The error all women commit. Why can't you women love us, faults and all ? Why do you place us on monstrous pedestals? We have all feet of clay, women as well as men ; but when we men love women, we love them knowing their weaknesses, their follies, their imperfections, love them all the more, it may be, for that reason. It is not the perfect, but the imperfect, who have need of love. It is when we are wounded by our own hands, or by the hands of others, that love should come to cure us—else what use is love at all? All sins, except a sin against itself, Love should forgive. All lives, save loveless lives, true Love should pardon. A man's love is like that. It is wider, larger, more human than a woman's. Women think that they are making ideals of men. What they: are making of us are false idols merely. You made your false idol of me, and I had not the courage to come down, show you my wounds, tell you my weaknesses. I was afraid that I might lose your love, as I have lost it now. (...) Let women make no more ideals of men ! let them not put them on altars and bow before them, or they may ruin other lives as completely as you - you whom I have so wildly loved—have ruined mine !

In which Oscar Wilde was a better playwright than Shakespeare will ever be.



...I admit that was unnecessary.

But true.

Anyway.

The thing I love about this is how melodramatic the Chilterns are. It’s quite funny. Robert is an Ideal Husband, Lady Chiltern is an Ideal Wife, they are an Ideal Couple and their arc is an Ideal Character Arc. They say the kinds of things Ideals would say. Not quite Real.

But the issue they’re dealing with is very real, as is Lady Chiltern’s flawed idea of how and why one is supposed to love one’s husband. And it’s explored and resolved in a most thorough, SATISFYING way.

Very little happens, because that’s a weakness of plays, and I must admit lines like “A man’s life is more important than a woman’s,” whatever was meant by them, are not to my taste, but it’s a COMEDY that’s FUNNY and that EXPLORES A SERIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION, and what more are you going to ask for, really?

Besides, Lord Goring is altogether too delightful, probably because Oscar Wilde wrote him.

And...the WIT. The ELOQUENCE. The delightfully comic father-son relationship between Lord Caversham and Lord Goring. The pure, dizzy little romance between Mabel and Lord Goring.

Lord Goring, basically.

It’s a good play. I would like to see it.

21st book of 2021

An Ideal Husband was first represented in 1895 and is Oscar Wilde's sixth published play (not counting Salomé's translation), and the second drama of his that I've read. And I loved it just as much as The Importance of Being Earnest, one of my favourite plays.

Robert Chiltern is "an ideal husband" in the eyes of his wife; Gertrude. He lives an accommodated life as a highly-regarded member of the House of Commons until one day Mrs Chevely, a scornful, resentful and wretched lady, comes into his life. She blackmails and corners him so that he should make a fraudulent speech on the House on behalf of a construction project of a canal in Argentina. Unless he does this, Mrs Chevely would publish a letter on which it is demonstrated that all of Robert Chiltern's wealth, comes from a highly illegal transaction of selling cabinet secrets to an Austrian Baron. Lord Chiltern seeks his friend Lord Goring to help him and an exciting entanglement of thievery, mischief and irony is set onwards.

The whole plot is fascinating and I was there at all moment with the characters. This play is great fun, and in my opinion, everybody should read it. A social critique of victorian society is held as highly, if not higher than in The Importance of Being Earnest. And the romance between Mabel Chiltern and Lord Goring... is just the cherry on top.

Final Judgement: This play is a MASTERPIECE. Oscar Wilde is pure GENIUS.

A

Review to come when I figure out whether or not this is as ragingly sexist as I think it might be.

Don't put your partner on a pedestal.
That's really the first mistake you make in a relationship.
Except for those people who write jailhouse love letters to serial killers. But that's a whole nother level of mistake and Wilde didn't cover it in this particular play.



Ok, so if you don't already know, the gist is that an unscrupulous woman, Mrs. Cheveley, has come into the possession of a letter that Sir Robert Chiltern had written decades ago when he was in his early 20s. He was a poor clerk who sold the knowledge of the government's impending purchase of Suez Canal Company to a rich man who paid him for the information. This was the seed money that all of his wealth. And because of that wealth - political power. For all intents and purposes, he's been a very scrupulous politician ever since then. So when Mrs. Cheveley tells him that he must throw his support behind a fraudulent scheme to build a canal in Argentina (that she has heavily invested in), he balks.
However, with the threat of exposure hanging over his head, he initially eventually gives in.
But not just to save his career.



Sir Robert loves his wife, Lady Chiltern, but she has based her love of him on this ideal that he represents to her. She loves him because he is so far above all other men and their weaknesses. And if his honesty and morality turn out to be less lofty than she thought, he feels he will lose her love altogether.
So with the help of his best friend, the fashionably aimless Lord Goring, he tries to decide how to dig himself out of this mess.



This is a comedy, so naturally, there are several crazypants events that happen to all of the characters to make sure that everything eventually pans out. <--for everyone except the nasty Mrs. Cheveley. Because she's just a bitch.
I was surprised at how serious the undertone was in this one. I mean there really is a clear moral to the story in this one.
BUT ALSO CUTE ROMANCE! <--so don't worry that you'll have to learn too much stuff if you read this thing.



I'm pretty sure I've read this one before, but I truly appreciated this L.A. Theatre Works production this time around. The excellent voice cast and sound effects made it easy to close your eyes and imagine you were sitting in a theater as part of the audience.
I would highly recommend giving this edition a whirl!

Even better than The Importance of Being Earnest! It's universal, relevant, and timeless. Take politics and relationships, add going back many years in someone's life to destroy and/or judge them, and mix it up with a big dose of humor. This play is perfection! Love, love, love this and Oscar Wilde.

2019 REREAD:
I still love this absolutely fantastic play. Dishearteningly, I had forgotten most of the plot since reading it for the first time, so it was wonderful to refresh myself with Lord Goring and Mabel Chiltern’s flirtatious, witty, and incredibly sweet romance; Sir Robert’s dark political secrets; Mrs. Cheveley being a cold, manipulative cow...and Oscar generally giving some hilarious and semi-accurate views on society!

All Oscar’s plays - this one in particular - is split into two sections: the actual plot, and the hilarious, unique social commentary. Both can be enjoyed immensely in An Ideal Husband.

What’s not to love about this gold?

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
As a fairly big fan of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, I treated this new favourite how Chris Tarrant would to a new million pound winner. The show’s victory theme tune was screaming itself inside my head as I was writing very large letters in my reading journal saying “FANTASTIC, FANTASTIC, FANTASTIC!”. 5 absolutely glowing stars for Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband. I was not expecting to appreciate this play as much as I did - that is a terrible cliché, I know - and would never have predicted that rating! (We are now in April and of the 23 books I have read this year, this is the second rating to exceed 4 stars. That says it all.)

This is my second Oscar Wilde: I have read The Importance of Being Earnest twice and hope to read it again and again for many times to come; I really loved it. (The last time I read it, it was immediately after finishing Middlemarch! A lovely antidote.)
However, I suspect that I now PREFER this one to The Importance of Being Earnest for a few reasons: the main explanation is that I had a few tiny issues with Earnest due to how my enjoyment and interest always tends to slightly taper towards the last act, as it does grow a little more tedious and a bit TOO bonkers for my liking. (I know that it is Oscar Wilde - I can hardly complain about the bonkers parts and usually I love them - but the ending to Earnest went the tiniest bit too far.)
That was not the case here and I am really elated that I have found a new favourite in The Ideal Husband and that it will push me to read even more of Oscar Wilde’s fab stuff.

Very briefly, this play was published in 1895; it is Oscar Wilde’s second most popular and adapted play, after Earnest; it spans over (I believe, though I may be wrong) a 24-hour period. It follows a very wild (no pun intended) and extravagant society in the England of Wilde’s time and, without giving too much of the plot away, it follows the trials and tribulations of people maintaining their honour and good name among civilisation, to what extent a person can be ‘perfect’ or ‘ideal’ (particularly when it comes to relationships), and also forgiving people for the past and how entirely unnecessary it is to hold past against people and use it to define them entirely. These themes sadly reflect Oscar Wilde’s personal life at the time because he wrote this during a then-secretive homosexual affair, prior to his arrest for ‘gross indecency’. Being forgiven for past sins and how ridiculous it is to be persecuted for people’s ignorant reactions were subsequently themes very relevant to Wilde. Despite how caricatured Wilde’s plays usually are (for good reason, as that enhances the reading/viewing experience completely), these themes actually are conveyed and expressed in a quite serious way and this is easily understood considering the context of what Oscar Wilde was suffering when he wrote this.

Alongside the poignance of the historical relevance, this play was just so satisfying and wonderfully written. His writing style is so typical of the classic genre: it is so authentic yet also is very quirky, quite satirical, and witty in a very lively fashion. It works perfectly!
This book certainly wins the “How Many Annotations Can A Book Have Made Upon Them By A Reader” award. Thankfully, I was reading this on my Kindle and so the opportunity was at my fingertips to highlight loads. Here are just a few of my favourite quotes:

(Unless otherwise specifically specified, I do NOT personally agree with these quotes! Oscar Wilde is more for comedy rather than philosophy.)

“Oh, I love London Society! I think it has immensely improved. It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what society should be.”

“An acquaintance that begins with a compliment is sure to develop into a real friendship. It starts in the right manner.” (this one could actually be one worth remembering!)

“The higher education of men is what I should like to see. Men need it so badly.”
Amusingly, that is one of the MANY rather male-sexist quotes in this play. Before those men more sensitive than me become appalled, just look at this next quote...

“A man’s life is of more value than a woman’s. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. A woman’s life revolves in curves of emotions.”
Haha. It made me chuckle how both men AND women could probably look at this play and complain of sexism towards their gender. (So don’t complain, either of you.)

“I adore political parties. They are the only place left to us where people don’t talk politics.”

“I used to think ambition the great thing. It is not. Love is the best thing in the world.” (the one genuine quote in the whole entire play! This one definitely has its arguments for people to agree with it.)

“One should never give a woman anything that she can’t wear in the evening.”

A magnificent author who I once had the incredible luck to meet once said to me ‘people would go to see Oscar Wilde’s plays and laugh at them without realising they were laughing at themselves’. Certainly an arguably true thought, though definitely much more true for Oscar Wilde’s era rather than our era.

Additionally, the characters brought me so much joy in this play, particularly that of Lord Goring. Lord Goring was very flamboyant (who isn’t when it comes to Oscar Wilde?) but for all the right reasons. It was he who stood by Sir Robert Chiltern during all the awkward circumstances; it is he who understood the necessity of forgiving him for his past and not holding it against him as everyone else looked like they were about to do. Lord Goring also is very charming and flattering toward another character in this play called Mabel: they were a rather attractive pair and had a lot of chemistry on page/stage. Above all, Lord Goring’s finest hour was without a doubt towards the end when he got his own back on that vile Mrs. Cheveley. Mrs. Cheveley...what an annoying woman! Not only was Oscar Wilde master of the classic play, he was also master of the maddeningly irritating character.
There are plenty of moments in this play during which one wants nothing more than to absolutely strangle her, which just proves how invested the reader is in the other characters: you never want Mrs. Cheveley to ruin it all for them. All I have to say is that if the ‘annoying-character’ tactic makes the play memorable and more worth it (once that character gets what is coming to her), it thus must be used and hats off to Oscar Wilde for doing it so well. Other relatable characters were Sir Robert Chiltern. Yes, he had a slightly immoral past but he was seriously prepared and desperate to move on from it and that can be rare in people these days. He definitely had flaws, since he was not entirely prepared to suffer the consequences of what he had done, but I liked him and understood him very much indeed.
The lively and hilarious characters in this play added to what was an already very heartwarming and excellent story.

The characters were gold; the dialogue was gold; the plot was gold...this whole play was gold and I would recommend this strongly to anybody who enjoys classics and/or plays. Both this one and The Importance of Being Earnest I would highly recommend to lovers of the those genres. It is so much fun and such a superb read.
One of my favourite books of the year so far.

My last book in 2021, not regretting my choice.

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

The quote above was spoken by the villain, Mrs. Cheveley, yet it hit close to the play’s heart. An Ideal Husband is a play about flawed people, about realizing that all of us are flawed, and accepting those flaws in the people we love rather than holding them to an unbending standard of morality. The irony is that, because no one likes the conniving Mrs. Cheveley, we are all allowed to judge her by morality’s unbending standard.

In An Ideal Husband, Wilde finally put together a play that worked on all levels. This play of political intrigue, blackmail, and personal and private honor, full of clever and charming characters, works brilliantly, while still delivering the madcap plot turns of Wilde’s lighter comedies. It has a strong story endowed with significant message. And of course, it is festooned with the glorious bon mots that bring us to Wilde’s work in the first place:

In England people actually try to be brilliant at breakfast. That is so dreadful of them! Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.

You see, it is a very dangerous thing to listen. If one listens, one may be convinced, and a man who allows himself to be convinced by an argument is a thoroughly unreasonable person.

I love talking about nothing, father, it’s the only thing I know anything about.

An Ideal Husband is Wilde’s masterpiece — the crowning achievement of his comedies.

well , How poring and vanity this people ? is this much not had them nothing to do ?
it's not a comedy or really ironically this play .. but it's a good one to show us How this people live , How the Noble class live .

I enjoyed this so much! I would love to see a staged version. There are lots of good one-liners here, so typical of Oscar Wilde. The action and conflict is so intriguing. The characters are vivid. My favorite is definitely Lord Goring. I love the settings in the London social scene. It feels like something Trollope could have written in novel form.

"A man's life is of more value than a woman's. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. A woman's life revolves in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man's life progresses. Don't make any terrible mistake, Lady Chiltern. A woman who can keep a man's love, and love him in return, has done all the world wants of women, or should want of them."

Hence two star rating. If it weren't for this part, it would easily be a four star play for me. Oh Oscar, your view of women disappoints me heavily. I thought you were ahead of your time.