Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Die große Maskerade
Für wen es gedacht ist
Readers who enjoy spy stories set before the Great War, country houses with a ghost in the park, drawing-room duels of wit, and tales of double lives and mistaken identity.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Great Impersonation is a spy thriller by E. Phillips Oppenheim, the English storyteller who died in 1946. It is set in the last peaceful years before the First World War, when Englishmen argued over whether Germany wanted a fight and German diplomats spoke warmly of friendship. Oppenheim builds the whole book on one clever idea: two old school friends who look so alike that one could pass for the other.
The story begins in the African bush, where a ruined English baronet meets a German general who shares his face. From there it moves to London dining rooms and the Carlton grill room, to a gloomy Norfolk mansion with a ghost in the park, and to a private train where the Kaiser gives his orders. Along the way you meet a cheerful German who lectures on peace, an ambassador who truly believes in it, a duchess with a sharp tongue, a passionate Hungarian princess, and a gentle wife who once held a dagger to her husband's throat.
This summary follows the story up to the point where its secrets begin to close in, and it keeps the ending apart for those who want it. You will see how the plot is laid, who wants what, and how the author sets public talk of peace against the private struggles of a haunted house. Let us start where the book does, in a bamboo hut beside the Iriwarri River.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1Two old schoolmates meet in the bushFree
- 2A drugged drink and a stolen name
- 3Sir Everard walks into a London office
- 4Seaman explains the rules of the game
- 5Peace talk at the Embassy, ghosts at the Hall
- 6A dagger at dawn and a childlike wife
- 7The Kaiser, the guns and a snowy trail
- 8Who is who, and what duty costs
- 9How Oppenheim tells it
Punkt 1 von 9
Two old schoolmates meet in the bush
The book opens in German East Africa. Everard Dominey, an English baronet, has been lost for weeks after his hired soldiers looted his camp and ran off with his compass. He follows thin wisps of smoke through the scrub and crashes headfirst into a clearing. When he wakes, he is lying on a narrow bed under a bamboo roof, and he wants to know where on earth he is.
His host is a tall, slim German in spotless white, Major General Baron Leopold von Ragastein, the military commandant of the colony. The two men stare at each other, because they look remarkably alike. The German has much the better of it. His eyes are bright, his mouth is firm and his body is lithe, while Dominey looks like a man worn out by fever and whisky.
Dominey's own story comes out in pieces. He had Eton, Oxford, a short spell in the army and a few years about town, in which he made a worse mess of his estates. Then came a tragedy, and ten years of drifting that nobody can trace. A short, round doctor named Schmidt, who worships the baron, scolds him for the whisky and gives him hock and seltzer instead.
At dinner Dominey suddenly knows his host. He is Sigismund Devinter, his old friend from Eton and from Magdalen College, who took a title when his uncle died. Von Ragastein pours Napoleon brandy and explains that he is drilling native troops because Germans prepare for what might merely happen. Dominey calls himself a slacker and a drifter, and the baron answers that work builds character and that he follows his star.
Both men hint at sorrow. Von Ragastein rides off for three days to meet an envoy from the coast, and Dominey fights his craving for drink by sipping lithia water. He finds, to his surprise, that he wants his silent friend back. When the baron returns, he is more attentive than before, and he asks about everything in Dominey's past.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Die große Maskerade
What is The Great Impersonation about?
It is a spy thriller set just before the First World War. A German baron plans to take an English baronet's name and live in England, and the story follows the people who meet him in London and at Dominey Hall in Norfolk.
Who is Leopold von Ragastein?
Von Ragastein is a German baron and general who commands the military in East Africa. He was once Sigismund Devinter, a schoolmate of Everard Dominey at Eton and Oxford, and he looks remarkably like him.
What is the Black Wood in the book?
The Black Wood is a dark, boggy wood near Dominey Hall where Roger Unthank vanished after a fight. Villagers believe his ghost haunts it, and its howls beneath Lady Dominey's window frighten everyone.
When is The Great Impersonation set, and is it a true story?
It is a work of fiction set in the years just before the First World War, mixing invented characters with real fears about German power. The Kaiser appears as a character, but the plot is made up.
Is The Great Impersonation easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that matters. The chapters are short, most scenes are lively conversations, and the baron's plan is shown early. It reads like a brisk drawing-room thriller with a ghost story inside it.