The Importance of Being Earnest
London: Leonard Smithers and Co, 1899.
Signed limited first edition. [xii], 152 pp. Bound in publisher's original pale lavender cloth with gilt spine lettering and decorations by Charles Shannon. Copy number 82 of 100 large paper copies signed by Oscar Wilde with a flourish. Near Fine with subtle sunning, several barely discernible spots to cloth, short bubble to rear cloth. Typical offsetting to endpapers, and a 5" tear to the rear endpaper. Contents bright and fresh. A beautiful copy.
Wilde's masterpiece, which opened to wide acclaim at the St. James's Theatre, London, on February 14, 1895. It was withdrawn after 86 performances following his arrest and imprisonment on charges of gross indecency as a consequence of his failed libel suit against Lord Queensbury, the father of Wilde's homosexual lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. He was outed as gay (a disgrace in Victorian society) and the play was not published in any form until the present edition, following his release from prison. It has been hailed as an exemplary farce, called by poet W.H. Auden "a pure verbal opera."
Price: $60,000.00