My spouse recently found an old newspaper from 1905 behind a mirror on an old piece of furniture we had bought in Cambridge when we were newly weds, back in the dark ages. Interestingly, the paper was from Baltimore, the city of my birth. How it got into a mirror on a bureau in Cambridge, MA is a mystery.

Anyway, one of its pages listed some books one might buy as Christmas presents. The list had little summaries. I decided to check a few of them out. I could find several of the authors listed, but not the books listed with them, with one exception. I did find The House of a Thousand Candles by Meredith Nicholson. Actually, that's not quite true. I found a couple of the others, but only in pay form. I won't pay for books on kindle unless I actually own them, i.e. can lend them or give them away with impunity.

Whatever, this book is a sort of gothic novel, I suppose. A young man inherits a strange old, unfinished mansion in the Indiana woods, but only on the proviso that he lives in the house for a full year, that he doesn't have a bunch of live-in guests, and that he doesn't leave, other than for short trips into town (an easy 2-mile walk--yes people used to walk to get places and 2 miles wasn't all that unusual.) to the post office and such like.

As soon as he gets to the house, someone tries shooting him through the window. He begins to hear weird sounds, e.g. foot steps in the walls. He hears snatches of conversation that tells him people are out to get him. People think there's buried treasure of some sort in the house, but no one can find it. There's a girls school, run by nuns, protestant ones no less, just on the other side of the wall, and at least one of the school's inhabitants is bewitching. And so forth.

This is not deathless literature, and is obviously dated. Some of the attitudes expressed in the book are a bit creepy to a more modern sensibility (e.g. attitudes toward women and "rubes", i.e. midwesterners--oh wait some folks still think we're ignorant rubes [I have midwestern roots and lived in both Kansas and Ohio for extended periods of time]). But it's an interesting enough yarn and perfectly fine escapist literature, even if the main character is a bit of an ass. I've read much worse.
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This mystery was written in 1905 and is to my liking so far. It is on the Library of Indiana Classics Book List. Check out the authors on this list, i.e., Gene Stratton Porter, James Whitcomb Riley and Booth Tarkington, to name a few. ( )

House of a Thousand Candles was originally published in the early 1900’s and is a fun, somewhat dated read with an isolated mansion, secret passages, hidden treasure, bumps in the night, a butler who is not what he seems, and a vagabond main character.

The story is of John Glenarm who has been kicking around Europe whiling away his time and his money, living the fast life. He receives news that his Grandfather has died. John has been left the estate but with one stipulation, he must reside at the house in Indiana for one full year, if he doesn’t live up to that clause, he then forfeits everything to a young lady who resides next door at the convent school. The fun starts when he takes up residence at the house with strange encounters, mysterious sounds and someone taking a pot-shot at him from the dark. The action is a little overblown with fights, arguments and bullets flying about.

Overall a fun read, although the romance angle was little weak and there were some action scenes that were rather overdone and caused some eye-rolling. The twist at the end was no surprise but I did enjoy the time I spent reading this light hearted romp as I pictured it being made into a great 1930’s style romantic comedy-adventure with stars like Franchot Tone and Loretta Young. ( )

Great storytelling. Try the Librivox audio book ( )

This is a marvelous romp. Take a beautiful but mysterious house, a beautiful and enigmatic woman of dubious loyalties, a strange will, four strong, stalwart young man and a group of resourceful toughs, then shake and stir. I raced through this one. Of all the older books written by Indiana authors, this has held up the best. ( )