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Havoc
Havoc is a fictional novel written by E. Phillips Oppenheim. Havoc arises when European nations start discussing covert alliances. The development of a covert alliance between Germany, Russia, and Austria is the central theme of the narrative. The English want to divide Russia by holding the Czar to his prior public commitments, but they require evidence of the actions taken to put pressure on him. All the factors that contributed to WWI are present, but the intrigues and covert agreements provide an intriguing backdrop for the plot's twists and turns. There will be numerous deaths and a change of ownership before the book is finished. Oppenheim blends a tale of financial failure, murder, and thievery in The City of London into this political backdrop.
310 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1911
About the author
E. Phillips Oppenheim
588 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 3, 2019
Ebook here https://archive.org/details/havocoppe...
A fast-paced story of a few spies and an accidental thief set in Europe just before WW1. There's a subtle love interest but the story is mainly around the spies trying to get back the evidence they lost through a dangerous chain of circumstances and a murder.
I could have done without a few sideways anti-Semitic remarks.
Listened via Librivox.
A fast-paced story of a few spies and an accidental thief set in Europe just before WW1. There's a subtle love interest but the story is mainly around the spies trying to get back the evidence they lost through a dangerous chain of circumstances and a murder.
I could have done without a few sideways anti-Semitic remarks.
Listened via Librivox.
January 27, 2014
The Origins of World War One:
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:
Later Laverick comes to meet Morison's stepsister Zoe Leneveu who is described:
What a startling example of paternalistic racism!
1910
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 Morison'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
July 21, 2026
E. Phillips Oppenheim’s ‘Havoc’ (1911) is a pre-World War I espionage thriller which bears the classic stamp of the author's particular style. Toss in beautiful Serbian spies, Austrian nobility carrying state papers, strong British Secret Service officials, crooked financiers, innocent chorus girls, murder, blackmail, and a hero, mix it all up, give it a stir with cinnamon and sugar, and you have a mystery that knocks you off your feet.
A looming sense of fear hangs heavily over the book, driven by constant suspense and the tense presence of watchful bodyguards tracking every secret move. The plot takes a dark turn into a twisting labyrinth when an Austrian nobleman goes crooked, turning traitor for the love of a woman and money, only to be brutally murdered for his betrayal. The stakes explode when Laverick, a prominent financier whose own firm faces ruin due to an embezzling partner, stumbles upon the murdered man and a fortune in cash, pulling him straight into the international conspiracy.
The novel reflects the fear, amounting to paranoia, in the years before the First World War, as the Kaiser built up his war machine, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor faced off against the Czar of all the Russias, and the smaller Balkan kingdoms quaked before the three monoliths about them. It is exactly this blend of geopolitical dread and breathless romance that earned Oppenheim his reputation as the undisputed prince of early twentieth century storytellers.
A looming sense of fear hangs heavily over the book, driven by constant suspense and the tense presence of watchful bodyguards tracking every secret move. The plot takes a dark turn into a twisting labyrinth when an Austrian nobleman goes crooked, turning traitor for the love of a woman and money, only to be brutally murdered for his betrayal. The stakes explode when Laverick, a prominent financier whose own firm faces ruin due to an embezzling partner, stumbles upon the murdered man and a fortune in cash, pulling him straight into the international conspiracy.
The novel reflects the fear, amounting to paranoia, in the years before the First World War, as the Kaiser built up his war machine, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor faced off against the Czar of all the Russias, and the smaller Balkan kingdoms quaked before the three monoliths about them. It is exactly this blend of geopolitical dread and breathless romance that earned Oppenheim his reputation as the undisputed prince of early twentieth century storytellers.
June 6, 2026
Intrigue leading up to WWI. Serbia, Austria, Germany, England and Russia all play a part in searching for a document that could lead to war. The document comes into the hands of a London stockbroker and he becomes a hare in a hunt. Written 3 years before August 1914 - very prescient.
December 5, 2017
Interesting plot & characters in a mystery with a touch of romance. Recommended.
April 30, 2019
Another early one [1911] and not quite settled in its bones.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews