Editing Oscar Wilde (section)

=== ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' ===
{{main|The Importance of Being Earnest|l1=''The Importance of Being Earnest''}}
[[File:The Importance of being Earnest, an early handwritten draft, by Oscar Wilde, 1894 - British Library, London - DSC00530.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|Handwritten draft of ''The Importance of Being Earnest'', on display in the British Library]]
Wilde's final play again returns to the theme of switched identities: the play's two protagonists engage in "bunburying" (the maintenance of alternative personas in the town and country) which allows them to escape Victorian social mores.<ref name="Mendelsohn">{{cite magazine |last=Mendelsohn |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Mendelsohn |date=10 October 2002 |title=The Two Oscar Wildes |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2002/10/10/the-two-oscar-wildes/ |magazine=[[New York Review of Books]] |volume=49 |access-date=1 April 2020 |number=15 |url-access=limited |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806024640/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2002/10/10/the-two-oscar-wildes/ |url-status=live}}</ref> ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' is even lighter in tone than Wilde's earlier comedies. While their characters often rise to serious themes in moments of crisis, ''Earnest'' lacks the by-now-stock Wildean characters: there is no "woman with a past", the principals are neither villainous nor cunning, simply idle {{lang|fr|cultivés}}, and the idealistic young women are not that innocent. Mostly set in drawing rooms and almost completely lacking in action or violence, ''Earnest'' lacks the self-conscious decadence found in ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'' and ''[[Salome (play)|Salome]]''.{{sfn|Raby|1997|pp=166–167}}

[[File:St-James's-Theatre-London.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=tinted postcard showing exterior of neo-classical building|[[St James's Theatre]], London in the 1890s. ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' was Wilde's fourth West End hit in three years.<ref>{{cite news |title='The Importance of Being Earnest': The first stage production, 1895 |agency=Victoria and Albert Museum |url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-importance-of-being-earnest-first-stage-production/ |access-date=20 July 2021 |archive-date=8 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608185307/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-importance-of-being-earnest-first-stage-production/ |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

The play, now considered Wilde's [[masterpiece]], was rapidly written in Wilde's artistic maturity in late 1894.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=398}} It was first performed on 14 February 1895, at [[St James's Theatre]] in London, Wilde's second collaboration with [[George Alexander (actor)|George Alexander]], the actor-manager. Both author and producer assiduously revised, prepared and rehearsed every line, scene and setting in the months before the premiere, creating a carefully constructed representation of late-Victorian society, yet simultaneously mocking it.{{sfn|Raby|1997|p=161}} During rehearsal Alexander requested that Wilde shorten the play from four acts to three, which the author did. Premieres at St James's seemed like "brilliant parties", and the opening of ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' was no exception. [[Allan Aynesworth]] (who played Algernon) recalled to [[Hesketh Pearson]], "In my fifty-three years of acting, I never remember a greater triumph than [that] first night."<ref>{{cite book |last=Pearson |first=Hesketh |title=Oscar Wilde: His Life and Wit |year=1946 |page=257}}</ref> ''Earnest''{{'}}s immediate reception as Wilde's best work to date finally crystallised his fame into a solid artistic reputation.<ref name="wheatcroft">{{cite magazine |last=Wheatcroft |first=Geoffrey |author-link=Geoffrey Wheatcroft |date=May 2003 |title=Not Green, Not Red, Not Pink |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2003/05/wheatcroft.htm |magazine=The Atlantic Monthly |access-date=10 March 2017 |archive-date=22 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522160423/http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2003/05/wheatcroft.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> In a review of the play for ''[[The Pall Mall Gazette]]'' [[H. G. Wells]] wrote, "More humorous dealing with theatrical conventions it would be difficult to imagine. Mr Oscar Wilde has decorated a humour that is [[W. S. Gilbert|Gilbertian]] with innumerable spangles of that wit that is all his own".{{sfn|Beckson|2003|p=213}} ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' remains his most popular play.{{sfn|Raby|1997|p=165}}

Wilde's professional success was mirrored by an escalation in his feud with Queensberry. Queensberry had planned to insult Wilde publicly by throwing a bouquet of rotting vegetables onto the stage; Wilde was tipped off and had Queensberry barred from entering the theatre.{{sfn|Morley|1976|p=102}} Fifteen weeks later Wilde was in prison.