An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde (Illustrated)

By Oscar Wilde

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘An Ideal Husband’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Wilde includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘An Ideal Husband’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Wilde’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786561589

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was a Dublin-born poet and playwright who studied at the Portora Royal School, before attending Trinity College and Magdalen College, Oxford. The son of two writers, Wilde grew up in an intellectual environment. As a young man, his poetry appeared in various periodicals including Dublin University Magazine. In 1881, he published his first book Poems, an expansive collection of his earlier works. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was released in 1890 followed by the acclaimed plays Lady Windermere’s Fan (1893) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

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The Complete Works of

OSCAR WILDE

VOLUME 6 OF 41

An Ideal Husband

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2013

Version 6

COPYRIGHT

‘An Ideal Husband’

Oscar Wilde: Parts Edition (in 41 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 158 9

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

Oscar Wilde: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 6 of the Delphi Classics edition of Oscar Wilde in 41 Parts. It features the unabridged text of An Ideal Husband from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Oscar Wilde, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Oscar Wilde or the Complete Works of Oscar Wilde in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

OSCAR WILDE

IN 41 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Plays

1, Vera

2, The Duchess of Padua

3, Lady Windermere’s Fan

4, A Woman of No Importance

5, Salomé

6, An Ideal Husband

7, The Importance of Being Earnest

8, La Sainte Courtisane

9, A Florentine Tragedy

The Poetry

10, The Complete Poems

The Novel

11, The Picture of Dorian Gray - the Original 13 Chapter Version

12, The Picture of Dorian Gray - the Revised 20 Chapter Version

The Short Stories

13, The Portrait of Mr. W. H.

14, The Happy Prince and Other Tales

15, A House of Pomegranates

16, Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories

The Non-Fiction

17, The Decay of Lying

18, Pen, Pencil and Poison - a Study in Green

19, The Critic as Artist

20, The Truth of Masks

21, The Rise of Historical Criticism

22, The English Renaissance of Art

23, House Decoration

24, Art and the Handicraftsman

25, Lecture to Art Students

26, London Models

27, Poems in Prose

28, The Soul of Man Under Socialism

29, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young

30, A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated

31, De Profundis

32, Oscar Wilde’s Letter to Robert Browning

33, Personal Impressions of America

34, The Decorative Arts

35, The House Beautiful

36, The Truth of Masks

The Journalism

37, The Articles and Reviews

Apocrypha

38, Teleny

The Biographies

39, Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions by Frank Harris

40, Memories of Oscar Wilde by G. Bernard Shaw

41, Oscar Wilde: an Idler’s Impression by Edgar Saltus

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An Ideal Husband

In 1893 Wilde began writing this comedy at Goring-on-Thames, after which he named the character Lord Goring, and finished writing the drama at St. James Place. He initially sent the completed play to the Garrick Theatre, where the manager rejected it, but it was soon accepted by the Haymarket, where Lewis Waller had temporarily taken control. Waller was an excellent actor and cast himself as Sir Robert Chiltern, with An Ideal Husband giving the Haymarket the success it desperately needed.

After opening on 3 January 1895, it continued for 124 performances. In April of that year, Wilde was arrested for ‘gross indecency’ and his name was publicly taken off the play. On 6 April, soon after Wilde’s arrest, the play moved to the Criterion Theatre where it ran from 13 to 27 April. When the play was published in 1899, Wilde was not listed as the author.

The drama opens at a dinner party in the home of Sir Robert Chiltern in London’s fashionable Grosvenor Square. Sir Robert, a prestigious member of the House of Commons, and his wife, Lady Chiltern, are hosting a gathering that includes his friend Lord Goring, a dandified bachelor and close friend to the Chilterns, his sister Mabel Chiltern, and other genteel guests. During the party, Mrs. Cheveley, an enemy of Lady Chiltern’s from their school days, attempts to blackmail Sir Robert into supporting a fraudulent scheme to build a canal in Argentina.

Lewis Waller (1860-1915), the actor and theatre manager who first played the part of Sir Robert Chiltern

An original illustration

CONTENTS

THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

ACT ONE

SECOND ACT

THIRD ACT

FOURTH ACT

The 1947 film adaptation

The 1999 film adaptation

THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

THE EARL OF CAVERSHAM, K.G.

VISCOUNT GORING, his Son

SIR ROBERT CHILTERN, Bart., Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs

VICOMTE DE NANJAC, Attaché at the French Embassy in London

MR. MONTFORD

MASON, Butler to Sir Robert Chiltern

PHIPPS, Lord Goring’s Servant

JAMES 

HAROLD   Footmen

LADY CHILTERN

LADY MARKBY

THE COUNTESS OF BASILDON

MRS. MARCHMONT

MISS MABEL CHILTERN, Sir Robert Chiltern’s Sister

MRS. CHEVELEY

Time: The Present

Place: London.

The action of the play is completed within twenty-four hours.

ACT ONE

The octagon room at Sir Robert Chiltern’s house in Grosvenor Square.

[The room is brilliantly lighted and full of guests. At the top of the staircase stands LADY CHILTERN, a woman of grave Greek beauty, about twenty-seven years of age. She receives the guests as they come up. Over the well of the staircase hangs a great chandelier with wax lights, which illumine a large eighteenth-century French tapestry — representing the Triumph of Love, from a design by Boucher — that is stretched on the staircase wall. On the right is the entrance to the music-room. The sound of a string quartette is faintly heard. The entrance on the left leads to other reception-rooms. MRS. MARCHMONT and LADY BASILDON, two very pretty women, are seated together on a Louis Seize sofa. They are types of exquisite fragility. Their affectation of manner has a delicate charm. Watteau would have loved to paint them.]

MRS. MARCHMONT. Going on to the Hartlocks’ to-night, Margaret?

LADY BASILDON. I suppose so. Are you?

MRS. MARCHMONT. Yes. Horribly tedious parties they give, don’t they?

LADY BASILDON. Horribly tedious! Never know why I go. Never know why I go anywhere.

MRS. MARCHMONT. I come here to be educated.

LADY BASILDON. Ah! I hate being educated!

MRS. MARCHMONT. So do I. It puts one almost on a level with the commercial classes, doesn’t it? But dear Gertrude Chiltern is always telling me that I should have some serious purpose in life. So I come here to try to find one.

LADY BASILDON. [Looking round through her lorgnette.] I don’t see anybody here to-night whom one could possibly call a serious purpose. The man who took me in to dinner talked to me about his wife the whole time.

MRS. MARCHMONT. How very trivial of him!

LADY BASILDON. Terribly trivial! What did your man talk about?

MRS. MARCHMONT. About myself.

LADY BASILDON. [Languidly.] And were you interested?

MRS. MARCHMONT. [Shaking her head.] Not in the smallest degree.

LADY BASILDON. What martyrs we are, dear Margaret!

MRS. MARCHMONT. [Rising.] And how well it becomes us, Olivia!

[They rise and go towards the music-room. The VICOMTE DE NANJAC, a young attaché known for his neckties and his Anglomania, approaches with a low bow, and enters into conversation.]

MASON. [Announcing guests from the top of the staircase.] Mr. and Lady Jane Barford. Lord Caversham.

[Enter LORD CAVERSHAM, an old gentleman of seventy, wearing the riband and star of the Garter. A fine Whig type. Rather like a portrait by Lawrence.]

LORD CAVERSHAM. Good evening, Lady Chiltern! Has my good-for-nothing young son been here?

LADY CHILTERN. [Smiling.] I don’t think Lord Goring has arrived yet.

MABEL CHILTERN. [Coming up to LORD CAVERSHAM.] Why do you call Lord Goring good-for-nothing?

[MABEL CHILTERN is a perfect example of the English type of prettiness, the apple-blossom type. She has all the fragrance and freedom of a flower. There is ripple after ripple of sunlight in her hair, and the little mouth, with its parted lips, is expectant, like the mouth of a child. She has the fascinating tyranny of youth, and the astonishing courage of innocence. To sane people she is not reminiscent of any work of art. But she is really like a Tanagra statuette, and would be rather annoyed if she were told so.]

LORD CAVERSHAM. Because he leads such an idle life.

MABEL CHILTERN. How can you say such a thing? Why, he rides in the Row at ten o’clock in the morning, goes to the Opera three times a week, changes his clothes at least five times a day, and dines out every night of the season. You don’t call that leading an idle life, do you?

LORD CAVERSHAM. [Looking at her with a kindly twinkle in his eyes.] You are a very charming young lady!

MABEL CHILTERN. How sweet of you to say that, Lord Caversham! Do come to us more often. You know we are always at home on Wednesdays, and you look so well with your star!

LORD CAVERSHAM. Never go anywhere now. Sick