5 plays

This Penguin paperback conveniently collects the five plays that are part of Wilde’s small literary legacy. Four of them are drawing-room comedies; the fifth, “Salomé,” is an outlier. The first four contain most of the oft-quoted Wilde aphorisms and epigrams, such as “I can resist anything except temptation.” Yet three of them, “Lady Windermere’s Fan,” “A Woman of No Importance,” and “An Ideal Husband,” are not only witty, but they also carry a moral purpose. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is even more humorous, yet instead of exposing the hypocrisy of the aristocratic class, it is content to mock it.
“Salomé” is so different that it hardly seems the work of the same author. Yet it also fits in the Wilde oeuvre as the expression of someone who wanted to be more than the acclaimed author of witty plays. He yearned to be accepted as a serious literary and aesthetic theorist as well. Feeling he had been pigeonholed in London, Wilde moved to Paris and wrote this play in French, which is certainly a factor in the lack of recognizable Wildean style (this collection has the English translation, by Wilde’s homme fatal, Lord Alfred Douglas). The dialogue shows Wilde’s acquaintance with contemporary French literary trends. The characters often seem to talk past each other, rather than with each other, and often repeat the same lines. The effect is hypnotic.
Beyond writing in another language, Wilde transported his aristocracy to the court of Herod Antipas and chose a Biblical subject, the beheading of John the Baptist. This makes Wilde’s decision to forgo his characteristic repartee wise. He also brings some interesting ideas to the much-treated subject: what if the demand for the Baptist’s head was Salomé’s idea alone, not that of her mother, and was a perversion of her erotic desire for the prophet, which he spurned?
All five of these plays are worth reading and rereading, or better yet, seen staged. ( )

Works of the Irish wit that include his best known piece, The Importance of Being Earnest. Throughout this collection, one fact remains consistent: Wilde demonstrates his distaste for the uber-morality and frivolity of the English upper classes, while getting in a few swipes at American puritanism at the same time. The world of "society" is laid bare with all its pretensions, and the class system is skewered. A worthwhile read, though if you have no concept of the British class system of the time, some of the references might leave you scratching your head and thinking "nobody really acts like that, right?" Just remember you are reading works from a different time, a time when it was still considered appropriate to jail someone for having a same-sex relationship, and children who were born of unmarried parents were considered tainted, even though they had no role in the decision-making process that brought them into the world. ( )

{rereading Lady Windermere's Fan, Feb. 2016} I am altering my rating of this play from 4* (see below) to 4½* -- I had forgotten how many wonderful lines there were in the dialogue of this play. These raise it up but I still don't think it is as good as my favorite, The Importance of Being Earnest so I can't give it 5*.

{review from 2012}
I find it difficult to rate collections, as the individual parts are almost always vary in quality. For this collection, I thought that I would give a very brief review & a rating for each play...

Lady Windermere's Fan - 4 stars; funny play about the importance (or lack thereof) of appearances re married women & their virtue

Salomé - 3 stars; I like the satire but the Biblical setting just wasn't my thing.

A Woman of No Importance - 2½ stars; to be quite honest, this play made so little impression on me that I can't remember what it is about! Time to reread it.

An Ideal Husband - 4½ stars; very good satire about trust & love between a married couple.

The Importance of Being Earnest - 5 stars; so hilariously funny. My favorite of all Wilde' s work ( )

Wow! The Importance of Being Earnest is now my favorite play, ever! I laughed out loud the whole way through! The satire and humor were delicious!

The other plays were excellent and I enjoyed them all, too, with the exception of Salomé. They were interesting social commentaries on the Victorian era.

It is the title play that stands out, though. It is satire and high comedy at its best! ( )