Audiobook · read by volunteers
Ideal Husband
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
Read by John Gonzalez, Kristin Hughes (1974-2021), Linton, Betsie Bush, Ophelia Darcy, Alex Foster, JemmaBlythe, Hugh McGuire, David Barnes, Ezwa · 4 chapters · 3 h 17
About the book
Sir Robert Chiltern is a rising politician, admired for his integrity and married to a wife who believes him to be without fault. Then a visitor from his past arrives in London with a letter and a proposal: help her in a financial scheme, or watch his reputation collapse. At the centre of this web stands Lord Goring, a witty young man who seems interested only in his own amusement, but who proves a good friend when it matters. Oscar Wilde's comedy is a play of blackmail, political corruption and the nature of honour, wrapped in the sparkling talk for which he is famous. Epigrams fly, secrets are exposed and no one is quite what they seem. In four acts and a little over three hours, it offers laughter with an edge of seriousness.
Introduction
Oscar Wilde lived from 1854 to 1900. Born in Dublin, he became one of the most celebrated figures of Victorian London, a master of conversation and of paradox, who wrote poems, essays, a novel and a series of brilliantly successful plays. An Ideal Husband was first performed in 1895 and belongs to the group of society comedies that includes Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest.
The action takes place within a single day, in the London of its own time. The play touches on public and private honour and asks how far a man should be judged by his past. Its plot of blackmail and political scandal might have been the material of melodrama, but Wilde gives it a comic treatment and uses it to explore the difference between how people appear and how they are. Among its famous lines is the observation that sooner or later we shall all have to pay for what we do, balanced by the plea that no one should be entirely judged by their past.
This LibriVox recording is a full-cast reading, with volunteers each taking a role and a narrator reading the stage directions. It is divided by act into four parts, and lasts about three hours and twenty minutes.
Why listen today? Because the play combines wit and moral seriousness in a way few comedies manage. Its themes of public reputation and private weakness feel strikingly current, and its dialogue is a delight to the ear.
Public domain
Oscar Wilde died in 1900: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text