Importance of Being Earnest, The

This is an ideal edition for students with on-page notes to help clarify meaning, and a completely new introduction. In the new introduction, Francesca Coppa explores recent critical approaches to the play, including queer and postcolonial readings, as well as giving the context in which the play was written and how it relates to Wilde's personal life and public persona. The introduction also discusses the play's stage history, providing students with an ideal overview of the play and its resonances for contemporary audiences.

Utilizing Wilde's own characters “Vivian” and “Cyril,” this critique in play format begins by discussing the playwright's ideas on the relation of Art to Life, exploring his pronouncements on the artist's true purpose. Wilde's statement about the artist as a “creator of beauty”, found in his “Preface to the Picture of Dorian Gray”, is then examined with regard to his last and most popular play, The Importance of Being Earnest.

Replay: Classic Modern Drama Reimagined spans over a century of great theatre to explore how iconic plays have been adapted and versioned by later writers to reflect or dissect the contemporary zeitgeist.