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A Maker of History
With Frontispiece
- GenresMystery
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1905
5 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
E. Phillips Oppenheim
642 books80 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 8, 2021
This really wasn't my cup of tea. I'm giving it three stars, it may deserve more but not for me. It started out really intriguing; an englishman on a holiday fancies a tour to the Russian frontier before heading into Europe. While the train is stalled in Russia, he grows bored and gets off to stretch his legs and the train leaves him behind. He's young and just starts walking and when he gets tired he makes a bed in the forest and sleeps.
He's awoken at some point by the sound of two train cars coming from opposite directions, stopped on the tracks. Men are outside and talking furtively. He sees someone inside the car writing and the window is down so when the wind picks up, a piece of paper blows out. It's in German and he just shoves it in his pocket.
That is the start. He is followed all the way to France and disappears. His sister goes to meet him in Paris and she also disappears. Then someone meeting his sister's description suddenly appears in England claiming to be someone else entirely. And then we have a lot of political intrigue and espionage and I started getting names all mixed up and didn't know who was who and who was good and who was bad and frankly I was becoming so fed up I skimmed the last twenty pages just so I could be done with it.
For the right reader this could be very good. But I just didn't care very much by the halfway point. In the books defense, I'm often iffy with spy novels.
He's awoken at some point by the sound of two train cars coming from opposite directions, stopped on the tracks. Men are outside and talking furtively. He sees someone inside the car writing and the window is down so when the wind picks up, a piece of paper blows out. It's in German and he just shoves it in his pocket.
That is the start. He is followed all the way to France and disappears. His sister goes to meet him in Paris and she also disappears. Then someone meeting his sister's description suddenly appears in England claiming to be someone else entirely. And then we have a lot of political intrigue and espionage and I started getting names all mixed up and didn't know who was who and who was good and who was bad and frankly I was becoming so fed up I skimmed the last twenty pages just so I could be done with it.
For the right reader this could be very good. But I just didn't care very much by the halfway point. In the books defense, I'm often iffy with spy novels.
December 15, 2015
My daughter abandoned this as too annoying and here was her reason: the idea of two men arguing and even coming to blows over a woman because they both 'love' her. Sounds intense! Except they love her because she is pretty. It seems to be her only characteristic for a good three fourths of the book. She appears to be plucky, too, except she seems to keep apologizing for that. So, like many old lit books, a woman's looks are her redeeming value...except it just goes far too much farther far far than any other book I have ever read. Plus this 'mystery' was boring. I nearly abandoned it as well.
But lacking any pressing new read, I pressed on. After the halfway point, this book got interesting. Like, after 60%. The set up was just too dull, too long. But the story, in the last 40%, was pretty good. Intrigue, spies, and double spies. And a horribly unlikely romance.
Clean read, only one murder, I would have killed off more of them, it might have helped the story along.
If you are really bored or, as I often use as a standard, stuck in the hospital, then this is worth reading.
But lacking any pressing new read, I pressed on. After the halfway point, this book got interesting. Like, after 60%. The set up was just too dull, too long. But the story, in the last 40%, was pretty good. Intrigue, spies, and double spies. And a horribly unlikely romance.
Clean read, only one murder, I would have killed off more of them, it might have helped the story along.
If you are really bored or, as I often use as a standard, stuck in the hospital, then this is worth reading.
July 19, 2019
A complicated, confusing, spy filled adventure story with political overtones viz Germany's attempt to break the French/Russian alliance so they wouldn't face war on two fronts in the slow build up to WW1. Presciently written in: 1902.
May 16, 2018
A good story by a good author. Written prior to the first world, the story takes place in England and France. A quite realistic story of the international intrigue in those pre-war days.
June 5, 2025
A decent mystery. Political intrigue.
January 18, 2025
I have enjoyed several of this author’s books greatly, especially The Curious Quest and Jacob’s Ladder. But this one was a dud, at least for me. It was a spy novel with setting just in advance of WWI. A man by chance witnesses an event that endangered his life and forced him into hiding. His sister followed him to Paris to try to find him, and also disappeared. Meanwhile, their friends from England are frantic to find them and make many meandering efforts to ascertain what happened to them. There were too many characters, hard to keep track of. My interest lagged but I managed to finish the book. This prolific author has several gems, but this wasn’t his best.
March 10, 2016
I read the entire book in one day. Mine is the first American edition and was falling apart at the binding, which is hard on the hands, but the plot held my attention. A young man and his sister disappear and the police will not help in the investigation, for reasons of their own...very unusual plot.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews