Lady Windermere's Fan

by Oscar Wilde

Book Overview

Clever dialogue, fast-paced repartee, and pithy epigrams abound in this sparkling Victorian comedy of manners. The first of Oscar Wilde's dramas, the 1892 play attests to the author's legendary reputation as a wit and keen observer of ironic situations. In Lady Windermere's Fan , Wilde offers a splendidly satirical view of society's obsessive regard for appearances rather than reality. A paragon of morality, Lady Windermere firmly rejects the company...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486400786
• ISBN13: 9780486400785
• Release Date: November 2011
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.7" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

Lady Vandermere's Fan

I was very satisfied with this product and the speed with which it was delivered. I gave it as a Christmas gift to my grandson, who is a student at NYU and who requested it for Christmas. I was very happy with my purchase!

Lady Windermere's Fan

I just wanted to say that i really love this play and that i highly suggest that everyone should read this funny and witty masterpiece. Lady Windermere is so naive but i liked the bit when she threatens to slap Mrs Erlynne across the face. That's what i call Girl Power!!Anyway, i wanted to know if there are any notes to accompany this play. I need some notes that focus on the language of the play, social context, characters, etc.I would be eternally grateful if anyone could help.

How can women survive in victorian society

Oscar Wilde entirely dedicates this play to the exploration of the way a woman can be saved from destruction in this society of appearances. A woman was the victim of an imbroglio in the past and abandoned her daughter. This woman comes back and the daughter ignores her relation to her. She is brought back into societry by the daughter's husband who knows the truth but does not want his wife to know it. But there is some kind of malediction that flies over the heads of these women. The daughter nearly does the same mistake as her mother but she is saved by her mother who accepts to be tainted in her daughter's place. Bus Oscar Wilde must think there is some kind of reward for a good deed and all is well that ends well, and this play has a happy ending. In spite of all the melodramatic sentimentalese atmosphere, Oscar Wilde definitely explores in this play the great disadvantage of a woman in society. Men can do nearly all they want. Women are extremely limited and have to walk a very straight and narrow line. Oscar Wilde seems to be ahead of his time as for the fate of women: he seems to aspire for real equality for them, though he shows in all possible ways that this is impossible in his society.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

An Oscar Wilde Masterpiece

Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious. -- Oscar WildeThe plot is about Lady Winderemere who goes from being a pillar of Victorian society to a woman of wandering morals. The woman who pulls her up is the one she suspected of being her husband's mistress. It's a comedy of society manners and morals with acerbic repartees and funny quips, in the great Oscar Wilde tradition. Now, more than 100 years later, it still has a thought provoking depth which is very much applicable to today's society as well, although we view such adventures with less criticism and more understanding. A wonderful comedy with all the wryness of Wilde.