The book i edited

The Editor’s Commentary

Oscar Wilde subtitled the story, a ‘Hylo¹- Idealistic² romance. Indeed it describes the intricate³ romance between the Otises, living on a material, mundane plane and the Ghost, existing in a supernatural, idealist realm⁴, through the ghastly⁵ actions of the latter and the emphatic reactions of the former, especially the twins. The wicked, heartless Ghost’s affection to the solemn, puritan Virginia is another romance, subtle⁶ initially when he bears no grudge to her, peaking when he entreats her to weep for his sins as he has no tears, pray for his soul as he has no faith and carry him to the garden of death for his salvation. He makes a bequest⁸ of his family jewels to her- a sine- qua–non⁹ of his fatherly love. Young Duke charming Cecil’s abiding¹⁰ love for the angelic Virginia and her reciprocation¹¹ in equal measure are also inescapably romantic- a hylo- hylistic romance.

Under the veneer¹² of the humour of the failures of a frail phantom, a grim saga of the trials¹³, tribulations¹⁴ and travails¹⁵ of a ghost, initially enraged to smite the audacious¹⁶ Otis family with a vengeance, but eventually kneeling to an innocent but resolute and brave teenage girl to deliver him to the angel of death. The message- ’life is not judged by longevity; it is measured by deeds of love, service and forgiveness.

The fable¹⁷ sets a modern capitalist¹⁸ American family in the ambience¹⁹ of a haunted English mansion, and pits the English Culture against the American- the Anglican aestheticism against the American pragmatism; the English conservative orthodoxy against the American proactive scientific temper; the enervating pleasures of the English Aristocracy against the rigorous principles of American Republicans and the English ruins and curiosities against the American artless manners and cures.

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1 from Hylism; material, mundane, worldly 2 perfect, therefore imaginary, psychical 3 complex 4 region 5 causing horror and fear 6 fine, thin 7 on the way 8          gift given by a ’will’ 9 definite sign; essential condition 10 everlasting 11 give in return what one received 12 a cover, a laminate over wood 13 tests and struggles of life 14 grief, sorrows 15 pains 16 excessively, rudely brave 17 fiction, story 18 doctrine of private enterprise and economic control by money19 atmosphere