My Story

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Nothing was more strictly forbidden than that a staff doctor and nurse should fall in love. the next afternoon Doctor Rinehart demanded permission to take me for a drive, and had he asked to burn the hospital there could have been no greater sensation. The Board met augustly, and he appeared before it. They were cowed when he had finished. In a shockingly loud voice, distinctly to be heard where I leaned over a stair rail above, he announced that he meant to marry me, and what business was it of theirs anyhow?

Genres: Nonfiction

Library Binding

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

Mysteries of the well-known American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart include The Circular Staircase (1908) and The Door (1930).

People often called this prolific author the American version of Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it," though the exact phrase doesn't appear in her works, and she 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 were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). Critics most appreciated her murder mysteries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ro...

Reviews

[Beck Henreckson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written with the same grace and ease of her best novels, this is a beautiful, straightforward autobiography of one of the most amazing women in American history. Is there a famous person of her time that she did not meet, be it king or queen or president or general or movie star or writer? Is there something in her writing that did not come from personal experience, whether it was in the hospital, the wild west, or the war front? Living in haunted houses, having her cook of many years try to murder her, living through the traumatic and violent deaths of many of her family members, profoundly influencing literature and America in general - Mary Roberts Rinehart lived a truly astounding life, and this informal yet objective telling of it is almost too good to be true.

[Hanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book picked up on a whim; and unfortunately, whims don't always turn out beneficial. There is nothing offensive about Rinehart's personal reflections--although there are areas of disagreement, particularly regarding religion--but her narrative, though occasionally amusing, never caught my interest. Perhaps I would have an automatic vested interest had I read one of her fiction stories (admittedly, I have not); but as it is, her vague writing style did not endear me to the thought of picking up her popular mysteries. Her approach, her way of telling a story and then relating the climax in an abrupt manner, is rather odd. I prefer more direct writing.

It's rather unusual for me to rate a nonfiction narrative just two stars, particularly in an instance where there is no offensive content. Consider the rating closer to 2 1/2; I don't begrudge Rinehart her international experiences, nor her royal hobnobbing, but they were far from relatable in her presentation. Hence why this book took me months to read. (Yikes.)