The Ghost of

Canterville
• Lord Canterville warned Mr Otis when he expressed his interest in buying the
old castle:

• - Respectful Mr. Otis - he said - I am proud that you show so much interest in
acquiring Canterville Castle, but first I must warn you that an annoying ghost
has lived in it for more than 300 years and has caused real tragedies. The latest
victim was the Duchess of Bolton. She was getting ready in her room when she
saw skeleton hands rest on her shoulders. From her fright, she ended up with a
stroke from which she never recovered. No servant wanted to stay in that
castle anymore, except for the housekeeper, who I beg you to hire if she finally
buys the castle.

• – Mr. Canterville, I really appreciate her warning, but you should know that we
Americans really enjoy those stories. What they would give in my land to be
able to buy a ghost! Of course I'm still interested in the castle, even more so
with a ghost. I buy it all.

• – You'll see, Mr Otis. In England ghosts are dangerous.

• – Stop fooling around. Those specters don't scare us at all.

• And having said this, Lord Canterville and the American minister Mr Otis
agreed to the sale of Canterville Castle, a ghost included in the price.
 The arrival of the Otis family at the
castle of the Canterville ghost

• Mr. Otis traveled with his family to England to open his new
residence for the summer holidays. He goes without saying that
the weather in England in the height of summer is not exactly
wonderful. As soon as they got there, they found that the sky was
totally overcast and the clouds were about to unleash an intense
storm of lightning and thunder.
Arriving at the old castle, an old housekeeper came out to meet him:
• – Welcome to Canterville Castle.
• – You must be the only tenant of this building! – said Mr Otis
astonished.
• - Yes sir. No one else overcame the terror caused by the ghost of
the castle.
• – Don't worry, we won't run away. We love ghosts!
• Mr Otis entered the castle with his wife, the practical Mrs Otis.
Behind them followed Washington, his eldest son, more patriotic
even than his Republican father; behind him came the only
daughter of the couple, Virginia, a beautiful and shy young woman
who loved painting and horseback riding and who barely spoke.
Her face was as sweet and radiant as the sparkle in her blue eyes.
And lastly, the devilish twins, Stars and Stripes, rambunctious,
rowdy kids who wouldn't stop yelling and plotting mischief.
The strange bloodstain in the
castle of the Canterville ghost
• Mrs Otis was quick to notice the bloodstain on the living room rug by the fireplace:

• - Oh well! Why didn't they clean up this bloodstain? That disgusting!

• “Ma'am,” the housekeeper said then, “it's the bloodstain of the murdered woman, Simon
de Canterville's wife. Her husband killed her and later died under mysterious
circumstances. He is the ghost that inhabits this castle and is in charge of making the stain
reappear.
• - Nonsense! - said the woman then - This stain is divinely removed with a bit of 'Champion'
brand stain remover.

• And then the couple's son, Washington, took a canister out of his bag:

• - Take it away, mother, I'll take care of rubbing this happy stain.

• And said and done, the stain disappeared in a jiffy.

• "See?" Mrs Otis said sardonically to the housekeeper. It wasn't that hard with the right
product.

• The next day, the stain reappeared by the fireplace. Mrs Otis was surprised, because they
had left the room locked.
• "Wow," said Washington when he saw the stain again, "the British bloodstains are
persistent...

• "Not at all," said Mrs. Otis. "It must be a ghost thing." What mania does he have with
repainting the stain. Either way, we'll delete it.
• And Washington again cleaned the blissful stain one day, and another day, and another
day. The most curious thing is that the stain was not always red. It began to change color
towards a vermilion shade, a raspberry and even an emerald green. The family had a lot of
fun betting what color the stain would be the next day. The day the emerald green stain
appeared, Virginia had to hold back her tears. Nobody knew why.

• Mrs Otis, moved by the bloodstain event, began to write a treatise on British bloodstains
and her difficulty in removing them. She in turn, believing more now in the existence of
the ghost, she began to be interested in the associations that studied paranormal events.
The Otis family's first encounter with the
Canterville Ghost
• One afternoon a heavy storm broke out. The wind was hitting the windows and making a
terrifying noise. So as soon as it got dark, they all went to bed. But that night, Mr Otis heard the
sound of chains dragging across the floor, and he couldn't sleep. So he opened the bedroom door
and found himself face to face with the Canterville Ghost: a specter with deep-set, coal-black
eyes, under which bulged hideous circles. His shaggy gray hair fell to his shoulders, and moldy
chains dangled around his hands and feet. The minister looked at him quite annoyed:

• - For the love of God! Do you want to stop making so much noise? We try to sleep! Wait though,
Mr. Ghost, I have the solution: a wonderful product for removing rust and unpleasant squeal from
your chains.

• And saying this, to the astonishment of the Canterville ghost, the minister handed him a small
boat with the name of Rising Sun.