John Lane / The Bodley Head, London, 1894. First edition, trade issue. A very good copy in the publisher’s decorated cloth, the binding is a bit dulled and rubbed at the edges with some light staining on the upper cover. The contents is clean and unmarked with some toning to the prelims. Published in an edition of 500 copies, the first edition of Wilde’s third society comedy, published in the same year as Salomé and on the eve of the triumph of An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest.
The play explores themes of social hypocrisy, gender inequality, and moral duplicity - subjects that Wilde would refine and perfect in his later dramatic masterpieces