The Importance of Being Earnest
A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
Series: Choral Complete Classics · Book 1
Oscar Wilde | Unabridged | Choral English Voice (digital voice)
Narrated with Choral English Voice, a synthetic (digital) voice.
Two gentlemen. Two invented identities. Two women determined to marry a man named Ernest.
Oscar Wilde’s most celebrated comedy turns courtship, duty, class and respectability into a glittering maze of deception. In London, John Worthing assumes the name Ernest to escape his country responsibilities. His friend Algernon Moncrieff has an equally convenient fiction: an invalid named Bunbury. When both men’s double lives converge at a country house, cucumber sandwiches, formidable relations and a misplaced handbag carry the comedy toward its famously elegant resolution.
This complete, unabridged edition is designed for easy listening and study. A single digital voice speaks each character’s name before the dialogue, identifies stage directions, and presents the play in its original three acts, with a short introduction for context.
First performed in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People remains a brilliantly economical satire of identity and Victorian manners.
Material portions of this audiobook were generated using generative AI tools, including digital voice narration, then reviewed, edited and curated by Choral Software.
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Transcript of the sample
The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, by Oscar Wilde.
The Persons in the Play: John Worthing, J.P.; Algernon Moncrieff; Reverend Canon Chasuble, D.D.; Merriman, Butler; Lane, Manservant; Lady Bracknell; Honorable Gwendolen Fairfax; Cecily Cardew; Miss Prism, Governess.
First Act. Scene: Morning-room in Algernon’s flat in Half-Moon Street. The sound of a piano is heard in the adjoining room.
Stage direction: Lane is arranging afternoon tea on the table, and after the music has ceased, Algernon enters.
Algernon: Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?
Lane: I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir.
Algernon: I’m sorry for that, for your sake. I don’t play accurately: anyone can play accurately; but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life.
Lane: Yes, sir.
Algernon: And, speaking of the science of Life, have you got the cucumber sandwiches cut for Lady Bracknell?
Lane: Yes, sir.
- Running time: 2 h 48 min
- Voice: Choral English Voice (digital/synthetic)
- Edition: Unabridged
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