Sun 10 Nov 2013
BLACK MASK Review by Captain Frank Cunningham: E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM – The Great Impersonation.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
CAPTAIN FRANK CUNNINGHAM:
E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM – The Great Impersonation. Hodder & Stoughton, UK, hardcover, 1920. Little Brown, US, hardcover, 1920. Reprinted many times since, including Pocket Book #224, paperback, 1943. Currently in print in various POD editions.
Sir Everard Dominey, in his twenty-sixth year, leaves England, and after ten years of wandering, turns up in 1913 in German East Africa, where Baron Leopold Von Ragastein, a military commandant, rescues him from death in the bush.
Dominey and Von Ragastein discover that they knew each other at Oxford, and that the amazing likeness which existed between them in undergraduate days still persists. Then Von Ragastein, who has been ordered to London by the Wilhelmstrasse, determines to make way with the Englishman, assume his identity and enter upon his espionage as Sir Everard Dominey.
There is a love story of charm and appeal and a mystery that the reader is hardly likely to solve until the last page.
Bio-Bibliographic Note: For as much as you might like to know about E. Phillips Oppenheim, check out this website dedicated to him. Quoting:
“…Oppenheim published over 150 books and countless magazine stories between 1884 and 1946. While most often identified as a mystery writer, Oppenheim’s novels range from spy thrillers to romance. All of them have, however, an undertone of intrigue. Several of his books were published under the pseudonym, Anthony Partridge.”
November 10th, 2013 at 10:53 pm
Of the books Capt. Cunningham reviewed in this issue of BLACK MASK, this is hands down the most well known. I’ve had a copy of the Pocket paperback for over 50 years; maybe it’s time I sat down and read it.
November 11th, 2013 at 2:56 pm
I am an Oppenheim fan and have most of his books.This one has always been one of my favorites.One caveat,the hero’s name is Sir EVERARD Dominey. Since my first name is Everard, I too have suffered from this mistake.
November 11th, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Digges
What a great connection to a book! The error in typing was mine, not Capt. Cunningham’s, and I’ve fixed it. Thanks!
November 11th, 2013 at 6:08 pm
I have most of Oppenheim’s books as well. A fine and elegant writer. Stark House has Oppenheim related news coming some time in the future.
November 11th, 2013 at 8:45 pm
This is one of Oppenheim’s best as testified to by the two movies based on it, one with Edmond Lowe and the other Ralph Bellamy. Both were good films, though the Lowe superior.
Oppenheim is more dated than Buchan with his diplomats and gentleman spies, but at his best he is still the “Prince of Storytellers.” I particularly enjoyed his Peter Ruff stories.
The Wrath to Come is an interesting one, borderline science fiction, and with a hero (American I think) somewhere between William LeQueux’s Duckworth Drew and James Bond. His final novel, The Last Train appeared at the beginning of WWII.
And much of Oppenheim is available free in e-book format for those like me who don’t have room for a physical library, but can have a virtually endless digital one with everything from classics to comics, pulps and vintage paperbacks available for free.
May 1st, 2020 at 12:13 pm
[…] Great Impersonation has been reviewed, among others, at Mystery File, and ‘Do You Write Under Your Own […]