I found this book to be invauable in studying The Importance of Being Earnest. It includes notes on Oscar Wilde and of the period the play is set in. There are very detailed character analasyses for each of the characters explaining their role in the plot and where the characters may have been derived from, i.e comedia del arte and so forth. The plot is also analysed in great detail. I used the book to get a greater understanding of the play and without it I would never have fully grasped the social irony Oscar Wilde employed in writing The Importance of Being Earnest.