The Canterville Ghost

Oscar Wilde and Wallace Goldsmith (1854-1900)

Approximate level: B2
Length: 11,477 words
Reading time: 57 min
Chapters: 7
Language: English
On Project Gutenberg since: 2004

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Oscar Wilde’s late Victorian comic story brings an American family into an old English house reputed to be haunted. It plays with the contrast between modern confidence and inherited customs, and turns on questions of belief, pride, family, and what people fear. The prose mixes clear dialogue with formal, period expressions and some unfamiliar social titles. Most sentences are readable, but the opening uses long, layered sentences and elaborate descriptions, so you may need to follow several details at once.

3,698 downloads on Project Gutenberg

Subjects

England -- Fiction
Ghosts -- Fiction

Questions about this book

What level of English do I need for this book?

The estimate is B2, based on how common the words are and how long the sentences run. It is an approximation, not a test result. With a translation under every sentence you can start one level earlier than you would with a paper copy.

Is this book really free?

Yes. The text is in the public domain and comes from Project Gutenberg, so it costs nothing. In Lingo7 you open the book and read the first page for free; a subscription unlocks the whole library, the audio and the word practice.

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How long does it take to read?

About 57 min at a native pace, spread over 7 chapters. In a foreign language plan for more: half an hour a day finishes a book of this size in a few weeks.