Title: The Importance of Being Earnest

Author: Oscar Wilde

Genre: Classic play (1895 play / 2002 movie)

Pages: 92

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Classics -- Play; Mount TBR; Books2Movie

How I Got It: Own it

Play:

I absolutely adore this play. The back and forth between Algy and Jack keeps me going. I love their battles of wits. And the mistaken identity aspect adds way too much fun. Plus, Wilde is the best at turning a phrase. This play is full of great lines and comebacks.

Some choice quotes:

"When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people." - Act 1

"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his." - Act 1

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!" - Act 1

"Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die." - Act 1

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." - Act 2

"I could deny it if I liked. I could deny anything if I liked." - Act 2

"Oh! I killed Bunbury this afternoon. I mean poor Bunbury died this afternoon." - Act 3

"The chin a little higher, dear. Style largely depends on the way the chin is worn. They are worn very high, just at present." - Act 3

"Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?" - Act 3

"I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest." - Act 3

2002 Movie:

The movie adds things here and there, but overall keeps the spirit of the play. I love all the actors. Rupert Everett plays he best scheming Algy. Colin Firth is divine as Jack/Ernest. Dame Judi Dench always plays the stiff Brit. And Reese Witherspoon plays the perfect innocent, but not really innocent, Cecily. The addition of Cecily's governess/tutor. Does anyone else think that Archer's manservant is modeled after Algy's manservant Lane? I think so.