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Audiobook edition · 3 h 30 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the mistake you hide could cost you both your marriage and your public honour?
At a party in Sir Robert Chiltern’s London home, an unwelcome guest threatens his spotless name. Mrs Cheveley knows the secret behind the respected politician’s success. She wants his support for a fraudulent canal project. In Oscar Wilde’s four-act comedy, a polished evening becomes a test of what Robert will risk to protect his career and his wife’s love.
Lady Gertrude Chiltern sees her husband as a model of honour. Robert turns for help to Lord Goring, an idle-seeming bachelor with a sharp mind. Meanwhile, Mabel Chiltern matches Goring’s wit with her own. Between tense meetings and sparkling exchanges, An Ideal Husband asks whether love can leave room for human failure—and whether perfect ideals can become cruel demands.
What you’ll discover
- A party under pressure Enter elegant London rooms where a private secret threatens a public reputation.
- A formidable unwelcome guest Meet Mrs Cheveley, whose clever demands put Robert’s marriage and principles under pressure.
- Wit with a purpose Follow Lord Goring as his easy manner conceals a mind ready to help.
- A lively comic courtship Enjoy Mabel Chiltern’s outspoken humour as she spars with the elusive Lord Goring.
- The burden of perfection Consider what happens when firm moral ideals leave little space for mercy.
Who will love it
This play suits readers who love sparkling dialogue and drawing-room drama. It also rewards anyone curious about political scandal, marriage, friendship and forgiveness.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A letter threatens a public life
- A secret turns honor into leverage
- Ideal love leaves truth no room
- Goring listens beneath the public mask
- The truth breaks an ideal apart
- A private note creates new danger
- Forgiveness makes room for human weakness
- Jokes and objects move the action
- Honor and love require human judgment
Who’s who
- Sir Robert ChilternA respected Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs whose fortune rests on an old secret, he wants to protect his career and his wife's love.
- Lady ChilternHis devoted wife, a woman of strict principles who sees her husband as an ideal and wants goodness without compromise.
- Mrs. CheveleyA brilliant, scheming woman from Vienna who holds a damaging letter and wants Sir Robert's help with a canal scheme.
- Lord GoringA witty, idle dandy and Sir Robert's closest friend, who hides a sharp mind and a loyal heart behind jokes.
- Mabel ChilternSir Robert's lively young sister, who teases Lord Goring and wants a real marriage rather than an ideal one.
- Lord CavershamLord Goring's gruff father, who scolds his son for idleness and wants to see him married.
- Lady MarkbyA talkative society lady who brings Mrs. Cheveley to the party and chatters about husbands, hats and politics.
- PhippsLord Goring's perfectly calm butler, who answers every request with exact politeness and shows nothing of his own mind.
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An Ideal Husband
by Oscar Wilde · 1899
A letter from eighteen years ago can ruin Sir Robert Chiltern, and a stranger in heliotrope holds it.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Men lived more vividly in his presence, and talked better than themselves.”
In short
What would you do if your whole life rested on one sheet of paper? Sir Robert Chiltern, a rising politician in London, is about to find out.
An Ideal Husband at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 5 min1 h 35 min fast, 2 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 29,200 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1899by Oscar Wilde
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A glittering party hides a nervous host
The play opens in the octagon room of Sir Robert Chiltern's house in Grosvenor Square. Candles blaze, a quartet plays, and a tapestry of the Triumph of Love hangs above the staircase. At the top of the stairs stands Lady Chiltern, solemn and beautiful, greeting each guest. It looks like a world without a worry.
Wilde uses the first minutes to show how this society talks. Two fashionable ladies complain that their husbands are too faultless to be interesting. Nobody means very much, and everybody is clever about it. Mabel Chiltern, Sir Robert's young sister, teases Lord Goring, a dandy who changes his clothes five times a day. His father begs him to marry, and Goring answers every scolding with a joke.
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Details
- First published
- 1899
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Wilde, Oscar. An Ideal Husband. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-ideal-husband.
Wilde, O. (2026). An ideal husband. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-ideal-husband (Original work published 1899)
Wilde, Oscar. An Ideal Husband. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-ideal-husband.
@book{wilde2026ideal,
author = {Wilde, Oscar},
title = {An Ideal Husband},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-ideal-husband},
note = {First published 1899}
}
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What is An Ideal Husband about?
It follows Sir Robert Chiltern, a respected politician whose fortune rests on an old secret. Mrs. Cheveley threatens to expose him unless he backs a fraudulent canal scheme, and his wife and best friend are drawn into the crisis.
Who is Mrs. Cheveley in An Ideal Husband?
She is a clever, glamorous woman from Vienna who knows Lady Chiltern from school and once knew Lord Goring. She holds a letter that could ruin Sir Robert and uses it to push her business plans.
When did Oscar Wilde write An Ideal Husband?
Wilde wrote it in the mid 1890s and it was first staged in London in 1895. It is a work of fiction set in the present day of its time, in London high society.
The author
Oscar Wilde
1854–1900 · Irish playwright and poet
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish poet, playwright, and novelist born in Dublin. He lived in London and later in France, where he died in Paris. He published The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890. His play The Importance of Being Earnest was first performed in 1895.
“Morality is simply the attitude we take toward people we personally dislike.”
More by Oscar Wilde
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