Unbelievably good - I’m not smart enough to know if Wilde is being ironic with the rank misogyny of the characters - one hopes he is. Anyway I’ll stop virtue signalling.

“Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.”

An Ideal Husband is an 1893 four-act play that centers around Robert Chilltern, a public official, who is desperate to keep a past transgression secret. While Mrs. Cheveley maneuvers to reveal the secret unless he meets her demands. However, Mrs. Cheveley is undermined by Chiltern’s wife, whom she knew years ago, and his friend, Lord Goring.

It’s the biting wit in Wilde’s works that I find so entertaining. This play was made even better by listening to the excellent 2001 audio produced by L.A. Theatre Works. Part of what made the wit so delish was the apt timing of the lines delivered between characters. And this audio cast of Various Readers hit the target perfectly.

To get more plays and short stories out of my TBR stacks, I have tried to listen while busy with activities that don’t allow for reading. This one hour and forty-minute audio was a great way to pass, what would have been kind of boring time. Instead, I finished what needed doing while being highly entertained.

4,5⭐

Manipulative Mrs Cheveley tries to blackmail Sir Robert Chiltern for a mistake he made as a young man. When his wife finds out, she cannot accept the fact that her husband has imperfections. Lady Chiltern had put him on a pedestal, but no man can be totally righteous. The play has some moments of villainy, levity, and misinterpreted events that lighten the serious themes of reputation, marriage, and forgiveness. The roles of men and women reflect the values of Victorian society.

Oscar Wilde is very talented at writing witty banter so reading the play was enjoyable, although a bit dated from a 21st Century viewpoint. It would be wonderful to see the play on stage, especially with the right actors playing the juicy roles of the evil Mrs Cheveley and the dandy Lord Goring.

The first positive thing I can say about Wilde's 'An Ideal Husband' is that it includes such grand descriptive details that for the most part, I could almost hear an imaginary audience praising him under their breaths. This play, first performed in 1899, was a joyous and light read, full of fancy frocks and plush behaviour but also weighed down with the problem of misogyny, with several references to male superiority. It was a time when being a woman came with many pitfalls, I felt for them back then, sadly still do now, in the 21st century. To think out there, right now, they still have to put up with this shit. Deplorable!. Anyway, onto the play...

In essence, this is a keyhole view of a high society grappling with the notions of what a marriage stands for, featuring deep characters that feel truly believable, it opens with a dinner party held in London's fashionable Grosvenor Square by House of Commons member Sir Robert Chiltern, the gathering includes his wife, Gertrude, friend Lord Goring and others. There is a blackmail incident, involving a Mrs Cheveley, who knows some dodgy things about Sir Robert's past to do with a Cabinet secret. A problematic situation takes shape. For Lady Chiltern, their marriage is predicated on her having an "ideal husband"—that is, a model spouse in both private and public life that she can worship. Robert has a dilemma, does he remain truthful to his wife, and tell of his guilt?.

Poor old Robert is eventualy exposed by Mrs Cheveley, his wife then denounces her husband and refuses to forgive him. From here on in, cue womanizing, political corruption, the resurfacing of a diamond brooch that comes into play, complications arising from a note found leading to thoughts of an affair , plus a Vengeful act out to destroy. But fear not, there is happy ending!.

Many of the themes where influenced by the situation Wilde found himself in during the early 1890s, regarding his own fears and stressing the need to be forgiven of past sins, and the irrationality of ruining lives of great value to society because of people's hypocritical reactions to those sins. Also, the position of women in society was criticised by theatre analysers as overt sexism, easy to see why, after it's disclosed "A man's life is of more value than a woman's." There is also an expression of anti-upper class sentiments, on behalf of most of the characters, where the overall portrayal displays an attitude of hypocrisy and strict observance of silly little rules that needn't apply.

A humorous read it was, but still carried with it serious undertones. No doubts this worked wonders on the stage. Very good.

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."

"I am always saying what I shouldn’t say. In fact, I usually say what I really think. A great mistake nowadays. It makes one so liable to be misunderstood."

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

An ideal husband is vintage Wilde wit. Tough to claim vintage when you have hardly read 3 books, but sure, it's a book of quotable quotes that can make you sound all intellectual.

The play takes on the English society and the expectations of marriage. It even has a not so intelligent Femme fatale! Centred around Lord Chiltern, the play focuses on how the foundation of marriage can be rattled easily by a forgotten past. And Wilde goes on to explain why it matters so much to women.

Lord Goring as the friend in need a respectable cynic. Lady Chiltern is well etched as the wife who refuses to believe the fallibility of her ideal husband. The story line is predictable to an extent. Of course ideas about role of women and the public life fits a different age.

A quick witty read!

I read An Ideal Husband right after finishing 2 other plays by Wilde. This one had more extensive author's notes, so, by comparison, it felt more descriptive and immersive. The plot combined comedy and drama in a way that made it interesting, amusing, and heart-warming.

n  "Self-sacrifice is a thing that should be put down by law. It is so demoralizing to the people for whom one sacrifices oneself." n

The dialogue in this play felt more balanced than, say, the one in A Woman of No Importance. The famous Wilde witticisms were still there and abundant enough, but they didn't wrestle attention away from the play itself. On the contrary, the brilliant phrases made the story shine.

I really enjoyed this one, it's one my favorite plays by Wilde now. I've just seen the 1999 movie adaptation with Cate Blanchett and it was great as well.

It was a quick read like a splash of cold water on the face!! Maybe because the title ‘An ideal husband’ is an irony in itself compared to the kind of story Oscar Wilde has portrayed here in this book, because the truth he unfolds throughout and the insight that he gives in this play clearly challenges the existence of an ‘ideal husband’ or rather an ‘ideal person.

Lady Chiltern thinks highly of her husband Sir Robert Chiltern. But as soon as she learns that the money and the status that he has earned was actually an award that he received for once being dishonest when he was young she is Stunned and at that moment her idea of being an ‘ideal gentleman’ is shattered. Because her theory is

“If people are dishonest once, they will be dishonest a second time.”

Yes maybe… but not always. I almost agreed with her when she said that but Sir Robert Chiltern words made me consider his perspective as well when he quoted the below lines..

“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.”

This was indeed a splash of cold water that hit Lady Chiltern before it was too late and of course some of Lord Goring’s (one of the smartest characters in the play) friendly advice that she considered in the right way! Thus, Oscar Wilde does succeed in showing ‘imperfection’ as a rectifiable flaw, not a dreadful disease!

https://varshasbookshelf.blogspot.com/

Well Oscar Wilde being my all-time favorite author I am a bit biased on this, but hey that was a good play nonetheless !
In four sophisticated acts, you get a glimpse of London society, blackmailing, the acceptation that your loved one is not perfect, and of course a bunch of witty quotes. A delight.

In this play, Wilde asks for more love, tolerance and forgiveness, and above all acceptance. It is not a stretch to state that his statement is still relevant today.

n  “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.”n

Could always depend on Oscar Wilde for a brilliant, witty banter, noteworthy quotes and a good guffaw any time. Like everything he wrote, it was comical but with underlying tone of serious, sarcastic critic on significant topics, even more in this play. An Ideal Husband also gave great insight into the depth and intricacy of the relationship between misogyny, marriage, idealism, self-image, the force it played on social concepts, and how it affected each gender's thought pattern, action to their respected gender and their opposite in the patriarchal community of the era.

n  “I am always saying what I shouldn't say. In fact, I usually say what I really think. A great mistake nowadays. It makes one so liable to be misunderstood.” n

n  “It is always worth while asking a question, though it is not always worth while answering one.”n

A story about idealism. Although it seems like the real story is the impending scandal of Sir Robert Chiltern's corruption, Lady Chiltern and her naivete is really what becomes the center of our attention. A great comedy with some hard truths about the real world sprinkled in.