Chapter 1

Mr. Otis is a rich American who wants to live in a house in England. So he decides to buy
Canterville Chase despite the old owner's advice against it because there is a ghost. But Mr. Otis
doesn’t believe in ghosts and decides to move there with his wife Lucretia Otis, his son Washington,
his daughter Virginia and his two little twins. When they leave the weather is sunny and the birds
are singing but when they come near the Canterville Chase the weather changes and dark clouds
appear. Mrs. Umney, who is the housekeeper, is waiting for them at the door. After they enter the
mansion, Mrs. Otis notices a dark red stain by the fireplace and asks what it is: Mrs. Umney replies
it is the bloodstain of Sir Simon's wife who was killed by him and says that the stain is impossible
to remove. As Americans are practical, Washington decides to remove it with the "Pinkerton's
Cleaner" and after the stain goes away a lightning strikes the sky and Mrs. Umney faints. Because
of that Mr Otis decides to reduce the housekeeper’s salary.
Chapter 2
From that day, the stain reappears every morning and Washington continues to remove it with the
Cleaner: at that point Mr. Otis begins to think that there really is a ghost. One night the ghost shows
up: it has red eyes and gray hair and walks through the corridor with his chains. Then Mr. Otis goes
out into the corridor and advises the ghost to use a lubricant to make less noise and the ghost is
suddenly hit by the twins who throw pillows at him. After that day the ghost doesn’t show up, he
only continues to put the stain on the floor every day but after some time the stain on the floor turns
green and then purple. One day Otis's family goes into the living room because they hear a noise: so
they see the ghost who has tried to use an armor to scare them but has fallen on the ground because
it was too heavy. From that day the ghost doesn’t show up for a long time.
Chapter 3
The ghost plans to scare all the family except Virginia on Friday 17. While he is carrying out his
plan, he meets another ghost: at first he is scared but then he realises it is a fake ghost made by the
twins and he returns angry to his room. To take his revenge, he decides to walk silently in the
corridors to scare the family, appearing to them as the “Headless Lord”, but after he walks through a
door, a bucket of water, set as a trap by the twins, falls on him and after that he returns to the room
sad and angry because nobody has seen him another time.
Chapter 4
Virginia is riding her pony when she tears her jacket. She goes up the back stairs because she
doesn’t want anyone to see her, and, after she sees an open door, she enters a room where she meets
the ghost sitting by the window. She starts talking to him and he tells her that he killed his wife
because she was ugly, she cooked badly and didn't look after his clothes. Then her brothers locked
him in a room without food. He also apologizes because he has stolen her colors and he tells her he
is tired and hungry but he can’t sleep and eat because he is a ghost.
Chapter 5
The ghost says that he wants to die because he is tired of scaring the people who live in Canterville
Chase, but he also says that he can only die if Virginia decides to cry and pray for him so that the
Angels of death will forgive him. The ghost tells her that on top of that she will see terrible things
and she will hear bad voices but because she is so good she won’t be hurt. Virginia sees that the
ghost is very sad, and so she accepts to help him and to take him to the garden of death, a garden
near the mansion where he will be buried. So the ghost takes her to a secret room and she
diseappears.
Chapter 6
After many hours of searching by her family, Virginia comes down the stairs and tells everyone that
the ghost has died and he has given her a box of jewelry. Suddenly the tree becomes full of blossom
and Virginia enters a room where there is the skeleton of Sir Simon and begins to pray. A few days
later, she goes to his funeral and decides not to sell the jewels and wear them at his wedding with
Lord Cecil.