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Penguin Select Classics: The Importance of Being Earnest

(Original, Unabridged Classic)

Oscar Wilde
Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

We all play certain roles in life, at work or with family, which require us to suppress how we truly feel to perform our duties.

Set in London, the play revolves around the lives of two such young bachelors, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, who decide to lead double lives to cope with the weights of their social obligations.

Jack becomes ‘Earnest’ to escape his country estate and win the heart of Gwendolen Fairfax. Algernon pretends to have a fictional invalid friend named ‘Bunbury’ to avoid family gatherings and responsibilities. Life takes a turn when their alternate identities collide, leading to humorous misunderstandings.

Through this entertaining satire, the story compels us to wonder how society rewards appearance and superficial acts over authentic living and seeking true happiness; making us question are we truly who we allow the world to see?

Published: Oct/2024

ISBN: 9789815204247

Length: 80 Pages

Penguin Select Classics: The Importance of Being Earnest

(Original, Unabridged Classic)

Oscar Wilde

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

We all play certain roles in life, at work or with family, which require us to suppress how we truly feel to perform our duties.

Set in London, the play revolves around the lives of two such young bachelors, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, who decide to lead double lives to cope with the weights of their social obligations.

Jack becomes ‘Earnest’ to escape his country estate and win the heart of Gwendolen Fairfax. Algernon pretends to have a fictional invalid friend named ‘Bunbury’ to avoid family gatherings and responsibilities. Life takes a turn when their alternate identities collide, leading to humorous misunderstandings.

Through this entertaining satire, the story compels us to wonder how society rewards appearance and superficial acts over authentic living and seeking true happiness; making us question are we truly who we allow the world to see?

Buying Options
Paperback / Hardback

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was an Anglo-Irish poet and playwright, novelist, poet and critic. He was born on October 16 1854, in Dublin, Ireland. He was the second son of Sir William Wilde, a renowned doctor and his wife, Jane Francesca Wilde, a writer and Irish nationalist. Wilde showed an early talent for
writing and he excelled academically. After graduating from Oxford, Wilde moved to London and began to make a name for himself as a writer and a public speaker. He became associated with the aesthetic movement, a group of artists and writers who valued beauty and artifice above all else. In 1881, Wilde published his first collection of poetry which received mixed reviews. Eventually, it was his play, The Importance of Being Earnest which premiered in 1895 that is considered his masterpiece.