Customer Reviews

An Ideal Husband

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Oscar Wilde gives us here one of his best plays. He explores the political world in London and how a young ambitious but poor man can commit a crime, which is a mistake, to start his good fortune. But he builds his political career on ethical principles. Sooner or later someone will come into the picture to blackmail him into supporting an unacceptable scheme, by producing a document that could ruin his career if revealed. His past mistake may come back heavily onto him. But he resists and sticks to his moral reputation. He prefers doing what is right to yielding to some menace. He may lose though his political ambition and career and his wife's love. But love is saved by forgiveness and the man's career is also saved by the work of a real friend who recaptures the dubious document and destroys it. In other words love and an ethical career are saved by the burrying of the old mistake into oblivion. In other words love and friendship are stronger than the scheming action of a blackmailer. This is a terrible criticism of victorian society which is based more on appearances than principles and yet able to destroy a man's absolutely ethical present life with a mistake from his youth, throwing the baby along with the water of the bath. It is also a criticism of the victorian political world where you cannot have a career if you are not rich, money appearing as the only way to succeed, at least to succeed fast. But it is a hopeful play because love and friendship are beyond such considerations and only consider the best interest of men and women, in the long run and in the name of absolute purity. Better be a sinner and be forgiven when you have reformed than see a reformed sinner destroyed by the lack of forgiveness. Oscar Wilde advocates here a vision of humanity that necessitates forgiveness as the essential fuel of any rational approach. Real morality is not the everlasting guilt of a sinner without any possible reform. Real morality is the recognition that forgiveness is necessary when reform has taken place. Otherwise society would be unlivable and based on hypocrisy and the death or rejection of the best people in the name of (reformed) mistakes. One must not be that sectarian, because man can learn from his mistakes and improve along the road : one can learn how to avoid mistakes and repair those oen has committed. If condemnation is absolute, no progress is possible. A very fascinating play, a very modern play. And yet when can one be considered as reformed, when can we consider one has really corrected one's mistakes and improved ? And who can deem such elements ? The very core of political and ethical rectitude is concerned here and Oscar Wilde embraces a generous approach.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

Chevely: "Sometimes. But it is such a difficult pose to keep up."

Perhaps not so well known as "The Importance of Being Earnest," this has all the same banter, manners, and sharp-eyed look at the crumbling edge of the upper crust in Vistorian England. It pleases the attentive listener at many levels. Considered only as a stream of one-liners and clever quips, it delivers all you could ask for.

But because it's Wilde, it's also a wild tirade against the mannered (sometimes ill-mannered) gentry. Behind that, it has a good deal to say about tolerance for the flaws of any fallible human - and Wilde could speak on human flaws with rare authority. And, like any truly great work, its examination of honesty (and dis-) reveals a good bit about today's world, a century later.

I'm not normally a reader of plays. I don't have that inner ear that brings words on the page to life. Wilde gives me some idea what that experience must be like, and I'm grateful for it.

//wiredweird

My very favourite of Oscar Wilde's plays. Choc-a-bloc with wit, and humorous repartee, it also is an intriguing story, and fascinating to see how it plays out. No wonder it is still popular 112 years after is first produced with recent productions on video/DVD doing very well.
Member of Parliament Lord Robert Chiltern is blackmailed by the wicked Mrs. Cheverly, with a secret from his youth, leading to a crisis in his life, and in his marriage to the virtuous Lady Chiltern. It is up to his friend, the delightfully foppish Lord Goring to help extricate him. All is well that ends well, but not after much interplay and intrigue.
Every word in this play is well measured out for one of the great masterpieces of English Drama.

Wilde, in part, attempts to portray the relativity of truth, power, and character, things we often take as absolutes, while also entertaining his audience with witty dialogue and comical mishaps.

an ideal husband is an amazing work of literature. being witty, charming, and yet very intelligent, wilde's play is well written and enjoyable. read the play, then watch the movie. you're guaranteed a good time :D

I've read the play and watched the movie many times. While there are differences, they are both, to put it in a British way, jolly good! I never tire of the people who populate this play/movie. Lady Gertrude's "high moral standards and high ideals" are delightful, Sir Robert is an ideal husband, despite his past, the exchanges of wit between Miss Mable and Lord Arthur keep me laughing long after I've turned off the TV or laid down the book and Mrs. Chevely is splendidly evil. It brings a smile and, if you're so inclined, maybe a tear, too. An Ideal Husband is well worth owning so you can grab it whenever you feel like taking a dip into the grand London "Season" of 1895!

I don't really like saying that I like movies better, but I do. The movie was great. It propelled me to read the play and although I like it, I still like the movie better. It is funny (the book) and it has a lot more of a history for a lot of characters that the movie didn't have the time to get into. It was a good read.

Surely, this is one of the most hilarious comedies ever written by anyone. Every page of the script offers up lines of pure, gracefully articulate wit. Wilde's insight is prodigious and relevant as it could have been written as easily about Wall Street as London of 1895: "Private information is practically the source of every large modern fortune." This is the playwright who, when passing through customs into Canada, was asked if he had anything to declare and replied, "Only my genius." The movie with Rupert Everett is spectacularly funny. Wilde has the ability to criticize high society so cleverly that the paradoxes he frames almost seem a compliment. "Fashion is what wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear." And this one: "Vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people." And this great truth: "Sooner or later we all have to pay for what we do." Wilde was a real genius. I strongly recommend that you read his play.

This is a great play, the things that happen with the characters is extremley funny because it deals with morality and marital issues that still exist. The play is set in the late 1800s early 1900s in England. It is a perfect example of how we over anaylize things in society and that if we just "let go" of what an ideal relationship is we will see that the acceptance of two individuals is the foundation for a healthy, long lasting relationship and that there really is no princess or prince charming. What I found to be the funniest thing about it is that the one character who naturally got this without a scandel came off to me as being the most shallow and superfical of the characters. Mabel really has no substance to her, she's not very bright and loves being scolded. Yet at the end of everything is the only one who doesnt waist time trying to anaylize everything that goes on in her relationships with people. I guess we all can learn something from those different from us after all.

I actually read An Ideal Husband, a play by Oscar Wilde last month but am just now getting around to reviewing it.

This play contains politics, love, and black mail what more could you want? Turmoil revolves around the main character's ability to handle a threat to reveal a dark secret from his past and possibly jeopardize his marriage. You'll read how each person responds to this information and some great interactions with one another. The deep story line discusses human morals, remorse and the question of if a loved one can accept faults.

I really enjoyed this play. It was a quick read with a story that still works today, a truly timeless piece. If you are looking for a fun steady tale that will make you smile this is the play to pick up.