An Ideal Husband

Corruption! Blackmail! Scandals! Misunderstandings! Marriage proposals!

Reading An Ideal Husband was a lot of fun, and I bet this would be super fun to see the stage production. Mrs. Cheveley is such a good love-to-hate-her character, and Lord Goring was just enough of a dandy that I enjoyed him and his over-the-top personality without getting annoyed by him.

Also kind of amusing that I read this as we're in the midst of Trump's impeachment hearings, as the story hinges on Lord Chilton doing something illegal to get some wealth, and someone threatening to expose that thing, when Lord Chilton has a reputation of being Upstanding and Honorable, etc. (Okay, I guess most of that is irrelevant to impeachment, president, et al., in actuality, but I thought it was funny.)

My only eyebrow-raise is a kind of confusion about Wilde's intent. I mean, he's known as a satirist, so in the end when the women are all, “Men's lives are more important than ours, and if we say otherwise they might not love us!” ... I'm not sure if that's a sign of the times or Wilde poking fun. Maybe both!

Anyway, this was fun. :)