The novelization of the play of the same name which had an initial run of 867 performances on Broadway and was performed worldwide and made into three films between 1926 and 1959. A complex mystery, with a large cast of characters. Cornelia Van Gorder, an elderly and single woman, rents an old, isolated Long Island mansion belonging to the estate of Courtleigh Fleming, a bank president who is believed to have died several months previously. On a stormy evening, the electricity turns on and off. Most of the servants, convinced that the house was haunted, made excuses and fled. According to a report, a mysterious criminal known as "the Bat" has evaded police in the area. Cornelia is in the house with her maid, Lizzie, and Billy, a Japanese butler who is part of Fleming's household staff.[a] They are joined by Brooks, a gardener recently hired by Cornelia's niece, Dale Ogden . Dale and Dr. Wells, the local coroner and an old friend of Fleming's, arrive for a visit…..
AUTHORS BIOGRAPHY…..
Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876 – September 22, 1958)
Was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie, although her first detective novel was published fourteen years before Christie's first novel in 1920. Rinehart is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it » from his novel The Door (1930), although the novel does not use the exact phrase. Rinehart is also credited with inventing the "If I Had Knew Him" school of mystery writing, with the publication of The Circular Staircase (1908).
Mary Roberts Rinehart was born Mary Ella Roberts in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh. His father was a frustrated inventor, and throughout his childhood the family often had financial problems. Left-handed at a time when this was considered inappropriate, she was trained to use her right hand instead. She attended public schools and graduated at sixteen, then enrolled in the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses at the Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital, where she graduated in 1896. She described experience it as “all the tragedy in the world under one roof”. After graduating, she married Stanley Marshall Rinehart (1867-1932), a doctor she had met there. They had three sons: Stanley Jr., Alan and Frederick.
During the stock market crash of 1903, the couple lost their savings, which spurred Rinehart's efforts to write as a means of earning an income. She was twenty-seven that year and produced forty-five short stories. In 1907, she wrote The Circular Staircase, the novel that propelled her to national fame. According to his obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1958, the book sold 1.25 million copies. His regular contributions to the Saturday Evening Post were extremely popular and helped the magazine shape the tastes and manners of middle-class America.
In 1911, after the publication of five successful books and two plays, the Rineharts moved to Glen Osborne, Pennsylvania, where they purchased a large house on the corner of Orchard and Linden Streets called "Cassella". Before moving into the house. However, Mrs. Rinehart had to have the house completely rebuilt, as it had fallen into disrepair. /"The business was mine and I had invested every dollar I had into the purchase. All week I wrote extensively to cover payroll and contractor costs./" he said -she writes in her autobiography. In 1925, the Rineharts sold the house to the Marks family and the house was demolished in 1969. Today, a Mary Roberts Rinehart Nature Park stands in the Borough of Glen Osborne at 1414 Beaver Street, Sewickley, Pennsylvania.
————————————————– —————————–
Please take the opportunity to connect and share this video with your friends and family if you find it useful.
