8 h 8 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does revenge cost when the wrong itself is impossible to forget?
In The Malefactor, E. Phillips Oppenheim brings betrayal, guilt and payback into a brisk mystery and crime novel. This is a story of wrongs done and wrongs held onto, where the desire to settle a score carries a cost of its own.
The world is Edwardian: rank matters, money commands confidence, and scandal is something to fear. Men and women live by strict codes of honor. Against that background, the book explores broken trust and revenge, asking you to weigh the hurt behind a grievance against the price of holding it close.
What you’ll discover
- The weight of betrayal Explore a story where wrongs linger, and broken trust gives payback its pull.
- Revenge and its price Look beyond the promise of satisfaction to the cost of holding onto a wrong.
- A world of rank Enter an Edwardian society shaped by strict ranks, faith in money and fear of scandal.
- Codes of honor Meet a social world whose rules shape how men and women live.
- A briskly moving tale Follow Oppenheim into a plot that keeps guilt and payback close at hand.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like Edwardian society drama, revenge plots, brooding heroes with secrets, clever drawing-room duels, and stories where a cold man is tested by a young woman and a loyal friend.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A scandal told in a smoking room
- A free man finds the gates still shut
- The first errand and the gospel of hate
- A child at Tredowen and a trap at sea
- Copper shares and a ruined broker
- Mr. Wingrave from America takes London
- Juliet grows up and the ward becomes a problem
- A knife in the dark and a woman at Tredowen
- What the story is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- WingraveSir Wingrave Seton, released after a long sentence, returns to London as a millionaire and says he wants only to bring suffering to others.
- Lady Ruth BarringtonA brilliant society hostess whose false testimony once sent Wingrave to prison, she now fears his return and tries every charm to protect herself.
- Walter AynesworthA young writer who becomes Wingrave's secretary to study him, he cannot stop hoping that the cold man will do one kind thing.
- Lumley BarringtonRuth's husband, a rising barrister and politician, he adores his wife and drifts into debt as he chases Wingrave's help.
- Juliet LundyA dark-eyed organist's daughter raised at Tredowen, she grows into a spirited young artist who wants to earn her own way and know her benefactor.
- The Marchioness of WestchesterEmily, the most admired beauty in London society, is used to getting what she wants and sets her sights on Wingrave.
- George RichardsonA shop clerk from Islington, he is lured into a plot against Wingrave by a veiled woman called Mademoiselle Violet.
- Mr. PengarthA kind and nervous country lawyer in Cornwall, he looks after Tredowen and Juliet's affairs and fears his formidable client.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 8 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear El malhechor in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
El malhechor
by E. Phillips Oppenheim · 1906
A freed convict with millions plans to ruin the woman whose false testimony cost him ten years of his life.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Malefactor is a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim, the English storyteller who turned out dozens of popular thrillers and society dramas in the early twentieth century.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A scandal told in a smoking room
The story begins at a club in London, where friends crowd around Lovell, a burly war correspondent who leaves for the Far East in a few hours. A young writer named Walter Aynesworth complains that modern life has become mechanical and that all the great passions happen somewhere else. Lovell answers that the city is full of tragedies and that one lies only just below the surface.
He then tells a story of thirteen years earlier. Two young men, Wingrave and Lumley, share a hunting lodge in Leicestershire. Both fall in love with Ruth, the wife of the master of the hounds. Lovell describes her as a woman who is hard to describe, with veiled eyes and a gift for stirring passion that no one in a crowd could miss.
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What is The Malefactor about?
It follows Wingrave, a wealthy man freed after ten years in prison, who returns to London under a new name to take revenge on the woman whose false testimony ruined him, with his young secretary watching.
Who is Mademoiselle Violet in The Malefactor?
Mademoiselle Violet is a made-up persona used by a woman in the story to hire a young shop clerk to follow Wingrave and harm him. Her real identity becomes clear as the story goes on.
Who is Aynesworth in The Malefactor?
Walter Aynesworth is a young writer who hears Wingrave's story at a club and takes a job as his secretary to study him. He is the main witness to the events in the book.
The author
E. Phillips Oppenheim
1866–1946 · English thriller novelist
Edward Phillips Oppenheim was an English novelist, born in London in 1866. He lived in Leicester and later on Guernsey, where he died in 1946. He wrote novels and short stories, including The Yellow Crayon (1903), The Zeppelin’s Passenger (1918), and The Great Impersonation (1920).
More by E. Phillips Oppenheim
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