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    A Woman Of No Importance: "The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."
    A Woman Of No Importance: "The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."
    A Woman Of No Importance: "The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."
    Ebook94 pages1 hour

    A Woman Of No Importance: "The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."

    By Oscar Wilde

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on the 16th October 1854 in Dublin Ireland. The son of Dublin intellectuals Oscar proved himself an outstanding classicist at Dublin, then at Oxford. With his education complete Wilde moved to London and its fashionable cultural and social circles. With his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the most well-known personalities of his day. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray was published in 1890 and he then moved on to writing for the stage with Salome in 1891. His society comedies produced enormous hits and turned him into one of the most successful writers of late Victorian London. Whilst his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, was on stage in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, prosecuted for libel. The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency. He was convicted and imprisoned for two years' hard labour. It was to break him. On release he left for France, There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol in 1898. He died destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six sipping champagne a friend had brought with the line ‘Alas I am dying beyond my means’. Here we publish another of his classic plays ‘A Woman Of No Importance’

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCopyright Group
    Release dateNov 25, 2013
    ISBN9781783946723
    A Woman Of No Importance: "The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."
    Author

    Oscar Wilde

    Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish poet and playwright who rose to global fame in the 1880s as a larger-than-life public persona with plays such as The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, and Lady Windermere's Fan. The author of countless brilliant epigrams that form part of our popular lexicon, he was sentenced to two years of hard labor in prison for having relations with men, which ruined his reputation and career. Upon his release he exiled himself in France, where he died penniless. Today Wilde is celebrated as a courageous crusader for free expression, gay love, and anyone oppressed by hypocritical conventions.

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    Reviews for A Woman Of No Importance

    3.5/5

    174 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The title says it all. A condemnation of a society in which mistakes are never forgiven, in which souls are lost forever, for youthful indiscretion and surrender to one's emotions.
    • 3/5
      The book is all about purity. What somebody thinks about the same.
    • 5/5
      A small gem of a drama. Oscar Wilde's perfect t use of language makes this play both witty and stinging. A mother maintains her dignity in the face of disgrace, and endears herself to her son while deflating his natural father's haughty condescension. Excellent!
    • 4/5
      Witty as only Oscar Wilde can write.

    Book preview

    A Woman Of No Importance - Oscar Wilde

    Oscar Wilde – A Woman Of No Importance

    Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on the 16th October 1854 in Dublin Ireland.  The son of Dublin intellectuals Oscar proved himself an outstanding classicist at Dublin, then at Oxford. With his education complete Wilde moved to London and its fashionable cultural and social circles.  With his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the most well-known personalities of his day.

    His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray was published in 1890 and he then moved on to writing for the stage with Salome in 1891.  His society comedies produced enormous hits and turned him into one of the most successful writers of late Victorian London.

    Whilst his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest, was on stage in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, prosecuted for libel.  The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency. He was convicted and imprisoned for two years' hard labour. It was to break him.

    On release he left for France, There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol in 1898.  He died destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six sipping champagne a friend had brought with the line ‘Alas I am dying beyond my means’.

    Here we publish another of his classic plays ‘A Woman Of No Importance’

    Index Of Contents

    The Persons Of The Play

    The Scenes OF The Play

    Act I

    Act II

    Act III

    Act IV

    Oscar Wilde – A Short Biography

    THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

    Lord Illingworth

    Sir John Pontefract

    Lord Alfred Rufford

    Mr. Kelvil, M.P.

    The Ven. Archdeacon Daubeny, D.D.

    Gerald Arbuthnot

    Farquhar, Butler

    Francis, Footman

    Lady Hunstanton

    Lady Caroline Pontefract

    Lady Stutfield

    Mrs. Allonby

    Miss Hester Worsley

    Alice, Maid

    Mrs. Arbuthnot

    THE SCENES OF THE PLAY

    ACT I. The Terrace at Hunstanton Chase.

    ACT II. The Drawing-room at Hunstanton Chase.

    ACT III. The Hall at Hunstanton Chase.

    ACT IV. Sitting-room in Mrs. Arbuthnot's House at Wrockley.

    TIME:   The Present.

    PLACE: The Shires.

    The action of the play takes place within twenty-four hours.

    LONDON: HAYMARKET THEATRE

    Lessee and Manager: Mr. H Beerbohm Tree

    April 19th, 1893

    Lord Illingworth, Mr. Tree

    Sir John Pontefract, Mr. E. Holman Clark

    Lord Alfred Rufford, Mr. Ernest Lawford

    Mr. Kelvil, M.P., Mr. Charles Allan.

    The Ven. Archdeacon Daubeny, D.D., Mr. Kemble

    Gerald Arbuthnot, Mr. Terry

    Farquhar, Butler, Mr. Hay

    Francis, Footman, Mr. Montague

    Lady Hunstanton, Miss Rose Leclercq

    Lady Caroline Pontefract, Miss Le Thiere

    Lady Stutfield, Miss Blanche Horlock

    Mrs. Allonby, Mrs. Tree

    Miss Hester Worsley, Miss Julia Neilson

    Alice, Maid, Miss Kelly

    Mrs. Arbuthnot, Mrs. Bernard-Beere

    FIRST ACT

    SCENE: Lawn in front of the terrace at Hunstanton.

    [SIR JOHN and LADY CAROLINE PONTEFRACT, MISS WORSLEY, on chairs

    under large yew tree.]

    LADY CAROLINE. I believe this is the first English country house you have stayed at, Miss Worsley?

    HESTER. Yes, Lady Caroline.

    LADY CAROLINE. You have no country houses, I am told, in America?

    HESTER. We have not many.

    LADY CAROLINE. Have you any country? What we should call country?

    HESTER. [Smiling.] We have the largest country in the world, Lady Caroline. They used to tell us at school that some of our states are as big as France and England put together.

    LADY CAROLINE. Ah! you must find it very draughty, I should fancy.

    [To SIR JOHN.] John, you should have your muffler. What is the use of my always knitting mufflers for you if you won't wear them?

    SIR JOHN. I am quite warm, Caroline, I assure you.

    LADY CAROLINE. I think not, John. Well, you couldn't come to a more charming place than this, Miss Worsley, though the house is excessively damp, quite unpardonably damp, and dear Lady Hunstanton is sometimes a little lax about the people she asks down here.

    [To SIR JOHN.] Jane mixes too much. Lord Illingworth, of course, is a man of high distinction. It is a privilege to meet him. And that member of Parliament, Mr. Kettle -

    SIR JOHN. Kelvil, my love, Kelvil.

    LADY CAROLINE. He must be quite respectable. One has never heard his name before in the whole course of one's life, which speaks volumes for a man, nowadays. But Mrs. Allonby is hardly a very suitable person.

    HESTER. I dislike Mrs. Allonby. I dislike her more than I can say.

    LADY CAROLINE. I am not sure, Miss Worsley, that foreigners like yourself should cultivate likes or dislikes about the people they are invited to meet. Mrs. Allonby is very well born. She is a niece of Lord Brancaster's. It is said, of course, that she ran

    away twice before she was married. But you know how unfair people often are. I myself don't believe she ran away more than once.

    HESTER. Mr. Arbuthnot is very charming.

    LADY CAROLINE. Ah, yes! the young man who has a post in a bank. Lady Hunstanton is most kind in asking him here, and Lord Illingworth seems to have taken quite a fancy to him. I am not sure, however, that Jane is right in taking him out of his position. In my young days, Miss Worsley, one never met any one in

    society who worked for their living. It was not considered the thing.

    HESTER. In America those are the people we respect most.

    LADY CAROLINE. I have no doubt of it.

    HESTER. Mr. Arbuthnot has a beautiful nature! He is so simple, so sincere. He has one of the most beautiful natures I have ever come across. It is a privilege to meet HIM.

    LADY CAROLINE. It is not customary in England, Miss Worsley, for a young lady to speak with such enthusiasm of any person of the opposite sex. English women conceal their feelings till after they are married. They show them then.

    HESTER. Do you, in England, allow no friendship to exist between a young man and a young girl?

    [Enter LADY HUNSTANTON, followed by Footman with shawls and a cushion.]

    LADY CAROLINE. We think it very inadvisable. Jane, I was just saying what a pleasant party you have asked us to meet. You have a wonderful power of selection. It is quite a gift.

    LADY HUNSTANTON. Dear Caroline, how kind of you! I think we all do fit in very nicely together. And I hope our charming American visitor will carry back pleasant recollections of our English country life.

    [To Footman.] The cushion, there, Francis. And my shawl. The Shetland. Get the Shetland. [Exit Footman for shawl.]

    [Enter GERALD ARBUTHNOT.]

    GERALD. Lady Hunstanton, I have such good news to tell you. Lord Illingworth has just offered to make me his secretary.

    LADY HUNSTANTON. His secretary? That is good news indeed, Gerald. It means a very brilliant future in store for you. Your dear mother will be delighted. I really must try and induce her to come up here to-night. Do you think she would, Gerald? I know how difficult it is to get her to go anywhere.

    GERALD. Oh! I am sure she would, Lady Hunstanton, if she knew Lord Illingworth had made me such an offer.

    [Enter Footman with shawl.]

    LADY HUNSTANTON. I will write and tell her about it, and ask her

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