title: Dwelling in the Text: Houses in American Fiction
author: Marilyn R. Chandler
description: Chandler sees houses as "the locus of the central conflicts of American life." In this critical work she leads readers through houses in American novels, ranging from Walden , The Fall of the House of Usher , and The Great Gatsby to Beloved , and explores the writers' own homes as well as the relationship of the house to characters and structure. Writing in a highly literate yet readable style, Chandler leaves no architectural environment unexamined, in addition to discussing the significance to Americans of having or not having a house. This book adds an important dimension to the study of American literature and should be of interest to scholars and serious readers. Recommended for all academic libraries.<br /><i>- Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo</i><br />Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  # The Circular Staircase
  
  
  ## Mary Roberts Rhinehart
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Chapter 1: I TAKE A COUNTRY HOUSE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  THIS is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind, deserted
  
  
  her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out
  
  
  of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes
  
  
  that keep our newspapers and detective agencies happy and prosperous.
  
  
  For twenty years I had been perfectly comfortable; for twenty years I
  
  
  had had the window-boxes filled in the spring, the carpets lifted, the
  
  
  awnings put up and the furniture covered with brown linen; for as many
  
  
  summers I had said good-by to my friends, and, after watching their
  
  
  perspiring hegira, had settled down to a delicious quiet in town, where
  
  
  the mail comes three times a day, and the water supply does not depend
  
  
  on a tank on the roof.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  And then -- the madness seized me. When I look back over