The cover page is adapted from Room Interior with Winding Staircase, a painting completed before 1912 by Francis Davis Millet. The cover and title pages feature the League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by The League of Moveable Type. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Davis_Milletwww.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
The Circular Staircase
Chapters (34)
- I: I Take a Country House 0:00
- II: A Link Cuff-Button 15:31
- III: Mr. John Bailey Appears 30:08
- IV: Where Is Halsey? 39:37
- V: Gertrude’s Engagement 50:51
- VI: In the East Corridor 1:03:04
- VII: A Sprained Ankle 1:15:31
- VIII: The Other Half of the Line 1:28:46
- IX: Just Like a Girl 1:46:56
- X: The Traders’ Bank 2:01:43
- XI: Halsey Makes a Capture 2:15:33
- XII: One Mystery for Another 2:24:35
- XIII: Louise 2:40:06
- XIV: An Eggnog and a Telegram 3:01:10
- XV: Liddy Gives the Alarm 3:11:44
- XVI: In the Early Morning 3:22:14
- XVII: A Hint of Scandal 3:32:00
- XVIII: A Hole in the Wall 3:46:01
- XIX: Concerning Thomas 3:57:17
- XX: Doctor Walker’s Warning 4:06:48
- XXI: Fourteen Elm Street 4:18:27
- XXII: A Ladder Out of Place 4:37:01
- XXIII: While the Stables Burned 4:45:11
- XXIV: Flinders 4:58:39
- XXV: A Visit from Louise 5:08:27
- XXVI: Halsey’s Disappearance 5:24:00
- XXVII: Who Is Nina Carrington? 5:39:25
- XXVIII: A Tramp and the Toothache 5:49:24
- XXIX: A Scrap of Paper 6:03:25
- XXX: When Churchyards Yawn 6:17:09
- XXXI: Between Two Fireplaces 6:26:57
- XXXII: Anne Watson’s Story 6:36:18
- XXXIII: At the Foot of the Stairs 6:47:09
- XXXIV: The Odds and Ends 7:08:35
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Wealthy spinster Rachel Innes and her niece and nephew, Gertrude and Halsey, rent a country house called Sunnyside for the summer. Upon arrival, the butler reveals to them that he believes there’s a ghost in the house. During the first night, Rachel is roused from sleep by strange sounds. The next night she’s awakened by a revolver shot, and discovers a dead body at the foot of the house’s circular staircase. The investigation into the murder reveals the house and its owners, the Armstrong family, hold many secrets.
The Circular Staircase was published in 1908 and is credited with pioneering the “Had I but known” school of mystery writing, a form of foreshadowing that hints at impending disaster through the narrator’s regrets of their actions. The novel was adapted as a silent film in 1915, and most notably as a hit Broadway play, “The Bat” in 1920.