Customer Reviews (2)

More Salving Than Your Common Gideon's
Leunig. Australia's art beacon. Now, under his tutelage, also available in animated form. Who, once they have seen his 'Book of Common Prayer' will forget the subtle & disquieting man supplicating before a duck accompanied by the adage,'The kneeling man knows, as everybody does, that a proud & upright man does not and cannot talk with a duck. So the upright man is rejected. The man kneels. He humbles himself. He becomes more like the duck. He does these things because it improves his chances of communicating with it.' Leunig's humble folk with tippler's snouts, inhabit crepuscular rooms & scapes presided over by a sickle moon. It's a world that pivots on pathos & it's post-nouveau emblems are tear-shaped, coiled & cashewed in foetal embraces of unpruned maternity. Leunig's ouvre is a paen to small, transitory joys rather than an angry collection of petitions to the Big Fella. Leunig is benignly in awe of cosmic peversities without being obsequious: humour with angel's wings. Creeping into the crevices of despair, he draws a sad, slow breath, sighs & carries on. It's universal stuff while indubitably Australian. Friends in America and the UK have fallen for this guy as much as any Oz fan, who harbours a choice Leunig selection under the fridge magnet.

The Penguin Leunig
Michael Leunig is on of the most brilliant writers ever.
Living in the australian bush, drawing for over thirty years have given Michael a great humour and drawing style.
He doesn't show off, he keeps a simple cute style(all though he CAN draw more complex) This books contains great drawings, great poems and funny stories and characters.
Get it now!! ... Read more

Product Description
Oscar Wilde was at once a family man and a homosexual outsider, a socialite, socialist, and Irish nationalist. His contradictions inspired him to ponder the roles and masks donned in conventional society, and his acute and wry insights are wonderfully displayed in this collection of his essential plays. Known not only for his brilliant, epigrammatic language, but also for his sense of theatrical design, color, and staging, Wilde created an enduring body of finely crafted works, whose delights and ironies still speak to modern audiences.In addition to Lady Windermere's Fan, Salomé, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, A Florentine Tragedy, and The Importance of Being Earnest, this edition contains an introduction, notes and commentaries, and an excised scene from The Importance of Being Earnest. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (105)

Bravo, bravo, Mr. Wilde!
This is possibly the most amazing work to come out of English literature and the English language.How can something so inane and senseless be so captivating, intriguing, and darling?The play makes one happy.And best to see it well-performed.

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I read this on my 100 classic book collection for Nintedo DS because it ranked ad 'the funniest book' well I'm sorry but I didn't laugh once. The girls in the play were annoying and the only likeable character is Jack. I'm not a big fan of plays at the best of times but reading this has made sure I don't pick up another one in a while.

Classic Wit
Oscar Wilde's last and best-known play is a classic comedy complete with mistaken identities, biting satire, and a fair amount of punning (including a crucial pun in the title). This is Wilde at his irreverent best as he repeatedly skewers as many aspects of late 19th Century English society as he can manage.

I've occasionally heard the term "joke density" applied to comedy writing, and The Importance of Being Ernest certainly has that. Every character in the play is witty, and the jabs, barbs, and puns come fast and furious.

The story centers on two somewhat roguish young bachelors who have both created elaborate lies to help them to cover for their mischief. At different points in the play, both gentlemen have assumed the false name of Ernest, which becomes a problem once two women become involved. Two women who are both particularly enamored with the idea of marrying someone named Ernest.

The tightly plotted play has enough twists and turns to keep things interesting, and the witty dialogue never lets up.

The Avon (a HarperCollins imprint) paperback edition that I read contained a short collection of critical essays, the most interesting being a (mostly negative) review by George Bernard Shaw of the original production of the play, which raises some interesting points about the nature of comedy. I found some good insights into the career of Oscar Wilde in the introduction and the other critical pieces, but those familiar with his life and work would not be missing much by skipping these "bonus features".

The play itself was a really enjoyable work to read, and I'll keep an eye out for a chance to catch a performance of it sometime.

General Books Problem...Not the book
I ordered this for my daughters birthday and Amazon delivered right on her birthday. My daughter is a huge Oscar Wilde fan! Unfortunately, the book was full of garbage text. It was printed by General Books the day I ordered it. I then requested a replacement. Once again, it was printed the day I made my request and it contained the exact garbage text that the original order contained. Here is an example of the garbage text that this book contained...(Jk*he$. HeL*) This was all throughout the book. Then half the book looked like some bizarre glossary that didn't even belong to this book. The entire book was worthless both times and I requested a refund. I can't give a proper review on the book as it was unreadable!

The Importance of Being Earnest is a brilliant satirical play by the pen of Irish genius Oscar Wilde
"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." So spoke the fatuous and funny noveau rich maven the incomparable Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." The very readable and actable play holds its own in the modern theatre. It is produced thousands of times each year all around the world from school productions to professional acting companies. The play premiered at the St. James Theatre in London on Valentine's Day 1895.
The three act comedy stars Jack Worthing and (later to be revealed-his younger brother Algernon Moncrieff). Jack is courting Gwendolyn Fairfax. Algernon is in love with the beautiful young Cecily Cardew. Both of these young dandies have invented doubles. Jack acts like his name is Ernest. Algy has invented Bunbury whose ill health always requires a visit when Algy's pestiferious aunt Augustus Bracknell is in London.
After countless bon motes and Wildean witticisims it is learned that Jack is really named Ernest. It is revealed that Cecily's governess Miss Prism had lost Jack when he was a baby by leaving him in a handbag at Victoria Station. Jack is, therefore, really named Ernest. Gwendolyn asserts she could never love any man unless he was named Ernest! She and Jack plan on wedding as does Algernon to the fetching Cecily.
This play provides Wilde the opportunity to show off his ability to entertain while at the same time poking fun at the class conscious British aristocracy where what your name and genealogy are counts for a lot in high society.
Some of this reviewer's favorite quotes from this eminently quotable play are the following:
The truth is rarely pure and never simple"
Only relatives or creditors ring in that Wagnerian manner
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.
Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.
I have also in my possession ...certificates of Miss Cardew's birth, baptism, whooping cough, registration vaccination, confirmation and the measles; both the German and the English variety
I've now learned for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde's other great plays including "Salome"; "A Woman of No Importance"; "The Ideal Husband" and "Lady Windemere's Fan" are all worth the attention of modern fans of the drama. All are social satires in which Wilde the ultimate Irish, gay outsider slams hard at English social pretensions in late Victorian fin de siecle England.
Discover the wonderful world of Oscar Wilde in his plays, short stories, only novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and his essays and poems. ... Read more

Product Description
Four volumes in one, with classics from Dame Edna Everidge, Barry Mackenzie, odes and stanzas by Barry Humphries, and ballads by Sir Les Patterson. The book has been revised and updated to include Sir Les Patterson's passionate lament "Chardonnay". ... Read more