《A Woman of No Importance》简介：

在线阅读本书

The scene is set in an English country house â" Hunstanton (Lady Hunstanton's property). The curtains open to the terrace where we are introduced to Lady Caroline who is engaging in conversation with Lady Huntstanton's American Puritan guest Hester Worsley. Other characters are introduced, including the flirtatious Mrs Allonby, the meek Lady Stutfield and Lady Caroline's submissive husband Sir John. They discuss frivolous matters and are later joined by the powerful, charming and charismatic gentleman, Lord Illingworth who has offered the post of secretary to the fortunate Gerald Arbuthnot. Gerald's mother is invited to join the party, and when she arrives she realises that Lord Illingworth is Gerald's father. She had an affair with him twenty years ago, became pregnant and he refused to marry her, making her a "fallen woman." She is reluctant to let Gerald become Illingworth's secretary, but doesn't tell Gerald her reasons behind her reluctance…

《A Woman of No Importance》摘录：

ACT THREE LORD ILLINGWORTH: I was on the point of explaining to Gerald that the world has always laughed at its own tragedies, that being the only way in which it has been able to bear them, And that, consequently, whatever the world has treated seriously belongs to the comedy side of things. ... If you think of anything, you kill it. (!!!!!!) ... Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely if ever do they forgive them. ACT TWO HESTER: ...You rich people in England, you don't know how you are living. You shut out from you society the gentle and the good...Living, as you all do, on others and by them, you sneer at self-sacrifice, and if you throw bread to the poor, it is merely to keep them quiet for a season...You have lost your secret of life. Oh, your ...