Spying for Henry

Edith Wharton made five tours of the Western Front in the spring and summer of 1915. She visited all the Allied sectors. Her war-time travels fascinate her close friend Henry James. As a staunch anglophile, Henry conceives plan whereby Mrs. Wharton would next tour German-occupied France as his agent d'espionnage. Henry's mad idea lands her in the chaos of the Battle of Verdun. Being a famous writer has advantages, she charms Kaiser Wilhelm into allowing her to join the entourage of his...
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Edith Wharton made five tours of the Western Front in the spring and summer of 1915. She visited all the Allied sectors. Her war-time travels fascinate her close friend Henry James. As a staunch anglophile, Henry conceives plan whereby Mrs. Wharton would next tour German-occupied France as his agent d'espionnage. Henry's mad idea lands her in the chaos of the Battle of Verdun. Being a famous writer has advantages, she charms Kaiser Wilhelm into allowing her to join the entourage of his son, Crown Prince Wilhelm, whose army is based in Stenay, 30 miles from Verdun. In late 1915, this is a quiet sector of the front, safe for Mrs. Wharton to visit. In Stenay she meets Tony Fokker, the inventor of a machine gun which can fire through the arc of a spinning propeller. An invention that promises to give German pilots an enormous advantage in the aerial war. With help of a Jesuit priest and a woman writing for The Saturday Evening Post, Mrs. Wharton sets out to steal a blueprint of Fokker's invention. The spy caper unfolds during the battle of Verdun (early 1916). She finds herself in a world behind German lines mixing with the likes of Herman Göring and Oswald Boelcke, both fighter pilots, Crown Princess Cecilie, the neglected wife of the Crown Prince, and, of course, the ever-charming rake of Stenay, Crown Prince Wilhelm. A German detective stumbles upon her mission and is in pursuit. What has Henry gotten her into?