First staged in 1895, An Ideal Husband is a society comedy with a darker undertow. Sir Robert Chiltern, a respected politician, is threatened with exposure of a corrupt act from his past by the scheming Mrs. Cheveley. Wilde uses the crisis to explore the gap between public reputation and private truth, and — as always — to deliver a cascade of perfectly weighted epigrams.
One of Wilde’s four great comedies, the play holds up remarkably well as a study in hypocrisy and forgiveness. This free EPUB is cleanly formatted for Kindle, Kobo, or any e-reader.