An ideal husband: A 1895 stage play by Oscar Wilde

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Albert Edward, the future King Edward VII, was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Although he was heir to the throne, his mother did not entrust him with royal duties or make any attempts to prepare him for his future role as king. Instead, the Prince of Wales (known as Bertie to his family and friends) became the most prominent member of a group of highly elite socialites, the Marlborough House Set, named for the house Albert Edward occupied with his wife and family. Even after he married Princess Alexandra of Denmark (an arranged marriage), Bertie was notorious for his extravagant lifestyle and his string of mistresses, ranging from actresses to the wives of other noblemen, one of whom was at his bedside when he died. He fathered a number of illegitimate children, some of them passed off as the children of their mothers’ husbands. A production at the Vaudeville Theatre, London in 2010–11 featured Alexander Hanson as Sir Robert Chiltern, Rachael Stirling as Lady Chiltern, Samantha Bond as Mrs Cheveley and Elliot Cowan. A revival at the same theatre in 2018 featured Nathaniel Parker and Sally Bretton as the Chilterns, the father and son combination of Edward Fox as Lord Caversham and Freddie Fox as Lord Goring, and Frances Barber as Mrs Cheveley, and Susan Hampshire as Lady Markby. [19] International [ edit ] The first West End revival was presented by George Alexander in May 1914 at the St James's Theatre, and featured Arthur Wontner as Sir Robert Chiltern, Phyllis Neilson-Terry as Lady Chiltern, Hilda Moore as Mrs Cheveley and Alexander as Lord Goring. The play was next staged in London at the Westminster Theatre in 1943–44, with Manning Whiley as Sir Robert Chiltern, Rosemary Scott as Lady Chiltern, Martita Hunt as Mrs Cheveley, Roland Culver as Lord Goring and Irene Vanbrugh as Lady Markby, set design by Rex Whistler. [19] Victorian Popular Forms and Practices of Reading and Writing (Colloque SFEVE Paris Est Créteil, 29-30 janvier 2021) ; Renaissances (atelier SFEVE du Congrès Tours, juin 2021)

Bristow, Joseph (2008). Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture – The Making of a Legend. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-1838-3. Toward the end of ActI, Mabel and Lord Goring come upon a diamond brooch that Goring gave someone many years ago. He takes the brooch and asks Mabel to tell him if anyone comes to retrieve it. [10] Act II [ edit ] Morning room in Sir Robert Chiltern's house At Magdalen, he read Greats from 1874 to 1878, and from there he applied to join the Oxford Union, but failed to be elected. [32] Oscar Wilde at Oxford in 1876 Dora Chamberlain / Ira and Rita Katzenberg / Jules Leventhal / Burns Mantle / P. A. MacDonald / Vincent Sardi Sr. (1947) Catholicism deeply appealed to him, especially its rich liturgy, and he discussed converting to it with clergy several times. In 1877, Wilde was left speechless after an audience with Pope PiusIX in Rome. [36] He eagerly read the books of Cardinal Newman, a noted Anglican priest who had converted to Catholicism and risen in the church hierarchy. He became more serious in 1878, when he met the Reverend Sebastian Bowden, a priest in the Brompton Oratory who had received some high-profile converts. Neither his father, who threatened to cut off his funds, nor Mahaffy thought much of the plan; but Wilde, the supreme individualist, balked at the last minute from pledging himself to any formal creed, and on the appointed day of his baptism into Catholicism, sent Father Bowden a bunch of altar lilies instead. Wilde did retain a lifelong interest in Catholic theology and liturgy. [37]A Florentine Tragedy is a fragment of a never-completed play by Oscar Wilde. The subject concerns Simone, a wealthy 16th-century Florentine merchant who finds his wife Bianca in the arms of a local prince, Guido Bardi. After feigning hospitality, Simone challenges the interloper to a duel, disarms him, and strangles him. This awakens the affection of his wife; and the two are reconciled. Hart-Davis, Rupert; Lyttelton, G W (1978). Rupert Hart-Davis (ed.). Lyttelton–Hart-Davis Letters, Volume 1. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-3478-2. This caused a public relations nightmare for Wilde. Homosexual acts were a criminal offense in England at the time and remained illegal there until the 1960s. Oscar Wilde; Maurice Evans; Lucile Watson; Margaret Webster, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, New York: Theatre Masterworks, OCLC 10935711 As Wilde's work came to be read and performed again, it was The Importance of Being Earnest that received the most productions. [55] By the time of its centenary, the journalist Mark Lawson described it as "the second most known and quoted play in English after Hamlet." [56]

the play resists time and it still appeals to people nowadays. For 3 years I have studied extracts of the play with my second-year French Modern Literature students who love it because it is witty, subversive and questions gender roles. However, in 2009 one of them told me that she had not actually found the play funny! This was partly because she only focused on the serious aspects of the play and found Wilde nihilistic. Friends who knew of Wilde’s sexual orientation urged him to flee to France until the storm subsided. (France had decriminalized homosexuality in 1791 during the French Revolution.)

Wilde won the 1878 Newdigate Prize for his poem " Ravenna", which reflected on his visit there in the previous year, and he duly read it at Encaenia. [45] In November 1878, he graduated with a double first in his B.A. of Classical Moderations and Literae Humaniores (Greats). Wilde wrote to a friend, "The dons are ' astonied' beyond words– the Bad Boy doing so well in the end!" [46] [47] Apprenticeship of an aesthete: 1880s Debut in society Photograph by Elliott & Fry of Baker Street, London, 1881 1881 caricature in Punch, the caption reads: "O.W.", "Oh, I eel just as happy as a bright sunflower, Lays of Christy Minstrelsy, "Æsthete of Æsthetes!/What's in a name!/The Poet is Wilde/But his poetry's tame."

In 1960, Ernest in Love was staged Off-Broadway. The Japanese all-female musical theatre troupe Takarazuka Revue staged this musical in 2005 in two productions, one by Moon Troupe and the other one by Flower Troupe.Russell, Bindon (July 1995). "Commemorative Plaque at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket". The Wildean (7): 9–13. ISSN 1357-4949. JSTOR 45269165. Russell, Bindon (July 1996). " An Ideal Husband: At the Theatre Royal, Haymarket". The Wildean (9): 36–37. ISSN 1357-4949. JSTOR 45269537. Oscar Wildewas born in Dublin, Ireland, moved to England to attend Oxford University, and then moved to London. Wildehad been rejected by his first love, but in London met and married Constance Lloyd, with whom he had two children.