Mr And Mrs Daventry

About this book

In 1894, Oscar Wilde came up with the scenario for a play. The key scene is one in which a woman is alone resting in a darkened room when her husband and his mistress Lady X enter and begin a love scene. The husband of Lady X is then heard shouting angrily at the door, whereupon to the surprise of the lovers, the wife turns on the light and admits him, making some excuse about keeping Lady X up with 'an experiment in thought reading'. The wife leaves her husband and goes to live with her own lover. The husband and her lover are due to fight a duel, but the husband begs her to return to him. She refuses him and in the process lets slip she is pregnant by her lover. The husband, filled with despair, shoots himself.