AN IDEAL HUSBAND. BY THE AUTHOR OF LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN

[WILDE, OSCAR]

Published by Leonard Smithers, London, 1899

About this Item

225 x 180 mm. (8 3/4 x 7 1/4"). 8 p.l., 213, [1] pp. EXUBERANT EARLY 20TH CENTURY SLATE BLUE CRUSHED MOROCCO, HANDSOMELY GILT AND INLAID, covers framed by gilt fillets with inlaid red morocco fan cornerpieces surrounded by twining gilt vines, raised bands, spine compartments with leafy gilt sprays, TURQUOISE MOROCCO DOUBLURES framed in gilt with botanical cornerpieces, turquoise watered silk endleaves, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. In a velvet-lined black cloth clamshell box by the Chelsea Bindery. A Large Paper Copy. Front doublure with traces of bookplate removal. Mason 386. â Spine evenly darkened (though gilt still bright), gentle wear to corners, a preliminary leaf with minor closed tear at the top, four pages with trivial marginal stain, but an extremely attractive copy nevertheless, the binding showing little use, and the text notably bright, clean, and fresh, with vast margins. This is the sought-after strictly limited and signed edition of Wilde's second hit play, in a binding that suggests the truth of his aphorism, "Nothing succeeds like excess." Our opulent binding is unsigned, but its extravagance would surely please the great aesthete. With elegant inlays and gilt tooling, plus fine leather doublures and silk endleaves, out binding incorporates many of the characteristics of the early 20th century flowering of bookbinding in England. The fan cornerpieces are not only lovely, but they suggest a winking reference to the play by which the unnamed author here is identified on the title page ("the author of Lady Windermere's Fan"). "An Ideal Husband" was successful like Wilde's other witty comedies, but it has at least slightly more serious social and political content. Opening at the Haymarket Theatre in 1895 and continuing for 124 performances, it features as the title character a prominent politician. He finds himself in danger of losing his reputation because of a potentially damaging letter that the play's villain threatens to expose if the husband refuses to support the former's corrupt political agenda. The play moves its characters toward a more ideal moral standard as they struggle with dishonesty, hypocrisy, double standards, materialism, and corruption of social and political life. But none of this weighs down Wilde's witty banter, as the play suggests; after all, even when there is a pretense of the embrace of moral probity, nobody is ever that good or is even expected to be. The work is dedicated to the Irish-American writer Frank Harris, who is said to have given Wilde the idea to use insider trading (which related to Disraeli's financial machinations) as part of the plot here. Covering the play for the "Saturday Review," George Bernard Shaw declared Wilde (1854-1900) "our only thorough playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience, with the whole theatre." Copies of the first edition of this play are not uncommon in the marketplace, but our Large Paper, signed edition is obviously rare as well as highly prized. No. 6 OF 100 COPIES of the Large Paper printing of the First Edition, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. Seller Inventory # ST19872

Bibliographic Details

Title: AN IDEAL HUSBAND. BY THE AUTHOR OF LADY ...

Publisher: Leonard Smithers, London

Publication Date: 1899

Signed: Signed by Author(s)