{"product_id":"the-complete-works-of-oscar-wilde-volume-ix-plays-2-lady-lancing-volume-x-plays-3-the-importance-of-being-earnest-complete-works-of-oscar-wilde-1st-ed","title":"The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Volume IX Plays 2: Lady Lancing; Volume X Plays 3: The Importance of Being Earnest (Complete Works of Oscar Wilde) (1ST ed.)","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The two latest volumes in Oxford University Press's ongoing Complete Works of Oscar Wilde are both devoted to the play, and they reveal, in fascinating detail, just how that perfection was achieved. ... The editor of both volumes, Joseph Donohue, charts the evolution of the one, and its development into the other, in his brilliantly thorough introductory chapters, copious notes and numerous appendices.\" -- Matthew Sturgis, \n\u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Professor Donohue's two volumes...are so rewarding that any intended browse becomes close study\" -- Christopher Hawtree, \n\u003cem\u003eChristopher Hawtree\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Joseph Donohue has done an excellent job in teasing out the enormous textual problems surrounding what has come to us as Oscar Wilde's play \n\u003cem\u003eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u003c\/em\u003e...Donohue has provided the material necessary to make commentary on this fragment easier and better contextualized.\" -- John G. Peters, University of North Texas, \n\u003cem\u003eEnglish Literature in Transition 1880-1920\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eVolume IX: Plays 2\u003c\/strong\u003eHistorical Introduction, Part 1Historical Editorial Introduction, Part 1LADY LANCING A Serious Comedy for Trivial People, in four actsCommentary, Part 1Appendix 1: The November 1894 typescript of Act IAppendix 2: The redaction of Lady Lancing: parallel texts \n\u003cstrong\u003eVolume X: Plays 3\u003c\/strong\u003eHistorical Introduction, Part 2Historical Editorial Introduction, Part 2THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, in three actsCommentaryAppendix 3: An account of Opening Night, with a selection of reviewsAppendix 4: In the Season, by Langdon MitchellA WIFE'S TRAGEDY (fragment)Commentary\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoseph Donohue, \n\u003cem\u003eProfessor Emeritus of English, University of Massachusetts Amherst\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJoseph Donohue is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he taught dramatic literature from 1971 to 2005. He is a theatre historian and editor and scholar of dramatic text. Author and editor of numerous books, articles, and reference works, he has published a prize-winning annotated edition of the reconstructed first-production text of Wilde's \n\u003cem\u003eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u003c\/em\u003e and a translation into English of Wilde's original French-language \n\u003cem\u003eSalome\u003c\/em\u003e. His professional accomplishments include the presidency of the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), senior fellowships or fellowships from the Folger Shakespeare Library, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, his ten-year editorship of the journal \n\u003cem\u003eNineteenth Century Theatre\u003c\/em\u003e, and awards from the ASTR and the Modern Language Association of America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis two-volume addition to the Complete Works of Oscar Wilde contains full critical editions of two plays, \n\u003cem\u003eLady Lancing\u003c\/em\u003e and \n\u003cem\u003eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u003c\/em\u003e. These authoritative editions are based on all surviving manuscript material and other relevant documents. Composed rapidly between August and October of 1894 as a generically unorthodox four-act 'Serious Comedy for Trivial People', \n\u003cem\u003eLady Lancing\u003c\/em\u003e was never produced or published in Wilde's lifetime. Unexpectedly, it was taken over by the actor-manager George Alexander, transformed over the author's objections into a three-act farcical comedy, and produced as \n\u003cem\u003eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u003c\/em\u003e at Alexander's St James's Theatre, London, in February 1895. Published only in 1899, in an edition extensively revised by the author, it has never subsequently been out of print. \n\u003cem\u003eLady Lancing\u003c\/em\u003e, meanwhile, has come to latter-day critical and scholarly attention as the first fruits of Wilde's brilliant concept of a new kind of farcical dramatization. Also included in this publication is a reconstructed edition of a dramatic fragment by Wilde, \n\u003cem\u003eA Wife's Tragedy\u003c\/em\u003e, based on a single, undated surviving manuscript. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn addition to annotated critical editions of the two plays themselves, accompanied by extensive commentaries, these two volumes contain several historical and critical accounts of the long, complex early history of these two separate but closely related compositions. These accounts trace the gestation of \n\u003cem\u003eLady Lancing\u003c\/em\u003e and its transformation into \n\u003cem\u003eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u003c\/em\u003e and describe the abrupt closing of the first production of The Importance as a consequence of Wilde's ill-fated lawsuit against the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel in April 1895 and the two subsequent trials of Wilde himself for 'gross indecency', ending in his conviction and incarceration. These accounts are augmented by descriptions of the fascinating textual history of the two plays and are supplemented by appendices that provide additional information about \n\u003cem\u003eLady Lancing\u003c\/em\u003e and \n\u003cem\u003eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u003c\/em\u003e, including a survey of first production reviews, an acting script of \n\u003cem\u003eIn the Season\u003c\/em\u003e (the curtain-raiser included in first-production performances), a tabular comparison of the texts of \n\u003cem\u003eLady Lancing\u003c\/em\u003e and \n\u003cem\u003eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u003c\/em\u003e, and a summary of the process by which the play became a perennial, international theatrical classic.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51502624375062,"sku":"9780198119586","price":402.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780198119586.jpg?v=1783311687","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/the-complete-works-of-oscar-wilde-volume-ix-plays-2-lady-lancing-volume-x-plays-3-the-importance-of-being-earnest-complete-works-of-oscar-wilde-1st-ed","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}