E. Phillips Oppenheim was one of the originators of the modern espionage novel. He wrote over 150 novels from 1884 to 1946, with over 30 being adapted to film. The edition of The Great Impersonation I read was a Pocket Book paperback printed in 1945, with an extensive list of the printing history, a new printing almost every year since it was written in 1920.
The action begins in German East Africa where Everard Dominey, a young Englishman of position, wakes up in a desert camp. It is 1912 and he has been knocking around in the dark places of Africa for ten years. His once good-looking features have lost their lustre, prematurely wasted by fevers and dissipation. Around him are a Doctor Schmidt and the Major-General Baron Leopold von Ragastein, who Everard once knew from their days at Eton, where Ragastien had been educated before taking his family title. Ragastein is young and tanned, with rugged good looks. Curiously, the two look remarkably alike. It's uncanny.
Ragastein is the military Commandant of the colony, and a plan is devised by the Germans to dispose of Everard and return Ragastein to England in his place.
Once he has returned to England posing as Everard, he finds mixed emotions and doubts within his family, and from the Germans he meets in society. Over time, the staff had changed at the Dominey house, which works to his advantage, but his wife is still in a nervous breakdown since Everard left - He fought a duel and killed an admirer of hers causing him to leave for Africa (the ghost of the dead man haunts the house to this day!). She is certain he is not her husband, but accepts his kindness towards her. Only Ragastein's love and attention can restore Rosamund Dominey to mental health. Can he win her over? He also meets a Hungarian Princess whom he had an affair with and who knows him to be Ragastein.
The Germans have a plan to solidify his position of power in Britain, before striking out into the World War I. His intimate relationships with those in power will aide the Germans as their plan to spread out over Europe begins. So at the center of the plan is he that he even meets personally with the Kaiser for his instructions.
As the story unfolds, Ragastein is given the plans and a map of the proposed conquest of Europe. Can he delude the British into falling into the Germans hands? Will he turn traitor and betray the German plan to the British? Who really is Everard Dominey/Leopold von Ragastein?
This novel is exciting and gripping. It rips along without a drag - just the right amount of drama, romance, honour, villainy, and espionage. It has been turned into a film many times. It was very reminiscent of The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier. In pace and tone it reminded me very much of The Count Of Monte Christo, and made me want to read Christo again.
Many books by E. Phillips Oppenheim are available for free online, including The Great Impersonation, here > https://manybooks.net/titles/oppenheietext04grmpr10.html
Super enjoyable adventure and highly recommended.
1920 / Paperback / 241 pages
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