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Audiobook edition · 7 h 7 minPaperback · 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 enjoy wartime espionage, drawing-room manners, clever marriage plots and stormy seas will love this novel. It offers courteous heroes torn between love and duty, with suspense rather than gore.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A hat makes danger personal
- Good news brings an enemy
- Love puts principle under pressure
- Fishing may conceal another purpose
- Affection unsettles the spy's mission
- Suspicion turns into an attempted arrest
- The sea tests divided loyalties
- Partial truths shape every judgment
Who’s who
- Philippa, Lady CranstonA small, red-haired young wife who wants her twin brother home and her idle husband to find war work.
- Hamar LessinghamA courteous stranger with torn clothes and two letters, who wants a month of quiet in Dreymarsh and a different life.
- Helen FaircloughA fair, warm-hearted girl engaged to Richard, who wants him back and tries to keep Philippa out of danger.
- Sir Henry CranstonA retired naval officer, sunburned and cheerful, who is always off in a boat after fish and never explains himself.
- Captain GriffithsThe awkward, suspicious Commandant of Dreymarsh, who wants to catch a spy and wins no friends doing it.
- NoraSir Henry's lively young daughter, who finds the Homburg hat and wants every adventure for herself.
- Major Richard FelsteadPhilippa's twin and Helen's fiancé, a prisoner in Germany who wants only to come home.
- MillsThe calm family butler, who sees a great deal, says little and wants the household to run smoothly.
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The Zeppelin's Passenger
by E. Phillips Oppenheim · 1918
A spy drops from a Zeppelin into a quiet English village and asks two women for tea, a suit and a bargain.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Do you think only Germans ride in Zeppelins?”
In short
A Zeppelin crosses the Norfolk coast in the dark, and by morning its observation car lies tangled in the trees on Dutchman's Common. A schoolgirl named Nora finds what the searchers missed.
The Zeppelin's Passenger at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 5 min3 h 15 min fast, 4 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 58,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1918by E. Phillips Oppenheim
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A hat falls from the sky
The story opens at tea in the library of Mainsail Haul. Harrison, a young officer from the local Depot, sits with Helen and Captain Griffiths, the Commandant. Griffiths is tall, awkward and sallow, and he says almost nothing. Harrison admits he slept through the whole business. Helen heard the engines from her window as plainly as if they were over the golf links.
The night before, the airship passed so low that its observation car was dragged loose and left in the trees on Dutchman's Common. Griffiths found no bombs and no crew. He found only a hard seat, two pairs of field glasses and a telephone. He calls it a very uninteresting affair.
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Details
- First published
- 1918
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Oppenheim, E. Phillips. The Zeppelin's Passenger. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-zeppelins-passenger.
Oppenheim, E. P. (2026). The zeppelin's passenger. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-zeppelins-passenger (Original work published 1918)
Oppenheim, E. Phillips. The Zeppelin's Passenger. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-zeppelins-passenger.
@book{oppenheim2026zeppelins,
author = {Oppenheim, E. Phillips},
title = {The Zeppelin's Passenger},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-zeppelins-passenger},
note = {First published 1918}
}
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What is The Zeppelin's Passenger about?
It is a wartime spy novel set in a Norfolk seaside village. A secret agent lands from a Zeppelin and bargains with two women for shelter, while a suspicious commandant and a puzzling husband watch him.
Who is Hamar Lessingham?
Hamar Lessingham is the false name used by Baron Bertram Maderstrom, a Swedish-born officer in German service. He was a college friend of Richard Felstead and arrives carrying letters from the prison camp.
When was The Zeppelin's Passenger written and is it a true story?
E. Phillips Oppenheim wrote it in the years of the First World War. It is fiction, but it draws on the real fear of Zeppelin raids and spies along the English coast.
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).
“Do you think only Germans ride in Zeppelins?”
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