7 h 7 minAudiobook5 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
In a Europe afraid of spies, a stranger’s hidden purpose can turn trust into danger.
The Zeppelin’s Passenger by E. Phillips Oppenheim brings espionage and escape into the uneasy world of the First World War. In Britain and across Europe, newspapers warn of enemy agents, making a stranger’s hidden purpose feel close to home. The tension lies between what people show and what they hide, with trust and duty under pressure.
Polished society and dangerous knowledge sit side by side in Oppenheim’s world of intrigue. Closed borders, checked papers and uncertain routes give the prospect of escape its tension. These details place secrecy against the practical barriers of wartime Europe. Direct prose, quickly established scenes and dialogue-led storytelling keep the focus on divided loyalties and the pull of the chase.
What you’ll discover
- A world of suspicion Enter a wartime atmosphere where newspaper warnings about enemy agents make strangers harder to trust.
- Secrets beneath the surface Explore the gap between a person’s outward appearance and the knowledge they may conceal.
- The pressure of escape Feel the uncertainty of movement through a Europe marked by closed borders and checked papers.
- Trust against duty Follow questions of loyalty through a tale built around hidden purposes and wartime danger.
- A brisk storytelling style Enjoy direct sentences and dialogue that carries the plot, with scenes that take shape quickly.
Who will love it
Readers who like wartime spy stories, drawing-room conversation with danger underneath, and clever puzzles about who is fooling whom. It suits anyone who enjoys a love triangle set against secrets and storms.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Zeppelin Loses Its Observation Car
- A Stranger Arrives Through the French Windows
- The Price of a Brother's Life
- Sir Henry, the Idler with a Secret Cabinet
- Love Grows Between Two Sides of the War
- London, a Chart and Cold Orders
- Captain Griffiths Closes In
- What the Story Is Really About
- How the Story Is Told
Who’s who
- Philippa, Lady CranstonSir Henry's young wife and Richard's twin sister. She is proud and impulsive, and she is hurt that her husband seems content to idle through the war.
- Helen FaircloughRichard's fiancée. She is sensible and warm, and she will pay any price to see him free.
- Hamar LessinghamA charming Swedish baron in German service who drops from a Zeppelin and seeks shelter and information. He is a gentle man with a hard task.
- Sir Henry CranstonA retired naval officer who spends his days fishing and tending a secret chart. His wife thinks him lazy.
- Captain GriffithsThe awkward, watchful Commandant of Dreymarsh. He distrusts the newcomer and admires Philippa without knowing how to say so.
- NoraSir Henry's schoolgirl daughter. She is freckled and quick, and she finds the German hat near the fallen observation car.
- Major Richard FelsteadPhilippa's twin brother and Helen's fiancé, held in a German prison camp, where he longs for news from home.
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- Large print hardcover
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Le Passager du zeppelin in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Le Passager du zeppelin
by E. Phillips Oppenheim · 1918
A man in a mud-stained suit asks for tea.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A German airship crosses a quiet English coast, and something falls from it. That is how The Zeppelin's Passenger begins.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Zeppelin Loses Its Observation Car
At tea near Dreymarsh, young officers talk of a Zeppelin that crossed the coast in the night. It lost its observation car on Dutchman's Common, and Captain Griffiths, the Commandant, saw to its removal.
Helen Fairclough mentions that she has had no word from her fiancé, Major Felstead, for two months. He is Lady Cranston's brother, held in Wittenberg camp. Then Nora, Sir Henry's schoolgirl daughter, bursts in with a Homburg hat found in a bush near the wreck. Its lining bears a hatmaker's address in Berlin.
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What is The Zeppelin's Passenger about?
It follows a German agent who drops from a Zeppelin onto the Norfolk coast and talks his way into the home of Lady Cranston. Her brother is a prisoner of war, and a dangerous bargain begins.
Who is Hamar Lessingham in The Zeppelin's Passenger?
He is the name used by Baron Bertram Maderstrom, a Swede who serves Germany. He studied at Magdalen College with Richard Felstead and uses that old friendship to enter the Cranston household.
Is The Zeppelin's Passenger a true story?
No, it is fiction by E. Phillips Oppenheim, written during the First World War. It draws on real fears of the time, including Zeppelin raids, spies on the coast and the war at sea.
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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