An Ideal Husband is a comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde with an intriguing storyline revolving around blackmail and political corruption. Together with The Importance of Being Earnest, it is considered Wilde’s dramatic masterpiece.

The wicked Mrs. Cheverly, blackmails Member of Parliament Lord Robert Chiltern with a secret from his youth, leading to a crisis in his life, and in his marriage to the virtuous Lady Chiltern. It is up to his friend, the delightfully foppish Lord Goring to help extricate him. Filled with wit and humorous repartee, all is well that ends well, but not until much back-and-forth and conspiracy.

OSCAR WILDE (1854–1900) was an Irish poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for Salomé, The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, De Profundis, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. He is considered a literary master, and a central figure in the development of the modern novel.