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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The House of Dr. Edwardes

novel written by John Palmer and Hilary A. Saunders

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ7740609 ↗
Source-derived summary

The House of Dr. Edwardes is a psychological thriller novel written by John Palmer and Hilary A. Saunders under the pseudonym Francis Beeding.

The plot concerns an asylum that is about to get a new director. The new man is knocked unconscious and imprisoned by an imposter who allows patients—including a satanist planning a human sacrifice—to run amuck.

The novel was adapted to film in 1945 as Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound. The film uses the idea of an imposter and some character names, but otherwise bears no resemblance to the novel.

References

Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The House of Dr. Edwardes” as novel written by John Palmer and Hilary A. Saunders. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1945, 1948—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1927. The account is most persuasive where House, Edwardes and novel can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as novel written by John Palmer and Hilary A. Saunders. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7740609. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1945 and 1948.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The House of Dr. Edwardes”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The House of Dr. Edwardes primary sources, The House of Dr. Edwardes archive and House research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The House of Dr. Edwardes”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The House of Dr. Edwardes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.