Oscar Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895, at the peak of his fame. It ran at the St. James's Theatre to full houses. Three months later, Wilde was arrested. Two years later, he was released from Reading Gaol, broken in health and finances.
The play has been in continuous production ever since. It is the funniest play in English.
Open The Importance of Being Earnest in warpread →
What The Importance of Being Earnest Is About
Jack Worthing maintains two identities. In the country, he is the responsible guardian of his ward Cecily. In London, he is Ernest — carefree, irresponsible, always in scrapes. His London friend Algernon similarly maintains the fiction of a sick friend called Bunbury as an excuse to escape anywhere he chooses.
Jack is in love with Algernon's cousin Gwendolen, who insists on marrying a man named Ernest — she finds the name Ernest deeply inspiring, implying reliability and trustworthiness. Jack resolves to be christened Ernest.
Meanwhile Algernon, having discovered Jack's country address, presents himself there as the fictitious Ernest and falls in love with Cecily — who has also decided she will only marry a man named Ernest.
The plot's absurdity is the point. Wilde is satirising the Victorian tendency to treat arbitrary conventions as absolute moral imperatives — the name "Ernest" as character guarantee, Lady Bracknell's obsession with social credentials, the entire machinery of Victorian respectability.
How Long Is The Importance of Being Earnest?
| Reading speed | Time to finish |
|---|---|
| 200 WPM | ~2.1 hours |
| 250 WPM (average) | ~1.7 hours |
| 350 WPM (practised) | ~1.2 hours |
| 500 WPM (RSVP) | ~50 minutes |
Reading a Play in warpread
Plays in warpread's RSVP mode work differently from novels — most of the text is dialogue, which means you move through the play as you would watch it performed. At 350–400 WPM, the dialogue lands with theatrical timing: each line arrives complete, the next follows.
Lady Bracknell's lines — the handbag scene (Act I), the questioning of Jack about his parentage, her views on education — are the comic peaks. Read these at 300 WPM or below; they reward every word.
The cucumber sandwiches scene (Act I, opening) — Wilde establishes the entire tone of the play in five minutes of conversation about food. Don't rush it.
Act III — the revelations. Everything resolves through coincidences so outrageous that they become a formal joke about the conventions of drawing-room comedy. Read quickly; Wilde is working at pace.
For the full speed reading technique, see how to read faster.
Where to Read The Importance of Being Earnest Free
- warpread library — instant reading, RSVP mode, no account needed
- Project Gutenberg — complete text, EPUB and download
- Standard Ebooks — best-formatted free EPUB
More Wilde in the Library
- The Picture of Dorian Gray — Wilde's novel; darker, longer, equally witty
- Hamlet — another play in the library; Shakespeare's comic scenes alongside the tragedy
- Romeo and Juliet — Wilde's Earnest deliberately echoes and inverts the Romeo and Juliet plot
For the full list of free classics, see the 50 best free classic novels to read online.
Continue Reading
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Read The Importance of Being Earnest free in warpread.app →
For tips on building reading speed with books like this, see How to Speed Read: 7 Proven Techniques — covering RSVP practice, subvocalisation reduction, and how to track your progress.
If you're looking for more books at a similar level, warpread's free library has 70+ public domain classics ready to read in your browser, organised by author, genre, and difficulty.
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Frequently asked questions
Is The Importance of Being Earnest free to read online?
Yes. The Importance of Being Earnest was first performed in 1895 and published in 1899 — it is in the public domain. You can read it free at warpread.app's library (Project Gutenberg ID 844), Standard Ebooks, and many other sites — no account, no download, no payment.
How long does it take to read The Importance of Being Earnest?
The Importance of Being Earnest is approximately 25,000 words. At 250 WPM it takes about 1.7 hours. At 350 WPM around 1.2 hours. At 500 WPM with RSVP reading, about 50 minutes. It is one of the shortest major works in English literature — you can read a three-act play in under two hours.
What is The Importance of Being Earnest about?
Two young men — Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff — maintain fictional alter egos to escape social obligations. Jack invents a dissolute brother 'Ernest' in London; Algernon invents a sick friend 'Bunbury' in the country. Both are in love with women who insist on marrying men named Ernest. The plot turns on the absurdity of this coincidence. The play is a satire of Victorian social conventions — specifically their arbitrariness and the absurd seriousness with which they are maintained.
What is 'Bunburying' in the play?
Bunburying is Algernon's term for maintaining a fictional invalid friend (Bunbury) as an excuse to escape social engagements and obligations. 'Whenever I don't want to dine with Lady Bracknell, I go to see Bunbury.' It has become a general term for maintaining a convenient fiction that allows you to live a double life. The play's comedy depends on the fact that both Jack and Algernon are Bunburying simultaneously without knowing it.
What are the most famous lines from The Importance of Being Earnest?
The play contains some of the most quoted lines in English drama: 'To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.' 'I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.' 'The truth is rarely pure and never simple.' 'To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.' Almost every page contains an epigram that has entered the language.
Does reading a play on a screen work well?
Plays work well in warpread's RSVP reader. The dialogue-driven format — most of the text is spoken words — moves quickly through RSVP. The wit is in the sentence construction; hearing each line complete before the next one appears (as RSVP delivers) actually matches how the lines are meant to land on stage. Try 350–400 WPM in warpread and the rhythm of Wilde's comedy becomes very clear.
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