The Canterville Ghost

When the American Minister Mr. Otis moves his family into Canterville Chase, he is warned that the house is haunted. "I come from a modern country," he replies, "where we have everything that money can buy." And so the Otises refuse to believe in ghosts—even when the bloodstain on the library floor reappears every morning. Poor Sir Simon, the ghost of Canterville Chase, has terrified his own family for three hundred years. But the Otises are different. When he rattles his chains, they offer him lubricant. When he appears in his most gruesome guise, they throw pillows at him. These practical Americans are driving the proud old ghost to despair. Then young Virginia Otis takes pity on him. Oscar Wilde's delightful tale spoofs both the stuffy British aristocracy and the brash American newcomers, but beneath the laughter lies a gentle story about compassion, redemption, and the power of a single tear. For in the end, it is not the living who need saving—but the dead.