The Importance of Being Earnest: Oscar Wilde
Here is a little-known fact about The Importance of Being Earnest. When read aloud, it is precisely the length of time that it takes to drive from my parents house to my house, via south west London. And thus was very satisfying to my OCD nature. (Oh yes, I like to rate staggering literary achievements on how conveniently they fit into my life. My shallowness is without limits.)
I was particularly in the mood for comedy; because you know what’s NOT funny? Traffic in Fulham when Chelsea are playing at home. Rather than running obnoxious people in blue over, I took deep breaths and inhaled comedy genius.
I have written before about how I think genuinely funny writing is extremely under-rated. Imagine writing jokes which are still funny more than a hundred years later *worships*.
It’s hardly worth summarising the plot, because i) you probably know it already and ii) the plot is really just an excuse for farcical silliness. The story doesn’t matter when the writing is as pitch-perfect as this:
‘I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.’
I feel like I should read more Wilde to cure my irritating habits of extremely long sentences and forgetting to use punctuation. There is not one superfluous word in Earnest, nor one word out of place. It is the pinnacle of prose perfection.
The only thing that hasn’t dated well is the name Ernest. Unlike the new fashion to name children old-fashioned names (which I’m down with, by the way: Charlie, Alfie and George are much cuter than making up horrible tacky ‘unique’ names – celebrities, I’m looking at YOU) Ernest is not seeing a come back. Nor, come to think of it, are Algernon or Cecily. Which is fair enough.
The recording (version two off librivox, if you fancy it) was generally good – thank you booky volunteers! Though it was a little bit disconcerting to have the characters reading their own stage directions, so you ended up with odd pronouncements such as:
‘How immensely you must amuse them! Goes over and takes sandwich. By the way, Shropshire is your county, is it not?”
I earnestly stress the importance of The Importance of Being Earnest to you. Ooh, I must watch the film again.
And finally, here’s another Earnest quote which I’m sure he must have dreamed up knowing that one day there would be book bloggers hanging on his every word:
“Oh! it is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn’t. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read.”
Posted on September 21, 2010, in Uncategorized and tagged audiobooks, book review, books, classics, entertainment, literature, oscar wilde, plays, reading, reviews, the importance of being earnest. Bookmark the permalink. 15 Comments.
LOL! I love that you have literary OCD too
(not just me then)
My Dad always used to shout “a handbag????” in a really theatrical voice when I was little to make me laugh.
Haha, we do exactly the same things for my nieces – they don’t know what we’re going on about, they just like to shout it too.
This is one of my favourite ever books/plays. I love it love it love it! (Even more than I love Three Men In A Boat!)
Whenever the play is showing in London, I make sure I go and see it. My favourite Miss Prism so far has been Maggie Smith (to Richard E Grant’s Algie!)
I had forgotten about Miss Prism until this re-reading, but she is such a character! Oh, Richard E Grant as Algie must have been a treat.
Do you know, it’s only now that I’ve re-read my comment that I didn’t even mean Miss Prism – I did of course mean Aunt Augusta! I don’t know what I was thinking of!
I definitely need to get this on audio. Great post, Tea. You know, the oldest book in my collection is a tiny thing I bought when I was in high school: Oscar Wilde Epigrams. I still look through it occasionally. Loved him then, love him now. Have you seen the wonderful film based on Wilde’s play, AN IDEAL HUSBAND? It stars Rupert Everett, Minnie Driver, Julianna Moore and Cate Blanchett. How can you go wrong? ; )
Speaking of being funny a hundred years (or more) after the fact, I recommend (if you’re not already familiar with it) THE RIVALS by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Hysterically funny, even now. Also SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER by, I think, Oliver Goldsmith. I saw both these plays MANY years ago on PBS and always remember how very funny they both were. (I wish they still did this sort of thing on tv for those of us who can’t always get to a theater.)
No, I have not seen that – but I definitely want to check it out – you are right, what a glorious cast list! I love Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett.
Ooh, listening to this one would be awesome! I read it earlier this year and I really want to see it performed live!
I love the name Cecily, actually.
And Algernon, for that matter. Not Ernest, though.
Cecily IS sort of cute. Not sure about Algernon though…would have to be Algie and that’s only an inflection away from algae isn’t it?
I love, love The Importance of Being Earnest. I watched it being performed in a small theatre, with my ex-high school teacher playing the part of Ernest. My friend and I laughed through the entire thing, and I think that the audience didn’t appreciate our presence as much as we did. Great quotes you picked out.
PS Have you seen what Jamie Oliver named his kid? Buddy Bear. W.T.F.?!
Seriously. What are they thinking? The other question I have about that is how the guy has TIME to breed so much, what with taking over the US, running three hundred restaurants, writing forty books, and changing the entire country’s school meals services?
I’m guessing that this would work really well on audio
It’s very lovely. Especially as many of the jokes are plays on words.
Just realized that Neftlix has two, TWO! versions of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST on instant play. Woo-hoo!!!
Don’t overdose!