The Spiral Staircase
E21813
The Spiral Staircase is a memoir by religious historian Karen Armstrong that recounts her journey from life in a Catholic convent through illness and crisis to a renewed, more expansive understanding of faith.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Spiral Staircase canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T169368 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Spiral Staircase Context triple: [Karen Armstrong, notableWork, The Spiral Staircase]
-
A.
The Bedroom
The Bedroom is a famous painting by Vincent van Gogh depicting his simple, brightly colored bedroom in Arles, celebrated for its bold color, distorted perspective, and emotional intensity characteristic of Post-Impressionism.
-
B.
Million Dollar Staircase
The Million Dollar Staircase is an ornate, late-19th-century grand staircase renowned for its elaborate stone carvings and opulent design inside the New York State Capitol in Albany.
-
C.
Red Room
The Red Room is an elegant, historically significant parlor in the White House used for receptions and small gatherings, distinguished by its red décor and antique furnishings.
-
D.
Penthouse Floor
"Penthouse Floor" is a socially conscious R&B track by John Legend featuring Chance the Rapper that critiques wealth, privilege, and social inequality.
-
E.
The Mysterious Mother
The Mysterious Mother is a 1768 Gothic verse drama by Horace Walpole that explores dark themes of incest, guilt, and religious anxiety within an aristocratic family.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Spiral Staircase Target entity description: The Spiral Staircase is a memoir by religious historian Karen Armstrong that recounts her journey from life in a Catholic convent through illness and crisis to a renewed, more expansive understanding of faith.
-
A.
The Bedroom
The Bedroom is a famous painting by Vincent van Gogh depicting his simple, brightly colored bedroom in Arles, celebrated for its bold color, distorted perspective, and emotional intensity characteristic of Post-Impressionism.
-
B.
Million Dollar Staircase
The Million Dollar Staircase is an ornate, late-19th-century grand staircase renowned for its elaborate stone carvings and opulent design inside the New York State Capitol in Albany.
-
C.
Red Room
The Red Room is an elegant, historically significant parlor in the White House used for receptions and small gatherings, distinguished by its red décor and antique furnishings.
-
D.
Penthouse Floor
"Penthouse Floor" is a socially conscious R&B track by John Legend featuring Chance the Rapper that critiques wealth, privilege, and social inequality.
-
E.
The Mysterious Mother
The Mysterious Mother is a 1768 Gothic verse drama by Horace Walpole that explores dark themes of incest, guilt, and religious anxiety within an aristocratic family.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
memoir ⓘ |
| about |
Karen Armstrong's career as a religious historian
ⓘ
Karen Armstrong's departure from religious life ⓘ Karen Armstrong's evolving understanding of God ⓘ Karen Armstrong's life in a Catholic convent ⓘ Karen Armstrong's struggle with illness ⓘ |
| author | Karen Armstrong ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| followsWork | Through the Narrow Gate ⓘ |
| genre | memoir ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn | contemporary discussions of faith and doubt ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
critique of institutional religion
ⓘ
loss of faith ⓘ mysticism ⓘ personal growth ⓘ religious transformation ⓘ search for meaning ⓘ suffering and healing ⓘ |
| isbn | 9780375413189 ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryForm | autobiographical narrative ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Karen Armstrong ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | first-person ⓘ |
| notableFor |
exploration of post-convent spiritual journey
ⓘ
integration of memoir and religious reflection ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 2004 ⓘ |
| publisher | Alfred A. Knopf ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
A History of God
ⓘ
The Battle for God ⓘ |
| setting |
Catholic convent
ⓘ
United Kingdom ⓘ |
| subject |
Catholicism
ⓘ
linked to:
Roman Catholicism
ex-nun experience ⓘ faith ⓘ illness ⓘ mental health ⓘ religion ⓘ religious doubt ⓘ religious history ⓘ spirituality ⓘ |
| subtitle | My Climb Out of Darkness ⓘ |
| timePeriodDescribed |
20th century
ⓘ
post–Second Vatican Council era ⓘ |
| title | The Spiral Staircase ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Spiral Staircase Description of subject: The Spiral Staircase is a memoir by religious historian Karen Armstrong that recounts her journey from life in a Catholic convent through illness and crisis to a renewed, more expansive understanding of faith.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.