How do you convert Html to plain text

Question

I've got a table with HTML snippets in it. Just simple formatting, nothing more complicated like tags or entire pages.

On a specific page, I would like that HTML to be displayed as plain text alone with no styling (really, only the first 30 to 50 characters, but that's the simple part).

How do I insert that HTML's "text" as plain text into a string?

the following piece of code.

<b>Hello World.</b><br/><p><i>Is there anyone out there?</i><p>

Becomes:

hello World. Exists anyone outside?