An Ideal Husband: Second Edition, Revised (New Mermaids) - Hardcover

Wilde, Oscar

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1474260810 ISBN 13: 9781474260817

Publisher: Methuen Drama

Synopsis

One of the nineteenth century's most successful and most frequently revived plays, An Ideal Husband has divided critics more than any other of Wilde's plays. Treating political intrigue, financial fraud, blackmail, scandal and spin, and the role of women in public life, it is a play which engaged with issues of vital importance to its late-Victorian audience, which continue to resonate today. Sos Eltis, a specialist in Victorian drama and its relation to women's issues, provides a stimulating new perspective on An Ideal Husband, through an introduction that looks at its relation with contemporary social purity campaigns, women's rights, and political scandals. The introduction also gives a substantial performance history, with particular reference to the play's film versions and the influential Peter Hall theatre production.

About this title

About the Author:

Sos Eltis is a Fellow in English at Brasenose College, Oxford, and a member of the Oxford University English Faculty. She is also a senior member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society and a member of the board of Oxford Playhouse Theatre. She has written extensively on Victorian and modern drama, and on Oscar Wilde in particular. Russell Jackson is Allardyce Nicoll Chair in Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham.

Review:

An ideal Christmas play and a play for all seasons. Sunday Times, John Peter, 23/12/2007 'Hugely entertaining, a curious mixture of melodrama, Wilde's distinctinve epigrammatic wit and sudden moments of deeper feeling' Daily Telegraph - Charles Spencer, 11.11.10 'Oscar Wilde's ability to satirise the hollowness of our social and political life remains remarkably undimmed... it resonates with a loud topical ring considering the various antic today's MPs have been up to when filling out their expense sheets' Daily Express - Paul Callan, 12.11.10 'Energetically entertaining - a glossy melodrama...studded with smart lines and, more surprisingly, imbued with humanity' Evening Standard - Henry Hitchings, 12.11.10 'A shrewd depiction of naked ambition and a serious debate about what really constitutes goodness' Financial Times - Sarah Hemming, 12.11.10 'A masterwork of good-humoured, charitable insight into human frailty' Independent - Paul Taylor, 12.11.10 'A play which smuggles subtlety in under farce and melodrama' Observer - Susannah Clapp, 14.11.10 'A fascinating, psychologically penetrating study of the pursuit of power and the cost of success... A work that shows Wilde at his most wittily serious and subversively moral' Sunday Times - Christopher Hart, 14.11.10 'a play that flirts with melodrama. dabbles with farce and in which the emotionally remote upper classes are brought down to earth' Jewish Chronicle - John Nathan, 19.11.10 'An Ideal Husband' fizzes with wit, reverence and daring' Sunday Express - Mark Shenton, 21.11.10

About this edition

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• ISBN 10: 1474260810
• ISBN 13: 9781474260817
• Binding: Hardcover