Movie night at Book Club

The book club had a great time viewing "The Importance of Being Earnest." We watched the new version with Colin Firth, Rupert Everet, Reese Witherspoon, and Judi Dench. When it first came out the reviews were not very good, but we all enjoyed it immensely. We laughed out loud many times. Having just read the play the day before, I was able to follow the dialogue easily and much of it was word for word from the play.

In the critical overview from www.bookrags.com they talked about two major issues. "First, while audiences from the play's opening have received it warmly, Wilde's contemporaries questioned its seeming amorality. George Bernard Shaw described Wilde's repartee as "hateful" and "sinister." (Oscar Wilde: a Collection of Critical Essays). A second and related concern arises about Earnest's dramatic structure, which exhibits elements of farce, comedy of manners, and parody. Critics often disagree as how the play should be categorized."

"On the play's morality, critical opinion remains divided. In his book, Oscar Wilde, Edouard Roditi, for example believed that Wilde's comedy never rises above 'the incomplete or the trivial.'"

So much for critics. We just enjoyed the repartee and the complications all of the deception created.

In December we will meet on the 11th to discuss A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg. I have a DVD "At Home with Fannie Flagg" that we will view before we discuss the book.