest">Margaret Webster: A Life in the Theater</a>. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-47-202603-6" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-47-202603-6"><bdi>978-0-47-202603-6</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Margaret+Webster%3A+A+Life+in+the+Theater&rft.place=Ann+Arbor&rft.pub=University+of+Michigan+Press&rft.date=2004&rft.isbn=978-0-47-202603-6&rft.aulast=Barranger&rft.aufirst=Milly+S.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fmargaretwebsterl00barr_0%2Fpage%2Fn19%2Fmode%2F2up%3Fq%3DEarnest&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFBarry2013" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Gerald_Barry_(composer)" title="Gerald Barry (composer)">Barry, Gerald</a> (2013). The Importance of Being Earnest: Opera in Three Acts. Mainz: Schott. <a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/828858722">828858722</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Importance+of+Being+Earnest%3A+Opera+in+Three+Acts&rft.place=Mainz&rft.pub=Schott&rft.date=2013&rft_id=info%3Aoclcnum%2F828858722&rft.aulast=Barry&rft.aufirst=Gerald&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFBeckson1970" class="citation book cs1">Beckson, Karl E. (1970). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/oscarwildecritic0000unse">Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage</a>. London: Routledge. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7100-6929-0" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-7100-6929-0"><bdi>978-0-7100-6929-0</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Oscar+Wilde%3A+The+Critical+Heritage&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Routledge&rft.date=1970&rft.isbn=978-0-7100-6929-0&rft.aulast=Beckson&rft.aufirst=Karl+E.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Foscarwildecritic0000unse&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFBeckson1998" class="citation book cs1">Beckson, Karl E. (1998). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/oscarwildeencycl0000beck/page/340/mode/2up">The Oscar Wilde Encyclopedia</a>. New York: AMS Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-404-61498-1" title="Special:BookSources/0-404-61498-1"><bdi>0-404-61498-1</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Oscar+Wilde+Encyclopedia&rft.place=New+York&rft.pub=AMS+Press&rft.date=1998&rft.isbn=0-404-61498-1&rft.aulast=Beckson&rft.aufirst=Karl+E.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Foscarwildeencycl0000beck%2Fpage%2F340%2Fmode%2F2up&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFBeerbohm1970" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Max_Beerbohm" title="Max Beerbohm">Beerbohm, Max</a> (1970). Last Theatres 1904–1910. London: Hart-Davis. <a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/622626394">622626394</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Last+Theatres+1904%E2%80%931910&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Hart-Davis&rft.date=1970&rft_id=info%3Aoclcnum%2F622626394&rft.aulast=Beerbohm&rft.aufirst=Max&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFBowker2012" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Gordon_Bowker_(writer)" title="Gordon Bowker (writer)">Bowker, Gordon</a> (2012). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/jamesjoycenewbio0000bowk/page/246/mode/2up?q=%22Henry+Carr%22">James Joyce: A New Biography</a>. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-37-417872-7" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-37-417872-7"><bdi>978-0-37-417872-7</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=James+Joyce%3A+A+New+Biography&rft.place=New+York&rft.pub=Farrar%2C+Straus+and+Giroux&rft.date=2012&rft.isbn=978-0-37-417872-7&rft.aulast=Bowker&rft.aufirst=Gordon&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fjamesjoycenewbio0000bowk%2Fpage%2F246%2Fmode%2F2up%3Fq%3D%2522Henry%2BCarr%2522&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFBristow2008" class="citation book cs1">Bristow, Joseph (2008). Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture – The Making of a Legend. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8214-1838-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8214-1838-3"><bdi>978-0-8214-1838-3</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Oscar+Wilde+and+Modern+Culture+%E2%80%93+The+Making+of+a+Legend&rft.place=Athens%2C+Ohio&rft.pub=Ohio+University+Press&rft.date=2008&rft.isbn=978-0-8214-1838-3&rft.aulast=Bristow&rft.aufirst=Joseph&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFCave1997" class="citation book cs1">Cave, Richard (1997). "Wilde's Plays". In Peter Raby (ed.). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00raby/page/n1/mode/2up">The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde</a>. London: Cambridge University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-297-81129-0" title="Special:BookSources/0-297-81129-0"><bdi>0-297-81129-0</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Wilde%27s+Plays&rft.btitle=The+Cambridge+Companion+to+Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=1997&rft.isbn=0-297-81129-0&rft.aulast=Cave&rft.aufirst=Richard&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fcambridgecompani00raby%2Fpage%2Fn1%2Fmode%2F2up&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFCroall2000" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Jonathan_Croall" title="Jonathan Croall">Croall, Jonathan</a> (2000). Gielgud: A Theatrical Life, 1904–2000. London: Methuen. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-413-74560-0" title="Special:BookSources/0-413-74560-0"><bdi>0-413-74560-0</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Gielgud%3A+A+Theatrical+Life%2C+1904%E2%80%932000&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Methuen&rft.date=2000&rft.isbn=0-413-74560-0&rft.aulast=Croall&rft.aufirst=Jonathan&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFD'Arch_Smith1998" class="citation book cs1">D'Arch Smith, Timothy (1998). Bunbury: Two Notes on Oscar Wilde. Bicary: The Winged Lion. <a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/41155817">41155817</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Bunbury%3A+Two+Notes+on+Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=Bicary&rft.pub=The+Winged+Lion&rft.date=1998&rft_id=info%3Aoclcnum%2F41155817&rft.aulast=D%27Arch+Smith&rft.aufirst=Timothy&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFDenisoff2001" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Dennis_Denisoff" title="Dennis Denisoff">Denisoff, Dennis</a> (2001). Aestheticism and Sexual Parody, 1840–1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-521-02489-7" title="Special:BookSources/0-521-02489-7"><bdi>0-521-02489-7</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Aestheticism+and+Sexual+Parody%2C+1840%E2%80%931940&rft.place=Cambridge&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=2001&rft.isbn=0-521-02489-7&rft.aulast=Denisoff&rft.aufirst=Dennis&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFDennis2008" class="citation book cs1">Dennis, Richard (2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/citiesinmodernit0000denn/mode/2up">Cities in Modernity: Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Space, 1840–1930</a>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-46841-1" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-521-46841-1"><bdi>978-0-521-46841-1</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Cities+in+Modernity%3A+Representations+and+Productions+of+Metropolitan+Space%2C+1840%E2%80%931930&rft.place=Cambridge&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=2008&rft.isbn=978-0-521-46841-1&rft.aulast=Dennis&rft.aufirst=Richard&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fcitiesinmodernit0000denn%2Fmode%2F2up&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFEllmann1988" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Richard_Ellmann" title="Richard Ellmann">Ellmann, Richard</a> (1988). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/oscarwilde0000ellm_i7q3/mode/2up">Oscar Wilde</a>. London: Penguin. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-14-026501-5" title="Special:BookSources/0-14-026501-5"><bdi>0-14-026501-5</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Penguin&rft.date=1988&rft.isbn=0-14-026501-5&rft.aulast=Ellmann&rft.aufirst=Richard&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Foscarwilde0000ellm_i7q3%2Fmode%2F2up&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFEltis1996" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Sos_Eltis" title="Sos Eltis">Eltis, Sos</a> (1996). Revising Wilde: Society and Subversion in the Plays of Oscar Wilde. Oxford: Clarendon Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-19-812183-0" title="Special:BookSources/0-19-812183-0"><bdi>0-19-812183-0</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Revising+Wilde%3A+Society+and+Subversion+in+the+Plays+of+Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=Oxford&rft.pub=Clarendon+Press&rft.date=1996&rft.isbn=0-19-812183-0&rft.aulast=Eltis&rft.aufirst=Sos&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFEkwall1960" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Eilert_Ekwall" title="Eilert Ekwall">Ekwall, Eilert</a> (1960). Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-19-869103-3" title="Special:BookSources/0-19-869103-3"><bdi>0-19-869103-3</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Concise+Oxford+Dictionary+of+English+Place-names&rft.place=Oxford&rft.pub=Oxford+University+Press&rft.date=1960&rft.isbn=0-19-869103-3&rft.aulast=Ekwall&rft.aufirst=Eilert&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFGagnier1986" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Regenia_Gagnier" title="Regenia Gagnier">Gagnier, Regenia</a> (1986). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/idyllsofmarketpl0000gagn/page/132/mode/2up">Idylls of the Marketplace: Oscar Wilde and the Victorian Public</a>. Stanford: Stanford University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-85967-730-3" title="Special:BookSources/0-85967-730-3"><bdi>0-85967-730-3</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Idylls+of+the+Marketplace%3A+Oscar+Wilde+and+the+Victorian+Public&rft.place=Stanford&rft.pub=Stanford+University+Press&rft.date=1986&rft.isbn=0-85967-730-3&rft.aulast=Gagnier&rft.aufirst=Regenia&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fidyllsofmarketpl0000gagn%2Fpage%2F132%2Fmode%2F2up&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFGielgud1979" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/John_Gielgud" title="John Gielgud">Gielgud, John</a> (1979). An Actor and His Time. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-283-98573-9" title="Special:BookSources/0-283-98573-9"><bdi>0-283-98573-9</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=An+Actor+and+His+Time&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Sidgwick+and+Jackson&rft.date=1979&rft.isbn=0-283-98573-9&rft.aulast=Gielgud&rft.aufirst=John&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFGordon1994" class="citation book cs1">Gordon, Robert (1994). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/rediscoveringosc0000unse/page/156/mode/2up">"Wilde's 'Plays of Modern Life' on the Contemporary British Stage"</a>. In Constantin-George Sandulescu (ed.). Rediscovering Oscar Wilde. Gerrards Cross: C. Smythe. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-86140-376-2" title="Special:BookSources/0-86140-376-2"><bdi>0-86140-376-2</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Wilde%27s+%27Plays+of+Modern+Life%27+on+the+Contemporary+British+Stage&rft.btitle=Rediscovering+Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=Gerrards+Cross&rft.pub=C.+Smythe&rft.date=1994&rft.isbn=0-86140-376-2&rft.aulast=Gordon&rft.aufirst=Robert&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Frediscoveringosc0000unse%2Fpage%2F156%2Fmode%2F2up&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFHall1983" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Peter_Hall_(director)" title="Peter Hall (director)">Hall, Peter</a> (1983). Diaries 1972–1980. London: Hamish Hamilton. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-241-11285-0" title="Special:BookSources/0-241-11285-0"><bdi>0-241-11285-0</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Diaries+1972%E2%80%931980&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Hamish+Hamilton&rft.date=1983&rft.isbn=0-241-11285-0&rft.aulast=Hall&rft.aufirst=Peter&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFHayman1971" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Ronald_Hayman" title="Ronald Hayman">Hayman, Ronald</a> (1971). Gielgud. London: Heinemann. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-435-18400-8" title="Special:BookSources/0-435-18400-8"><bdi>0-435-18400-8</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Gielgud&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Heinemann&rft.date=1971&rft.isbn=0-435-18400-8&rft.aulast=Hayman&rft.aufirst=Ronald&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFHischak2009" class="citation book cs1">Hischak, Thomas S. (2009). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=GzeiySJZXF4C&q=broadway+theatre+Hischak+Algernon+Moncrieff&pg=PT1823">Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows Through 2007</a>. Jefferson: McFarland. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7864-5309-2" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-7864-5309-2"><bdi>978-0-7864-5309-2</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Broadway+Plays+and+Musicals%3A+Descriptions+and+Essential+Facts+of+More+Than+14%2C000+Shows+Through+2007&rft.place=Jefferson&rft.pub=McFarland&rft.date=2009&rft.isbn=978-0-7864-5309-2&rft.aulast=Hischak&rft.aufirst=Thomas+S.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DGzeiySJZXF4C%26q%3Dbroadway%2Btheatre%2BHischak%2BAlgernon%2BMoncrieff%26pg%3DPT1823&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFHudson1951" class="citation book cs1">Hudson, Lynton (1951). The English Stage, 1850–1950. London: Harrap. <a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/1851518">1851518</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+English+Stage%2C+1850%E2%80%931950&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Harrap&rft.date=1951&rft_id=info%3Aoclcnum%2F1851518&rft.aulast=Hudson&rft.aufirst=Lynton&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFJackson1997" class="citation book cs1">Jackson, Russell (1997). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00raby">"The Importance of Being Earnest"</a>. In Peter Raby (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. London: Cambridge University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-297-81129-0" title="Special:BookSources/0-297-81129-0"><bdi>0-297-81129-0</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=The+Importance+of+Being+Earnest&rft.btitle=The+Cambridge+Companion+to+Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=1997&rft.isbn=0-297-81129-0&rft.aulast=Jackson&rft.aufirst=Russell&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fcambridgecompani00raby&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFJackson2000" class="citation book cs1">Jackson, Russell (2000) [1980]. "Introduction". The Importance of Being Earnest. London: A & C Black. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7136-3040-X" title="Special:BookSources/0-7136-3040-X"><bdi>0-7136-3040-X</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Introduction&rft.btitle=The+Importance+of+Being+Earnest&rft.place=London&rft.pub=A+%26+C+Black&rft.date=2000&rft.isbn=0-7136-3040-X&rft.aulast=Jackson&rft.aufirst=Russell&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFKoerble1952" class="citation book cs1">Koerble, Betty (1952). W. S. Gilbert and Oscar Wilde: A Comparative Study. Madison: University of Wisconsin. <a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/55806177">55806177</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=W.+S.+Gilbert+and+Oscar+Wilde%3A+A+Comparative+Study&rft.place=Madison&rft.pub=University+of+Wisconsin&rft.date=1952&rft_id=info%3Aoclcnum%2F55806177&rft.aulast=Koerble&rft.aufirst=Betty&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFLytteltonRupert_Hart-Davis1981" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/George_Lyttelton_(teacher)" title="George Lyttelton (teacher)">Lyttelton, George</a>; <a href="/wiki/Rupert_Hart-Davis" title="Rupert Hart-Davis">Rupert Hart-Davis</a> (1981). Rupert Hart-Davis (ed.). The Lyttelton–Hart-Davis Letters, Volume Three. London: John Murray. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7195-3770-3" title="Special:BookSources/0-7195-3770-3"><bdi>0-7195-3770-3</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Lyttelton%E2%80%93Hart-Davis+Letters%2C+Volume+Three&rft.place=London&rft.pub=John+Murray&rft.date=1981&rft.isbn=0-7195-3770-3&rft.aulast=Lyttelton&rft.aufirst=George&rft.au=Rupert+Hart-Davis&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFMason1972" class="citation book cs1">Mason, Stuart (1972) [1917]. Bibliography of Oscar Wilde. New York: Haskell House. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8383-1378-7" title="Special:BookSources/0-8383-1378-7"><bdi>0-8383-1378-7</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Bibliography+of+Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=New+York&rft.pub=Haskell+House&rft.date=1972&rft.isbn=0-8383-1378-7&rft.aulast=Mason&rft.aufirst=Stuart&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFMinney1976" class="citation book cs1">Minney, R. J. (1976). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/filmsofanthonyas00minn/page/131/mode/2up">The Films of Anthony Asquith</a>. South Brunswick: A. S. Barnes. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-498-01558-0" title="Special:BookSources/0-498-01558-0"><bdi>0-498-01558-0</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Films+of+Anthony+Asquith&rft.place=South+Brunswick&rft.pub=A.+S.+Barnes&rft.date=1976&rft.isbn=0-498-01558-0&rft.aulast=Minney&rft.aufirst=R.+J.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Ffilmsofanthonyas00minn%2Fpage%2F131%2Fmode%2F2up&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFNicholson1892" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/John_Gambril_Nicholson" title="John Gambril Nicholson">Nicholson, John Gambril</a> (1892). Love in Earnest – Sonnets, Ballades, and Lyrics. London: Elliot Stock. <a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/8575205">8575205</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Love+in+Earnest+%E2%80%93+Sonnets%2C+Ballades%2C+and+Lyrics&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Elliot+Stock&rft.date=1892&rft_id=info%3Aoclcnum%2F8575205&rft.aulast=Nicholson&rft.aufirst=John+Gambril&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFPearson1946" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Hesketh_Pearson" title="Hesketh Pearson">Pearson, Hesketh</a> (1946). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.209788/page/n7/mode/2up">The Life of Oscar Wilde</a>. London: Methuen and Co Ltd. <a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/819025">819025</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Life+of+Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Methuen+and+Co+Ltd&rft.date=1946&rft_id=info%3Aoclcnum%2F819025&rft.aulast=Pearson&rft.aufirst=Hesketh&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fin.ernet.dli.2015.209788%2Fpage%2Fn7%2Fmode%2F2up&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRaby1988" class="citation book cs1">Raby, Peter (1988). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/oscarwilde0000raby">Oscar Wilde</a>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-26078-7" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-521-26078-7"><bdi>978-0-521-26078-7</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=Cambridge&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=1988&rft.isbn=978-0-521-26078-7&rft.aulast=Raby&rft.aufirst=Peter&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Foscarwilde0000raby&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRaby1995" class="citation book cs1">Raby, Peter (1995). The Importance of Being Earnest: A Reader's Companion. New York: Twayne. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-8057-8588-4" title="Special:BookSources/0-8057-8588-4"><bdi>0-8057-8588-4</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Importance+of+Being+Earnest%3A+A+Reader%27s+Companion&rft.place=New+York&rft.pub=Twayne&rft.date=1995&rft.isbn=0-8057-8588-4&rft.aulast=Raby&rft.aufirst=Peter&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRaby1997" class="citation book cs1">Raby, Peter (1997). "Wilde's Comedies of Society". In Peter Raby (ed.). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00raby/page/n1/mode/2up">The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde</a>. London: Cambridge University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-297-81129-0" title="Special:BookSources/0-297-81129-0"><bdi>0-297-81129-0</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Wilde%27s+Comedies+of+Society&rft.btitle=The+Cambridge+Companion+to+Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=1997&rft.isbn=0-297-81129-0&rft.aulast=Raby&rft.aufirst=Peter&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fcambridgecompani00raby%2Fpage%2Fn1%2Fmode%2F2up&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRansome1912" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Arthur_Ransome" title="Arthur Ransome">Ransome, Arthur</a> (1912). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/oscarwildec00ransuoft">Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study</a>. New York: Mitchell Kennerly. <a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/1050260305">1050260305</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Oscar+Wilde%3A+A+Critical+Study&rft.place=New+York&rft.pub=Mitchell+Kennerly&rft.date=1912&rft_id=info%3Aoclcnum%2F1050260305&rft.aulast=Ransome&rft.aufirst=Arthur&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Foscarwildec00ransuoft&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFStedman1996" class="citation book cs1">Stedman, Jane W. (1996). W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre. Oxford: Oxford University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-19-816174-3" title="Special:BookSources/0-19-816174-3"><bdi>0-19-816174-3</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=W.+S.+Gilbert%2C+A+Classic+Victorian+%26+His+Theatre&rft.place=Oxford&rft.pub=Oxford+University+Press&rft.date=1996&rft.isbn=0-19-816174-3&rft.aulast=Stedman&rft.aufirst=Jane+W.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFStoppard2017" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Tom_Stoppard" title="Tom Stoppard">Stoppard, Tom</a> (2017) [1975]. Travesties (third ed.). London: Faber & Faber. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-571-33925-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-571-33925-9"><bdi>978-0-571-33925-9</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Travesties&rft.place=London&rft.edition=third&rft.pub=Faber+%26+Faber&rft.date=2017&rft.isbn=978-0-571-33925-9&rft.aulast=Stoppard&rft.aufirst=Tom&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFThomson2006" class="citation book cs1">Thomson, Peter (2006). The Cambridge Introduction to English Theatre, 1660–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-521-54790-3" title="Special:BookSources/0-521-54790-3"><bdi>0-521-54790-3</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Cambridge+Introduction+to+English+Theatre%2C+1660%E2%80%931900&rft.place=Cambridge&rft.pub=Cambridge+University+Press&rft.date=2006&rft.isbn=0-521-54790-3&rft.aulast=Thomson&rft.aufirst=Peter&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFWilde1962" class="citation book cs1"><a href="/wiki/Oscar_Wilde" title="Oscar Wilde">Wilde, Oscar</a> (1962). <a href="/wiki/Rupert_Hart-Davis" title="Rupert Hart-Davis">Rupert Hart-Davis</a> (ed.). The Letters of Oscar Wilde. London: Hart-Davis. <a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/460734743">460734743</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Letters+of+Oscar+Wilde&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Hart-Davis&rft.date=1962&rft_id=info%3Aoclcnum%2F460734743&rft.aulast=Wilde&rft.aufirst=Oscar&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFWilde2000" class="citation book cs1">Wilde, Oscar (2000) [1980]. Russell Jackson (ed.). The Importance of Being Earnest. London: A & C Black. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7136-3040-X" title="Special:BookSources/0-7136-3040-X"><bdi>0-7136-3040-X</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Importance+of+Being+Earnest&rft.place=London&rft.pub=A+%26+C+Black&rft.date=2000&rft.isbn=0-7136-3040-X&rft.aulast=Wilde&rft.aufirst=Oscar&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFWilde2003" class="citation book cs1">Wilde, Oscar (2003). <a href="/wiki/Merlin_Holland" title="Merlin Holland">Merlin Holland</a> (ed.). Oscar Wilde: A Life in Letters. London and New York: Fourth Estate. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-00-716103-4" title="Special:BookSources/0-00-716103-4"><bdi>0-00-716103-4</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Oscar+Wilde%3A+A+Life+in+Letters&rft.place=London+and+New+York&rft.pub=Fourth+Estate&rft.date=2003&rft.isbn=0-00-716103-4&rft.aulast=Wilde&rft.aufirst=Oscar&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFWilliams2012" class="citation book cs1">Williams, Carolyn (2012) [2010]. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/details/gilbertsullivang0000will_j4s2/page/156/mode/2up?q=braids">Gilbert and Sullivan – Gender, Genre, Parody</a>. New York and Chichester: Columbia University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-231-14805-4" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-231-14805-4"><bdi>978-0-231-14805-4</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Gilbert+and+Sullivan+%E2%80%93+Gender%2C+Genre%2C+Parody&rft.place=New+York+and+Chichester&rft.pub=Columbia+University+Press&rft.date=2012&rft.isbn=978-0-231-14805-4&rft.aulast=Williams&rft.aufirst=Carolyn&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fgilbertsullivang0000will_j4s2%2Fpage%2F156%2Fmode%2F2up%3Fq%3Dbraids&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Journals">Journals</h4></div> <ul><li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFAdut2005" class="citation journal cs1">Adut, Ari (July 2005). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/428816">"A Theory of Scandal: Victorians, Homosexuality, and the Fall of Oscar Wilde"</a>. American Journal of Sociology. 111 (1): 213–248. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1086%2F428816">10.1086/428816</a>. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/428816">10.1086/428816</a>. <a href="/wiki/PMID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="PMID (identifier)">PMID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16240549">16240549</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=American+Journal+of+Sociology&rft.atitle=A+Theory+of+Scandal%3A+Victorians%2C+Homosexuality%2C+and+the+Fall+of+Oscar+Wilde&rft.volume=111&rft.issue=1&rft.pages=213-248&rft.date=2005-07&rft_id=info%3Apmid%2F16240549&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F10.1086%2F428816%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1086%2F428816&rft.aulast=Adut&rft.aufirst=Ari&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F10.1086%2F428816&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"> (subscription required)</li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFAtkinson2015" class="citation journal cs1">Atkinson, Julia (July 2015). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48569055">"An Author Not Just Now Familiar to Ears Polite"</a>. The Wildean, A Journal of the Oscar Wilde Society (47): 21–37. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48569055">48569055</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=The+Wildean%2C+A+Journal+of+the+Oscar+Wilde+Society&rft.atitle=An+Author+Not+Just+Now+Familiar+to+Ears+Polite&rft.issue=47&rft.pages=21-37&rft.date=2015-07&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F48569055%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft.aulast=Atkinson&rft.aufirst=Julia&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F48569055&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"> (subscription required)</li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFCraft1990" class="citation journal cs1">Craft, Christopher (Summer 1990). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928398">"Alias Bunbury: Desire and Termination in The Importance of Being Earnest"</a>. Representations (31): 19–46. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2928398">10.2307/2928398</a>. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928398">2928398</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Representations&rft.atitle=Alias+Bunbury%3A+Desire+and+Termination+in+The+Importance+of+Being+Earnest&rft.ssn=summer&rft.issue=31&rft.pages=19-46&rft.date=1990&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.2307%2F2928398&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F2928398%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft.aulast=Craft&rft.aufirst=Christopher&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F2928398&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"> (subscription required)</li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFEaton2014" class="citation journal cs1">Eaton, William (2014). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24582186">"The Unsaid"</a>. Agni (79): 219–231. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24582186">24582186</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Agni&rft.atitle=The+Unsaid&rft.issue=79&rft.pages=219-231&rft.date=2014&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F24582186%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft.aulast=Eaton&rft.aufirst=William&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F24582186&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"> (subscription required)</li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFFineman1990" class="citation journal cs1">Fineman, Joel (1990). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/778454">"The Significance of Literature: The Importance of Being Earnest"</a>. October. 15: 79–90. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.2307%2F778454">10.2307/778454</a>. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/778454">778454</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=October&rft.atitle=The+Significance+of+Literature%3A+The+Importance+of+Being+Earnest&rft.volume=15&rft.pages=79-90&rft.date=1990&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.2307%2F778454&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F778454%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft.aulast=Fineman&rft.aufirst=Joel&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F778454&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"> (subscription required)</li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFFotheringham2003" class="citation journal cs1">Fotheringham, Richard (2003). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.7227%2FNCTF.30.2.4">"Exiled to the Colonies: 'Oscar Wilde' in Australia, 1895–1897"</a>. Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film. 30 (2): 55–68. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.7227%2FNCTF.30.2.4">10.7227/NCTF.30.2.4</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Nineteenth+Century+Theatre+and+Film&rft.atitle=Exiled+to+the+Colonies%3A+%27Oscar+Wilde%27+in+Australia%2C+1895%E2%80%931897&rft.volume=30&rft.issue=2&rft.pages=55-68&rft.date=2003&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.7227%2FNCTF.30.2.4&rft.aulast=Fotheringham&rft.aufirst=Richard&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.7227%252FNCTF.30.2.4&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFPablé2005" class="citation journal cs1">Pablé, Adrian (2005). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://benjamins.com/online/target/articles/target.17.2.05pab">"The Importance of Renaming Ernest? Italian Translations of Oscar Wilde"</a>. Target. 17 (2): 297–326. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1075%2Ftarget.17.2.05pab">10.1075/target.17.2.05pab</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Target&rft.atitle=The+Importance+of+Renaming+Ernest%3F+Italian+Translations+of+Oscar+Wilde&rft.volume=17&rft.issue=2&rft.pages=297-326&rft.date=2005&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1075%2Ftarget.17.2.05pab&rft.aulast=Pabl%C3%A9&rft.aufirst=Adrian&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbenjamins.com%2Fonline%2Ftarget%2Farticles%2Ftarget.17.2.05pab&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFSedgwick1993" class="citation book cs1">Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1993). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11hpmxs.6">Tales of the Avunculate: Queer Tutelage in The Importance Of Being Earnest</a>. pp. 52–72. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.2307%2Fj.ctv11hpmxs.6">10.2307/j.ctv11hpmxs.6</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Tales+of+the+Avunculate%3A+Queer+Tutelage+in+The+Importance+Of+Being+Earnest&rft.pages=52-72&rft.date=1993&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.2307%2Fj.ctv11hpmxs.6&rft.aulast=Sedgwick&rft.aufirst=Eve+Kosofsky&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.2307%2Fj.ctv11hpmxs.6&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AThe+Importance+of+Being+Earnest" class="Z3988"> <code class="cs1-code">{{<a href="/wiki/Template:Cite_book" title="Template:Cite book">cite book</a>}}</code>: <code class="cs1-code">|journal=</code> ignored (<a href="/wiki/Help:CS1_errors#periodical_ignored" title="Help:CS1 errors">help</a>) (subscription required)</li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFSnider2005" class="citation journal cs1">Snider, Clifton (July 2005). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45270141">"Synchronicity and the Trickster in "The Importance of Being Earnest""</a>. 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.sister-bar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="noprint metadata sister-bar" role="navigation" aria-label="sister-projects"><div class="sister-bar-header">The Importance of Being Earnest at Wikipedia's <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikimedia_sister_projects" title="Wikipedia:Wikimedia sister projects">sister projects</a>:</div><ul class="sister-bar-content"><li class="sister-bar-item"><noscript><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/14px-Commons-logo.svg.png" decoding="async" width="14" height="19" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="1024" data-file-height="1376"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 14px;height: 19px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/14px-Commons-logo.svg.png" data-alt="" data-width="14" data-height="19" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/21px-Commons-logo.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/28px-Commons-logo.svg.png 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" class="extiw" title="c:Category:The Importance of Being Earnest">Media</a> from Commons</li><li class="sister-bar-item"><noscript><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/16px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="19" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="300" data-file-height="355"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 16px;height: 19px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/16px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png" data-alt="" data-width="16" data-height="19" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/24px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/32px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png 2x" data-class="mw-file-element"> <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde#The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest_(1895)" class="extiw" title="q:Oscar Wilde">Quotations</a> from Wikiquote</li><li class="sister-bar-item"><noscript><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/18px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png" decoding="async" width="18" height="19" class="mw-file-element" data-file-width="410" data-file-height="430"></noscript><span class="lazy-image-placeholder" style="width: 18px;height: 19px;" data-src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/18px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png" data-alt="" data-width="18" data-height="19" data-srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/28px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png 1.5x, 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href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest&oldid=1259218654">https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest&oldid=1259218654</a>"</div></div> </div> <div class="post-content" id="page-secondary-actions"> </div> </main> <footer class="mw-footer minerva-footer" role="contentinfo"> <a class="last-modified-bar" href="/w/index.php?title=The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest&action=history"> <div class="post-content last-modified-bar__content"> Last edited on 24 November 2024, at 00:41 </div> </a> <div class="post-content footer-content"> <div id='mw-data-after-content'> <div class="read-more-container"></div> </div> <div id="p-lang"> <h4>Languages</h4> <section> <ul id="p-variants" class="minerva-languages"></ul> <ul class="minerva-languages"><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ar mw-list-item"><a href="https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D9%87%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A_%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9" title="أهمية التحلي بالجدية – Arabic" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" data-title="أهمية التحلي بالجدية" data-language-autonym="العربية" data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target">العربية</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-az mw-list-item"><a href="https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciddi_olma%C4%9F%C4%B1n_%C9%99h%C9%99miyy%C9%99ti_(komediya)" title="Ciddi olmağın əhəmiyyəti (komediya) – Azerbaijani" lang="az" hreflang="az" data-title="Ciddi olmağın əhəmiyyəti (komediya)" data-language-autonym="Azərbaycanca" data-language-local-name="Azerbaijani" class="interlanguage-link-target">Azərbaycanca</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bn mw-list-item"><a href="https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%BF_%E0%A6%87%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9F%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B8_%E0%A6%85%E0%A6%AC_%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%82_%E0%A6%86%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9F" title="দি ইমপোর্টেন্স অব বিয়িং আর্নেস্ট – Bangla" lang="bn" hreflang="bn" data-title="দি ইমপোর্টেন্স অব বিয়িং আর্নেস্ট" data-language-autonym="বাংলা" data-language-local-name="Bangla" class="interlanguage-link-target">বাংলা</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-be mw-list-item"><a href="https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%AF%D0%BA_%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%B1%D1%8B%D1%86%D1%8C_%D1%81%D1%83%D1%80%E2%80%99%D1%91%D0%B7%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%BC" title="Як важна быць сур’ёзным – Belarusian" lang="be" hreflang="be" data-title="Як важна быць сур’ёзным" data-language-autonym="Беларуская" data-language-local-name="Belarusian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Беларуская</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bg mw-list-item"><a href="https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BA%D0%BE_%D0%B5_%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%BD%D0%BE_%D0%B4%D0%B0_%D0%B1%D1%8A%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%88_%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%BD" title="Колко е важно да бъдеш сериозен – Bulgarian" lang="bg" hreflang="bg" data-title="Колко е важно да бъдеш сериозен" data-language-autonym="Български" data-language-local-name="Bulgarian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Български</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ca mw-list-item"><a href="https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_import%C3%A0ncia_de_ser_Frank" title="La importància de ser Frank – Catalan" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" data-title="La importància de ser Frank" data-language-autonym="Català" data-language-local-name="Catalan" class="interlanguage-link-target">Català</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cs mw-list-item"><a href="https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jak_je_d%C5%AFle%C5%BEit%C3%A9_m%C3%ADti_Filipa" title="Jak je důležité míti Filipa – Czech" lang="cs" hreflang="cs" data-title="Jak je důležité míti Filipa" data-language-autonym="Čeština" data-language-local-name="Czech" class="interlanguage-link-target">Čeština</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cy mw-list-item"><a href="https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" title="The Importance of Being Earnest – Welsh" lang="cy" hreflang="cy" data-title="The Importance of Being Earnest" data-language-autonym="Cymraeg" data-language-local-name="Welsh" class="interlanguage-link-target">Cymraeg</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" title="The Importance of Being Earnest – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="The Importance of Being Earnest" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target">Deutsch</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-et mw-list-item"><a href="https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kui_t%C3%A4htis_on_olla_t%C3%B5sine" title="Kui tähtis on olla tõsine – Estonian" lang="et" hreflang="et" data-title="Kui tähtis on olla tõsine" data-language-autonym="Eesti" data-language-local-name="Estonian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Eesti</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-el mw-list-item"><a href="https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%97_%CF%83%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%83%CE%AF%CE%B1_%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85_%CE%BD%CE%B1_%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B9_%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%AF%CF%82_%CF%83%CE%BF%CE%B2%CE%B1%CF%81%CF%8C%CF%82" title="Η σημασία του να είναι κανείς σοβαρός – Greek" lang="el" hreflang="el" data-title="Η σημασία του να είναι κανείς σοβαρός" data-language-autonym="Ελληνικά" data-language-local-name="Greek" class="interlanguage-link-target">Ελληνικά</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_importancia_de_llamarse_Ernesto" title="La importancia de llamarse Ernesto – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="La importancia de llamarse Ernesto" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target">Español</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%85%DB%8C%D8%AA_%D8%AC%D8%AF%DB%8C_%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%86" title="اهمیت جدی بودن – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="اهمیت جدی بودن" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target">فارسی</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Importance_d%27%C3%AAtre_Constant" title="L'Importance d'être Constant – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="L'Importance d'être Constant" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target">Français</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-gl mw-list-item"><a href="https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest._Comedia_fr%C3%ADvola_para_xente_seria" title="Ernest. Comedia frívola para xente seria – Galician" lang="gl" hreflang="gl" data-title="Ernest. Comedia frívola para xente seria" data-language-autonym="Galego" data-language-local-name="Galician" class="interlanguage-link-target">Galego</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%A7%84%EC%A7%80%ED%95%A8%EC%9D%98_%EC%A4%91%EC%9A%94%EC%84%B1" title="진지함의 중요성 – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="진지함의 중요성" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target">한국어</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hy mw-list-item"><a href="https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D5%88%D6%80%D6%84%D5%A1%D5%B6_%D5%AF%D5%A1%D6%80%D6%87%D5%B8%D6%80_%D5%A7_%D5%AC%D5%B8%D6%82%D6%80%D5%BB_%D5%AC%D5%AB%D5%B6%D5%A5%D5%AC%D5%A8" title="Որքան կարևոր է լուրջ լինելը – Armenian" lang="hy" hreflang="hy" data-title="Որքան կարևոր է լուրջ լինելը" data-language-autonym="Հայերեն" data-language-local-name="Armenian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Հայերեն</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-id mw-list-item"><a href="https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" title="The Importance of Being Earnest – Indonesian" lang="id" hreflang="id" data-title="The Importance of Being Earnest" data-language-autonym="Bahasa Indonesia" data-language-local-name="Indonesian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Bahasa Indonesia</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27importanza_di_chiamarsi_Ernesto" title="L'importanza di chiamarsi Ernesto – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="L'importanza di chiamarsi Ernesto" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Italiano</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-he mw-list-item"><a href="https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%97%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%91%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%94_%D7%A9%D7%9C_%D7%A8%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%AA" title="חשיבותה של רצינות – Hebrew" lang="he" hreflang="he" data-title="חשיבותה של רצינות" data-language-autonym="עברית" data-language-local-name="Hebrew" class="interlanguage-link-target">עברית</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nl mw-list-item"><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" title="The Importance of Being Earnest – Dutch" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" data-title="The Importance of Being Earnest" data-language-autonym="Nederlands" data-language-local-name="Dutch" class="interlanguage-link-target">Nederlands</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ja mw-list-item"><a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9C%9F%E9%9D%A2%E7%9B%AE%E3%81%8C%E8%82%9D%E5%BF%83" title="真面目が肝心 – Japanese" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" data-title="真面目が肝心" data-language-autonym="日本語" data-language-local-name="Japanese" class="interlanguage-link-target">日本語</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-no mw-list-item"><a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hvem_er_Ernest" title="Hvem er Ernest – Norwegian Bokmål" lang="nb" hreflang="nb" data-title="Hvem er Ernest" data-language-autonym="Norsk bokmål" data-language-local-name="Norwegian Bokmål" class="interlanguage-link-target">Norsk bokmål</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pl mw-list-item"><a href="https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C4%85d%C5%BAmy_powa%C5%BCni_na_serio" title="Bądźmy poważni na serio – Polish" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" data-title="Bądźmy poważni na serio" data-language-autonym="Polski" data-language-local-name="Polish" class="interlanguage-link-target">Polski</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" title="The Importance of Being Earnest – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="The Importance of Being Earnest" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target">Português</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ro mw-list-item"><a href="https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ce_%C3%AEnseamn%C4%83_s%C4%83_fii_onest" title="Ce înseamnă să fii onest – Romanian" lang="ro" hreflang="ro" data-title="Ce înseamnă să fii onest" data-language-autonym="Română" data-language-local-name="Romanian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Română</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%BA_%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%BD%D0%BE_%D0%B1%D1%8B%D1%82%D1%8C_%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%8C%D1%91%D0%B7%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%BC" title="Как важно быть серьёзным – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Как важно быть серьёзным" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Русский</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-simple mw-list-item"><a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" title="The Importance of Being Earnest – Simple English" lang="en-simple" hreflang="en-simple" data-title="The Importance of Being Earnest" data-language-autonym="Simple English" data-language-local-name="Simple English" class="interlanguage-link-target">Simple English</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sr mw-list-item"><a href="https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%BD%D0%BE_%D1%98%D0%B5_%D0%B7%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8_%D1%81%D0%B5_%D0%95%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82" title="Важно је звати се Ернест – Serbian" lang="sr" hreflang="sr" data-title="Важно је звати се Ернест" data-language-autonym="Српски / srpski" data-language-local-name="Serbian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Српски / srpski</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sh mw-list-item"><a href="https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" title="The Importance of Being Earnest – Serbo-Croatian" lang="sh" hreflang="sh" data-title="The Importance of Being Earnest" data-language-autonym="Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски" data-language-local-name="Serbo-Croatian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sv mw-list-item"><a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Ernest" title="Mister Ernest – Swedish" lang="sv" hreflang="sv" data-title="Mister Ernest" data-language-autonym="Svenska" data-language-local-name="Swedish" class="interlanguage-link-target">Svenska</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tr mw-list-item"><a href="https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciddi_Olman%C4%B1n_%C3%96nemi" title="Ciddi Olmanın Önemi – Turkish" lang="tr" hreflang="tr" data-title="Ciddi Olmanın Önemi" data-language-autonym="Türkçe" data-language-local-name="Turkish" class="interlanguage-link-target">Türkçe</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk mw-list-item"><a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%AF%D0%BA_%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%BE_%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B8_%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B9%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BC" title="Як важливо бути серйозним – Ukrainian" lang="uk" hreflang="uk" data-title="Як важливо бути серйозним" data-language-autonym="Українська" data-language-local-name="Ukrainian" class="interlanguage-link-target">Українська</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-wa mw-list-item"><a href="https://wa.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest" title="The Importance of Being Earnest – Walloon" lang="wa" hreflang="wa" data-title="The Importance of Being Earnest" data-language-autonym="Walon" data-language-local-name="Walloon" class="interlanguage-link-target">Walon</a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8D%E5%8F%AF%E5%85%92%E6%88%B2" title="不可兒戲 – Chinese" lang="zh" hreflang="zh" data-title="不可兒戲" data-language-autonym="中文" data-language-local-name="Chinese" class="interlanguage-link-target">中文</a></li></ul> </section> </div> <div class="minerva-footer-logo"><img src="/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-wordmark-en.svg" alt="Wikipedia" 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