The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
By Oscar Wilde
Cover: The Woman of Fashion (c. 1883-85), oil on canvas by James Tissot (1836-1902) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (artist died 1902)
Algernon Moncrieff invents an ailing friend to escape tedious engagements, and his friend Jack Worthing has invented a wicked brother named Ernest to excuse his trips to town. Both are courting women who will love only a man called Ernest, and Wilde's comedy of epigrams and mistaken identities ends with a handbag, a baby and a very convenient truth.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.