Other editions of book A Woman of No Importance

The expectations and inequalities of the British upper-class are brought to the forefront when Mrs. Arbuthnot is forced to set her impeccable reputation aside for the sake of an important opportunity presented to her son, Gerald.Oscar Wilde's plays have been widely commended for their wit and biting satire of British social customs. Plays like A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest solidified Oscar Wilde's position as one of the most talented dramatists in the Victorian period.

extract: 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.......

Excerpt from A Woman of No ImportanceMight I, dear Miss Worsley, as you are stand ing up, ask you for my cotton that is just behind you? Thank you.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The play opens with a party on a terrace in Lady Hunstanton's estate. The upper class guests exchange social gossip and small talk. Lady Caroline Pontrefact patronizes an American visitor, Hester Worsley, and proceeds to give her own opinion on everyone in the room and her surrounding life. Lady Caroline also denounces Hester's enthusiasm for Gerald Arbuthnot until Gerald himself enters to proclaim that Lord Illingworth, a powerful, flirtatious male political figure intends to take him under his wing as secretary.

Oscar Wilde's audacious drama of social scandal centres around the revelation of Mrs Arbuthnot's long-concealed secret. 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. Gerald's mother stands in the way of his appointment, but fears to tell him why, for who will believe Lord Illingworth to be a man of no importance?