Summary
Summary of The Malefactor
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A betrayal waits behind respectable faces
In a London club, Lovell answers a young writer’s complaint that modern life lacks passion with a story about Wingrave. A struggle left Ruth’s husband dead, and the testimony of Ruth and Lumley sent Wingrave to prison. Lovell says their account was false: Ruth had come asking for money, then lied to protect her reputation.
Wingrave held letters that could expose her, yet chose not to question her at his trial. Now his release approaches, while Ruth and Lumley enjoy their place in society.
Key idea 2
Freedom leaves Wingrave outside society
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Key idea 3
Wingrave makes suffering his purpose
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Key idea 4
A lonely child interrupts revenge
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Key idea 5
A financial victory raises fresh doubts
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Key idea 6
Society welcomes the fortune it feared
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Key idea 7
Juliet refuses a life of dependence
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Key idea 8
An attack exposes an uneasy bond
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Key idea 9
Actions keep testing the heartless mask
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
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 this book is
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. It asks a question every reader of revenge tales eventually asks. What does a man become after ten years in prison for a crime he did not freely commit, and what does he do on the day the gates open?
The book opens in a London club on the night a war correspondent leaves for the East. He tells his friends of a hunting-field scandal, a dead husband, a false witness and a prisoner who never forgives. That prisoner, Wingrave, is about to walk free, rich and clever. From there the story follows him through hotel rooms, ballrooms, a Cornish cliff top, a ship in the Atlantic and the trading floors of New York.
You get a clean plot built on strong scenes, a pair of memorable women, a sharp young secretary who watches it all, and a hero who says, loudly and often, that he has no heart left. Whether he is telling the truth is the question that carries you forward. The first scene to hear about is the story told in the smoking room.
In this summary
- 1A scandal told in a smoking roomFree
- 2A free man finds the gates still shut
- 3The first errand and the gospel of hate
- 4A child at Tredowen and a trap at sea
- 5Copper shares and a ruined broker
- 6Mr. Wingrave from America takes London
- 7Juliet grows up and the ward becomes a problem
- 8A knife in the dark and a woman at Tredowen
- 9What the story is really about
- 10How the story is told
Key point 1 of 10
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.
One afternoon Lumley follows Wingrave and Ruth back to the lodge and looks through the study window. In a rage he fetches her husband, Sir William. There is a struggle behind closed doors, a heavy fall, and torn scraps of a check signed by Wingrave. Sir William dies a few days later, and on the word of Lumley and Ruth, Wingrave is sent to prison for fifteen years.
Lovell insists the public version is false. He says Ruth had come to Wingrave for money and lied to protect her good name. At the trial Wingrave defends himself and holds passionate letters from her in a black box. When she finishes her evidence, he looks at her, then tells the judge he has no questions.
Lovell ends by pointing at the calendar. Tomorrow Wingrave will be free, still wealthy, still young, and, in Lovell's words, a man who never forgives. Lumley and Ruth now sit at the heart of London society. Aynesworth listens with a writer's hunger, and the scene sets the question the book will keep asking.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why does Wingrave keep Lady Ruth’s letters?
Right. “When she asks for her letters, he refuses and offers no promises.”Not quite. “When she asks for her letters, he refuses and offers no promises.”
What does Juliet decide when she learns Wingrave supported her?
Right. “He insists his help cost him nothing, but she answers that she cannot go on accepting it.”Not quite. “He insists his help cost him nothing, but she answers that she cannot go on accepting it.”
What central question do Wingrave’s encounters test?
Right. “Each meeting tests his claim that he has no heart.”Not quite. “Each meeting tests his claim that he has no heart.”
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 73,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 55 min
- Listening time8 h 10 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 10 other languages
Questions about The Malefactor
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.
Is The Malefactor easy to read?
Yes, it moves in short, vivid scenes with plenty of lively dialogue, characters whose true natures stay uncertain, and a steady sense of suspense, so it is simple to follow from chapter to chapter.
What is the main message of The Malefactor?
The novel suggests that revenge costs the one who seeks it, that a hardened heart can still be reached, and that people are often kinder, and more divided, than their words and masks suggest.
