Over 130 years later, Oscar Wilde’s classic ‘The Canterville Ghost’ has a new Colombian edition

It’s been more than 130 years “The Canterville Ghost” lurks among readers around the world. It was first published in 1887, in two issues of the magazine THE Review of court and society; the first was released on February 23 of the same year and the second on March 2.

Around 1891 it was included in a volume of short stories titled “The Crime of Lord Arthur Saville and Other Stories”, which allowed him to gain much more visibility. It is one of the most memorable texts by the British writer Oscar Wilde.

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The plot focuses on the story of an American family who goes to live in Canterville Castle, England. Lord Canterville, the former owner of the premises, warns them with fear that a ghost lurks within these walls. This is Sir Simon de Canterville, who refused to leave for 300 years. While alive, he murdered his wife, Lady Eleonore de Canterville, for which he was executed by his brothers, who, as soon as they discovered him, chained him up and left him to starve.

The Otis, as the family is called, ignore the warning. Mr. Otis, who is a United States Minister, thinks it’s nothing serious and jokes about taking inventory of everything in the castle, including the ghost.

Moving into the castle, Lucrecia, Mr. Otis’ wife, Virginia, their daughter, Washington, and the twins discover, over time, that the warning was real. On several occasions, they come across the ghost, but it does not scare them, on the contrary, it becomes the ideal victim of the family’s pranks. Virginia manages to sympathize, more than the others, with the ghost of Sir Simon and will try to help him make his way to eternity.

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Over time, it has become one of Wilde’s stories with the most adaptations, translations and editions. Worn in cinema and theater many times, adapted for television and radio, “The Canterville Ghost” It never ceases to win over readers.

In February 2023, the Bogota label Calixta Editors has published one of the most recent versions of the British writer’s classic, with the translation by Ana Rodríguez S., and illustrations by Tuxónimo and Art.davidrolea, in a copy intended to revive the interest of Colombian readers for this book.

Today for today “The Canterville Ghost” It can be considered a story of black humor, close to comic terror. The narration of the absurd, the way it depicts situations, sounds, dialogues, could perfectly be a source of inspiration for Tarantino’s cinema. It might be?

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A subtle and biting critic of British society of his time, Wilde manages to humorously recount the specific dynamics of a social class and its way of life, with a strong dose of irony. Although the plot has a more emotional background, the satire takes on importance and claims its place in this story, accompanied by the particular reflections of its author, a man whose imagination and intelligence have always gone against aware of the time and the context in which he lived.

As always, the literature of Oscar Wilde rests on the consciences of society, and although he spoke to the British people of those years, his novels, poems and stories are more relevant than ever, because the social class, whatever their origin, will have to always sharing things, and we all know that, anywhere, there will be more than one Mr. Otis who thinks that with his money he can deal with a 300-year-old ghost.

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