The document provides a book review and summary of the short story "The Canterville Ghost" by Oscar Wilde. It introduces the author Oscar Wilde and provides background on the story. The summary then outlines the plot over 4 chapters, describing the American family that moves into a haunted English mansion, their interactions with the ghost, and their unconventional treatment of the ghost that leaves him feeling humiliated.

1. Book Review By:
Moiz Merchant
XI - S2
Roll No.: 11
Teacher In-charge: Mumtaz Teacher
- Oscar Wilde

2. About the Author
• Oscar Wilde, or Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie
Wills Wilde, was born on 16th October
1854. He was the son of William Wilde
(later knighted), a surgeon, and Jane
Francesca Elgee, a writer who used the
pseudonym Speranza. Wilde attended
both Trinity College in Dublin and Oxford
University, and later settled in London. He
was an Irish poet and dramatist.
• Wilde wrote many plays including,
according to many critics, the best
comedy play of the nineteenth century,
the farce The Importance of Being
Earnest. Wilde also wrote fairy stories,
short stories and one novel.

3. • Wilde was born in Dublin, but went to Oxford University,
where he proved to be brilliant academically and gained
a reputation for wit and flamboyance. He visited Paris in
1883 and returned to the States for the opening of his
first play.
• Oscar Wilde got married in 1884 and had two sons, Cyril
and Vyvyan Holland ,who were possibly, the inspiration
for his first fairy tales.
• Wilde was not afraid to shock society, which eventually
had its revenge. He was imprisoned in 1895 for indecent
behavior. While in prison, he was declared bankrupt and
died shortly after his release, on 30th November 1900,
most likely of meningitis.

4. About the novel
The Canterville Ghost is a popular short
novel by Oscar Wilde. The story takes
place in an old English country house,
Canterville Chase, which has all the
characteristics of a haunted house. The
writer creates Gothic setting by
describing the wainscoting, the library,
panelled in black oak and the armour in
the hallway. Wilde strikes a contrast
between the old world and the new. The
description of the Gothic atmosphere
reveals the writer’s fascination for the
supernatural.

5. Characters IN THE STORY
• Lord Canterville- The owner of the ‘Canterville Chase’.
• Lady Canterville- The wife of Lord Canterville.
• Mr. Hiram B. Otis- The American Minister who is interested in buying
the Canterville Chase.
• Mrs. Otis- Wife of Mr. Otis, she is beautiful, middle aged women.
• Washington Otis- He is the eldest son of the Otis family. Who is good
looking, sensible and a good dancer.
• Miss. Varginia Otis- She is beautiful, 15 years old daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Otis.
• Twins- They are the youngest of the four siblings of Otis family and
usually called ‘The Star and stripes’ due to over mischievousness.
• Mrs. Umney- She is the old housekeeper of the Canterville Chase
whom Otis family lady Canterville’s had on consented to keep.

6. PICTURES OF THE CHARACTERS

7. Chapter 1
Canterville Chase was a huge villa. It was
owned by Lord Canterville. An American
Minister, Mr. Hiram B. Otis bought it. When
he bought this place, everyone warned him
that he had done a foolish thing because
the house was a haunted place. The house
was seven miles from Ascot, the nearest
railway station.
In July evening, the family drove to the new house. On their way the
weather was very pleasant and the heard the birds chirruping and the
squirrels looked at them. As they entered the avenue of Canterville
Chase, the sky became overcast with clouds and soon rain began to fall.
They were received by Mrs. Umney, the housekeeper who was very old
and was retained in her present job.

8. While they were resting with a cup of tea, Miss. Otis caught sight
of a dull red stain on the floor near the fireplace and told Mrs.
Umney to remove it at once. Mrs. Umney said that it was the
blood of Lady Eleanore de Canterville, who was murdered on
that very spot by her own husband, Sir Simon de Canterville in
1575, and that the blood stain cannot be removed. But
Washington Otis said it was all nonsense, knelt down and began
to scour the floor with some black cosmetic with which the stain
vanished. Suddenly there was a terrible flash of lightning in the
room and horrified with the result Mrs. Umney fainted.

9. Chapter 2
Except for the storm nothing special happened
during the night. But when the day dawned
they were surprised to find the terrible stain of
blood again on the floor. Now Washington Otis
was in doubt that this was the work of Ghost.
He rubbed out the stain a second time, but the
second morning it appeared again. The third
morning also it was there and then it kept on
coming every day even after repeated cleaning
of the stain.
One day the weather was quite warm and sunny and so in the cool of evening,
the whole family went out to drive. They did not return home till 9 o’clock. So
they had a light supper. There was no conversation on ghosts. At 11 o’clock the
family retired and after half an hour, the lights were out. After some time, Mr.
Otis was awakened by a curious noise in the corridor, outside his room. It
seemed like the clank of a metal. The sound seemed to be coming nearer
every moment. He got up at once, struck a match, and looked at the time.

10. It was exactly 1 o’clock. He became anxious and got up to check. He
opened his door and in front of him was a terrible old man with
burning red eyes, long grey hair fell over his shoulders, garments
soiled and ragged, and from his wrists hung heavy chains. At once
Mr. Otis insisted him to oil his chains and offered him ‘Rising Sun
Lubricator’, closed the door and dozed of to sleep. The ghost dashed
the bottle upon the floor and fled down the corridor in anger. When
he reached the top of the staircase, a door was flung open. Two white
robed figures appeared and a large pillow whizzed past his head.
Hastily the ghost disappeared through the skirting board and the
house became quiet. On reaching a small secret chamber, the
Canterville ghost leaned against a moonbeam and began to realise
his position. He thought of the people he had frightened because
which some died and some got paralyzed or went in comma. The
insulting behaviour of the American Minister hurt his ego. It was
unbearable for him to recall that some wretched modern Americans
had offered him Rising Sun Lubricator and thrown pillow at his head.
He thought no ghost story in history had ever been treated in this
manner. So he determined to take revenge and
till daylight remained in deep thoughts.

11. Chapter 3The discussion about the ghost started at the
breakfast table. The Minister was in a bad mood
on finding that the ghost had not accepted his
present and stated that if the ghost refuses to oil
his chains then we will have to take them from
him because if don’t do so it will be impossible to
sleep. For the rest of the week they remained
undisturbed by the ghost. The only thing that
exited their attention was the continual renewal
of the blood stain on the library floor with
chameleon-like colours changing day to day.
The second appearance of the ghost was on Sunday night. Shortly after they
had gone to bed, they heard a fearful crash in the hall which was because of
the ghost. They found the ghost sitting in the high-backed chair and was
rubbing his knees with an expression of pain on his face. The twins shot two
pellets on him from their pea-shooters. The Minister covered him with his
revolver and asked him to hold up his hands. The ghost shrieked with rage,
extinguished the candle and disappeared

12. There was total darkness. After reaching
the top of the staircase, he gave a
demoniac laughter. Mrs. Otis heard it and
came out of her room, “I am afraid you
are far from well”, she said, “and have
brought a bottle of Doctor Dobell’s
tincture for you. If it is indigestion, it will
cure you.” The ghost looked at her in
anger and planned to turn himself into a
large black dog.
The sound of the approaching footsteps of the twins made him abandon
his plan. So he vanished with a deep churchyard groan. For some days he
was extremely ill because of the armour falling on his knee. He hardly use
come out of his room except to keep the blood stain in proper repair. Now
he decided to make a third attempt to frighten the Minister and his family.

13. At half-past ten the family went to bed. For
some time the ghost heard the twins laugh,
but at a quarter past eleven all was still. So, at
midnight he left his secret chamber and glided
through the corridors, when suddenly, behind
one corner, a horrible ghost stood right in front
of him. As the Canterville ghost had never seen
another ghost before, he was terribly
frightened. He quickly hurried back to his
room. But then he thought that he should go
and speak to the other ghost. After all, two
ghosts were better than one, and his new
friend might help him to frighten the twins.
However, when he came back to the spot, he found that this 'other ghost'
was not real, but only a white sheet which the twins had hung there to play
a trick on him. Very upset the Canterville ghost went back to his chamber.

14. Chapter 4
For five days, the ghost did not leave his room.
He was very weak and tired and his nerves
were completely shattered. He also gave up the
point of the blood-stain on the library floor. If
the Otis family did not want it, they clearly did
not deserve it. Whenever the Canterville ghost
roamed the house now, he was careful to have
oiled his chains and not to make a sound.
However, the twins still played their tricks on
him. They stretched strings across the corridor,
over which he tripped in the dark, and once he
slipped on a butter-slide, which the twins had
constructed for him on the staircase.
This so annoyed the ghost, that he decided to teach the twins a lesson and give
them the fright of their lives. All day long the ghost had prepared this grand
event and at a quarter past one at night he finally glided out of his room and
crept down the corridor.

15. When he reached the twins' bedroom, he found the door slightly open.
In order to frighten the boys enormously, he flung the door wide open,
when a heavy jug of water fell right down on him, wetting him to the
skin. The twins burst out in shrieks of laughter and the ghost fled. He
now gave up all hope of ever frightening this rude American family and,
as he was very afraid of the twins, from now on he crept around the
house as quietly as possible. One night, it was on the 19th of
September, he went downstairs to see if there were any traces left of
the blood-stain. It was about a quarter past two in the morning, and he
thought that everyone was fast asleep, when suddenly from a dark
corner two figures came running at him who waved their arms wildly
above their heads and shouted “BOO!” in his ear. Full of panic, which
under the circumstances was only natural, the ghost hurried back to his
room. After this he was not seen again at night. His feelings were so
wounded that he just did not appear anymore.