A Woman of No Importance

Name: A Woman of No Importance
Author: Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

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To
Gladys
Countess de Grey
(Marchioness of Ripon)

Dramatis Personae

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.

Act I

Scene: Lawn in front of the terrace at Hunstanton.

fetching the rest…

More by Oscar Wilde

An Ideal Husband
You get Wilde at his sharpest in the drawing-room sparring between Lord Goring and the dangerously composed Mrs Cheveley, while Sir Robert Chiltern’s spotless public image starts to crack. It’s funny, fast, and more forgiving about human weakness than its polished manners initially suggest.
Children’s Stories
Fair warning: these fairy tales will wreck you a little. The swallow staying with the Happy Prince through the frost, the giant's garden thawing when the children sneak back in, it's all gorgeous and melancholy at once, sadder and stranger than anything you'd actually read to a kid.
Lady Windermere’s Fan
You can read it in an evening, and half the fun is watching Wilde hand every character a line too clever to waste. But Mrs. Erlynne sneaks up on you; under all the epigrams about cynics and gutters there's a real ache about who gets forgiven.

Dramatis Personae

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.

More by Oscar Wilde

An Ideal Husband

You get Wilde at his sharpest in the drawing-room sparring between Lord Goring and the dangerously composed Mrs Cheveley, while Sir Robert Chiltern’s spotless public image starts to crack. It’s funny, fast, and more forgiving about human weakness than its polished manners initially suggest.

Children’s Stories

Fair warning: these fairy tales will wreck you a little. The swallow staying with the Happy Prince through the frost, the giant's garden thawing when the children sneak back in, it's all gorgeous and melancholy at once, sadder and stranger than anything you'd actually read to a kid.

Lady Windermere’s Fan

You can read it in an evening, and half the fun is watching Wilde hand every character a line too clever to waste. But Mrs. Erlynne sneaks up on you; under all the epigrams about cynics and gutters there's a real ache about who gets forgiven.