Meeting The Prince of Storytellers-an introduction to E. Phillips Oppenheim

Whilst browsing in an antiquarian bookshop in Shrewsbury I picked up an old Hodder & Stoughton yellow paperback; tempted by that day's special offer of 50% off all books I lashed out 50p on a copy of E. Phillips Oppenheim's The Treasure House of Martin Hews.
I sell second-hand books and have often come across old copies of the self-styled Prince of Storytellers' (Edward Phillips Oppenheim October 22, 1866 – February 3, 1946) work and mentally confined them to the literary bin.

There was something though about the jacket illustration and the proud boast that it was the work of the Prince of Storytellers that tempted me to turn away from my arid research. I was quite prepared to read a chapter or two and toss the book to one side. It could then join the pile of hopeless volumes I have that have reached an Amazon sale price of £0.01 and that are then destined for one final attempt at life on eBay before their almost inevitable consignment to the charity shop. 
However...I was enchanted by the bravura piece of writing; a reckless, quite mad adventure set in London's East & West Ends and in the most unusual of houses: "When Major Oweston entered the strange and ugly house of Martin Hews, with only ninepence halfpenny and a return third class ticket to London...". 


I read it in one go as they say. Then I started out to find more. Pursuing my unvarying policy of seeking for a bargain I soon found that a lot of Oppenheim's works had been made available as e-books. I got rather tired of sitting for long hours at the computer reading them and the laptop proved quite difficult to hold safely while taking a bath and in bed. After a great deal of pecuniary consideration based on the costs of osteopath's services and replacements of sodden laptops I bought a Kindle.
So now I can make my way through the great man's opus. He seems to have fallen out of fashion and it is quite easy to see why. The books are of their time, they are not literary masterpieces. However for those who read for pure pleasure, to be diverted and amused I think they are worth attempting. 

As I read my way through the books I will post my comments on this blog, to say a little about each title and to write about the author, his times and other writers of those days. I'll attempt to give each book a rating to help new readers.
If you have read any of Oppenheim's books or wish to discuss them please get in touch and/or add your comments.

The Illustrious Prince 1910

THE ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE (1910)

The Illustrious Prince is an exquisitely mannered Japanese, currently resident in London. An American, Hamilton Fynes, leaves the Lusitania and is found, mysteriously, murdered on a private train to London. Fynes has some government position, we learn, and has been travelling through Europe.

In London an American Miss Penelope Morse is waiting at the Carlton for Fynes, she had received a Marconigram from the Lusitania inviting her to lunch at the Carlton.

A Marconigram

Inspector Jacks of the Yard questions her and to throw off the police she jumps out of a taxi and disappears into Harrods.

Harrods 1910

She goes to a club and there meets a fellow American Dicky Vanderpole, a diplomat. On leaving the club Dicky is found murdered in a cab...
The background to this story is the rivalry between the USA and Japan as Pacific powers. Written before the first world war but after Japan's deafeat of Russia Oppenheim shifts his normal European perspective.
The Prince is a fascinating character and is presented in a most sympathetic way. Oppenheim will later do a similar portrait for a Chinese hero in The Great Prince Sham.
Romance, politics, spying, murder and detection.
6/10

The Golden Web 1911

 

THE GOLDEN WEB (1911)

The contrast in personal appearance between the two men, having regard to the relative positions, was a significant thing. The caller who had just been summoned from the waiting room and was standing before the others table, hat in hand, a little shabby, with ill-brushed hair and doubtful collar...

 So we meet our protagonists. Once companions in Africa their lives have diverged. Stirling Deane is the head of a huge mining corporation, while Basil Rowan has failed in life and is mortally ill. Rowan asks Deane for help to ensure that his sister's future is secure. Deane refuses to employ him in a regular post and Rowan explains that he is desperate and will undertake any assignment.
It so happens that there is a dispute about the ownership of an African gold mine. Deane was visited a few days before by Richard Sinclair. This man had a document which seemd to suggest that he had title to the mine.
Deane sends Rowan to meet with the down-at-heel and drunken Sinclair saying that the return of the title would be worth £10,000 to him.

                An electric Brougham as mentioned in the book.
A struggle ensues in the hotel room, Sinclair dies and Rowan is convicted of murder.
Deane has a crisis of conscience knowing that if he had spoken up the result would have been a conviction for manslaughter.
He is approached by Rowan's sister Winifred, who has visited the condemned cell and learnt what occurred. Rowan has told her that the papers must be in the hotel room.
Meanwhile Deane goes to the seaside to recuperate upsetting his fiance and there meets Ruby Sinclair a vivacious but bored young woman who lives with her tedious uncle. She is of course a relative of the dead man.
In due course she goes to London in great poverty and teams up with another mine claimant who has arrived from Africa to meet his friend Sinclair.
Deane bribes a porter to get a key to the hotel room; as he searches it Winifred enters on the same mission! The paper is discovered...and after the usual vicissitudes everybody ends up living happily ever after.
5/10


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written as Anthony Partridge, a name that Oppenheim used several times in his early writing career.

The Vanished Messenger 1914

THE VANISHED MESSENGER (1914)

There were very few people up on platform number 21 of Liverpool Street station...
Two of them happen to be our heroes: an American John P Dunster who is going toan international conference in The Hague and a professional golfer Gerald Fentolin.
Fentolin has "missed" his train to Harwich and contrives to get himself on the private train that Dunster is taking to the port for the ferry to the continent.

Thanks to a timely flood in eastern England Fentolin is able to waylay Dumpster; he is imprisoned in a castle until the conference Dunster should attend is concluded and England's secrets are safe once more. The castle though is the home of a crippled genius engaged in selling secrets to Germany.
The machinations of Germany and her allies are foiled.
Yet another look at the Hun's antics published in the year that WW1 started. Obviously Mr Fentolin and Oppenheim's other sterling heroes fail to stop the war; just as Buchan's Hannay failed.
3/10

The Tempting of Tavernake 1912

THE TEMPTING OF TAVERNAKE (1912)

They stood upon the roof of a London boarding house in the neighborhood of Russell Square, one of those grim shelters, the refuge of transatlantic curiosity and British penury.
 
And so starts the romance of Leonard and Beatrice. Leonard Tavernake is the most curious of men; in these days we would be inclined to think of him as a  mild representative of the autistic spectrum. He is filled with ambition and lacks any romantic interests. He is 25 years old and works for an estate agent.
"Six years ago I was a carpenter then I became an errand boy... today I am a sort of manager, in 18 months time I should start for myself."

Beatrice, an American in London, is desperately poor and rescued from suicide by Leonard. Later he meets her criminal sister, a truly beautiful woman. Leonard, for the first time in his life becomes aware of the power of women, and falls in love with her. She attempts to get him to tell her where her sister lives. Beatrice is a danger to her schemes and is in danger if her whereabouts are disclosed.
Much toing and froing ensue before the happy ending occurs.
The story is deftly told and pleasant to read.
Readers of Oppenheim will be pleased to follow the cast through various meals in choice restaurants.
5/10

Nobody's Man 1921

NOBODY'S MAN (1921)

It is the start of the 1920s in Britain. Tallente a gifted politician loses a by-election in a complex manoeuvre. At the end of the novel he is Prime Minister and has dispensed with his wealthy American arriviste wife, to marry a more comfortably ambitious Devon landowner.
In this novel there is an unusual amount of political intrigue that seems remarkably isolated from the wider social reality of the time.
Oppenheim shows a sympathy for labour but confuses the movement with the party and vice versa. You only feel the true discriminating taste of the author is excited by evidence of social solecisms.

Tallente's rival is described thus: "From head to foot the man wore the wrong clothes in the wrong manner-boots of a vivid shade of brown, thick socks without garters, an obviously ready-made suit of grey flannel, a hopeless tie, an unimaginable collar."
How much happier the author is with a simple mealtime: "We want the best of your ordinary dishes," Tallente told him, "and remember that we do not come here expecting Ritz specialities or a Savoy chef d'oeuvres which you know all about, a sole grilled a la maison, a plainly roasted chicken with an endive salad. The savoury must be a cheese souffle. And as for wine..."

He broke off and looked across the table. Jane smiled apologetically.

"You will never bring me out again," she declared. "I want some champagne."

"I never felt more like it myself," he agreed. "The Pommery, George, slightly iced, an aperitif now, and the dinner can take its course. We will linger over the hors d'oeuvres and we are in no hurry." 

That's the way to order, Oppy!
5/10

Jacob's Ladder 1921

JACOB'S LADDER 1921

Seemingly humble Jacob Pratt falls into financial disgrace and is snubbed by most of his associates. 
 On the first day of his fall from grace on his way to work he gets into the customary train carriage. A fellow passenger Edward Bultiwell puts aside The Times:
"Pratt," he said, "am I to understand that the greeting which you offered to the occupants of this carriage when you entered was intended to include me?"
"I, I certainly meant it," was the tremulous reply.
"Then let me say that such a liberty must not be repeated. I look upon a man who has compounded with his creditors as a person temporarily, at any rate, outside the pale of converse with his fellows on-er-equal terms. I look upon your presence in a first class carriage ...as an impertinence to those who have had to suffer from your insolvency."

Thus he is obliged to leave his seat at the next station and get in a  3rd class carriage where a Richard Dauncey speaks kindly to him.
Two years' later Pratt's brother-and co-partner-living in America strikes it rich in oil and overnight Mr Pratt is wealthy.
How will Pratt respond? How will others react?
As the temptations of revenge, generosity and love play out we see how Pratt responds as in a moral fable.
An enjoyable read.
6/10