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E. Phillips Oppenheim
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Havoc Kindle Edition

by E. Phillips (Edward) Oppenheim (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 20 ratings
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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
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  1. Print length
    218 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    May 12, 2012
  5. File size
    590 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

E. Phillips Oppenheim was born on October 22, 1866, in Tohhenham, London, England, to Henrietta Susannah Temperley Budd and Edward John Oppenheim, a leather retailer. After leaving school at age 17, he helped his father in his leather business and used to write in his extra time. His first novel, Expiration (1886), and subsequent thrillers piqued the interest of a wealthy New York businessman who eventually bought out the leather business and made Oppenheim a high-paid director.He is more focused on dedicating most of his time to writing. The novels, volumes of short stories, and plays that followed, numbering more than 150, were about humans with modern heroes, fearless spies, and stylish noblemen. The Long Arm of Mannister (1910), The Moving Finger (1911), and The Great Impersonation (1920) are three of his most famous essays.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0082YTU5M
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ (May 12, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 12, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 590 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 218 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1512324906
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 20 ratings

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E. Phillips Oppenheim

E. Phillips Oppenheim

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Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
20 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Dharma
5.0 out of 5 stars The Origins of World War One
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2014
Verified Purchase
From the perspective of today (2014) it is hard to understand how a war as devastating as the First World War could arise from the assassination of an Archduke in the small city of Sarajevo. Writing four years before the start of hostilities in World War 1, Oppenheim gives an excellent account of the passions and politics which emboiled the continent.

The beautiful Serbian Diva Madamoiselle Idiale is in Vienna for a grand performance, as is her lover, the British spy Bellamy. Louise Idiale is devoted to the cause of her people, the Serbs, giving them money and supporting their ambition to be free from Austro-Hungarian domination. Also meeting in Vienna are the Emperor of Germany, the Emperor of Austria, and the Czar of Russia to discuss a secret military alliance. By chance an American newspaperman comes into possession of a memorandum from the meeting. Before the novel ends it will change hands and bring many deaths.

Into this political background Oppenheim weaves a story of speculation, financial ruin, murder and theft in The City of London. Stephan Laverick is an investment banker who has taken Arthur Morrison, a Jew, as his partner. Speculation on Morrison's part has brought the firm near ruin. Seeking to flee the country, Morrison leaves the firm and dissappears into the night. Shortly afterwards, by chance, Laverick comes upon a murdered man who has 20,000 pounds in a wallet in his coat.

Weaving these various strands of finance and intrigue, along with romance and violence, into a web of suspicion, is classic Oppenheim fare.

A subplot concerning Laverick provides a curious window on social views toward Jews in England at the time. Oppenheim describes the two partners:

"Stephen Laverick, senior member of the firm, although an air of steadfast gloom had settled upon his clean-cut, powerful countenance, retained even in despair something of that dogged composure, temperamental and wholly British, which had served him well along the road to fortune. Arthur Morrison, the man who sat on the other side of the table, a Jew to his finger-tips notwithstanding his altered name, sat like a broken thing, with tears in his terrified eyes, disordered hair, and parchment-pale face. Words had flown from his lips in a continual stream. He floundered in his misery, sobbed about it like a child. The hand of misfortune had stripped him naked, and one man, at least, saw him as he really was."

Later Laverick comes to meet Morrison's stepsister Zoe Leneveu who is described:

"She smiled for the first time, and Laverick thought that he had never seen anything so wonderful as the change in her features. The strained rigidity passed away. An altogether softer light gleamed in her wonderful eyes. She was certainly by far the prettiest child he had ever seen. As yet he could not take her altogether seriously...

...Somehow or other, he had never associated Morrison with relations. Besides, this meant that she must be of his race. There was nothing in her face to denote it except the darkness of her eyes, and that nameless charm of manner, a sort of ultra-sensitiveness, which belongs sometimes to the highest type of Jews. It was not a quality, Laverick thought, which he should have associated with Morrison's sister."

What a startling example of paternalistic racism!

1910
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4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2011
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I have spent many enjoyable hours reading E. Phillips' novels. As in any good novel, the reader wants to get to the end and see what happens, resulting in some late nights.

These novels are for the period of the late 19th century and on up to the 1930's. Most are set in England with travel to the Continent. I remember one that was set in the US.

Somewhere I read that E. Phillips wrote 146 novels. I have probably read 30 and will be interested in finding more.

A frequent theme is about England not being prepared either for WW I or WW II.

These novels are probably not for everybody, but I have found them interesting in looking at the culture of the times.

It also is a look at the politics of the times when "the sun never sets on the British Empire".

The Kindle dictionary is helpful as some of the vocabulary is out of date.

The fact that they are free is icing on the cake!
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The Squirrel
4.0 out of 5 stars Not a favorite but still a good Oppenheim adventue
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2018
Verified Purchase
Not really sure what it was about this that prevents my giving the usual 5 star rating i award Oppenheim novels. Maybe the love interests this time just didn't do it for me.
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Karl Janssen
3.0 out of 5 stars Espionage, murder, blackmail on the eve of World War I
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2022
E. Phillips Oppenheim was a popular British writer of suspense novels in the early 20th century. His books call to mind some of the old black-and-white films of Alfred Hitchcock or similar movies of the early talkie era. His novel Havoc, published in 1911, is a spy thriller and murder mystery that takes place at the outbreak of World War I. Of course, the Great War didn’t actually start until 1914, so this is all fictional speculation on Oppenheim’s part. By 1911, however, Europeans could see the writing on the wall, and Oppenheim’s depiction of foreign affairs at this time rings reasonably true to life.

The novel opens with a conversation between a British spy and an American journalist. They have both come to Vienna for a summit meeting between the Czar of Russia, the Emperor of Austria, and the Emperor of Germany. It is clear that Austria and Germany are formulating a war plan to conquer territories in Europe. What is unclear is the role that Russia will play. Will it side with Austria and Germany or ally itself with Britain and France? Following the meeting, the American journalist is granted an interview with the chancellor of Austria. At that moment, the chancellor happens to have a nervous breakdown, and with his impaired judgment he reveals state secrets that would otherwise be classified information. The chancellor hands the reporter a sealed envelope containing a verbatim transcript of the closed-door meeting between the three heads of state. Who wouldn’t want to get their hands on this vital piece of intelligence regarding the impending war? The journalist, seeing the ultimate scoop, wants to publish the document for fame and fortune, though his friend the British spy advises against it. With secret document in hand, the reporter boards a train headed towards London. But will he survive the trip?

This international intrigue kicks the novel off to a promising start. Once the action moves to London, however, the pace of the plot slows down considerably. A new protagonist is introduced, and a murder takes place that amounts to an extended side track away from the spy story. It’s all related, but often feels like two different stories running parallel to one another. The two male heroes of the novel each have their love interest, so there is plenty of romance, but the time spent on dinner dates and theater engagements tends to stall the plot and needlessly drag things out.

Oppenheim is a skilled storyteller capable of weaving several interesting plot threads into an intriguingly complex web. The thrills of this thriller, however, are deadened by Victorian conventions. This was pre-noir, so there’s very little moral ambiguity to the characters. The heroes are English gentlemen; the villains are evil Germans; the women are lovely virgins. Occasionally someone threateningly points a gun, or a punch is thrown, but there’s little that could really be called violence, which significantly lowers the fear threshold. You know there’s no chance of sex before marriage. There’s never any doubt who’s going to triumph in the end, and even the identity of the killer is predictable. The depiction of women is somewhat annoying also. Although the two female leads each have some degree of independence, their behavior towards the men is very subservient and their obvious destiny is to abandon their careers for marriage.

Havoc is a moderately entertaining espionage adventure, as one would expect from Oppenheim. It certainly isn’t boring, but this one feels more dated and predictable than most of his efforts. Instead of Havoc, I would recommend his novels The Avenger (1907) or The Great Impersonation (1920).
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