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Staged in 1893, when Wilde had already achieved fame, wealth andnotoriety, A Woman of No Importance was another attempt to fuse comedyof manners with high melodrama. Gerald Arbuthnot is a young man on themake, with an American heiress and the post of secretary to thebrilliant but dissolute Lord Illingworth within his reach. When he askshis mother to celebrate with them, it turns out that Illingworth isGerald''s father, who seduced and abandoned his mother twenty yearsearlier. Loyalty weighs heavier than ambition, and Gerald declines theassociation with Illingworth. This edition, which also analyses Wilde''svarious drafts and revisions of the play, argues that the playwrighthere continued to explore the rivalry between an older man and womanfor the affection of a beautiful young man.>
About the author
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (b. Dublin, 1854) was an Irish playwright, who wrote one of the best loved comedies in the English language - The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). A leading wit and conversationalist in London society, his career was destroyed at its height when he was imprisoned for homosexual offences. Wilde was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Magdalen College, Oxford. Settling in London, he became famous for his extravagant dress, long hair, and paradoxical views on art, literature, and morality. His first play, Vera (1880), a tragedy about Russian nihilists, was produced in New York to poor reviews. Success in the theatre came with the elegant drawing-room comedy Lady Windermere's Fan. A Woman of No Importance (1893) was another success. Other works for the theatre were An Ideal Husband (1895) and the biblical Salomé (1896), written in French for Sarah Bernhardt. Wilde flaunted his homosexual affairs, including his ill-fated liaison with Lord Alfred Douglas. Following a celebrated trial in 1895 he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour. The sentence led to public humiliation, poor health, and bankruptcy. On his release in 1897 he left for France and remained in exile there until his death in 1900.
