Three hundred years before the story begins, Sir Simon de Canterville murders his wife Lady

Eleanor at their home Canterville Chase. As punishment for his crime, Lady Eleanor's brothers
chain Sir Simon to a wall with some food and water placed just out of his reach. The door of the
room is then sealed. Sir Simon is left to slowly starve to death and his disappearance remains a
mystery for most people. After his death, Sir Simon is doomed to haunt Canterville Chase.
However, Sir Simon makes the best of the situation and relishes his role as the ghost. He is able
to take on different forms, including a black dog, a skeleton and a vampire monk. He enjoys
frightening generations of the de Canterville family, their relatives and visitors to Canterville
Chase, often to the point that those he frightens go mad and sometimes commit suicide. Mr. Otis
advises the ghost to oil his chains. 1906 illustration by Wallace Heard Goldsmith.
Mr. Hiram B. Otis, the American ambassador to Britain, buys Canterville Chase from Lord
Canterville. Mr. Otis is warned that there is a ghost in the house but he jokingly agrees to take
the building with furniture, ghost and all. Mr. Otis moves into the house with his wife Lucretia,
oldest son Washington, teenaged daughter Virginia and two unnamed young twin sons. On
arrival at the house, Mrs. Otis notices a red stain on the floor. The housekeeper, Mrs. Umney,
explains that it is a sign of the ghost's presence in the house, it is a bloodstain which marks the
spot where Lady Eleanor was killed and it cannot be removed. Washington Otis scoffs at that
notion and immediately wipes away the stain with some Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover
and Paragon Detergent. Although Washington removes the stain, it reappears each day. The fact
that the stain reappears even when the room is locked convinces the family that the ghost exists.
The family notice that the stain appears in different shades of red and even in green.
One evening, the ghost appears in front of Mr. Otis, rattling some chains. Mr. Otis is not at all
frightened by the ghost but calmly tells him that the sound of his rusty chains is making too
much noise and that he should use some Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator on them. Sir Simon
also fails to frighten all of the other members of the family, no matter how hard he tries. He
receives particularly rough treatment from the twins, who trip him up and fire pea-shooters at
him. Sir Simon is even frightened when he sees what he thinks is another ghost, which is really a
dummy that the twins have made from a jack o'lantern and a sheet.

1887 illustrations for "The Canterville Ghost" by F.H. Townsend, reprinted in a 1914 biography
of Wilde.
Sir Simon eventually gives up trying to frighten the Otis family. The family wrongly believe that
the ghost has left but, in fact, he is still quietly haunting the building. Hearing that the young
Duke of Cheshire, who has fallen in love with Virginia, is to visit Canterville Chase, the ghost is
pleased because he had terrified the Duke's ancestors.
During the Duke's visit, Virginia confronts the ghost. She scolds him both for taking her paints,
which he used for the bloodstain, and for murdering his wife. The ghost admits to killing his wife
but complains that he was cruelly punished afterwards by being starved to death. Sir Simon

continues to say that he has neither eaten nor rested in the three centuries since that time and that
he longs to truly die. Virginia feels sorry for the ghost and wants to help him. Sir Simon points
out that there is a prophecy that he can rest if a girl cries for him and prays for him. Virginia
agrees to do it, although the ghost warns her that it will be a frightening experience.
Virginia goes missing for some time while she is praying for the ghost. Her family, the Duke of
Cheshire and the police search for her. When she reappears, she explains that Sir Simon de
Canterville has finally truly died and leads her family to his skeleton. The body is buried soon
afterwards.
Virginia later marries the Duke of Cheshire. Although she has no other secrets from her husband,
she never tells him exactly what happened during the time that she went missing with the ghost