the Canterville Ghost Level 3 for Class 7

Oscar Wilde (1854 — 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of the Victorian era. He wrote numerous poems and short stories apart from nine plays and one novel in his lifetime. Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in Ireland. His father Sir William Wilde was a leading surgeon a philanthropist and writer. His mother Jane Francesca Wilde was also a poet and journalist. He got his early education at home where he showed intelligence. After schooling he went to Trinity College Dublin and then to Oxford England. He wrote about various literary activities and published a book of poems on the new “English Renaissance in Art”. His works include The Happy Prince and Other Tales published in 1888 and the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). In fiction he wrote The Canterville Ghost (1887) The Portrait of Mr. W.H. (1889) A House of Pomegranates (1891) and Intentions (1891). Wilde had become one of the most well-known personalities of his days and was lauded by playwright G.B. Shaw poet Walt Whitman and John Ruskin. The novel The Canterville Ghost was first published in 1887 in a magazine called ‘Court and Society Review’. Oscar Wilde drew on fairy tales to create a story of a cultural clash between a 16th century ghost and the late 19th century American minister’s family He achieved widespread fame as a poet playwright novelist and critic during his life. Amidst his fame and success Wilde suffered a dramatic downfall due to a series of court cases. He was prosecuted by his lover’s father for libel and was sentenced to two years of hard labour in prison. He died in Paris at the age of forty-six.He will always stay in the hearts of his readers through his beautiful sayings like “I can resist anything except temptation’’ and ‘‘There is only one thing worse than not getting what you want and that is getting what you don’t want.