The Canterville Ghost
Summary
A light-hearted short story about a ghost who hasn’t slept for 300 years and desperately fails to be scary at all. The US-American Otis family moves into Canterville Chase, a haunted house in England. Soon after their arrival, a ghost of an English nobleman named Sir Simon de Centerville reveals himself and tries his best to scare off the new residents but the Otis family quite embarrasses him by refusing to be frightened. Only Mr Otis’ daughter Virginia feels for the sorry old spectre and so a tender relationship develops…
This humorous short fiction can serve as a starting point for a Halloween unit / lesson or an interdiciplinary project with the drama club.
Critical edition
Wilde, Oscar. "The Canterville Ghost." The Canterville Ghost, the Happy Prince and Other Stories. Penguin Classics, 2010. 18 pp., ISBN 978-0141192666