I read this out of curiosity after watching the film A Good Woman (see post on Feb 24 2008). I thought the play might be better than the film. Eh. They're on about equal footing. Scarlett Johanssen's poor acting makes the latter not so great but the film is fairly faithful to the play.
It takes place in less than 24 hours, but overnight. It begins with Lady Windermere preparing for her birthday celebration--the birthday which brings her "of age" (since she's been married for 2 years and it's almost the 20th century, I'm guessing 21 but I could be wrong). Anyway, Lord Darlington hints at her husband's supposed unfaithfulness before another Lady enters and pretty much lays it out on the table. Lady Windermere, being young, naive, and highly morally black and white, doesn't believe the rumors until she rips into her husband's check book and finds he's been giving money to one Mrs. Erlynne. Lord Windermere then arrives home, catches her in the act of spying, tells her nothing is amiss, and orders her to invite Mrs. Erlynne. The Lady says no, the Lord invites her anyway, and the Lady claims she will hit the Mrs. with her fan. And then the supposed hilarity, mistaken identity, and etc ensues.
The play is slightly more subtle than the movie, only giving away Mrs. Erlynne's identity at the end and, of course, we are to question who the "good woman" of the title is (the starkly moral Lady Windermere or Mrs. Erlynne who is a tad amoral but who sacrifices a lot for another woman).
If you have a reason to read Wilde, it's fine and will take about half an hour to complete, but I don't see any real reason to seek it out.
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