Audiobook · read by volunteers
Canterville Ghost
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
Read by David Barnes · 3 chapters · 1 h 23
About the book
When the American Minister buys Canterville Chase, he is warned that the house is haunted. He does not believe in ghosts, and nor does his practical family. They are polite about the bloodstain on the library floor and quite unmoved by the clanking of chains in the night. For Sir Simon de Canterville, who has frightened guests for three centuries, such treatment is hard to bear.
Oscar Wilde’s comic short story is a delicious mixture of the Gothic and the satirical, in which a very British phantom meets very modern Americans and loses the first round. It is also, in its closing pages, unexpectedly tender. In three sections and under an hour and a half, this is a light, witty and charming piece, perfect for an evening when you want a small, finely made story and a smile.
Introduction
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish writer, poet and playwright, famous for his wit and his flamboyant public life. He wrote plays such as The Importance of Being Earnest, a novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and a number of stories and essays. The Canterville Ghost first appeared in a magazine in 1887, and the edition recorded here is dated 1906.
The story is a comedy of manners with a ghostly twist. It sets the traditions and class assumptions of an old English family seat against the brisk practicality of a visiting American family. The joke works in both directions: the Americans are shown as cheerfully unimaginative, while the old ghost is shown as vain, theatrical and rather tired. Wilde was fond of turning expectations upside down, and here he does it with the conventions of the Gothic tale, which was very popular at the time. As the story proceeds, a gentler note enters, and the ghost, who has seen a great deal in his long career, finds that there are things he still wants.
The recording is short: three sections, about an hour and a half in total. It is read by a LibriVox volunteer. It makes a good introduction to Wilde for anyone who has not yet read him, and an easy pleasure for those who have.
Why listen today? Because it is funny, because it is quick, and because it shows how a master of epigram could also tell a story with real charm. It is a good choice for a short car journey, a lunch break or a dark evening, and suits young and old.
Public domain
Oscar Wilde died in 1900: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text