The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

 

Title:  The Importance of Being Earnest

Author:  Oscar Wilde

Narrated by:  Full Cast Audio Adaptation featuring Tim Brooke-Taylor

Publisher: Spiteful Puppet

Length: Approximately 1 hours and 56 minutes

Source: Checked out with Hoopla through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Thank-you!

Do you like to read plays?  If so, what are some of your favorite plays to read?

I had watched The Importance of Being Earnest movie back when it came out in 2002, but I had never read the actual play.  @Deesreads put together a read along for The Importance of Being Earnest in June.  I listened to this full cast production, and it was delightful and a fun audiobook.

The Importance of Being Earnest is a madcap comedy of mistaken identities.  Jack Worthing is a wealthy man.  He was adopted by his uncle Thomas Worthing after being found at a train station.  He goes by the name Ernest while in London.  He falls in love with a young woman named Gwendolen who only agrees to marry him as she wants to marry a man named Ernest. 

The play moves on to Jack’s country estate.  He has a young ward named Cecily.  His friend Algernon arrives and calls himself Jack’s long-lost brother, Ernest.  Cecily and Algernon fall in love. The story all comes to a head when Gwendolen and Cecily meet and realize they are both engaged to Ernest.  The play solves this problem neatly in the third act.

This was a clever comedy and it reminded me of a Shakespeare comedy updated to Victorian times.  I really liked that the audiobook was a full cast production.  The voice actors were entertaining, and it helped me to realize who was speaking since I couldn’t see the actors.  There were many great one-liners that were witty and made me laugh.  I also liked the look into Victorian Society and the foibles of the upper class.  I thought the theme of double identity was very interesting particularly with Oscar Wilde’s sad life story.

I hope to someday see this play performed live!

Favorite Quote:  “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”