IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST : A READER

"We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces." So Lady Bracknell informs us in "The Importance of Being Earnest", one of the world's great comedies of the stage.

Surface, style, and the sheer delight of language dominate the play, and Peter Raby instructs readers in the extravagant display of these themes, as well as how every line of dialogue contributes to the overall sense of a text as intricate and controlled as a musical score. And despite both Oscar Wilde and his work being subversive, readers will learn as they read more deeply, what Raby calls "the scarcely mentionable desires and appetites that surge underneath the thin veneer of manners and custom."The Masterwork Studies are readable explorations of classic texts.

The goal of each Masterwork Study is to encourage creative thinking, enabling students to arrive at sound analyses of their own.

Each volume illuminates themes and concepts using clear and conversational language.