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    Lady Windermere's Fan
    Lady Windermere's Fan
    Lady Windermere's Fan
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    Lady Windermere's Fan

    By Oscar Wilde

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    When Lady Windermere begins to suspect her husband of infidelity, she confronts him, accusing him of having an affair with a woman known as Mrs. Erlynne. Lord Windermere denies her accusations, but the true identity of Mrs. Erlynne is even more shocking than Lady Windermere expects.

    Lady Windermere’s Fan has become one of Oscar Wilde’s most well-known plays, and is the origin of the famous literary quote, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” It has been adapted several times for film, most recently for the 2009 film A Good Woman, starring Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson.

    HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateNov 25, 2014
    ISBN9781443442510
    Author

    Oscar Wilde

    Born in Ireland in 1856, Oscar Wilde was a noted essayist, playwright, fairy tale writer and poet, as well as an early leader of the Aesthetic Movement. His plays include: An Ideal Husband, Salome, A Woman of No Importance, and Lady Windermere's Fan. Among his best known stories are The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Canterville Ghost.

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    Reviews for Lady Windermere's Fan

    4/5

    357 ratings18 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This was Oscar Wilde's first success theatrically. I'm not usually a fan of comedies-- this one is no exception. The writing, although some parts of it were descriptive and dream-like, were generally lacklustre and unintriguing. I didn't feel connected to the characters in the least and the whole thing felt flat. I don't recommend this one.
    • 5/5
      This was a wonderfully visual play that kept me interested in not only the outcome, but the very nature of each of the characters. The condensed nature of the intense revelations is both abrasive, and welcome. It allowed for a fast and easily understood plot that thickened like churned milk.
    • 3/5
      A lot of well known quotes, but I think I'd enjoy it more if I saw it on stage.
    • 4/5
      A well-written coming of age tale. Witty repartee, a young wife's coming of age, and a mother's sacrifice combine for a touching drama. Wilde makes a clear statement about the impossible standards human beings believe they should be able to live up to.
    • 5/5
      I usually find Oscar Wilde's plays to be written in a kind of gay code so that they look like one thing on the surface, but underneath are about the lives of queer people in Edwardian England. On the surface Lady Windermere's Fan looks like the story of a happily married couple whose life together is almost destroyed by a grasping yet loving woman. But it's really about having to live with secrets that, if known, would destroy your standing in middle-class Victorian society.
    • 4/5
      “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” — Lord Darlington“Lady Windermere’s Fan” is Oscar Wilde’s first successful society comedy from 1892. Though it is not as popular as his other works, it showcased Wilde’s sharp wit with numerous quotable quotes. Written as an epigram that explores the ideas of good vs. bad, rather the good can have bad qualities, and if the bad can ever do good, we find Lady Windermere in the leading role, pitted against the suspected lover of her husband, Mrs. Erlynne. In twenty hours’ time, the truth about Mrs. Erlynne is revealed, the temptation of Lady Windermere is resolved, and the views of men and women in then society is debated by Lords and Ladies. Wilde loved this play so much that he notoriously announced during the Premiere, “Ladies and Gentlemen. I have enjoyed this evening immensely. The actors have given us a charming rendering of a delightful play, and your appreciation has been most intelligent. I congratulate you on the great success of your performance, which persuades me that you think almost as highly of the play as I do myself.”I read the book before seeing the play performed, and I read it again afterwards. With the right cast and production, the words come alive and sparkle with comedic gems. Though the main plot isn’t applicable in today’s time (thank goodness), the numerous zingers deliver laughs and are at times thought-provoking. The characters are not deeply explored, which is not surprising given the play is fifty-two pages with sixteen characters. The play itself felt a bit silly initially but likely because I couldn’t get it through my thick head that it’s a no-no for a woman to be at a man’s home alone in 1892. Read the play if you have a chance to also see it; it is so much better that way. 3.5 stars in literature form + 0.5 stars in production formQuotes/Zingers!On Good vs. Bad:Lord Darlington: “Oh, now-a-days so many conceited people go about society pretending to be good, that I think it shows rather a sweet and modest disposition to pretend to be bad. Besides, there is this to be said. If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.”Lord Darlington: “Do you know I am afraid that good people do a great deal of harm in this world. Certainly the greatest harm they do is that they make badness of such extraordinary importance. It is absurd to divide people into good and bad.”On Temptation:Lord Darlington: “I couldn’t help it. I can resist everything except temptation.”On Being a Wife:Duchess of Berwick: “…Our husbands would really forget our existence if we didn’t nag at them from time to time, just to remind them that we have a perfect legal right to do so.”On Life:Lord Darlington: “Because I think that life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.” On Men:Duchess of Berwick: “… Now I know that all men are monsters. The only thing to do is to feed the wretches well. A good cook does wonders…”On Aging:Cecil Graham: “…My father would talk morality after dinner. I told him he was old enough to know better. But my experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don’t know anything at all…”Dumby: “The youth of the present day are quite monstrous. They have absolutely no respect for dyed hair.”On Marriage:Lady Windermere: “London is full of women who trust their husbands. One can always recognize them. They look so thoroughly unhappy.”On Women:Humorous given the epigram of this play – Lady Plymdale: “…It takes a thoroughly good woman to do a thoroughly stupid thing…”Lord Augustus: “I prefer women with a past. They’re always so demmed amusing to talk to.”Cecil Graham: “Well, you’ll have lots of topics of conversation with her…” (referring to Mrs. Erlynne)On Gossip:Cecil Graham: “Oh, gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. Now I never moralize. A man who moralizes is usually a hypocrite, and a woman who moralizes is invariably plain…”On Dating:Cecil Graham: “Now, my dear Tuppy, don’t be led astray into the paths of virtue. Reformed, you would be perfectly tedious. That is the worst of women. They always want one to be good. And if we are good, when they meet us, they don’t love us at all. They like to find us quite irretrievably bad, and to leave us quite unattractively good.”On Cynic vs. Sentimentalist:Cecil Graham: “What is a cynic?”Lord Darlington: “A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”Cecil Graham: “And a sentimentalist, my dear Darlington, is a man who sees an absurd value in everything, and doesn’t know the market price of any single thing.”On Experience:Cecil Graham: “…Experience is a question of instinct about life. I have got it. Tuppy hasn’t. Experience is the name Tuppy gives to his mistakes….”Dumby: “Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes… Life would be very dull without them.”On Ideals vs. Realities:Mrs. Erlynne: “Ideals are dangerous things. Realities are better. They wound, but they are better.”On Living Life with Good and Evil:Lady Windermere: “…There is the same world for all of us, and good and evil, sin and innocence, go through it hand in hand. To shut one’s eyes to half of life that one may live securely is as though one blinded oneself that one might walk with more safety in a land of pit and precipice.”
    • 4/5
      Young and deeply in love, the marriage of Lord and Lady Windermere is suddenly in peril when gossip assures the Lady that her husband has been keeping company with a notorious woman. This rumor is confirmed to be true by her husband, who then begs his wife to invite this friend of his to their society party that night, which the Lady refuses to do. Lord Windermere issues the invite on his wife's behalf, openly telling her that he does so because this woman wishes to be welcomed into society and he plans on helping her in that.A story of deception and the intense scrutiny a person lived under, where whatever your relatives did reflected on you. Many of Wilde's best lines are here.
    • 4/5
      A short four act play from the master of wit, Oscar Wilde. It threatens to become too melodramatic in its middle sections after a contrived setup, but he brings it all together nicely in the final act, and as always, peppers the script with droll one-liners and a satire of Victorian morality. The plot has a ‘loose’ woman showing up and seeming to have an affair with a married man, since he’s secretly paying her large sums of money and she’s known to be flirtatious. It turns out the woman is his wife’s mother, assumed dead since she was a baby, and she doesn’t want her identity made known to her daughter. Complicating things is the wife has an admirer of her own who wants to whisk her away to a different life abroad. Aside from his clever wordplay, I liked how in crafting this story, Wilde pointed out that all in the world cannot be simply be divided into good and evil, moral and immoral. The way sacrifices are made and left unsaid are touching, and fit together well at the conclusion. Quotes:On man’s condition:“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”On not caring what the world thinks:“I won’t tell you that the world matters nothing, or the world’s voice, or the voice of society. They matter a great deal. They matter far too much. But there are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely – or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. You have that moment now. Choose! Oh, my love, choose.”On temptation:“How securely one think one lives – out of reach of temptation, sin, folly. And then suddenly – Oh! Life is terrible. It rules us, we do not rule it.”
    • 4/5
      {rereading Lady Windermere's Fan, Feb. 2016} I am altering my rating of this play from 4* to 4½* (see my print edition of "The Plays of Oscar Wilde" for review) -- I had forgotten how many wonderful lines there were in the dialogue of this play. These raise it up but I still don't think it is as good as my favorite, The Importance of Being Earnest so I can't give it 5*.While my opinion of the play itself has been increased by this reread, I found some of the cast of narrators were not great. Nobody was dreadful but Mr. Hopper in particular was poor and I found Lord Windermere spoke too slowly and deliberately. Mrs. Erlynne (voiced by Elizabeth Klett) was excellent.
    • 3/5
      3.5***

      Lady Margaret Windermere has just come of age and is planning a birthday ball. A bachelor friend, Lord Darlington comes to call and she shows him the fan her husband has given her. The Duchess of Berwick arrives and tells Lady Windermere about the gossip that Lord Windermere is seeing a Mrs Erlynne on the side, and giving her large sums of money. Lady Windermere defends her husband against such malicious rumors, but as soon as the Duchess departs, Lady W searches her husband’s desk and finds a bank book with evidence that he HAS been supporting “that” woman!

      Of course, this only sets up the series of misunderstandings, innuendo, rumor, coincidences and awkward situations to come.

      Wilde was a master at writing this genre of play: a comedy of manners. The dialogue is witty and acerbic. The situations may be somewhat over-the-top, but they rely on the strict societal rules of Victorian England, when a married woman might receive a gentleman friend in her home, but would be publicly shamed and ruined if she was known to call on that same gentleman in his apartment. Neither would a divorced woman be received in any proper household.

      I’ve had the pleasure to see this play performed on the stage and it was a complete delight. Reading it definitely suffers in comparison to the full experience of watching it, though I had my memories of the performance to think on. Much as I love Oscar Wilde’s plays, I don’t think this is his best effort. I much prefer An Ideal Husband (which has a very similar plot twist) or The Importance of Being Earnest. Still, if you have a chance to see one of Wilde’s plays performed, don’t pass up the opportunity.
    • 4/5
      "I can resist everything except temptation.""Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.”After hearing L. A. Theatre Works production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” I had to try another one.Lady Windermere suspects her husband of having an affair with newcomer to town, Mrs. Erlynne - and then Windermere meet the woman the same evening at her birthday ball - but who is Mrs Erlynne? And should lady Windermere run away with the attractive Lord Darlington who is secretly in love with her?Lady Windermere’s Fan is typical Oscar Wilde - another comedy of manners in London upper class society with funny one-liners and witty conversation.The story is rather thin compared to “Earnest”, but I enjoyed every bit of it. Again I must praise L. A. Theatre Works for these audiobooks. I have already downloaded more of their productions at Audible.
    • 4/5
      Not Wilde's best. The plot was pretty lame - done before, and with lots of those rom-com situations where you think "This would all be cleared up if they'd just talk to each other like normal humans" - but it's still Wilde, so it's still plenty fun to read and has lots of things you probably would have put as your high school yearbook quote if you'd read it back then.

      "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

      "Experience is a question of instinct about life."

      "There's nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It's a thing no married man knows anything about."
    • 5/5
      On the night of her birthday party, a young, newly married woman is shocked to discover that her husband has been spending an inordinate amount of time (and money) on a woman of ill repute. Even worse, he now insists that this woman be invited to the party. Who is this stranger that is driving a wedge in their marriage? And what is her hold on Lady Windermere's husband?A charming play about mistakes, regrets, and all manner of love.
    • 4/5
      Oh, like so many comedies of manners you do just end up wanting to bang all their heads together, but this is clever and witty and at one and the same time heartwarming, yet deeply depressing. Is Lady Windermere doomed to repeat the mistakes her mother made?
    • 3/5
      I love Oscar Wilde, but this, his first play, is lacking a little of his trademark comedy and wit. It is a comedy, does have some witty lines, but some of the satire is lost today. Maybe this is just a play that works better on stage than page.
    • 3/5
      This play wasn't what I expected. I think I was expecting something like The Importance of Being Earnest, which is such a light and fluffy bit of fun. This one wasn't like that. There were still some very funny lines, like the familiar "I can resist everything except temptation," but the subject was more serious and the funny lines were just thrown in around the action.Lady Windermere has only been married 2 years. She and her husband married as a love match. But now gossip has linked her husband with an older woman. Lady Windermere can't forgive or listen to her husband's attempt to explain that it's not really like that. A tangle of complicated situations that can't ever be explained follow, with mixed results. I might enjoy it more if I saw it onstage. As it is, it was fun reading, but nothing more.
    • 4/5
      The best part is in the third act where the men are smart-mouthing and bouncing off each other. I like the cleverness of the conversation and the "Englishness" of the whole thing. It was a nice change for a play of this type to not finish in fairytale style.
    • 2/5
      not as entertaining to read as his other play. Dragged a bit.

    Book preview

    Lady Windermere's Fan - Oscar Wilde

    LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN

    The Persons of the Play

    LORD WINDERMERE.

    LORD DARLINGTON

    LORD AUGUSTUS LORTON

    MR. DUMBY

    MR. CECIL GRAHAM

    MR. HOPPER

    PARKER, BUTLER

    LADY WINDERMERE

    THE DUCHESS OF BERWICK

    LADY AGATHA CARLISLE

    LADY PLYMDALE

    LADY STUTFIELD

    LADY JEDBURGH

    MRS. COWPER-COWPER

    MRS. ERLYNNE

    ROSALIE, MAID

    ACT ONE

    SCENE: Morning-room of Lord Windermere’s house in Carlton House Terrace, London. The action of the play takes place within twenty-four hours, beginning on a Tuesday afternoon at five o’clock, and ending the next day at 1.30 p.m. TIME: The present. Doors C. and R. Bureau with books and papers R. Sofa with small tea-table L. Window opening on to terrace L. Table R.

    LADY WINDERMERE is at table R., arranging roses in a blue bowl.

    Enter PARKER.

    PARKER: Is your ladyship at home this afternoon?

    LADY WINDERMERE: Yes – who has called?

    PARKER: Lord Darlington, my lady.

    LADY WINDERMERE (hesitates for a moment): Show him up – and I’m at home to any one who calls.

    PARKER: Yes, my lady. (Exit C.)

    LADY WINDERMERE: It’s best for me to see him before to-night. I’m glad he’s come.

    Enter PARKER C.

    PARKER: Lord Darlington.

    Enter LORD DARLINGTON C. Exit PARKER.

    LORD DARLINGTON: How do you do, Lady Windermere?

    LADY WINDERMERE: How do you do, Lord Darlington? No, I can’t shake hands with you. My hands are all wet with these roses. Aren’t they lovely? They came up from Selby this morning.

    LORD DARLINGTON: They are quite perfect. (Sees a fan lying on the table.) And what a wonderful fan! May I look at it?

    LADY WINDERMERE: Do. Pretty, isn’t it? It’s got my name on it, and everything. I have only just seen it myself. It’s my husband’s birthday present to me. You know to-day is my birthday?

    LORD DARLINGTON: No? Is it really?

    LADY WINDERMERE: Yes, I’m of age to-day. Quite an important day in my life, isn’t it? That is why I am giving this party to-night. Do sit down. (Still arranging flowers.)

    LORD DARLINGTON: (sitting down): I wish I had known it was your birthday, Lady Windermere. I would have covered the whole street in front of your house with flowers for you to walk on. They are made for you. (A short pause.)

    LADY WINDERMERE: Lord Darlington, you annoyed me last night at the Foreign Office. I am afraid you are going to annoy me again.

    LORD DARLINGTON: I, Lady Windermere?

    Enter PARKER and FOOTMAN C, with tray and tea things.

    LADY WINDERMERE: Put it there, Parker. That will do. (Wipes her hands with her pocket-handkerchief, goes to tea-table L., and sits down.) Won’t you come over, Lord Darlington?

    Exit PARKER C.

    LORD DARLINGTON (takes chair and goes across L.C.): I am quite miserable, Lady Windermere. You must tell me what I did. (Sits down at table L.)

    LADY WINDERMERE: Well, you kept paying me elaborate compliments the whole evening.

    LORD DARLINGTON (smiling): Ah, nowadays we are all of us so hard up, that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They’re the only things we can pay.

    LADY WINDERMERE (shaking her head): No, I am talking very seriously. You mustn’t laugh, I am quite serious. I don’t like compliments, and I don’t see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says to her a whole heap of things that he doesn’t mean.

    LORD DARLINGTON: Ah, but I did mean them. (Takes tea which she offers him.)

    LADY WINDERMERE (gravely): I hope not. I should be sorry to have to quarrel with you, Lord Darlington. I like you very much, you know that. But I shouldn’t like you at all if I thought you were what most other men are. Believe me, you are better than most other men, and I sometimes think you pretend to be worse.

    LORD DARLINGTON: We all have our little vanities, Lady Windermere.

    LADY WINDERMERE: Why do you make that your special one? (Still seated at table L.)

    LORD DARLINGTON (still seated L.C.): Oh, nowadays so many conceited people go about Society pretending to be good, that I think it shows rather a sweet and modest disposition to pretend to be bad. Besides, there is this to be said. If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.

    LADY WINDERMERE: Don’t you want the world to take you seriously then, Lord Darlington?

    LORD DARLINGTON: No, not the world. Who are the people the world takes seriously? All the dull people one can think of, from the Bishops down to the bores. I should like you to take me very seriously, Lady Windermere, you more than any one else in life.

    LADY WINDERMERE: Why – why me?

    LORD DARLINGTON (after a slight hesitation): Because I think we might be great friends. Let us be great friends. You may want a friend some day.

    LADY WINDERMERE: Why do you say that?

    LORD DARLINGTON: Oh! – we all want friends at times.

    LADY WINDERMERE: I think we’re very good friends already, Lord Darlington. We can always remain so as long as you don’t –

    LORD DARLINGTON: Don’t what?

    LADY WINDERMERE: Don’t spoil it by saying extravagant silly things to me. You think I am a Puritan, I suppose? Well, I have something of the Puritan in me. I was brought up like that. I am glad of it. My mother died when I was a mere child. I lived always with Lady Julia, my father’s elder sister, you know. She was stern to me, but she taught me what the world is forgetting, the difference that there is between what is right and what is wrong. She allowed of no compromise. I allow of none.

    LORD DARLINGTON: My dear Lady Windermere!

    LADY WINDERMERE (leaning back on the sofa): You look on me as being behind the age. Well, I am ! I should be sorry to be on the same level as an age like this.

    LORD DARLINGTON: You think the age very bad?

    LADY

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