Product Description

Staged in 1893, when Wilde had already achieved fame, wealth and notoriety, A Woman of No Importance was another attempt to fuse comedy of manners with high melodrama. Gerald Arbuthnot is a young man on the make, with an American heiress and the post of secretary to the brilliant but dissolute Lord Illingworth within his reach. When he asks his mother to celebrate with them, it turns out that Illingworth is Gerald's father, who seduced and abandoned his mother twenty years earlier. Loyalty weighs heavier than ambition, and Gerald declines the association with Illingworth. This edition, which also analyses Wilde's various drafts and revisions of the play, argues that the playwright here continued to explore the rivalry between an older man and woman for the affection of a beautiful young man.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #126821 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Customer Reviews

A Victorian Dream!!
This famous play is bursting with dramatic irony, rhetoric strategies and humorous witticisms. Oscar Wilde produces a great play with subtle sentiment and an underlying theme regarding paternity. A great read for eng lit students and members of the public alike. I personally recommend this play to anyone in need of a good laugh. One must particularly pay attention to the character's mannerisms and use of language. And at a penny a book- bargain!!

a very good play, classic wilde
a favorite of mine, although not quite as good as the importance of being earnest (a deceptively clever play) it is a play of a very different nature, both reviews of it on here i believe misrepresent it. although it is full of wilde's classic wit and there are many genuinely funny parts but it is not a pure comedy and it is also a significant drama. many see it as a fairly clear cut morality tale or at least having clear cut moral and immoral characters but it really isnt so simple. there is the duplicit nature of the characters and their actions, a slightly more complex moral commentary with none of the characters being as simple as they first appear. none of the characters in then play come off as good or bad the central ones all have the audience's perception of them repeatedly undermined.

oscar!!!!!
i am in the middle of studying this interesting play by Oscar Wilde. the book is filled with politics, social status, etc. any english literature student would love to read this play even though it is hard to read being a play (hehe!!) the book is about an illegitimate son who is torn betweeen his mother and father. the book has Wildes famous wit and has comedy, romance and sadness all included, its GREAT!!!!!!