E. Phillips Oppenheim is the author of the mystery book The Great Impersonation, which was published before 1920. German Leopold von Ragastein, who meets his English doppelganger Everard Dominey in Africa, is the main character of the story. Just before World War I, he plots to kill Dominey and steal his identity in order to spy on English high society. However, in this story of romance, political intrigue, and a (literally) haunted history, questions about the returned Dominey's true identity start to surface. The Great Impersonation begins with an unexpected encounter between two men who had previously gone to school and university together in East Africa in 1913, just before the First World War breaks out.
E. Phillips Oppenheim was born on October 22, 1866, in Tohhenham, London, England, to Henrietta Susannah Temperley Budd and Edward John Oppenheim, a leather retailer. After leaving school at age 17, he helped his father in his leather business and used to write in his extra time. His first novel, Expiration (1886), and subsequent thrillers piqued the interest of a wealthy New York businessman who eventually bought out the leather business and made Oppenheim a high-paid director.He is more focused on dedicating most of his time to writing. The novels, volumes of short stories, and plays that followed, numbering more than 150, were about humans with modern heroes, fearless spies, and stylish noblemen. The Long Arm of Mannister (1910), The Moving Finger (1911), and The Great Impersonation (1920) are three of his most famous essays.
