I just received a copy of Oscar Wilde's "The importance of being earnest". This is one of the funniest things to ever come on the English speaking stage. It is a work of genius and has incessant and unrivalled humour. The word play is evident from the title down to the most unimportant lines uttered by the butler. The scenario is a comedy of errors and the intrigues and misunderstandings on the stage produce comic scene after comic scene. The Algernon figure is the archetype of a fin de siecle dandy and the presentations of Gwendolyn and Cecily, though funny, hold power and intellect. This is a delightful diversion and I enjoyed it immensely.

I really love this quote from Lady Bracknell,"I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square."