The Hidden Staircase

The Hidden Staircase

File:Origndths.jpg
Author	Carolyn Keene
Language	English
Series	Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
Genre	Juvenile literature
Publisher	Grosset & Dunlap
Publication date	1930
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	0-448-09502-5
OCLC	17335741
Preceded by	The Secret of the Old Clock
Followed by	The Bungalow Mystery

The Hidden Staircase is the second volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, and published in 1930. Unofficial statistics indicate it to be one of the favorite stories of Nancy Drew readers.

As of 2001, it was ranked number 68 on a list of the all-time best-selling hardcover children's book in English; according to Publishers Weekly, it had sold 1,821,457 copies.[1].

Plot summary - 1930 edition

Nancy is introduced to the Turner sisters, Pat and Rosemary by Abigail Rem, a character who aids Nancy in the previous, and first volume of the series. They believe that their home is haunted. Nancy's father is being harassed by a crooked character, Nathan Gomber, who threatens violence. Carson Drew, undaunted, agrees to allow Nancy to investigate the house and sends his revolver with her. He will travel to Chicago during the first part of Nancy's stay at the old estate and join her later.

Odd things have been happening at The Mansion. A valuable necklace has been stolen, and canaries get into the house, seemingly of their own accord. Nancy finds it difficult to focus on the mystery at hand when her father fails to arrive home from Chicago in a timely manner - he appears to have vanished. Meanwhile, Nancy discovers that the nefarious Gomber owns the adjacent estate, nearly identical in appearance to The Mansion, nevertheless in a much more dilapidated state. She decides to investigate Gombet's house one rainy night, armed with revolver and flashlight. While roaming around the odd house, Nancy accidentally falls through a secret panel and down a staircase into a tunnel, which leads back to the house in which she is staying.

Nancy reveals her discovery to the Turners in the morning, then they investigate together. The police, acting on Nancy's suspicions, raid Gombet's house, where Carson Drew is discovered to have been a prisoner for days. Gomber is found to have been behind the hauntings as well.

1959 revision

Helen Corning and her great-aunt Rosemary Turnbull Hayes ask Nancy to solve a mystery at Twin Elms, a stately colonial mansion just outside of nearby Cliffwood, and the ancestral home of Helen's great-grandmother Flora Turnbull (whose name has now been shortened to Miss Flora). Nancy's father is being threatened by a crooked lawyer (whose name has been changed slightly to Nathan Gomber), who alleges that Carson, as attorney for the railroad, cheated property owners who sold their land so that a new stretch of railroad, including a trestle, could be built. Gomber also alleges that Carson's client, Willie Wharton, is holding up proceedings by going into hiding.

Nancy and Helen accept an invitation to stay at Twin Elms while Carson goes to Chicago to find Wharton. On the girls' first day there, a chandelier mysteriously begins to sway on its own, Miss Flora discovers that some of her valuables are missing, music plays from out of nowhere, and a gorilla is seen peering through a window. Nancy and Helen subsequently investigate the history of the house and grounds. After Nancy confers with Police Chief McGinnis, an officer named Patrick is assigned to patrol the grounds - his first capture being an unwitting Nancy. Nathan Gomber repeatedly harasses Miss Flora and Rosemary to sell their property.

Carson fails to arrive, worrying Nancy. Nancy and Helen even explore the roof, where Nancy notices a "twin" estate, named Riverside Manor, which is for sale. The girls also discover a hidden "listening post" in a secret room adjacent to the kitchen.

A realtor gives Nancy the key to Riverside Manor, even though it has just been sold - to Nathan Gomber, much to Nancy's surprise. She and Helen explore the twin property, and Nancy discovers a hidden panel, behind which is a hidden staircase. She and Helen explore a tunnel that eventually leads to another staircase that accesses a hidden panel at Twin Elms - and run into none other than Willie Wharton. The girls reveal the tunnel and the staircases to thunderstruck Miss Flora and Aunt Rosemary. Gomber is apprehended, and leads police to a hidden room off the tunnel, where he has been holding Carson Drew prisoner. Guns, although prominent in the original story, are deleted from the revision, as are the character of Gomber's female servant and accompanying stereotypical and derogatory rac3ryhrhgcerdntfgngnfgial references to her.

Artwork

The original Russell H. Tandy artwork features Nancy in a 1930 raincoat and hat, climbing the hidden staircase by flashlight. Updated 1950 cover art by Bill Gillies shows Nancy opening the panel to the staircase for the Turnbulls. This scene was retained for the revised text in 1959, and was actually described in the book in detail. In 1966, the art was replaced with Rudy Nappi's matronly Nancy, in an updated version of the original Tandy art. The revised text story was published as a book club edition i88utykhlukikkkjkuimn nbggbjhjglfkighgjgkgigooftfcffgn 1960. Polly Bolian illustrates Nancy and Helen on the cover, by flashlight, investigating the tunnel with the stairs behind them.

Cinematic treatment

The Hidden Staircase was filmed in 1938 by Warner Bros. as Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, part of their series of four films starring Bonita Granville as Nancy. The plot was heavily revised for the film. Nancy's father is not harassed by anyone, and the plot becomes a murder mystery when the Turnbull sisters' chauffeur is murdered and the death is made to look like a suicide.