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    A Woman of No Importance: A Play
    A Woman of No Importance: A Play
    A Woman of No Importance: A Play
    Ebook139 pages1 hour

    A Woman of No Importance: A Play

    By Oscar Wilde

    3.5/5

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    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The classic satirical play about England’s upper class from a master dramatist.
     
    Centering on a long-concealed secret, A Woman of No Importance, like many of Oscar Wilde’s plays, satirizes England’s upper class.
     
    A house party is in full swing at Lady Hunstanton’s country home, when it is announced that Gerald Arbuthnot has been appointed secretary to the sophisticated, witty Lord Illingworth. Only Gerald’s mother stands in the way of his appointment, but she fears telling him why, for who will believe Lord Illingworth to be a man of no importance?
     
    A classic takedown of the British upper class, A Woman of No Importance remains just as relevant today as when it first graced the stages of London.
     
    This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateJan 9, 2018
    ISBN9781504050142
    A Woman of No Importance: A Play
    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

    Wilde_WomanOfNoImportance.jpg

    A Woman of No Importance

    A Play

    Oscar Wilde

    logo2

    TO

    GLADYS

    COUNTESS DE GREY

    [MARCHIONESS OF RIPON]

    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.

    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 to come up and meet him. [To Footman.] Just wait, Francis. [Writes letter.]

    Lady Caroline

    : That is a very wonderful opening for so young a man as you are, Mr. Arbuthnot.

    Gerald

    : It is indeed, Lady Caroline. I trust I shall be able to show myself worthy of it.

    Lady Caroline

    : I trust so.

    Gerald

    : [To 

    Hester

    .] You have not congratulated me yet, Miss Worsley.

    Hester

    : Are you very pleased about it?

    Gerald

    : Of course I am. It means everything to me—things that were out of the reach of hope before may be within hope’s reach now.

    Hester

    : Nothing should be out of the reach of hope. Life is a hope.

    Lady Hunstanton

    : I fancy, Caroline, that Diplomacy is what Lord Illingworth is aiming at. I heard that he was offered Vienna. But that may not be true.

    Lady Caroline

    : I don’t think that England should be represented abroad by an unmarried man, Jane. It might lead to complications.

    Lady Hunstanton

    : You are too nervous, Caroline. Believe me, you are too nervous. Besides, Lord Illingworth may marry any day. I was in hopes he would have married Lady Kelso. But I believe he said her family was too large. Or was it her feet? I forget which. I regret it

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