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Aeneas Press edition 20th Century

The Vanished Messenger

by E. Phillips Oppenheim 1866–1946

The book, and the century it came out of.

A man vanishes from a Norfolk inn between the fish and the entrée, leaving a hundred thousand pounds and a mission from an American millionaire undelivered — and the guests who watched him go have their own reasons for it. Oppenheim wrote some hundred and fifteen thrillers and invented the international-intrigue novel as a form; this 1914 one is the clean machine, and the Norfolk coast in it is genuinely cold. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Auteroche, Yon and Monet among them.

There were very few people upon Platform Number Twenty-one of Liverpool Street Station at a quarter to nine on the evening of April 2—possibly because the platform in question is one of the most remote and least used in the great terminus.
The first sentence of The Vanished Messenger
A note on this edition

The Vanished Messenger, by E. Phillips Oppenheim, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 248 pages
Reading time
about 5 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486024665
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

La butte Montmartre en 1866, Alfred-Eloi Auteroche
La butte Montmartre en 1866 Alfred-Eloi Auteroche 1866
A backwater, Johannes Hilverdink
A backwater Johannes Hilverdink 1855
The Bedroom of Crown Prince Nikolai Alexandrovich, Eduard Hau
The Bedroom of Crown Prince Nikolai Alexandrovich Eduard Hau 1865
Croquet Scene, Winslow Homer
Croquet Scene Winslow Homer 1866
A heavy swell off Dover Harbour, with a Channel packet coming in, Ebenezer Colls
A heavy swell off Dover Harbour, with a Channel packet coming in Ebenezer Colls 1866
Landschap met schepen op een rivier in de avond., Charles-François Daubigny
Landschap met schepen op een rivier in de avond Charles-François Daubigny 1866
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The Vanished Messenger as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Vanished Messenger as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Vanished Messenger, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Mystery & Crime shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486024665, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The Vanished Messenger?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. E. Phillips Oppenheim's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 248 pages, which is roughly about 5 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
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The Vanished Messenger
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