Grayscale

This game has you wandering an enormous mansion, exploring room after room, with hidden passages and a strange woman in the library.

I enjoyed it, but only because I used hints. The game has the sort of thing where you have 20 similar rooms and one of them has a scenery item that can be used.

The author is a little too smarmy; if you type nothing, you get "Let me explain something here; you're playing a text adventure...no text, no adventure, get it?". That kind of 'oh silly player' attitude is prevalent. It has a lot of poetry and some physical simulation (freezing and melting in an optional puzzle, flushing toilet, etc.)