A Haaaand-Baaaag? The Importance of Being Oscar (& Earnest)

In this lecture we look at Oscar’s great literary successes, beginning with The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890 followed by 4 smash hit plays in 3 years. We focus especially on The Importance of Being Earnest, one of the funniest, most performed and most frequently quoted plays in the English-speaking world. Described as ‘A Trivial Comedy for Serious People’, it was of its time and yet ahead of its time, satirising the shallowness and superficiality of upper-class Victorian society. We explore some of the hidden elements of which the audience then (and perhaps now) were unaware and discover that, for the author, this glittering triumph heralded the beginning of his own fatal final act…