Oscar Wilde
Retold by John Davage
Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter
Retold by John Davage
Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter
‘Well if you’re happy to share your house with a ghost, that’s all right,’ said Lord Canterville. ‘But please remember that I warned you.’
When the American Ambassador, Hiram B. Otis, buys Canterville Chase from Lord Canterville, people try to warn him that he is doing a dangerous thing. Everyone knows that the large old house is haunted by the famous Canterville Ghost — the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville, who murdered his wife.
But Mr Otis and his family are not worried about sharing their new home with a ghost.
It is all quite amusing — even when they clean the mysterious bloodstain from the library floor every day and it appears again the next morning!
The ghost becomes more and more unhappy. It is his duty to haunt the house, but the young Otis boys play terrible tricks on him. What can he do? How can he frighten these awful Americans?
The Canterville Ghost is one of three stories in this book. In the second story. Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, Lord Arthur meets the rather unpleasant Mr Podgers at one of Lady Windermere’s parties, and his whole life changes. He was going to marry Sybil Merton, one of the most beautiful girls in London. But now, before he can marry the lovely Sybil, he has to murder someone!
The third story, The Sphinx Without a Secret, is about the secret life of beautiful, mysterious Lady Alroy. She lives in a house in the most expensive part of London, so why does she rent a room in a house in one of the poorer streets? What does she do there?
Who does she meet?
The writer of these stories, Oscar Wilde, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854. His father was a well-known doctor, and his mother wrote poems.
Wilde went to Trinity College, Dublin, and later studied Latin and Greek at Oxford University. He was a very clever student, but he was also known for his lifestyle. He loved beautiful things, and he filled his rooms with them. He wore unusual clothes and amused people with his clever conversation.
In 1878 he won the Newdigate Prize for his poem, Ravenna. He married a rich Irish woman, Constance Lloyd, in 1884, and they had two sons. Wilde wrote The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) for them.
Wilde’s first book of poems came out in 1881. He wrote many short stories, but also the famous full-length book The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), which was later made into a film. This is the strange and clever story of a man who does not show his age. He stays young and handsome for many years. At the same time, a picture of the man grows old and ugly. Strange things happen when someone loves beauty and the pleasant things in life too much By 1895, Wilde was a very successful writer. Crowds of people went to the theatre to see his plays. These included Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893) and An Ideal Husband (1895).
The plays were popular then, and they are stillpopular today, because Wilde had a great gift for writing clever and amusing conversations. His most famous play is probably The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).
It looks at life in an unusual way. Unimportant things are very serious and important things are laughed at.
Wilde spent a lot of his life with the rich and famous people of his time, but suddenly his life changed. He had a very close friend, a man called Alfred Douglas. Douglas’s father was not happy about Wilde’s interest in his son, and the two men began a terrible fight in the law courts. Wilde lost this fight and went to prison for two years. Life in prison was very difficult, and his health suffered.
When Wilde came out of prison, in 1897, he went to live in France. He used the name ‘Sebastian Melmoth’. In France, he wrote a very famous poem called The Ballad of Reading Gaol, about the pain of prison life.
By this time he was poor, and his health was bad. He died in Paris in 1900.
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