The Yellow Crayon

Here, complete and unabridged, is E. Phillips Oppenheim's 1903 thriller of political conspiracy and shadowy allegiances, presented exactly as it first appeared for readers of the early twentieth century. A sudden death on a London night, a mysterious implement left behind, and a tangle of Russian revolutionary intrigue draw the novel's characters into a web where no one is quite what they seem. This Founding Texts edition pairs the full original text with a modern introduction that situates the book in the birth of the espionage novel and offers reader's notes illuminating the historical world of pre-war European intrigue. Oppenheim's brisk plotting and atmospheric suspense remain as engaging now as when the book first delighted readers more than a century ago. Whether you are discovering an early master of spy fiction or revisiting a classic, this is the definitive reading copy. Part of The Founding Texts Library.