Oscar Wilde’s social comedy, An Ideal Husband, has charmed and challenged audiences since its glamorous London opening in 1895, which the Prince of Wales attended. When a prominent politician is blackmailed over a youthful indiscretion, society is forced to examine whether idealized notions of goodness and morality serve to uphold society or become tools of destruction. In the context of contemporary quests to grapple with the past honestly, Wilde’s sparkling and profound play is unparalleled in beckoning us to love the world ‘in all its tainted glory.’ This Warbler Classics edition includes an afterword by Ulrich Baer and George Bernard Shaw’s review of the original stage production.
Table of Content
Contents
The Persons of the Playvii
The Scenes of the Playviii
Theatre Royal, Haymarketix
First Act1
Second Act36
Third Act67
Fourth Act93
Afterword by Ulrich Baer117
George Bernard Shaw’s Review of An Ideal Husband,
The Saturday Review (January 12, 1895)123
Biographical Timeline126
About the author
Ulrich Baer holds degrees from Harvard and Yale, has been awarded Guggenheim, Getty, and Humboldt fellowships, and is University Professor at New York University. He has authored books on poetry, September 11, photography, free speech, a novel, and a collection of short stories, and, in the Warbler Press Contemplations series: Dickinson on Love, Nietzsche on Love, Rilke on Love, and Wilde on Love.
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