THE CANTERVILLE GHOST

by Oscar Wilde

AUTHOR

I'm going to talk about the book that I red this summer, the title of this book is " THE CANTERVILLE GHOST".

The author is Oscar Wilde, an Irishman who was born in Dublin, in 1854 and he lived in the Victorian age.

After he finished his education in Ireland, he studied at the Oxford University in England.

He travelled widely in Europe and he made many friends, but also enemies.

He married in 1884 and he had two sons

He wrote his famous children's story, "The Happy Prince" for his sons.

He reached the peak of his fame when his play The Importance of Being Earnest was performed in London.

He was very popular, but unfortunately he was involved in a trial and he was sent in prison for two years.

When he was released, he lived in France and the last years of his life was very sad.

Oscar Wilde died in 1900, only forty-six years old.

CHARACTERS

The protagonist is Canterville ghost, Sir Simon. He is also the antagonist of this story.

The others characters are the Otis family composed by:

Mr Otis

Mrs Otis

Virginia (like a state)

Washington (like a city modul)

The two naughty twins : Ricky and Robby

There is another characters, but he isn't very important, he is Cecil (a duke).

PLOT

The story of "The Canterville Ghost "talk about one family, (Otis family) who come from modern democratic America and want to live in a old house, in the middle of the countryside, in the old-fashioned England.

They were warned that the old house was haunted by the Canterville Ghost, called Simon. He was bad because he murdered his wife and frightened the people who entered in the house. But the family was American and the Americans don't believe in ghosts, so they decided to buy the house.

As soon as they arrived they looked a quick change of the weather, in fact suddenly it began to rain.

From that day many strange and mysterious things happened, for example there was a bloody stain in the library and when they tried to clean it, it appeared again and changed colour.

One night Sir Simon, the ghost, appeared: he was a old man, he wore old-fashioned clothes with chains hung from his wrists and ankles. He tried to frighten the Otis family, because it was his job, but every times they stayed absolutely calm, on the contrary their sons joked with him, especially the twins.

The ghost was too angry but at last he didn't frighten them because he was too tired.

One day Mr and Mrs Otis' daughter, Virginia, disappeared. She was the only person who didn't joke with the ghost, in fact that night the ghost asked to her to help him to found the peace for ever in the garden of the death.

So Virginia decided to help him and she cried and prayed for him, because she understood the ghost was good.

Finally the ghost founded the peace and Virginia appeared.

In the end Cecil, a duke married Virginia and ask to her if she wanted some children and they went to live alone, while the family lived happily without the ghost.

The important theme of this story is that the love is stronger than Death and is good to help others.

SENTENCES

I have chosen this book because I thought was a horror book, but it isn't.

However I like it, because it is very interesting, surprising and funny.

I advise this book to the people who like to read funny, mysterious and also a little bit exiting books.

IMPORTANT WORDS I LEARNED

The important words of this book are:

v Storm : tempo violento con vento e pioggia

v Disappointed : contrariato

v Wrists : polsi

v Housekeeper: governante

v Haunted: infestata

v Murdered: assassinata

v Old-fashioned: foggia antica

v Chins : catene

v Fright : paura spavento