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The Cambridge Quarterly 2004 33(3):245-255; doi:10.1093/camqtly/33.3.245
© 2004 by Cambridge Quarterly
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From Faltering Arrow to Pistol Shot: The Importance of Being Earnest

Eva Thienpont

University of Ghent, Belgium

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.


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