The Circular Staircase
| Author | Mary Roberts Rinehart |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Bobbs-Merrill |
|
Publication date
|
1908 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 362 |
The Circular Staircase is a 1908 mystery novel by American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart. The story follows dowager Rachel Innes as she thwarts a series of strange crimes at a summer home she has rented with her niece and nephew. The novel was Rinehart's first bestseller and established her one of the era's most popular writers.
The Circular Staircase pioneered what became known as the "had I but known" school of mystery writing, which often feature female protagonists and narrators who foreshadow impending danger and plot developments by reflecting on what they might have done differently. Rinehart employed this formula in many of her later works, and it inspired dozens of subsequent stories. The novel was adapted for the screen twice: as a silent film in 1915, and for the television series Climax! in 1956. However, its best known adaptation was as the play The Bat, which became a major Broadway hit and inspired a number of later works, including several adaptations of its own.
Rachel is a spinster who has had custody of her orphaned niece and nephew since they were children. Halsey and Gertrude are now 20 and 24, respectively, and they talk Rachel into renting a house in the country for the summer.
The first night Rachel is there, there is a mysterious trespasser and something falls down the stairs in the middle of the night. The second night, after Halsey and Gertrude have arrived, there is a murder, and Halsey and the friend he has brought to stay disappear.
Halsey returns a few days later, without his friend and without an explanation, but by then many other developments have occurred, to the chagrin of the residents.
In 1912, Rinehart's friend Beatrice DeMille, mother of Cecil B. Demille, tried to work out a deal for her son's new film company to purchase the rights to The Circular Staircase and another Rinehart story. Though this failed to come together, Rinehart was soon able to sell her work to film companies, beginning with a group of comic stories that Essanay Studios adapted as short films in 1914. In 1915, Rinehart sold the film rights to The Circular Staircase to Selig Polyscope Company for an apparently small amount. The silent film, released in 1915, was the first feature-length adaptation of Rinehart's work. It was directed by Edward le Saint and starred Guy Oliver as Halsey, Eugenie Besserer as Ray, and Stella Razeto as Gertrude. It received lukewarm reviews; one critic wrote that it followed the novel too closely to be effectively cinematic. The film is now lost.
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