seeceeread's review against another edition
3.25
๐ญ "To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance."
We're treated to five stage plays:
โข ๐๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ ๐ช๐ถ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ'๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ป
โข ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐น๐ผ๐บรฉย
โข ๐ ๐ช๐ผ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ก๐ผ ๐๐บ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒย
โข ๐๐ป ๐๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑย
โข ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐บ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ฒ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐
Wilde's style is clear: An impropriety must be concealed, lest one's social standing be bruised ... but, once the curtain drops, the supposed offender is understood to be ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ upstanding, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ honorable, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ principled than those who would hold them to a surface standard. If thatโs the cake, Wilde's witticisms, asides and quirky aphorisms are the buttercream that holds all the layers together, makes them palatable, and draws the audience. He barbs the mores of his day with both playful lines and plots that turn on upset. As noted in the lengthy introduction, ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ is the playwright's most beloved because he let go of the stuffy conceits that drag the other work โ the secret is frivolous, and the morality tale a side plot rather than the main vein.
Lahr impressed me with attention to Wilde's profound loneliness and narcissism; his perpetual insincerity as a way to hold off the crash of real connection, which would possibly unveil his inadequacies and insecurities. Wilde's characters often flirt with versions of himself: here, a dandy, there, a social butterfly, there a willful outcast who nevertheless flamboyantly insists on being at the center.
I finish feeling like I better know this historical figure through the mini-biography as well as some of his work.
We're treated to five stage plays:
โข ๐๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ ๐ช๐ถ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ'๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ป
โข ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐น๐ผ๐บรฉย
โข ๐ ๐ช๐ผ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ก๐ผ ๐๐บ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒย
โข ๐๐ป ๐๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑย
โข ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐บ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ฒ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐
Wilde's style is clear: An impropriety must be concealed, lest one's social standing be bruised ... but, once the curtain drops, the supposed offender is understood to be ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ upstanding, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ honorable, ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ principled than those who would hold them to a surface standard. If thatโs the cake, Wilde's witticisms, asides and quirky aphorisms are the buttercream that holds all the layers together, makes them palatable, and draws the audience. He barbs the mores of his day with both playful lines and plots that turn on upset. As noted in the lengthy introduction, ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ is the playwright's most beloved because he let go of the stuffy conceits that drag the other work โ the secret is frivolous, and the morality tale a side plot rather than the main vein.
Lahr impressed me with attention to Wilde's profound loneliness and narcissism; his perpetual insincerity as a way to hold off the crash of real connection, which would possibly unveil his inadequacies and insecurities. Wilde's characters often flirt with versions of himself: here, a dandy, there, a social butterfly, there a willful outcast who nevertheless flamboyantly insists on being at the center.
I finish feeling like I better know this historical figure through the mini-biography as well as some of his work.
12dejamoo's review
I will get back to this but I need to make a fresh start and having this hanging over me is counter productive
mansireanna's review
2.75
Not sure how to rate this. None came close to The Importance of Being Earnest, but some were good and entertaining, others a bit boring, and sometimes a slog to get through. Guess Iโm not usually one for reading and revising plays but Iโm glad I read these. I stand by Oscar Wilde being at his best when writing about and commenting on contemporary Victorian society.
mschlat's review against another edition
3.0
Note: The Importance of Being Earnest (the last work collected here) is a five star play. I find it a loveable and absurdist romantic comedy with all the wit I expect from Wilde. But the other three plays in this collection (Lady Windemere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, and An Ideal Husband) I thought were bogged down by overly large casts and a surfeit of morality (even when the rakish characters were doing their best to deem morality outmoded).
sasenka's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
hjrey's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. The last is much the worst; the last is a real tragedy!ย
About: A collection of Oscar Wilde's most famous plays. All glorify the trivial with hidden emotional and philosophical depths to their core. In these plays we witness confusion over a mistress and a gifted fan, recognize the handwriting of an inconsequential old acquaintance, judge a man for his past, invent and find a brother and dance in blood under the moonlight.ย
The Good
I've never read any of Oscar Wilde's stories before and I'm very glad to have started with his very light-hearted and fun plays. The dialogue is really clever, the plots utterly and beautifully ridiculous and I can see how entertaining many of these plays would be to see on the stage (and fun to act in them!). If you're a fan of Jane Austen's satire of Society, or you love the surreal and cynical nature of Alice and Wonderland, then I think these plays would be a perfect fit. Oscar Wilde brilliantly mocks Society, both by preaching against it with his extreme moral characters, and by trivialising it with his very fashionable characters. The back and forth between some of the romances is really delightful and the constant contradictions of what someone says and what someone means really adds to the charm.
My order of preference:
The Importance of Being Earnest
Lady Windermere's Fan
A Woman of No Importance
An Ideal Husband
Salome
Other favourite quotes:
"All thought is immortal. Its very essence is destruction. If you think of anything, you kill it. Nothing survives being thought of."
"Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them."
"Even you are not rich enough, Sir Robert, to buy back your past. No man is."ย
"You don't seem to realize, that in married life three is company and two is none."
The Bad
I don't think I should have read one play after the other. This collection suits reading other things in between as the plays are so very similar in nature. Many of the characters blur because they take on the same stereotypes. There's the Unserious Man who mocks the world, the Wicked Woman whose witty but heartless, the Woman Without Sin who preaches morality, and the Players who will live only to be part of Society. These dynamics are quite repetitive and feel like the same lesson or meaning is being taught over and over.
And I found Salome almost unreadable. Maybe it was the translation or maybe it was the setting, but I didn't enjoy that play in the slightest. Creepy, obsessive and way too focused on religion.
The Somewhat Iffy
Perhaps it's simply what Oscar Wilde had to do because of the time in which these plays were written, but I didn't love how little progression the characters have. The good stay good, the bad stay bad. For instance, I would have loved if in The Ideal Husband it had focused on the dynamic between Mrs Cheveley and Lord Goring. They are both cynical characters with different morals perhaps but it could have been fun to have a lovers to enemies to lovers again relationship and for one of the 'immoral' characters to have been changed by the end of the play. The only happy endings are for the righteous and it makes the plays a little more tame and innocent leading than its other philosophies suggest.
Also I hated the lesson Lady Chiltern 'learns' when she says - "A man's life is of more value than a woman's. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. Our lives revolve in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man's life progresses. I have just learnt this, and much else with it." I think the rest of what Lord Goring was 'teaching' her about accepting your partner for his flaws as well as their strengths was the better lesson to focus on. But this also gets undermined when Lord Chiltern refers to his wife by the end as a "the white image of all good things, and sin can never touch you." Maybe it's all just comedy and part of the joke is that they never learn to accept flaws in the person they love most, but it came off as idolizes innocence and ignorance.
Overall
A fun collection and satire and triviality. Not to be read one after the other as the stereotypes are repeated often enough to blur. Recommend for fans of Jane Austen and Alice in Wonderland, and definitely would want to see these on the stage.ย
diana_eveline's review against another edition
4.0
โWhen one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.โ
Though this collection has its ups and downs in terms of quality, the overall achievement is marvellous. My favourites were 'A Woman of No Importance', 'The Duchess of Padua', with my top pick still landing on 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. I was not very interested in 'Salome', partially because the writing was immensely repetitive. Occasionally, this suited the message but I did get frustrated by it towards the end. It is fascinating to see that Wilde has certain tropes in his plays that keep coming back in the same fashion. For example, the dandy gentleman that is accused by society of being a horrible influence which he in turn gladly accepts to avoid serious judgement on his life philosophy. It makes me wonder if this was Wilde's role in society in his time, as he was known to cause quite the stir, especially so when he became a successful playwright.
I'll come back to the plays once I've managed to get through his massive biography I have on my shelf now. I look forward to placing them in the social and personal context of the author! Wilde is still one of my favourite authors and he certainly hasn't dissapointed me so far.
Though this collection has its ups and downs in terms of quality, the overall achievement is marvellous. My favourites were 'A Woman of No Importance', 'The Duchess of Padua', with my top pick still landing on 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. I was not very interested in 'Salome', partially because the writing was immensely repetitive. Occasionally, this suited the message but I did get frustrated by it towards the end. It is fascinating to see that Wilde has certain tropes in his plays that keep coming back in the same fashion. For example, the dandy gentleman that is accused by society of being a horrible influence which he in turn gladly accepts to avoid serious judgement on his life philosophy. It makes me wonder if this was Wilde's role in society in his time, as he was known to cause quite the stir, especially so when he became a successful playwright.
I'll come back to the plays once I've managed to get through his massive biography I have on my shelf now. I look forward to placing them in the social and personal context of the author! Wilde is still one of my favourite authors and he certainly hasn't dissapointed me so far.
charlene_balba's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0