Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Wilde, Oscar. An Ideal Husband.. Leonard Smithers and Co, London, 1899.
Price: US$22000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, signed limited edition. Octavo, original lavender publisher's cloth. OneÂof 100 large paper copies signed by Oscar Wilde. In very good condition with some light rubbing and darkening to the extremities.ÂHoused in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Wildeâs play premiered in January 1895 to an audience that included the Prince of Wales, and was an immediate success. Together with The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband is often considered Wilde's dramatic masterpiece. After Earnest, it is his most popularly produced play. It has been adapted to film several times, first in 1935, most recently in 1999 starring Julianne Moore, Minnie Driver, Cate Blanchett and Rupert Everett. Mason 385.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Wilde, Oscar. An Ideal Husband.. Leonard Smithers and Co, London, 1899.
Price: US$25000.00 + shipping
Description: First signed limited edition of Wilde's classic comedic stage play. Octavo, original lavender publisher's cloth with gilt titles to the spine and gilt flourishes to the spine and front panel. One of 100 large paper copies signed by Oscar Wilde, this is number 85. In near fine condition with a touch of toning. Housed in a custom half morocco slipcase. A superior example. Wildeâs play premiered in January 1895 to an audience that included the Prince of Wales, and was an immediate success. Together with The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband is often considered Wilde's dramatic masterpiece. After Earnest, it is his most popularly produced play. It has been adapted to film several times, first in 1935, most recently in 1999 starring Julianne Moore, Minnie Driver, Cate Blanchett and Rupert Everett.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$48000.00 + shipping
Description: Signed limited large-paper edition of the authorâs masterpiece, number 68 of 100 copies signed by Oscar Wilde on the limitation page. Octavo, original pale purple cloth, gilt titles to the spine, gilt floral motifs from designs by Charles Shannon on spine and covers, edges untrimmed. Presentation copy, with an autograph letter signed by the third and final wife of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, actress Carlotta Monterey O'Neill, to stage actor Harrison K. Ford laid in which reads, "To Harrison Ford Do hope you will enjoy this!- All good wishes Carlotta Monterey O'Neill Dec 6th 31 1095 Park Ave.-" From the library of Harrison K. Ford with his bookplate to the front pastedown. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. In near fine condition. An exceptional example with noted provenance. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personæ to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways. Contemporary reviews all praised the play's humour, though some were cautious about its explicit lack of social messages, while others foresaw the modern consensus that it was the culmination of Wilde's artistic career so far. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most enduringly popular play. The successful opening night marked the climax of Wilde's career but also heralded his downfall. The Marquess of Queensberry, whose son Lord Alfred Douglas was Wilde's lover, planned to present the writer with a bouquet of rotten vegetables and disrupt the show. Wilde was tipped off and Queensberry was refused admission. Soon afterwards their feud came to a climax in court, where Wilde's homosexual double life was revealed to the Victorian public and he was eventually sentenced to imprisonment. His notoriety caused the play, despite its early success, to be closed after 86 performances. After his release, he published the play from exile in Paris, but he wrote no further comic or dramatic work.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Leonard Smithers and Co, London, 1899.
Price: US$60000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Signed limited first edition. [xii], 152 pp. Bound in publisher's original pale lavender cloth with gilt spine lettering and decorations by Charles Shannon. Copy number 82 of 100 large paper copies signed by Oscar Wilde with a flourish. Near Fine with subtle sunning, several barely discernible spots to cloth, short bubble to rear cloth. Typical offsetting to endpapers, and a 5" tear to the rear endpaper. Contents bright and fresh. A beautiful copy. Wilde's masterpiece, which opened to wide acclaim at the St. James's Theatre, London, on February 14, 1895. It was withdrawn after 86 performances following his arrest and imprisonment on charges of gross indecency as a consequence of his failed libel suit against Lord Queensbury, the father of Wilde's homosexual lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. He was outed as gay (a disgrace in Victorian society) and the play was not published in any form until the present edition, following his release from prison. It has been hailed as an exemplary farce, called by poet W.H. Auden "a pure verbal opera."
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.