: Mary Roberts Rinehart
: A Poor Wise Man
: Seltzer Books
: 9781455332182
: 1
: CHF 0.70
:
: Erzählende Literatur
: English
: 863
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
According to Wikipedia: 'Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876-September 22, 1958) was a prolific author often called the American Agatha Christie.[1] She is considered the source of the phrase 'The butler did it', although she did not actually use the phrase herself, and also considered to have invented the 'Had-I-But-Known' school of mystery writing.... Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and special articles. Many of her books and plays, such as The Bat (1920) were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). While many of her books were best-sellers, critics were most appreciative of her murder mysteries. Rinehart, in The Circular Staircase (1908), is credited with inventing the 'Had-I-But-Known' school of mystery writing. The Circular Staircase is a novel in which 'a middle-aged spinster is persuaded by her niece and nephew to rent a country house for the summer. The house they choose belonged to a bank defaulter who had hidden stolen securities in the walls. The gentle, peace-loving trio is plunged into a series of crimes solved with the help of the aunt. This novel is credited with being the first in the 'Had-I-But-Known' school.'[3] The Had-I-But-Known mystery novel is one where the principal character (frequently female) does less than sensible things in connection with a crime which have the effect of prolonging the action of the novel. Ogden Nash parodied the school in his poem Don't Guess Let Me Tell You: 'Sometimes the Had I But Known then what I know now I could have saved at least three lives by revealing to the Inspector the conversation I heard through that fortuitous hole in the floor.' The phrase 'The butler did it', which has become a cliché, came from Rinehart's novel The Door, in which the butler actually did do it, although that exact phrase does not actually appear in the work.'

Not all the mills would go down.  A careful canvass of some of the other independent concerns had shown the men eighty, ninety, even one hundred per cent, loyal.  Those were the smaller plants, where there had always been a reciprocal good feeling between the owners and the men; there the men knew the owners, and the owners knew the men, who had been with them for years.

 

But the Cardew Mills would go down.  There had been no liaison between the Cardews and the workmen.  The very magnitude of the business forbade that.  And for many years, too, the Cardews had shown a gross callousness to the welfare of the laborers.  Long ago he had urged on his father the progressive attitude of other steel men, but Anthony had jeered, and when Howard had forced the issue and gained concessions, it was too late.  The old grievances remained in too many minds.  To hate the Cardews bad become a habit. Their past sins would damn them now.  The strike was wrong, a wicked thing.  It was without reason and without aim.  The men were knocking a hole in the boat that floated them.  But-

 

There was a tap at his door, and he called"Come in." From her babyhood Lily had had her own peculiar method of signaling that she stood without, a delicate rapid tattoo of finger nails on the panel. He watched smilingly for her entrance.

 

"Well!" she said. "Thank goodness you haven't started to dress.  I tried to get here earlier, but my hair wouldn't go up, I want to make a good impression to-night."

 

"Is there a dinner on?  TI didn't know it."

 

"Not a dinner.  A young man.  I came to see what you are going to wear."

 

"Really!  Well, I haven't a great variety.  The ordinary dinner dress of a gentleman doesn't lend itself to any extraordinary ornamentation.  If you like, I'll pin on that medal from the Iron and Steel - Who's coming, Lily?"

 

"Grayson says grandfather's dining out."

 

"I believe so."

 

"What a piece of luck!&