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- Title
From Faltering Arrow to Pistol Shot: The Importance of Being Earnest.
- Authors
Thienpont, Eva
- Abstract
Since 1966, the editors of the Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde have chosen to print the reconstructed four-act text of The Importance of Being Earnest rather than the better-known version in three acts. The authoritative French Pléiades edition (1966) followed suit, arguing, like Collins, that since Wilde converted his original four-act play into a three-acter at the instigation of George Alexander, the four-act version is the play as Wilde intended it to be. This essay opposes this view and seeks, through a reading of the significant details of both texts, to establish the superiority of the three-act version.
- Subjects
COMPLETE Works of Oscar Wilde, The (Book); ESSAYS; FRENCH literature; DRAMA; ALEXANDER, George
- Publication
Cambridge Quarterly, 2004, Vol 33, Issue 3, p245
- ISSN
0008-199X
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1093/camqtly/33.3.245