Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

Anne Markey (Dublin City University)

Ed. by Ian Campbell Ross, Trinity College Dublin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1893

Places

Ireland, Republic of (Eire) (Country of Origin)
United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Play

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Following the successful opening run of

Lady Windermere’s Fan

in the St James’s Theatre, London, in 1892, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, actor-manager at the rival Haymarket Theatre, asked Oscar Wilde to provide him with a similar modern society comedy. That summer, while staying in Norfolk with Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde was engaged in writing a piece with the working title “Mrs Arbuthnot”. In September 1892 he reported that the play was nearly finished, and, on 13 October, he assigned the rights of the completed play, now entitled

A Woman of No Importance

, to Tree, specifying in detail the financial terms of their agreement (Holland and Hart-Davis, eds., 2000, pp. 535, 536). Rehearsals began the following March, and the play ran from 19 April to 16 August 1893. The relationship between…

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2332 words

Citation: Markey, Anne. "A Woman of No Importance". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 March 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6908, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

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