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The Zeppelin's Passenger
Edward Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946), was an English novelist, in his lifetime a successful writer of genre fiction including thrillers. He composed some 150 novels, mostly of international intrigue. This one deals with a German spy in England who romances a titled lady and has a happy ending.
314 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1918
About the author
E. Phillips Oppenheim
648 books79 followersEdward Phillips Oppenheim was an English novelist, primarily known for his suspense fiction.
He was born in Leicester, the son of a leather merchant, and after attending Wyggeston Grammar School he worked in his father's business for almost 20 years, beginning there at a young age. He continued working in the business, even though he was a successful novelist, until he was 40 at which point he sold the business.
He wrote his first book 'Expiation' in 1887 and in 1898 he published 'The Mysterious Mr Sabin', which he described as "The first of my long series of stories dealing with that shadowy and mysterious world of diplomacy." Thereafter he became a prolific writer and by 1900 he had had 14 novels published.
While on a business trip to the United States in 1890 he met and married Elise Clara Hopkins of Boston and, on return to England, they lived in Evington, Leicestershire until the First World War,and had one daughter. His wife remained faithful to him throughout his life despite his frequent and highly publicised affairs, which often took place abroad and aboard his luxury yacht.
During World War I Oppenheim worked for the Ministry of Information while continuing to write his suspenseful novels.
He featured on the cover of 'Time' magazine on 12 September 1927 and he was the self-styled 'Prince of Storytellers', a title used by Robert standish for his biography of the author.
His literary success enabled him to buy a villa in France and a yacht, spending his winters in France where he regularly entertained more than 250 people at his lavish parties and where he was a well-known figure in high society.
He later purchased a house, Le Vanquiédor in St. Peter Port, in Guernsey. He lost access to the house during the Second World War when Germany occupied the Channel Islands but later regained it.
He wrote 116 novels, mainly of the suspense and international intrigue type, but including romances, comedies, and parables of everyday life, and 39 volumes of short stories, all of which earned him vast sums of money. He also wrote five novels under the pseudonymn Anthony Partridge and a volume of autobiography, 'The Pool of Memory' in 1939.
He is generally regarded as the earliest writer of spy fiction as we know it today, and invented the 'Rogue Male' school of adventure thrillers that was later exploited by John Buchan and Geoffrey Household.
Undoubtedly his most renowned work was 'The Great Impersonation' (1920), which was filmed three times, the last time as a strong piece of wartime propaganda in 1942. In that novel the plot hinges around two very similar looking gentlemen, one from Britain and the other from Germany, in the early part of the 20th century. Overall more than 30 of his works were made into films.
Perhaps his most enduring creation is the character of General Besserley, the protagonist of 'General Besserley's Puzzle Box' and 'General Besserley's New Puzzle Box'.
Much of his work possesses a unique escapist charm, featuring protagonists who delight in Epicurean meals, surroundings of intense luxury, and the relaxed pursuit of criminal practice, on either side of the law.
Gerry Wolstenholme
He was born in Leicester, the son of a leather merchant, and after attending Wyggeston Grammar School he worked in his father's business for almost 20 years, beginning there at a young age. He continued working in the business, even though he was a successful novelist, until he was 40 at which point he sold the business.
He wrote his first book 'Expiation' in 1887 and in 1898 he published 'The Mysterious Mr Sabin', which he described as "The first of my long series of stories dealing with that shadowy and mysterious world of diplomacy." Thereafter he became a prolific writer and by 1900 he had had 14 novels published.
While on a business trip to the United States in 1890 he met and married Elise Clara Hopkins of Boston and, on return to England, they lived in Evington, Leicestershire until the First World War,and had one daughter. His wife remained faithful to him throughout his life despite his frequent and highly publicised affairs, which often took place abroad and aboard his luxury yacht.
During World War I Oppenheim worked for the Ministry of Information while continuing to write his suspenseful novels.
He featured on the cover of 'Time' magazine on 12 September 1927 and he was the self-styled 'Prince of Storytellers', a title used by Robert standish for his biography of the author.
His literary success enabled him to buy a villa in France and a yacht, spending his winters in France where he regularly entertained more than 250 people at his lavish parties and where he was a well-known figure in high society.
He later purchased a house, Le Vanquiédor in St. Peter Port, in Guernsey. He lost access to the house during the Second World War when Germany occupied the Channel Islands but later regained it.
He wrote 116 novels, mainly of the suspense and international intrigue type, but including romances, comedies, and parables of everyday life, and 39 volumes of short stories, all of which earned him vast sums of money. He also wrote five novels under the pseudonymn Anthony Partridge and a volume of autobiography, 'The Pool of Memory' in 1939.
He is generally regarded as the earliest writer of spy fiction as we know it today, and invented the 'Rogue Male' school of adventure thrillers that was later exploited by John Buchan and Geoffrey Household.
Undoubtedly his most renowned work was 'The Great Impersonation' (1920), which was filmed three times, the last time as a strong piece of wartime propaganda in 1942. In that novel the plot hinges around two very similar looking gentlemen, one from Britain and the other from Germany, in the early part of the 20th century. Overall more than 30 of his works were made into films.
Perhaps his most enduring creation is the character of General Besserley, the protagonist of 'General Besserley's Puzzle Box' and 'General Besserley's New Puzzle Box'.
Much of his work possesses a unique escapist charm, featuring protagonists who delight in Epicurean meals, surroundings of intense luxury, and the relaxed pursuit of criminal practice, on either side of the law.
Gerry Wolstenholme
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 18, 2018
This is not the first book I've read by this author: my 'Read' list shows three or four others that I rated highly in my early days here on GR. But I did not write reviews for them and I guess they were not as awesome as I seemed to think at the time because I can't remember a thing about any of them other than the fact of filing away his name as a writer of entertaining stories.
Lots and lots of stories. He wrote over 100 novels, according to wiki, and there are 60 at Gutenberg. Luckily for me and my current obsession with completing a certain A to Z challenge, The Zeppelin's Passenger was one of them.
This book was written in 1918 but set in the earlier years of WWI, in a coastal town in England a couple of hours by train from London. Philippa is married to Sir Henry, who has been spending what she thinks is a shameful amount of time fishing since the war began two years before. She calls him a 'skulker', which obviously did not mean the same thing the as it does now. 'Shirker' would be the word we would use today, I think.
The point is, Sir Henry has gone ga-ga over sport fishing and leaves for days and weeks at a time to follow this or that type of fish. Meanwhile Philippa's twin brother has been captured and no one knows anything about him.
Until the night the Zeppelin airship flies over, so low that the observation car is torn off and later The Passenger arrives at Philippa's house. Who is he and why is he there? Could he be a spy? If so, what (or who) in the world could he be spying on in this little town? How will his arrival change Philippa's life? And what ever happens with her brother?
Philippa is a bit of an airhead, with an obsessive fixation on Sir Henry's apparent lack of patriotism. This got a bit tiresome at time, and I doubt if anyone could be so lacking in imagination as she was, but her character fit the story's plot. If she had been different nothing would have worked out the same way.
I'll be reading more by Oppenheim in the future, and I might go back an re-read the ones already on my list, at least enough to refresh my memory and maybe adjust those ratings. Most likely they would all be 3 stars, which is not a bad thing: I use the GR system so 3 stars means I liked the book. Definitely keeping his name on my lists!
Lots and lots of stories. He wrote over 100 novels, according to wiki, and there are 60 at Gutenberg. Luckily for me and my current obsession with completing a certain A to Z challenge, The Zeppelin's Passenger was one of them.
This book was written in 1918 but set in the earlier years of WWI, in a coastal town in England a couple of hours by train from London. Philippa is married to Sir Henry, who has been spending what she thinks is a shameful amount of time fishing since the war began two years before. She calls him a 'skulker', which obviously did not mean the same thing the as it does now. 'Shirker' would be the word we would use today, I think.
The point is, Sir Henry has gone ga-ga over sport fishing and leaves for days and weeks at a time to follow this or that type of fish. Meanwhile Philippa's twin brother has been captured and no one knows anything about him.
Until the night the Zeppelin airship flies over, so low that the observation car is torn off and later The Passenger arrives at Philippa's house. Who is he and why is he there? Could he be a spy? If so, what (or who) in the world could he be spying on in this little town? How will his arrival change Philippa's life? And what ever happens with her brother?
Philippa is a bit of an airhead, with an obsessive fixation on Sir Henry's apparent lack of patriotism. This got a bit tiresome at time, and I doubt if anyone could be so lacking in imagination as she was, but her character fit the story's plot. If she had been different nothing would have worked out the same way.
I'll be reading more by Oppenheim in the future, and I might go back an re-read the ones already on my list, at least enough to refresh my memory and maybe adjust those ratings. Most likely they would all be 3 stars, which is not a bad thing: I use the GR system so 3 stars means I liked the book. Definitely keeping his name on my lists!
December 18, 2017
When a Zeppelin crashes in a small English town, at first no one realizes it was carrying a passenger. He immediately puts in place a plan to blackmail two of the best ladies in town by bargaining secrecy for the life of their brother/fiancé, driving a hard bargain and showing no mercy. For awhile it seems that he could not possibly do any damage, but can that be true? What really has drawn him to town?
I liked how each character was deeply layered. A spy who wants to succeed, yet admits to severe self-doubt? A woman who holds the entire town and her husband to a high standard of patriotism, yet is so hurt by her beloved husband's refusal to even consider her point of view that she is willing to become a friend to a cunning enemy, simply out of spite? A man who pretends to care nothing for war, and yet is using a hobby to gravely cripple the enemy?
Several times I spotted nods to the Scarlet Pimpernel in the handling of the spy parts, though each character isn't cut-and-dry "good or bad" as in Orczy's Classic, and sometimes the lines are shaded so close together that you're left wondering whether to admire or feel disgust.
I liked how each character was deeply layered. A spy who wants to succeed, yet admits to severe self-doubt? A woman who holds the entire town and her husband to a high standard of patriotism, yet is so hurt by her beloved husband's refusal to even consider her point of view that she is willing to become a friend to a cunning enemy, simply out of spite? A man who pretends to care nothing for war, and yet is using a hobby to gravely cripple the enemy?
Several times I spotted nods to the Scarlet Pimpernel in the handling of the spy parts, though each character isn't cut-and-dry "good or bad" as in Orczy's Classic, and sometimes the lines are shaded so close together that you're left wondering whether to admire or feel disgust.
November 8, 2017
First of all: I finished my A to Z challenge! WOOHOO! :-))
Second: This was a very entertaining book. Loved it!
Second: This was a very entertaining book. Loved it!
June 1, 2017
3.5 stars. Highly enjoyable melodrama about espionage and romance during WWI. Plenty of propaganda and obvious plotting, but fun just the same. Cue the dramatic music, put a wrist to your forehead, and enjoy!
September 11, 2024
A very disappointing book, what a pity.
4* The Evil Shepherd
4* The World's Great Snare
4* The Wicked Marquis
4* Last Train Out
4* False Evidence
3* The Light Beyond
1* The Zeppelin's Passenger
TR The Colossus of Arcadia
4* The Evil Shepherd
4* The World's Great Snare
4* The Wicked Marquis
4* Last Train Out
4* False Evidence
3* The Light Beyond
1* The Zeppelin's Passenger
TR The Colossus of Arcadia
January 6, 2011
A World War I tale of German espionage in a fictional english village called Dreymarsh. Some residents there discover a zepplin observation car and this discovery triggers a range of events and introduces a myriad of characters which all make for a rather delightful mystery...
April 25, 2020
A poor excuse for espionage fiction. The amount of dialogue — in the parlour, in the gun-room, over the tea-table, at dinner, on the beach, in the drawing-room — far outweighs the derring-do that I expect of a classic spy story. In fact, this tale is more love-story than any other kind of story! Ho hum. Not what I had anticipated in light of the reputation of this author. Oppenheim experienced exceptional success as an author, having published upwards of 100 novels and 37 short story collections between 1887 and 1943. This ought to have set my red flags fluttering though — such productivity is often formulaic. To be fair, the plot improved in the last five (of 33) chapters and the ending was a complete surprise, but I am still pondering whether or not to give him a second chance.
September 15, 2011
Aaarghh! I'm on a bad streak. Ludicrous plot. Brainless heroine. Oppenheim at his worst. Don't bother with this one.
June 11, 2022
Published toward the end of World War I, this romantic-espionage-drama features Phillipa, a ferociously patriotic woman living in an English coastal town. Her husband, Sir Henry, at sixteen years her elder is apparently too old to be accepted for military duty, and she is both ashamed and angry at his apparent indifference to his life of civilian inactivity.
Into this situation falls (literally, out of a zeppelin) a German spy, calling himself Lessingham. He brings letters from Phillipa's twin, an inmate of a German prison, and tries to convince her, for the sake of her brother's well-being, to assist him in his mission. Knowing that her quiet seafront locale can hold no secrets worth more than her brother's life, she abandons her firmly held convictions and agrees -- but at what cost?
This is a melodramatic but entertaining tale, with all three main characters, though under-developed, being likable and sympathetic, with believably human motives. Oppenheimer, while obviously burning with patriotism, admits that the German forces have men just as gentlemanly as the British, and has Phillipa express a wish for peace for all. The romance is very Edwardian, almost cold to a 21st Century view, but is still effective as an important factor. Overall, while certainly not a literary treasure, it's an enjoyable read, as well as an enlightening insight into the popular culture of the time.
Into this situation falls (literally, out of a zeppelin) a German spy, calling himself Lessingham. He brings letters from Phillipa's twin, an inmate of a German prison, and tries to convince her, for the sake of her brother's well-being, to assist him in his mission. Knowing that her quiet seafront locale can hold no secrets worth more than her brother's life, she abandons her firmly held convictions and agrees -- but at what cost?
This is a melodramatic but entertaining tale, with all three main characters, though under-developed, being likable and sympathetic, with believably human motives. Oppenheimer, while obviously burning with patriotism, admits that the German forces have men just as gentlemanly as the British, and has Phillipa express a wish for peace for all. The romance is very Edwardian, almost cold to a 21st Century view, but is still effective as an important factor. Overall, while certainly not a literary treasure, it's an enjoyable read, as well as an enlightening insight into the popular culture of the time.
June 14, 2019
Deeply silly spy novel. Sort of a World War I version of The Scarlet Pimpernel but without any plausible reason for the secrecy between husband and wife and without any agony on the part of the wife at the thought of helping an enemy of her country—during wartime no less. No, since the German spy is an attractive gentleman and former friend of her brother at Oxford, she is more than willing to help him with his espionage. She even shows him the secret compartment in her husband's desk when he mentions what he's looking for. And all this while she's berating her husband for not doing enough for the war. Quite the patriot, what? Especially disappointing, because when we're introduced to Phillipa, she is behaving like the brave, noble, worthwhile adversary a good spy novel calls for. Alas, she quickly turns into a bimbo, and the story never recovers.
October 2, 2025
‘The Zeppelin’s Passenger’ (1918) hasn't quite made up its mind whether to be an espionage novel or a love triangle, but it falls between the two, neither a good spy story nor a full blooded romance. The story is mainly seen through the eyes of a very unimaginative, short-sighted woman with narrow ideas. She is in love, as she thinks, with two men at the same time: one man, a pacifist with the white feather in his lapel, and the other, a secret agent with a special mission in hostile territory.
Although not one of Oppenheim’s best, it is still one of his more readable romances, despite its cover of mysterious packages, charts and plans. Its style is like a stage play, with subalterns dropping in to play golf and tennis at an-ex navy officer's house, and flirt respectably with his daughter, while he indulges in his twin passions of sea-fishing and chart-making. The ending, however, though far fetched, leads to an unexpected but rewarding climax.
Although not one of Oppenheim’s best, it is still one of his more readable romances, despite its cover of mysterious packages, charts and plans. Its style is like a stage play, with subalterns dropping in to play golf and tennis at an-ex navy officer's house, and flirt respectably with his daughter, while he indulges in his twin passions of sea-fishing and chart-making. The ending, however, though far fetched, leads to an unexpected but rewarding climax.
November 27, 2018
3.5/4 out of 5
May 19, 2019
I liked the way Zeppelin ended, because it was a surprise. I thoroughly disliked the main female, an entirely self-absorbed, spoiled, stupid, woman - which was no surprise.
Read
May 11, 2020Stupendous!
I loved it. Action, adventure and mystery were thoughtfully mixed with a great heaping, helping of airships was a great distraction from the day to day slog.
I loved it. Action, adventure and mystery were thoughtfully mixed with a great heaping, helping of airships was a great distraction from the day to day slog.
November 7, 2010
An early espionage novel with a strong hint of romance, The Zeppelin's Passenger was a book I bought on a whim knowing very little about it and, therefore, having little idea what to expect. E. Phillips Oppenheim pulls together a very effective story in which a foreign agent arrives in a quiet coastal haven in Britain during WW1. Soon, one of the local women has fallen head-over-heels in love with him, even though she is already married. She considers her real husband a time-waster and a coward, as he resolutely refuses to join in with the war effort... but all is not what it seems.
The book is very absorbing throughout, especially as the initially straight-forward plot devlops into something more twisty and unpredictable. On the whole the characterisation is strong and believable, and the love dilemma facing the main protagonists is convincingly portrayed. Oppenheim wastes barely a word - he has a wondefully readable and economical style. There are a few moments where the story becomes a little overwrought and melodarmatic, but overall I found this a very worthwhile read!
The book is very absorbing throughout, especially as the initially straight-forward plot devlops into something more twisty and unpredictable. On the whole the characterisation is strong and believable, and the love dilemma facing the main protagonists is convincingly portrayed. Oppenheim wastes barely a word - he has a wondefully readable and economical style. There are a few moments where the story becomes a little overwrought and melodarmatic, but overall I found this a very worthwhile read!
March 22, 2014
Disappointed because the evil German zeppelin never actually appeared in the book, however, the rather inattentive lady the eponymous passenger “makes love to” has massive red-gold hair, an Oppenheim trademark.
“People who travel in Zeppelins don’t wear things like that.”
“People who travel in Zeppelins don’t wear things like that.”
December 27, 2013
This WWI-set story is quick, compactly told, and features a few twists to keep the reader guessing to the end.
The ebook formatting is pretty good, with a few typos resulting from the OCR, but nothing too distracting.
The ebook formatting is pretty good, with a few typos resulting from the OCR, but nothing too distracting.
November 9, 2014
Very pleasant entertainment, like his other books. Oppenheim was popular between the wars but is by now largely forgotten. A pity. Especially considering he produced over 100 novels and 37 volumes of short stories.
October 20, 2015
This is the story of a woman who desires to be loved. The war and it's trials affect how her husband is able to love her. It's an interesting look at life during the war, our flights of fancy, and enduring loyalty. I listened to the book on Audible/Libravox.
maybe
January 10, 20151 star from Esther
Want to Read
July 29, 2014Read this book for free through Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1931/1...
January 6, 2014
First world war spy story in which allegiances of various kinds are tested.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews