The Canterville Ghost and Other Stories

by Oscar Wilde

Overview

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854 and died in Paris in 1900 at the age of 46. In between lay a meteoric career.

He was in his late thirties when he took London by storm. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST and THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY gave him a glittering reputation when, at 41, in the scandal of the century, he was sent to prison for two years for homosexual conduct. He died five years later, alone, and in obscurity.

His short stories, all published early in his career, are of two kinds, both represented in this collection: witty social comedies like "Lord Arthur Saville's Crime," and profoundly imaginative fairy tales such as "The Happy Prince."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781420924794
Publisher:	Digireads.com Publishing
Publication date:	01/01/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Famed for his brilliant wit, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a prolific writer and one of the most successful playwrights of Victorian Britain, as well as a champion for the values of Aestheticism.

Date of Birth:

October 16, 1854

Date of Death:

November 30, 1900

Place of Birth:

Dublin, Ireland

Place of Death:

Paris, France

Education:

The Royal School in Enniskillen, Dublin, 1864; Trinity College, Dublin, 1871; Magdalen College, Oxford, England, 1874

Editorial Reviews

Gr 7 Up Lovers of Oscar Wilde's stories will delight in this new illustrated version of The Canterville Ghost if the picture book format does not keep them from finding it. Wilde's story of an American family who moves into Canterville Chase and annoys a weary ghost with their lack of belief in him is a wry commentary on the ways of British nobility and of their hard-headed American cousins. Like many of Wilde's tales, this one is filled with sophisticated allusions to his social and political milieu, but ends as sentimental romance. Zwerger's wry pictures highlight this tone beautifully. Her toothless ghost is round and comical, as would suit a ghost whom no one fears, and her heroine, Virginia, is young and sweetly boyish. All of the illustrations are set against misty gray watercolor backgrounds except for the climactic scene, echoed on the front cover, in which the tiny huntsmen on the wallpaper call out to Virginia to ``Go Back.'' This will make a fine read-aloud for audiences of secondary students who are prepared to savor Wilde's ironic humor and Zwerger's delicate watercolors. Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie

School Library Journal

The second volume in a series of comic book adaptations of Wilde's tales [see BKL Ja 15 93 for previous volume] gives "The Young King" and "The Remarkable Rocket" the Marvel-DC treatment. In elaborate underground "comix" style, Russell reintroduces the tales with an accessible if nontraditional approach to picture-book illustration and better-than-average adaptations of the original texts. Whether you believe circulating comics in the library is appropriate or not, this full-color book won't stay on the shelf for long, and it may well attract readers to a genre they might not usually find appealing.

Janice Del Negro

[A] superb…collection.”

Rakesh H. Solomon

A classic of Wildean wit and Victorian sentimentality…a delight.”

Booklist

Oscar Wilde’s writing remains fresh, alive, electric. His words stride off the page to grab us by the lapels and demand that we pay attention. ‘You’ve got to listen to what I’m about to tell you,’ they insist. And we do, gladly.”

author of The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde Ralph Keyes

Good balance between plays and prose, using well chosen texts.”

Nicholas Ranson