From the Bookshelf of Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)…

The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde

Start date: March 1, 2018

Finish date: March 30, 2018

Discussion: Short Story/Novella Collection

Why we're reading this: Short Story Read, March 2018
[close] Short Story Read, March 2018

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 120 topics — 7,524 comments total

Short Story/Novella Collection

This topic has been closed to new comments.

* Short Story Classics
By Bob , Short Story Classics · 1 post · 708 views

last updated Sep 01, 2015 05:35AM

The Invisible Girl - October 2025
By Bob , Short Story Classics · 25 posts · 48 views

last updated Oct 26, 2025 10:03PM

showing 10 of 60 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Mar 25, 2008 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, irish-lit, faves, played-a-part, one-of-the-greats

Comedy is tough to do well, even by those who create it, but it is even tougher to go back and restage past comedies for modern audiences. The easy explanation is that humour is such a product of its time that audiences are simply not capable of getting the jokes -- not truly. There may be something to that, but I think the real problem is more complex, and I think it can be remedied.

Most comedies, particularly those that hold up and become memorable classics, tell their jokes to make a point. G Comedy is tough to do well, even by those who create it, but it is even tougher to go back and restage past comedies for modern audiences. The easy explanation is that humour is such a product of its time that audiences are simply not capable of getting the jokes -- not truly. There may be something to that, but I think the real problem is more complex, and I think it can be remedied.

Most comedies, particularly those that hold up and become memorable classics, tell their jokes to make a point. Great comedies are generally political, either explicitly or implicitly, and the laughs spring out of the message(s) being delivered. On the surface, again, the time distance between a comedy's creation and restaging could be blamed for any problems. Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, for instance, satirizes the Victorian era in which it was written, so modern audiences simply don't have inherent access to the shared experiences that would have made The Importance of Being Earnest easily accessible to its audiences.

Yet I don't consider these problems of time insurmountable. The real problem arises in the way directors and actors approach classic comedies. It is not so much their or the audience's understanding of the setting as it is what they choose to emphasize in their restaging. Restagings of comedies invariably focus on the humour, and in doing so they deliver the humour humourously. Everything is an attempt to be funny, so the restaging becomes about buffoonery, slapstick, the obviously funny, and the subtleties of great comedies are drowned out by the vuvuzuela cacophony of silliness.

The most recent screen adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest is a prime example. Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Reese Witherspoon, Francis O'Connor and even Dame Judi Dench -- under the misguided direction of Oliver Parker -- do everything they can for cheap laughs, making their characters a pack of blithering, over-the-top idiots rather than the trivially serious idiots Wilde intended them to be (the play is subtitled, after all, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People).

The key to The Importance of Being Earnest, as with so many comedies from the past, is to play it straight. The comedy is in the writing rather than the performance. Algernon and Jack are written to believe the inane things they say, they are also written to believe the brilliant things they say, and it is their belief in who they are, silly as that may be, that makes them genuinely funny. It is the genius of Wilde: to make us believe that his characters believe in themselves. But when the people restaging Wilde don't believe that his characters believe, when they don't believe in the characters themselves, they wind up being too silly by far. (e.g. they have Algernon prance around in plate mail armor while wooing Cecily).

Yep, playing comedy for laughs is a mistake. Comedy is a serious business, and when it is performed seriously it is vastly funnier than comedy performed foolishly. The laughs will come, they don't need to be shopped for.

So if you ever have a chance to see The Importance of Being Earnest onstage, I hope that you find a group of performers who are playing it seriously, delivering the jokes with the conviction that Jack and Algy should have rather than delivering the jokes as jokes. If you do the time it was written, the distance between now and then won't matter one wit. You'll see a comedy as fresh and relevant and genuinely funny as anything being written today -- and The Importance of Being Earnest will forever be one of your favourites. I promise. ...more

31 likes · Like · see review

Dec 05, 2010 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-20th-century, audio-books, british-literature, classics, read-2010, book-and-movie

A star-studded production of Oscar Wilde's comedy. With Dame Judi Dench, Martin Clunes, Samantha Bond and Michael Sheen.

A movie was made based on this book: In 1890s London, two friends use the same pseudonym ("Ernest") for their on-the-sly activities. Hilarity ensues.
Stars: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O'Connor, Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Massey, Edward Fox, Patrick Godfrey....

This movie is available at YouTube. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Jan 06, 2016 Howard Larsson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I don't usually like satire because it is overplayed and unfunny (i.e. A Modest Proposal). Oscar Wilde's farcial comedy, however, is crisp and well delivered. It's easy to see how it likely influenced the Benny, Hope, Burns, and Berle style. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 04, 2017 Jason rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ebook

Very funny and short.

Like · see review

Apr 01, 2009 Melissa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, favorites

I don't know how many times I've reread this. I've seen several plays and movie productions.
And I'm convinced anyone could deadpan this script and it would still be hilarious. ...more

Like · see review