A mixed bag here I think. Oscar Wilde has written some amazing stuff, but I tend to find his fairy tales have the tinge of saccharine, even if everyone tends to end up dead or miserable in them (especially the birds). The main story here, however, "The Canterville Ghost" is really closer to a novella and manages to stave off overt sentimentality for much of the story. It is, though, a piece of curious halves. The first is an almost farcical ghost story in which a new family is most certainly not frightened of the ghost that comes with their stately pile, and drives him into a state of despair and distraction. There's an odd tonal change part-way through, and it changes into a story where the innocent young daughter redeems the soul of the ghost (who once upon a time murdered his wife, I have no pity). It's not that great, to be honest - not when compared to the stories of princes and nightingales and giants that follow, which are admittedly sad and pretty things, if over-sugared.