Acknowledgements
Introduction
Oscar Wilde: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
The Importance of Being Earnest:
A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
Appendix A: Playbills for The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
- The First, Uncensored Playbill
- The Second, Censored Playbill
Appendix B: Reactions and Reviews
- From The Daily Graphic (15 February 1895)
- From William Archer, The World (20 February 1895)
- From The Observer (17 February 1895)
- From The Times (15 February 1895)
- From Bernard Shaw, Saturday Review (1895)
- From Max Beerbohm, Around Theatres (1902)
Appendix C: Ada Leverson's The Advisability of Not Being Brought Up in a Handbag (1895)
- Ada Leverson, The Advisability of Not Being Brought Up in a Handbag, Punch; or,The London Charivari (2 March 1895)
- Telegram from Oscar Wilde to Ada Leverson (15 February 1895)
Appendix D: Three Works by Gilbert and Sullivan
- From W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride (1881)
- From W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria (1889)
- From W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, HMS Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor (1878)
Appendix E: From J.G.F. Nicholson, Love in Earnest(1892)
Appendix F: Conduct Manuals
- From Mrs. Humphrey, Manners for Men (1897)
- From Julia McNair Wright, Practical Life; or,Ways andMeans for Developing Character and Resources (1881)
Appendix G: On Dandyism and on Wilde as a Dandy
- From Charles Kendrick, Ye Soul Agonies in Ye Life of Oscar Wilde (1882)
- George Frederick Keller, The Modern Messiah, Wasp (31 March 1882)
- Linley Sambourne, O.W. [Punch's Fancy Portraits 37], Punch; or,The London Charivari (25 June 1881)
- From Lloyd Lewis and Henry Justin Smith, No Wave of His Chiseled Hand (1936)
- Aestheticism as Oscar Understands It (1882)
- Mr. Wild [sic] of Borneo (1882)
- W.H. Beard, The Aesthetic Monkey (1882)
Appendix H: Other Works by Wilde
- From A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)
- From Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894)
- From Preface, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
- From The Decay of Lying (1889)
- From De Profundis (1897; published 1962)
- Letter to Philip Houghton (February 1894)
- Letter to George Alexander (July 1894)
- Letter to George Alexander (September 1894)
- Letter to George Alexander (October 1894)
- Letter to an Unidentified Correspondent (February 1895)
- Letter to Lord Alfred Douglas (February 1895)
- Letter to R.V. Shone (February 1895)
Appendix I: From the Original Four-Act Version
- Passages Regarding Algernon's and Ernest's Past-due Accounts
- Passages Illuminating the Characters and Roles of Miss Prism and Canon Chasuble
- Additional Passages
Bibliography