The Canterville Ghost - Oscar Wilde

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Résumé :
The Canterville Ghost is set in the English countryside in the late 19th century. Most of the story takes place in Canterville Chase, which is described as an old mansion with secret rooms and passageways, long corridors stained glass windows, and oak paneling. Pictures of long-dead Canterville ancestors, ancient tapestries, and a suit of armor add to the medieval-like setting. Overall, it seems to fit the stereotype of a haunted house. The book follows fairy tale conventions and Wilde introduces Virginia Otis, a fairy-tale type heroine. Otis must believe that there is a soul worth saving in the murderous and grisly Sir Simon. Her actions, however, lead to a happy ending. Otis marries a Duke and receives a casket of valuable jewels from the Ghost.

Biographie:
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 - 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death. Wilde's parents were successful Anglo-Irish Dublin intellectuals. Their son became fluent in French and German early in life. At university, Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new English Renaissance in Art and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day.

Sommaire:
The Canterville Ghost is set in the English countryside in the late 19th century. Most of the story takes place in Canterville Chase, which is described as an old mansion with secret rooms and passageways, long corridors stained glass windows, and oak paneling. Pictures of long-dead Canterville ancestors, ancient tapestries, and a suit of armor add to the medieval-like setting. Overall, it seems to fit the stereotype of a haunted house. The book follows fairy tale conventions and Wilde introduces Virginia Otis, a fairy-tale type heroine. Otis must believe that there is a soul worth saving in the murderous and grisly Sir Simon. Her actions, however, lead to a happy ending. Otis marries a Duke and receives a casket of valuable jewels from the Ghost....