The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

At Canterville Chase, an ancient manor with a reputation for haunting, Oscar Wilde sets a gleeful battle between old-world superstition and modern American practicality. When Lord Canterville warns the new owner, Hiram B. Otis, about the resident ghost, Otis dismisses the warning with brisk skepticism, bringing his energetic, fashionable wife, their polished son Washington, spirited Virginia, and mischievous twins into a house steeped in Gothic rumor. The family treats every omen as an inconvenience rather than a terror: Washington scrubs away the infamous bloodstain with stain remover, the twins mock the supernatural, and Mr. Otis calmly offers the ghost lubricant for his chains. Each failed haunting only deepens the comedy as the bloodstain returns in shifting colors, strange noises echo through the halls, and the ghost's grand entrances collapse into humiliation. He tries elaborate disguises, including a notorious costume that once caused scandal, but ends up drenched, tricked, or shouted down by the children. As his pride falters, the once-feared apparition becomes a beleaguered, almost sympathetic figure, trapped in a household that refuses to be frightened. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.