How to Prepare for Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (Play of the Season) (Patreon)

Dear Book Club Readers ---

We have enjoyed some tremendous plays together, from the likes of Aeschylus, Ibsen, and Shakespeare. And, as summer is now upon us, our next play-of-the-season will be Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

Here are a few links to my recommended resources to help you enjoy this superb play in advance of our deep dive discussion later this month.

Film Appreciation: My top recommendation is to watch or listen to a production. Make an evening of it. Turn the lights down low, make some cucumber sandwiches, and enjoy the show. I adore this 2002 film production, which does a marvellous job with Wilde's humour. If you would like another option, this 1988 BBC adaptation is also great.

Radio Drama: If you would prefer a decent audio production of Wilde's trivial comedy for serious people, then I highly recommend this 1954 production starring the magnificent Sir John Gielgud and Dame Edith Evans.

Recommended Text: I love the Oxford World's Classics paperback edition of Wilde's plays. If you would like a few more of his works all in one place, I highly recommend this edition because it has some of his best essays, short fiction, poems, maxims, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as his plays.

Biography: Hesketh Pearson has a fantastic biography of Wilde, with chapters on Wilde the dramatist being particularly resonant. You might also find it illuminating to watch the 1997 film Wilde, starring Stephen Fry, to learn more about the man. The Trials of Oscar Wilde from 1960 also provides a lot of context.

Radio Discussion - Melvyn Bragg gets a vigorous intellectual debate out of his panel on this episode of In Our Time, which provides great context for our reading of this play.

Wilde’s Maxims - I think that Oscar Wilde's 'Preface' to The Picture of Dorian Gray, and 'A Few Maxims For The Instruction Of The Over-Educated', provide us with a fair bit of food for thought. These are available in this volume of his selected works. 

Questions for You:

1) What is your personal experience with Oscar Wilde?

2) What kind of drama do you find most rewarding?

3) Oscar Wilde stated that 'all art is quite useless'. Do you agree?

Happy reading, everybody!