I had to read this for university but it was surprisingly funny

3.5 stars
This wonderful play with gorgeous lines for Lord Goring would have been a solid four star read, were it not for the last couple of pages where Wilde spoilt it for me. Lord Goring, who in my view is the strongest representative of the author’s voice, fell back into a strongly conventional view of women’s place, without the slightest undertone of irony:

Lord Goring: "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.”(*)

Lady Chiltern: “A man’s life is of more value than a woman’s. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. Our lives revolve in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man’s life progresses. I have just learnt this, and much else with it, from Lord Goring…”(**)

Richard Allen Cave’s explanatory notes in the Penguin Classics Edition The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays confirm my perception to some extent:

(*) “The whole speech has posed problems for some of Wilde’s critics because Lord Goring, whose words have until now sparkled with originality of thought and expression, seems to be offering a decidedly conventional view of woman’s place within marriage (and one that even in its expression draws heavily on the writings of John Ruskin).“

And he tries to console the modern reader:

(**) "Feminist and socialist critics alike have taken exception to this speech which represents Lady Chiltern as a kind of puppet programmed by Lord Goring. But this is to miss the careful structuring of the change that Lady’s Chiltern’s character undergoes during this act…”

Maybe I am overreacting, but after having read Lady Windermere's Fan and A Woman of No Importance which both have a slightly feminist undertone, I was not expecting this of Oscar Wilde – thus 3.5 stars, I’m afraid.

Reading Oscar Wilde is like sipping good champagne - light, witty, sparkling & timeless! I would love to sit between Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen at a dinner party...

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.

You need to pay attention during this play as even the characters themselves have trouble keeping track of who is being ideal or not. I'm sure this could be fun to watch this on a stage. It pokes a lot at the rules of society prevalent when this was written, yet still fully relatable to today.

4*

Oscar Wilde at his best right here! Witty, dramatic, fun AND has amazing characters, this play is one of my all-time favorites. I reread it countless times and watched the adaptations almost just as much. How can you not like a play that mixes love, blackmail, politics and friendship as perfectly as this one does? Classic that is timeless, like Wilde himself.
Over and out

(Read as part of the Complete Works of Oscar Wilde.)

One of my bigger problems in life is the inability to read certain texts I know have been turned into movies starring Rupert Everett and not picture him as the star as I read. It's Rupert Everett 24/7 in my head. It's to the point now where even the Oscar Wilde plays I read that weren't turned into Rupert Everett movies are unable to be read without imagining Rupert Everett. I'm broken inside!

However, if you've seen the movie and you've read this play, you'll see there are some differences. The movie doesn't even mention the brooch!

I'm slowly running out of things to say about Wilde as I read him. The situations he wrote about are all pretty similar (at least so I've noticed thus far), but it doesn't make them any less enjoyable to read. He wrote wicked scandals; I wonder how much he drew from personal experience when writing these plays - this one in particular.

Interestingly, it was during this play's run that Wilde was arrested for being gay and, according to Wikipedia, the actors in the play were used in the trial as witnesses against him. Ouch.

I can't help but love Wilde's characters, even the shitty ones. You know they're nasty but you can't help it since they're so... quippy.

"But it is after seven, father, and my doctor says I must not have any serious conversation after seven. It makes me talk in my sleep."


"LORD CAVERSHAM: And it is high time for you to get married. You are thirty-four years of age, sir.

LORD GORING: Yes, father, but I only admit to thirty-two -- thirty-one and a half when I have a really good buttonhole. This buttonhold is not... trivial enough."

While An Ideal Husband is typical Wilde in many ways, it is not Wilde at his best. Both Lady Windemere's Fan and The Importance of Being Ernest eclipse it. Still, great fun and charged with the kind of wit one expects from Wilde.

There is a play upon role reversal that is hilarious, as it is the woman who puts the man upon a pedestal and then knocks him off. There are the usual high-jinks with letters that come into the wrong hands and a ludicrous, but quite nifty, foiling of the primary villain. In fact, it has every single element that you come to expect and adore in a Wilde production. At the same time, it does manage to deal with at least one very serious issue...that of the ideal. To expect that any person can be ideal and flawless is to set one's self up for disaster.

One thing that struck me was the way Wilde wrote his stage directions. For each person as they enter the scene, he describes the type of art piece they would resemble. He had every physical trait and mannerism in his mind as he crafted these characters. I would love to see this play acted. I'm guessing it could be appreciated at one-step higher level seen on stage.

This was my first read of an Oscar Wilde work, and I immediately fell in love with him. When I first read it, it was a great read. But when I returned to it three years later I realized that "great" is an understatement. It is simply brilliant. There is ample wit, sarcasm, and humor. But underneath the message conveyed is thought-provoking.

Oscar Wild is realistic in his observance of humans and his exposure of human follies in the face of power and wealth. He exposes both black and white sides of ambition, showing to what extent one would be driven under its spell. Wild mocks the society for strictly categorizing men and women as good or bad and proceeding to idolize them as perfect or shun them as wicked. He is sarcastic about this strict division imposed by the upper-class society of his day. Wild shows through his words of wisdom that no human is without fault. None is perfect. There are both black and white in us humans. It is the degree which either makes us good or bad. Wild also proceeds to show the importance of accepting the faults and forgiving, probably in reference to himself.

This second reading showed me how amazingly Oscar Wild has made this straightforward idea into a complex play. The plot is quite simple but it undergoes a couple of intense plot twists, keeping the reader full of suspense. The read is very engaging from its first dialogue and hard to put down. I was determined to read it slow this time allowing myself enough time to delve into it more fully, but it was a painfully hard job.

To say a few words on the characters, I enjoyed the serious, the gossiping, the mocking while loving the satire of Lord Goring and youthful, careless energy of Mabel Chiltern and their light banter. It made the play even more interesting.

This is so far the best Oscar Wild play that I've read and probably my favourite one. I recently read Lady Winderemere's Fan (which I really liked) and felt that it is my favourite, but after this reread I'm very sure that this is my favourite play by Oscar Wild.

It's a delight to read Wilde's plays, clever and witty, and by all accounts people flocked to the theater in his day to enjoy the fun. I hope a production of this one comes to my town someday, I would love to see it. Very entertaining read, right up there with Earnest.

Com as habituais doses de melodrama e sagacidade, An Ideal Husband traz-nos a história de um político cuja carreira – como a de tantos outros – tem origem em desonestidade. Assim, a sua carreira, posição social e casamento ficam sob ameaça quando Robert se vê alvo de um esquema de chantagem.

Mais uma vez, diverti-me bastante a imaginar um trabalho de Oscar Wilde em cena, criando cenários e personagens na minha imaginação. Contudo, apesar de ter apreciado a história, o seu conteúdo e mensagem não me interessaram tanto como nas outras peças.

Loved this very much due to humour and excessive sarcasm.
Rating - 3.5/5
Favourite character - Lord Goring
High point - Quotes
Low point - Plotline

In this small play, quotes are plenty. You'll find them in every conversation. In fact there is a dialogue between father and son where they talk only in terms of quotes :D
Didn't know some of the famous quotes originated here.
In spite of being a classic, the language is very easy to grasp.
Surely going to read more by Wilde.