Riassunto
Riassunto di Il messaggero scomparso
A chi è rivolto
Readers who love spies, secret messages and stormy coastlines will feel at home here. It also suits anyone who enjoys a clever villain, a country house full of locked doors and a love story set against looming war.
Che cos’è questo libro
The Vanished Messenger is a spy thriller by E. Phillips Oppenheim, written in the tense years when many people in Britain feared a coming European war. It follows a sealed letter, the American who carries it, and the strange Norfolk squire who decides it must never arrive. You get a storm, a train wreck, a flooded causeway, a house of secrets and a race against the clock.
The story begins on a rainy platform at Liverpool Street Station in London and moves to the marshes of the Norfolk coast. There a man who cannot walk rules a great house with a smile, a gold whistle and a long memory. A young engineer named Richard Hamel is sent to watch him, and he finds that the house holds more fear than any place he has known. The book gives you quick scenes, short chapters and a villain who is polite to the very end. It also gives you a quiet love story set against a threat to a whole nation. Let us begin where the trouble begins, with a stranger who asks for a seat on a special train.
In questo riassunto
- 1A stranger asks for a seatFree
- 2A wreck, a case and a wild drive
- 3The man who rules St. David's Hall
- 4Hamel hears of a spy and meets a girl
- 5A shack, a widow and a generous host
- 6A prisoner, a bargain and a confession
- 7Golf, a telegram and a police inspector
- 8A cry in the night and a bold departure
Punto chiave 1 di 8
A stranger asks for a seat
The book opens on a wet April evening at Liverpool Street Station in London. On a remote platform an American named John P. Dunster waits beside a train he has hired for himself alone. He carries a leather dressing case with his name painted on it, and he has paid for the train in Bank of England notes. Everything about him says he is in a hurry and wants to be left alone.
A tall young man in a tweed suit walks up the platform with a porter and a heap of luggage. He gives his name as Gerald Fentolin and says he missed the boat train to The Hague, where he is due to play in a golf tournament. He asks for a seat as far as Harwich. He is sullen and nervous, and he seems to hate asking a stranger for anything.
Dunster hesitates, because the name Fentolin tugs at his memory. He opens the evening paper and finds the young man listed among the golf entrants, which seems to settle the matter. Then he points to the headlines about a force gathering in the North Sea. Gerald replies that war is the business of soldiers and sailors, and that civilians simply carry on.
Dunster is astonished that a healthy young Englishman can say such a thing. Yet he agrees to take him along, and the little train backs in. The stationmaster warns that the storm raging along the east coast may keep the Harwich boat in harbor. Dunster promises the driver and his mate five pounds each if they catch the mail train, and the train plunges into the dark.
The night is slow and broken. Bridges are reported down between Ipswich and Harwich, so Dunster studies a map and decides on Yarmouth, where he means to hire a steam trawler for Holland. He raises the reward for the crew to twenty-five pounds. Gerald offers to come along and work his passage, and Dunster warns him that the crossing is risky. Near Norwich the engine shrieks, the brakes bite and the carriage begins to leave the rails.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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Questions about Il messaggero scomparso
What is The Vanished Messenger about?
It is about a courier carrying a sealed message to a secret conference in The Hague, and the Norfolk squire who traps him. A young engineer sent by the Foreign Office tries to find out what is happening at St. David's Hall.
Who is Miles Fentolin?
Miles Fentolin is the wealthy, wheelchair-bound squire who lives at St. David's Hall. He once worked in the Foreign Office, and he now follows European politics with wireless, telegraph and a network of agents. His kind manner covers a ruthless plan.
What is St. David's Tower?
St. David's Tower is a small stone building on the beach near Salthouse, once meant to house a lifeboat. Hamel's painter father bought it, and Hamel arrives to claim it, but Fentolin has been using it and keeps its large shed locked.
Is The Vanished Messenger a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction. Oppenheim wrote it in a period of worry about a European war, and it uses real places such as Liverpool Street Station, Norfolk and The Hague as a setting for an invented plot.
Is The Vanished Messenger easy to read?
The book is made of short chapters with plenty of dialogue, vivid weather and quick scenes. Its plain storytelling and strong cliffhangers make it easy to follow, whether you read it in a few sittings or listen to it.