The importance of being earnest

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the world's great comedies, an amazing success given that the play seems particularly concerned with subtle details of manners and mores set in a quite specific era, and in a most distinct milieu. Since the first production was staged in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest has been one of the most frequently performed plays in the modern English language repertory.

Peter Raby provides a resourceful and entertaining analysis of Wilde's celebrated play in The Importance of Being Earnest: A Reader's Companion. Far and away the most elaborate and informed study of the play, Raby hits all the requisite elements: genesis, structure and style, characters, and Wilde's historical and societal importance, among other aspects. He thoroughly explores the impact of the play on London's social values, providing frequent notes about Wilde and his times.

His discussion of the origins and social context of the play is especially rewarding, including such tidbits as Wilde's financial pressures, characters' vocabulary and speech habits, and the way in which a response to a cucumber sandwich is a telling social gesture. So too does he make the reader aware of those attributes that render Wilde's writing so delightful: the quick elegance of his language, his masterful use of symmetry, his visual awareness and acute powers of description.

Raby's keen interpretation and perception provide not just insight into a radiant work, but understanding of how a play aimed entirely at the money-making medium of the London stage managed to achieve - and maintain - such a high level of artistic accomplishment.