An ideal husband: A 1895 stage play by Oscar Wilde

Product Information

Cecily: This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners. When I see a spade I call it a spade.

Wilde won the 1878 Newdigate Prize for his poem " Ravenna", which reflected on his visit there in the previous year, and he duly read it at Encaenia. [45] In November 1878, he graduated with a double first in his B.A. of Classical Moderations and Literae Humaniores (Greats). Wilde wrote to a friend, "The dons are ' astonied' beyond words– the Bad Boy doing so well in the end!" [46] [47] Apprenticeship of an aesthete: 1880s Debut in society Photograph by Elliott & Fry of Baker Street, London, 1881 1881 caricature in Punch, the caption reads: "O.W.", "Oh, I eel just as happy as a bright sunflower, Lays of Christy Minstrelsy, "Æsthete of Æsthetes!/What's in a name!/The Poet is Wilde/But his poetry's tame." This caused a breach between the author and actor which lasted for some years; Alexander later paid Wilde small monthly sums and bequeathed his rights in the play to the author's son Vyvian Holland. [22] Dora Chamberlain / Ira and Rita Katzenberg / Jules Leventhal / Burns Mantle / P. A. MacDonald / Vincent Sardi Sr. (1947) George VI was not the first British king who had attended a performance of the play: his grandfather Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, was in the audience for the first production. [51] Seeney, Michael (January 2014). " An Ideal Husband: The First Night". The Wildean (44): 2–23 (13). ISSN 1357-4949. JSTOR 48569038.Dennis, Richard (2008). Cities in Modernity: Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Space, 1840–1930. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-46841-1. Against their counsel, Wilde decided to sue the Marquess for defamation. He took the Marquess to court for criminal libel. Libel Case Against the Marquess of Queensberry

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) by Oscar Wilde is a popular play that is still widely performed in English-language theatres and also in many other languages. For example, the “Théâtre Antoine” in Paris produced it in October 2006 (on tour until March 2008) and a Versailles company performed it at “Le Lucernaire” in September and October 2008.

The Broadway Advocacy Coalition / David Byrne's American Utopia / Freestyle Love Supreme / Graciela Daniele (2021) The Importance of Being Earnest 's popularity has meant it has been translated into many languages, though the homophonous pun in the title (" Ernest", a masculine proper name, and " earnest", the virtue of steadfastness and seriousness) poses a special problem for translators. The easiest case of a suitable translation of the pun, perpetuating its sense and meaning, may have been its translation into German. Since English and German are closely related languages, German provides an equivalent adjective ("ernst") and also a matching masculine proper name ("Ernst"). The meaning and tenor of the wordplay are exactly the same. Yet there are many different possible titles in German, mostly concerning sentence structure. The two most common ones are "Bunbury oder ernst / Ernst sein ist alles" and "Bunbury oder wie wichtig es ist, ernst / Ernst zu sein". [75] In a study of Italian translations, Adrian Pablé found thirteen different versions using eight titles. Since wordplay is often unique to the language in question, translators are faced with a choice of either staying faithful to the original – in this case, the English adjective and virtue earnest – or creating a similar pun in their own language. [101] Wilde, drawn in 1896 by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Wearing, J. P. (1976). The London Stage, 1890–1899: A Calendar of Plays and Players. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-81-080910-9– via Internet Archive.

As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art" and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew Wilde to write drama. He wrote Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London. Consider the title of the play. What is the meaning of the title? Why is the title ironic? To whom does the title apply? With the last of his inheritance from the sale of his father's houses, he set himself up as a bachelor in London. [54] The 1881 British Census listed Wilde as a boarder at 1 (now 44) Tite Street, Chelsea, where Frank Miles, a society painter, was the head of the household. [55] [56] This article is about the play. For the various film adaptations, see An Ideal Husband (disambiguation). Bristow, Joseph (2008). Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture – The Making of a Legend. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-1838-3.Jane Pilchner and Imelda Whelehan (eds), Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies, Sage, Londres, 2004, (...) Wilde, Oscar (1962). Rupert Hart-Davis (ed.). The Letters of Oscar Wilde. London: Hart-Davis. OCLC 460734743. Jeffrey Gantz (18 March 2017). "Odyssey Opera recognizes 'The Importance of Being Earnest' ". The Boston Globe . Retrieved 15 November 2019. Jill Matthews, Good and Mad Women: The Historical construction of femininity in Twentieth Century Australia, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1984. Reinert, Otto. "Satiric Strategy in the Importance of Being Earnest" (PDF) . Retrieved 20 March 2014. [ permanent dead link]