"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?"
Oscar Wilde

Is the sentiment about Sir Robert Chiltern, a character in the play with a past secret, or is the author proposing a change in thinking prior to society's knowledge of his secret affair? Work on AN IDEAL HUSBAND began in the early 1890's and opened to positive reviews and corresponding at More...

I liked "An Ideal Husband" the best of Oscar Wilde's Society Comedies. He managed to continue his skewering of London society, and of the rich and aristocratic. What shines here, though, is that the characters are beautifully drawn, and the dialogue is funny, but without losing its purpose.

I like how the characters with the most pristine character--Lord Robert and Lady Gertrude--are the ones who find themselves most embroiled in scandal, while the most vapid bon vivant (Lord Goring) ends up show More...

Conoscersi partendo da un complimento è una buona strada per diventare veri amici.</p><p>*</p><p>Lei preferisce essere naturale?<br />A volte. Ma è una posa molto difficile da mantenere.</p><p>*<br />La forza della donna deriva dal fatto di essere inspiegabile per la psicologia. Gli uomini si possono analizzare, le donne....adorarle e basta.<br />Allora ritiene che la scienza non sia in grado di risolvere il mistero della femminilità?<br />LA More...

Usually, I do a book or a movie review on something that I read or watched recently. Today, I will do both of them at the same time. An Ideal Husband is an 1895 comedy play by one of my favorite authors, Oscar Wilde. The movie is a… fairly faithful adaptation. Released in 1999 and directed by Oliver Parker, it has a magnificent cast: Rupert Everett, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Jeremy Northam and Minnie Driver amongst others.

The four act play, like many of Wilde’s other works, is witty and ir More...

I really liked this play, this is Wilde at his very best in play writing. I can only imagine the response when it was first released though. This is not a play one would usually associate with a nineteenth century audience. But that is what Wilde is all about, saying what he has to say about society in the manner most controversial, yet most true. This is why I so admire Wilde.

'An Ideal Husband' concerns Robert Chiltern, who is blackmailed by a certain Miss Cheveley , who is in a possession of a More...

(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 th More...

Dopo aver tanto apprezzato L'Importanza di chiamarsi Earnest", non potevo non amare "Un marito ideale". Il taglio delle due commedie è differente, ma entrambe sono caratterizzate da dialoghi brillanti e spesso divertenti.
Il carattere dei personaggi emerge dalle loro parole e nessuno è semplicemente una "macchietta" e anche i personaggi di contorno hanno un loro spessore.
Inizialmente i protagonisti possono apparire come rappresentazioni stereotipate delle diverse figure che caratterizzavano la s More...

I think what I liked best about this play was how utterly real the dialogue felt to me. The personalities and even their accents have happily jumped forth in my mind.

What I wasn't to thrilled about was the constant quipping. There's not a thing that comes out of Lord Gorling's mouth especially that isn't somehow a quip merely stated for the sake of the quip itself. His father asks him at least twice if he ever knows what he's talking about which points out exactly how I feel about Lord Gorling. More...

When the name "Oscar Wilde" is brought into company, most people immediately think of "The Importance of Being Earnest," or "That fellow who was so witty," or "Oh, wasn't he really, really gay?"

What most people DON'T seem to think of is that Wilde's work was far from trifling (Earnest), more than witty, and often centered quite firmly around the difficulties of heterosexual relationships.

"An Ideal Husband" is a comedy. It's important to remember that when watching recent versions which like to More...

Re-reading this play was fun, as I didn't remember the first two-thirds of it. I read thinking, I don't remember that, or that, or that... maybe I haven't read this. Then as it reached the climax of the play I thought, OH! I remember that!

Anyway, as usual with Wilde, it's a play that focuses a lot of energy on social landscapes and morality. Robert Chiltern rides the line of that morality, having built a respectable career and a perfect life (including his super perfect moral wife) on the founda More...

Wilde's brilliance is in his snarky dialogue and unfailingly snide social commentary. I figured it was about time I actually read this one, since I've seen the movie version several times and loved it. The play is a quick, delightful read, though the Bigger Issue At Hand (idolizing people instead of loving them, faults and all) gets a bit buried under all the cleverness and societal shenanigans. I was also extremely disappointed with Gertrude's last monologue, which, while it's basically just pa More...

Having seen versions of The Importance of Being Earnest, this book was a big disappointment. Oscar Wilde tries to tackle some heavier material, with very mixed results. There were still a few moments of humor in the play, but they were very infrequent and not nearly as funny as Earnest.

Wilde did a reasonably good job presenting his main thesis, that people need to support and love each other even though they are imperfect, but the dialogue was rather heavy-handed -- preachy -- and he completely More...

With respect to historical context, Wilde wrote An Idea Husband during the decade known as the "Yellow" or "Naughty Nineties", the twilight years of England's Victorian era. In schematic terms, this period was distinguished by England's growth as an industrial and imperial giant and an increasingly conservatism in social mores. Imperial expansion, foreign speculation, and the period's rigid system of mores--involving, for example, notions of familial devotion, propriety, and duty both public and More...

The genius of An Ideal Husband is that Oscar Wilde breaks every convention of a standard morality tale, and leaves the audience convinced that they have spent a light-hearted, uplifting evening.

During the space of 24 hours, the main characters’ lives are thrown up into the air, tossed about, and land – exactly where they started. Even their self-regard and philosophies of life remain the same. The puritanical, clueless wife still has to be fed her lines by a family friend. Her purpose in life is More...

I did not like this as much as I thought I would. I read A Woman of No Importance earlier in the year, and it shares a similar theme of redemption from secret shame. Although I believe this is the more popular work, I read that one first and liked it better. For pure Wilde witticism, though, you just can't beat The Importance of Being Earnest.

Words Below
(view spoiler)[
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 argumen (hide spoiler)] More...

Oscar Wilde does seemed to have had an seemingly endless amounts of witticisms coupled with lots of common sense. In this play, he again shows his uncanny ability to ferret out truth and apply the everyday ideas of what makes sense in the happenings of people and their relationships to one another. I always so enjoy his dedication to the concept of truth winning out in the end.

In this play, Wilde again presents us with the upper crust of society and shows it produced the very good along with th More...

In realtà volevo leggerlo in lingua originale, dopo aver preso una grande batosta con gli "aforismi" tradotti male.. Però poi è subentrato il fattore pigrizia e quindi ha vinto la comoda traduzione italiana :D
Penso che quest'opera sia la più bella di Wilde che ho letto finora. Davvero davvero davvero meritevole!!
Il libro ha tanti punti di forza:

- E' breve e scorrevole
- E' moderno, fresco, frizzante!
- E' ricco di humor
- Ha dialoghi brillanti, divertenti e sagaci
- Ha personaggi ammirabili (non int More...

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 movi More...

Really, only one point (and that was presence of too many characters with similar names in Act I) made me give it a four on five. Other than that, An Ideal Husband is the ideal play to be read. A lot of your prejudices are shattered once you read it, the chief being the search of an ideal man. In the form of Lord Goring and Lord Chiltern, Wilde demolishes the model of The Perfect Man which writers like Jane Austen had erected in their novels and brings forth a hero who is just as gullible, j More...

This is a lovely rather short play which showcases all of Oscar Wilde's wit and cleverness. It also seems to examines the question of whether the ends justify the means and if it is fair to hold ones mate to an ideal of perfection.

Sir Robert Chiltern is a rising star in the political world and is held up as a paragon of integrity and good sense. He has an adoring wife who seems to believe that she must worship her husband for there to be love in their marriage. Unfortunately his wealth and posi More...

What can beat the wit and satire of Oscar Wilde? In this book he once again takes on gentile society in his own inimitable way as he tells a story of an uncorrupted politician and his faithful wife, who turn out to be perhaps not quite as untarnished as it seems. It had me bursting out in laughter on more than one occasion.

I have this play in one book, together with The Importance of being Earnest and Lady Windermere's fan (or Lady Fandermere's wind, as my drama professor used to say). Logically I expected An ideal husband to be a comedy. And in a way it is, since it ends with one couple´s marriage being strengthened and one couple about to get married. By definition it must be a comedy then. But I suppose it´s more of a ´problem play´, like Shakespeare´s The merchant of Venice or Measure for measure: happy ending More...

I listened to this book over the course of two days. I really enjoyed the witty banter and the fun way the characters interacted with each other. It was a full cast recording, so it was fun to hear all the different personalities from the story come through with that full cast. Oscar Wilde has a great sense of humor and there were times when I was listening that I would laugh out loud at some of the observances and quips his characters would make to each other.

I liked how all the characters had More...

_An Ideal Husband_ (1895) by Oscar Wilde
Added 4/9/11.
Did not read. Watched film in August 2010. Gave it 4 Netflix stars out of 5.
FILM: 'An Ideal Husband" (1999):
Stars: Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore and Peter Vaughan
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/An_...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122541/
"Another of Wilde's social satires, 'An Ideal Husband' revolves around the lives of two men, successful political figure Sir Robert Chiltern and his friend the uninspired but utterly charming Lord Arthur Go More...

Just a note;; So I don't actually have this play in a separate book but I was lazy and only read this one so I thought I'd just go ahead and review it =3

Anyway,

This play is, without a doubt, my favorite play in the entire world. (Of course, we'll be ignoring the fact that this is only about the 4th play I've ever read.) It is just, well, BEAUTIFUL. I just want to quote it all the time. It's no wonder Oscar Wilde is one of my favorites. He really is just brilliant. This play had some of the most More...

Humorous and wise story about politics and love. Yes, you have heard right, that is what it is about. A funny story with excellent remarks by the author. This is a play you should read! Trust me it is worth it!

I like Oscar Wilde's writing, it is simple yet interesting, not overly detailed, it just delivers the message. He is good at conversations, just as he was in life I suppose. The characters have a lot to say, and they are clear in thought. It is funny how little things have changed over the years. A lot of husband and wife bantering, the usual arguments about morals and values, the mention of women's rights and education, and even insider trading on the stock market, all delivered with wit.

"It i More...

A wife has an ideal of her husband. As known of widely terms can be used, he's honest, honour, and faultless. she envisions him as infallible and divine, though human nature is bound to wrong! A disgraceful women shows up with an ugly past of dishonest and theft to turn things on its heeds. Not be enough to blaspheme and distort Gertude's husband, but to destroy friendship between dearest friends with her insolent means. As usual of any play, all problems are greatly solved at the last part. In More...