Earnest

Oscar Wilde, photogenic aesthete, and an 1881 parody of his early public image. Max Beerbohm's caricature of Wilde on his successful American tour.

The full text of Wilde's essay in dialogue form, "The Decay of Lying."

More full text of Wilde's works online, inelegantly, from the Victorian Web, and very elegantly at a nonacademic site.

One of Beardsley's famous illustrations for Wilde's Salome (English tr. by Douglas pub. 1894); another one of Beardsley's illustrations, and another.

More Beardsley and Decadence: A Suggested Reform for... Ballet" (1895); another title page; a collection of Beardsley's art for the Yellow Book, which contrary to reputation never published Wilde.

Wilde's image and identity sell things.

Some of the most important things in life.

Stills from a few recent productions of Earnest: Seattle's Village Theatre (what is Lady Bracknell wearing?). Algernon and Jack, from the Village Theatre again.

An all-male, perhaps too modern Earnest.

Another recent Earnest from the National Theater School of Canada.