Editing Oscar Wilde (section)

=== Comedies of society ===
{{main|Lady Windermere's Fan|l1=''Lady Windermere's Fan''|A Woman of No Importance|l2=''A Woman of No Importance''|An Ideal Husband|l3=''An Ideal Husband''}}
[[File:Windermere Lake District from hill.JPG|thumb|right|upright=1.1|Lake [[Windermere]] in northern England where Wilde began working on his first hit play, ''[[Lady Windermere's Fan]]'' (1892), during a summer visit in 1891<ref>{{cite news |title=An introduction to Lady Windermere's Fan |agency=British Library |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/an-introduction-to-lady-windermeres-fan |access-date=23 August 2020 |archive-date=27 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027163807/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/an-introduction-to-lady-windermeres-fan |url-status=live}}</ref>]]
Wilde, who had first set out to irritate Victorian society with his dress and talking points, then to outrage it with ''Dorian Gray'', his novel of vice hidden beneath art, finally found a way to critique society on its own terms. ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' was first performed on 20 February 1892 at St James's Theatre, packed with the cream of society. On the surface a witty comedy, there is subtle subversion underneath: "it concludes with collusive concealment rather than collective disclosure".{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=344}} The audience, like Lady Windermere, are forced to soften harsh social codes in favour of a more nuanced view. The play was enormously popular, touring the country for months, but largely trashed by conservative critics.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=347}} The success of the play saw Wilde earn £7,000 in the first year alone ({{Inflation|UK|7000|1892|r=-2|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).{{Inflation-fn|UK}}{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=315}}

His first hit play was followed by ''A Woman of No Importance'' in 1893, another Victorian comedy, revolving around the spectre of illegitimate births, mistaken identities and late revelations.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=360}} Wilde was commissioned to write two more plays and ''An Ideal Husband'', written in 1894,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilde |first=Oscar |title=An ideal husband. Act III: London: typescript with extensive autograph revisions, 1894 |oclc=270589204}}</ref> followed in January 1895.{{sfn|Ellmann|1988|p=404}}

Peter Raby said these essentially English plays were well-pitched: "Wilde, with one eye on the dramatic genius of Ibsen, and the other on the commercial competition in London's [[West End theatre|West End]], targeted his audience with adroit precision".{{sfn|Raby|1997|p=146}}