Do you like Oscar Wilde? How about a good ghost story? If you answered to both questions, then you'll love the Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde. It's not a scary ghost story, it's actually quite funny. And a delightful tale.
Below, you'll find my thoughts on The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde.
All the images in this post are clickable!
Initial Thoughts on The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde is a short story . Like many works of literature, the story first appeared in a magazine, The Court and Society Review in February 1887. The Canterville Ghost is a story of contrast – American vs. British Society.
When the story starts, the American minister, Mr Hiram B. Otis has purchased Canterville Chase, an English country house. Otis is warned by Lord Canterville that the house is haunted, but he doesn’t believe in ghosts.
This is not a typical ghost story. I found it quite funny, laughing a lot while reading the book.
Have you read?
Oscar Wilde Personal Library – The Shaping of a Mind
The Model Millionaire by Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – Book Review
What is The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde About?
The Otis family consists of husband and wife, their eldest son, Washington, daughter Virginia and twin sons. Shortly after the Otis family arrives at their new country estate, they notice a spot on the floor in the library. Their housekeeper informs them that Lady Eleanore de Canterville was murdered at that exact spot by her husband, Sir Simon de Canterville, who survived her by nine years. His body was never discovered, however, his spirit haunts the place.
Washington applies some strong stain remover – Pinkerton’s Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent – to the blood stain, which disappears temporarily and reappears the next day. As soon as they remove the stain it reappears the following day – bright red, dull red, purple and even bright emerald green.
After the blood stain reappears the first time, the Otis family concludes that there must be a ghost. Mrs Otis is a modern day woman and declares that she is going to join the Psychical Society. Washington decides to write to Messrs Myers and Podmore,
“on the subject of the Permanence of Sanguineous Stains when connected with crime.”
To get the most from this SummaReview of The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde, after you have read it, answer the following questions:
- Is this a book I’d like to read for myself? Why? Why not?
- What has made an impression on me in this reading?
- Were there any kernels of wisdom in this reading?
- Is there a framework that you can use in your life and work?
- What are five takeaways from the SummaReview?
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde is told through the eyes of the very theatrical ghost, Sir Simon, who appears in many different costumes and personas – Red Reuben, Strangled Babe, Dumb Daniel, Suicide’s Skeleton, Martin the Maniac, Masked Mystery, Reckless Rupert, Headless Earl and so on. The first night, Sir Simon decides to haunt the Americans, Mr Otis greets him with a container of Rising Sun Lubricator for him to oil his manacled chains so he doesn’t make so much noise and disturb the family’s sleep. The twin boys also throw a pillow at him.
The ghost quickly retreats to his hiding place and is feeling quite insulted. Never in his three hundred years of haunting people at Canterville Chase has he ever received that kind of reception. The tables have been turned on the ghost, and instead of terrifying the residents, they instead “terrify” him. The twins use their pea shooters and discharge pellets at Sir Simon. One night after he attempts to frighten the family with one of his terrible laughs, Mrs. Otis lets him know that he sounds quite terrible and offers him a bottle of Doctor Dobell’s tincture.
Sir Simon suffers great indignities at the hand of the American family, who are not afraid of him. He enters the twins’ room to scare them and a large jug of water falls on him, which just about does him in. He has a grand plot to exact revenge against Washington whom he bears a special grudge for removing the blood stain with Pinkerton’s Paragon Detergent. But once again, the joke is on Sir Simon, when he encounters, what he perceives as another.
Sir Simon suffers great indignities at the hand of the American family, who are not afraid of him. He enters the twins’ room to scare them and a large jug of water falls on him, which just about does him in. He has a grand plot to exact revenge against Washington whom he bears a special grudge for removing the blood stain with Pinkerton’s Paragon Detergent. But once again, the joke is on Sir Simon, when he encounters, what he perceives as another.The ghost has never seen another ghost and is quite terrified, and flees to his room. When he regains his composure and courage, Sir Simon seeks out the ghost to form some sort of alliance. He discovers to his chagrin, that the ghost wasn’t a real ghost. In another instance, Washington and the twins force him into the great iron oven, which luckily wasn’t lit at the time, forcing Sir Simon to escape through chimneys
Sir Simon’s nerves begin to unravel because nothing is working and he is becoming quite weak. He even decides not to bother with replacing the stain on the floor in the library. He doesn’t think very highly of the Otis family
“They were evidently people on a low, material plane of existence, and quite incapable of appreciating the symbolic value of sensuous phenomena. The question of phantasmic apparitions, and the development of astral bodies, was of course quite a different matter, and not really under his control…”
Based on my analytics, readers seem to like stories written by Oscar Wilde. I came across the article, On Art and Prison: The 5 Best Books on Oscar Wilde.
Two of the books mentioned in the article that I found intriguing are The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde
by Neil McKenna, and The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde by Merlin Holland.
by Neil McKenna, and 
by Merlin Holland.
The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde
The Real Trial of Oscar WildeIrish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde
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The ghost resigns to the fact that he will not be able to frighten the “rude” American family. The twins lay in wait for Sir Simon on several occasions laying traps for him but he never appears. The family concludes that the ghost has left Canterville Chase. All during this time, Virginia was the only one in the family that did not play a trick on, or even approach the ghost. Why?
One day while out riding, Virginia tears her riding habit quite badly and decides to enter Canterville Chase through a back door. She is surprised to discover the Canterville Ghost sitting by a window. His disposition is that of someone suffering from depression and she feels sorry for him.
An interesting dialogue takes place between them and during that time, he admits that he killed his wife and why, and Virginia tells him that it is wrong to kill. She is also upset because he stole her paint to replace the blood stain and hence the mystery of the different colours of “blood” is solved.
Virginia tries to convince Sir Simon to go to America because they would appreciate a ghost there, but he doesn’t want to go to America. Sir Simon is weary because he hasn’t slept in over three hundred years. He wants to rest, but is terrified of the Garden of Death. Through Virginia, he believes that he will receive forgiveness and allowed to rest. He believes that through the purity of a child, Hell cannot prevail.
She takes him through the portal, and doesn’t tell her parents, so when they cannot find her they panic. But no one even thinks about Sir Simon, because they believed he had left. Virginia appears the next day after her family had searched for her everywhere and couldn’t find her. She relates what happens and shows them the gift of jewels she received from Sir Simon. Mr Otis tries to return the jewels to Lord Canterville, who refuses them and is convinced that should he take them, Sir Simon would return.
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde ends when Virginia is married a few years later, and you get the sense that something profound took place with her encounter with Sir Simon that she has never revealed.
I found this story quite funny and I laughed a lot. But when you stop to think, this is a story of contrasts. Think about it, an American family emigrates to England and buys a very English country home. Though they are warned that the house is haunted, they initially do not believe.
However, when they realize that the house is indeed haunted, they do not respond in a “British” way by being scared, they turn things around on the ghost baffling him. You see the ghost going through a range of emotions until he is a broken man. It’s a story of role reversals, instead of the ghost terrorizing the residents of Canterville Chase, they terrorize him instead.
Have you read?
Review of The Little Father by by Gelett Burgess: If you would like to read another story about role reversals, The Little Father by by Gelett Burgess is for you. I also recommend that you read Turn of the Screw
and Frankenstein
.
Should I Buy The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde?
I recommend
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde. The book is an easy read and can be read in a couple of hours. Many of the film adaptations of The Canterville Ghost are not close to the book. I found reading the book far more delightful than watching one of the film adaptations.
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The Canterville GhostThe Canterville Ghost The Canterville GhostThe Canterville GhostThe Canterville Ghost
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Oscar Wilde Book List
Intentions The Picture of Dorian GrayThe Importance of Being EarnestOscar Wilde: The Complete CollectionWit and Wisdom: A Book of QuotationsThe Canterville Ghost A Life in LettersThe Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar WildeOscar Wilde's The Selfish GiantOscar Wilde and a Death of No ImportanceA House of PomegranatesLady Windermere's FanThe Happy Prince and Other Stories
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Further Reading/Viewing
Oscar Wilde: A Controversial Writer
Oscar Wilde – The Canterville Ghost
Cannot view video? Click here. Uploaded by SpidersHouseAudio on May 26, 2009
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Canterville Ghost, by Oscar Wilde
For those who want a print book to read: The Canterville Ghost: By Oscar Wilde
Canterville Ghost
You can also view the film here.
