The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde · 1854–1900 · Ireland

Why it matters

Wilde's final triumph before his fall: two bachelors invent fictitious alter egos to escape social duty, and the farce turns Victorian earnestness itself into the joke. The wittiest play in English, all surface and somehow all substance too.

At a glance

Fast, epigrammatic dialogue, but the plot and stakes stay light throughout.