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John Buchan takes us back to Edwardian Britain on the eve of the First World War in the modern thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps. An inexplicable murder drives the innocent Richard Hannay, on the run from a manhunt that never seems to end, to hide in remote Scottish moorland. Disguise and deception are his only weapons, as he struggles to decode the clues left by the murdered man to prevent the theft of naval secrets by an unfriendly foreign power. The best-known of Buchan's thrillers, The show more Thirty-Nine Steps has been continuously in print since its first publication and has been filmed three times, including the brilliant 1935 version directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The Thirty-Nine Steps was also a powerful influence on the development of the detective novel, the action romance, and the spy story. show lessTags
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simon_carr Similar in many ways: plucky Englishman chances upon a dastardly German plot. Thoroughly enjoyable.
121
Bridgey same sort of story, man falsley accused treks across moorland
11
Member Reviews
Insofar as storytelling goes, I found Buchan to be very straight-forward and while he doesn't produce many frills or much backstory, I wouldn't say his writing was stark either. He had style and a precise wording that I haven't encountered before. Sentences like this one - "It sounds a platitude, but Peter used to say that it was the big secret of all the famous criminals." and "I told Paddock a fine story about how my friend was a great swell, with his nerves pretty bad from overwork, who wanted absolute rest and stillness." Both are understandable (unless you're unfamiliar with what a swell is), but somehow the omission of a like after sounds is odd to the 21st century ear. And there's something odd about the second sentence as well. show more I just don't think anyone would write that sentence now. Another difference that is pretty apparent is the accepted social attitudes of the day. Someone early on says "I haven't the privilege of your name, Sir, but let me tell you that you're a white man." and I think it's a compliment, but can you imagine someone using it now? Oy. And there's a good bit of anti-Semitic talk about "the Jew". A bit startling, but considering the time to be expected.
Another thing a modern reader will have to get over in The 39 Steps is Hannay's amazing luck. Coincidence follows coincidence and he can either talk his way out or into anything. For an ex-mining engineer, he's certainly quick on his feet. Glib, too. Impersonates a rural road repairman, complete with broad Scottish brogue. Rural cottagers can't wait to take him in and bestow clothes and food on him. After surviving a near head-on collision with another car, the very rich owner takes him back to his house and also bestows clothes and food on him and then takes him to a political rally where Hannay gives a speech. Then this guy turns out to have an uncle in the Foreign Office. How handy! After a few of these I just smiled and kept reading. Even when unwittingly Hannay lands in the lair of the enemy (in the middle of the Scottish highlands apparently) I wasn't worried. It was a bit like watching MacGuyver of the A-Team; you know everyone will be all right in the end, but have to stick through to see how they get out of it. I've got the 2nd and the 3rd books on the Nook, ready to go.
Read more: http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/#ixzz23BPR2BEP show less
Another thing a modern reader will have to get over in The 39 Steps is Hannay's amazing luck. Coincidence follows coincidence and he can either talk his way out or into anything. For an ex-mining engineer, he's certainly quick on his feet. Glib, too. Impersonates a rural road repairman, complete with broad Scottish brogue. Rural cottagers can't wait to take him in and bestow clothes and food on him. After surviving a near head-on collision with another car, the very rich owner takes him back to his house and also bestows clothes and food on him and then takes him to a political rally where Hannay gives a speech. Then this guy turns out to have an uncle in the Foreign Office. How handy! After a few of these I just smiled and kept reading. Even when unwittingly Hannay lands in the lair of the enemy (in the middle of the Scottish highlands apparently) I wasn't worried. It was a bit like watching MacGuyver of the A-Team; you know everyone will be all right in the end, but have to stick through to see how they get out of it. I've got the 2nd and the 3rd books on the Nook, ready to go.
Read more: http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/#ixzz23BPR2BEP show less
Scotsman John Buchan’s fabulous The Thirty-Nine Steps is rightly considered a seminal classic in the Adventure/Spy genre, and it is for good reason it was on The Guardian’s Best 100 English Novels list at #42.
This exciting tale of espionage defined the man-on-the-run tale in breathless fashion, and was the first of the author’s Richard Hannay tales. What remains remarkable is the contemporary prose. Though it takes place before the first World War, offering insight into the view of what was happening at the time, the tale is timeless, and with minor changes, could easily be a thrilling espionage adventure told in our day. Books need to be judged within their context, and while most do, some don't. This classic has a solid show more four-star average after hundreds of reviews on Amazon in the US, which accurately reflects how much fun this is to read.
That's not to say some of what happens isn't implausible, almost Cornell Woolrich level implausible, but with a style and pace which makes Robert Ludlum (another great writer who was no pretentious critic's darling) seem lethargic; no easy task. The reader is having so much fun they simply don’t care that it's hardly plausible. It is, after all, fiction. Reading The Thirty-Nine Steps is fun and exciting, which is what it is supposed to be. Watching Hannay escape time after time until the thrilling confrontation and conclusion is exhilarating.
Buchan writes as though using lighting bolts rather than a pen, taking readers along for the electric-charged ride. The Thirty-Nine Steps is the quintessential can’t-put-down read. That thrill you got as a youngster reading a mystery adventure by flashlight beneath the covers was captured by Buchan, but it was moved forward into adulthood. On that level it doesn't just succeed, it shines. It's on The Guardian's list for good reason.
The book differs from Hitchcock’s famous British film adaptation in that there is no love interest for Hannay here; frankly because as a boys adventure story brought forward into adulthood, it isn’t needed. A rollicking good old-fashioned tale that set a bar seldom reached since it was written. The 39 Steps is fabulous fun and quite enjoyable when read, if you don't make comparisons with spy novels written many decades later, and why would you do that? This edition of this seminal work has an excellent biography at the end readers will most likely enjoy. Highly recommended. show less
This exciting tale of espionage defined the man-on-the-run tale in breathless fashion, and was the first of the author’s Richard Hannay tales. What remains remarkable is the contemporary prose. Though it takes place before the first World War, offering insight into the view of what was happening at the time, the tale is timeless, and with minor changes, could easily be a thrilling espionage adventure told in our day. Books need to be judged within their context, and while most do, some don't. This classic has a solid show more four-star average after hundreds of reviews on Amazon in the US, which accurately reflects how much fun this is to read.
That's not to say some of what happens isn't implausible, almost Cornell Woolrich level implausible, but with a style and pace which makes Robert Ludlum (another great writer who was no pretentious critic's darling) seem lethargic; no easy task. The reader is having so much fun they simply don’t care that it's hardly plausible. It is, after all, fiction. Reading The Thirty-Nine Steps is fun and exciting, which is what it is supposed to be. Watching Hannay escape time after time until the thrilling confrontation and conclusion is exhilarating.
Buchan writes as though using lighting bolts rather than a pen, taking readers along for the electric-charged ride. The Thirty-Nine Steps is the quintessential can’t-put-down read. That thrill you got as a youngster reading a mystery adventure by flashlight beneath the covers was captured by Buchan, but it was moved forward into adulthood. On that level it doesn't just succeed, it shines. It's on The Guardian's list for good reason.
The book differs from Hitchcock’s famous British film adaptation in that there is no love interest for Hannay here; frankly because as a boys adventure story brought forward into adulthood, it isn’t needed. A rollicking good old-fashioned tale that set a bar seldom reached since it was written. The 39 Steps is fabulous fun and quite enjoyable when read, if you don't make comparisons with spy novels written many decades later, and why would you do that? This edition of this seminal work has an excellent biography at the end readers will most likely enjoy. Highly recommended. show less
It's always strange (and slightly nerve wracking) to return to an old favourite read. Sometimes it's like returning to an old school friend, and as if you've never been apart, the friendship just kicks in where you left it. At other times, it's rather embarrassing and you struggle to remember what basis your friendship used to have.
Unfortunately, The Thirty Nine Steps falls somewhat (but not totally) into the second category. The adventure was still adventurous, and there is a certain guilty pleasure in reading about the upright, stiff-upper-lip English thwarting an evil foreign plot in the years between the World Wars, even if the international politics confused me somewhat. But who cares about political details, it's Richard Hannay to show more the rescue!
However, I was very disappointed that it had right at the very start a reference to "the Jew" who is behind everything in Europe. I don't remember that particular phrase or sentiment from my childhood reading (I just remember the adventure of it all). And it was just a bit too horrible a description to be able to dismiss as "a product of its times". One should point out that it wasn't Richard Hannay who said it (although he didn't deny it or protest either), and at the very end of the book it is finally dismissed as a character's strange obsession. But, too little, too late, I'd read most of the book feeling rather uncomfortable.
I'm not a fan of censorship, but I'd make an exception for this book so I can read the fun adventure without discomfort, and so I can feel less guilty about myself as a younger reader. show less
Unfortunately, The Thirty Nine Steps falls somewhat (but not totally) into the second category. The adventure was still adventurous, and there is a certain guilty pleasure in reading about the upright, stiff-upper-lip English thwarting an evil foreign plot in the years between the World Wars, even if the international politics confused me somewhat. But who cares about political details, it's Richard Hannay to show more the rescue!
However, I was very disappointed that it had right at the very start a reference to "the Jew" who is behind everything in Europe. I don't remember that particular phrase or sentiment from my childhood reading (I just remember the adventure of it all). And it was just a bit too horrible a description to be able to dismiss as "a product of its times". One should point out that it wasn't Richard Hannay who said it (although he didn't deny it or protest either), and at the very end of the book it is finally dismissed as a character's strange obsession. But, too little, too late, I'd read most of the book feeling rather uncomfortable.
I'm not a fan of censorship, but I'd make an exception for this book so I can read the fun adventure without discomfort, and so I can feel less guilty about myself as a younger reader. show less
Is this book outdated and seems cliche by modern standards? Definitely, but there’s still plenty to enjoy here.
The protagonist Richard Hannay brings an English wit and charm to the narrative. While they are tame to modern audiences there are exciting chases and daring escapes. This and The Most Dangerous Game are the epitome of hunted man fiction.
Its easy to see why at the time it was written it would have been a big hit. WWI was raging and this story presents a pre-war yarn that would’ve sparked imagination. It’s exciting, features a cast of interesting bystanders, and has an underlying wit.
If you read this expecting a white knuckle thrill ride that’s still as fresh today as it was when it was written you’ll be disappointed. show more However, if you read it in the mindset that it’s one of the first stories of this kind, you’ll enjoy it. It should be noted as well that while it doesn’t have the raciness or humorous dialogue of the Hitchcock classic, it’s worth reading to see where some of the plot came from, and personally I could see things in this book that inspired other films of his.
It’s short, it’s fun, it’s classic. I imagine this is the kind of book that would be dope to sit in front of a fireplace reading in the evening. show less
The protagonist Richard Hannay brings an English wit and charm to the narrative. While they are tame to modern audiences there are exciting chases and daring escapes. This and The Most Dangerous Game are the epitome of hunted man fiction.
Its easy to see why at the time it was written it would have been a big hit. WWI was raging and this story presents a pre-war yarn that would’ve sparked imagination. It’s exciting, features a cast of interesting bystanders, and has an underlying wit.
If you read this expecting a white knuckle thrill ride that’s still as fresh today as it was when it was written you’ll be disappointed. show more However, if you read it in the mindset that it’s one of the first stories of this kind, you’ll enjoy it. It should be noted as well that while it doesn’t have the raciness or humorous dialogue of the Hitchcock classic, it’s worth reading to see where some of the plot came from, and personally I could see things in this book that inspired other films of his.
It’s short, it’s fun, it’s classic. I imagine this is the kind of book that would be dope to sit in front of a fireplace reading in the evening. show less
Rather implausible, but brilliant fun: Buchan includes political conspiracies, spies and a preposterous number of narrow escapes as Richard Hannay tries to work out the significance of the thirty-nine steps and out-wit several masters of disguise. While it does take some stretching of the imagination, the descriptions of the countryside in the Scottish borders, the characterisations and the interesting accents of the people the almost superhuman Hannay meets all make it rather easy to let rationality take a wee holiday.
Reading The Thirty-Nine Steps today is an odd experience. On the one hand, there are modes of thinking and acting that seem decidedly old fashioned, if not completely obsolete. On the other hand, Buchan's suspense and tradecraft are timeless.
Richard Hannay, a Scottish mining engineer, had made a small fortune in South Africa, and had now returned to the UK looking for the next stage in his life. Sitting in London, "the best bored man in the United Kingdom", he had all but made up his mind to go back to South Africa when things got really interesting.
A terrified man, announcing himself dead, turned up on Hannay's doorstep, begging to be taken in. Hannay decided he was probably a madman, but let him in. The stranger had a tale of intrigue show more which culminated in the planned assassination of Greek Prime Minister Karolides when he visited London on June 15th, just three weeks hence. A few days later, Hannay came home to find his guest skewered to the floor with a knife through his heart. That was just Chapter 1.
Hannay of course was the obvious suspect. He fled, taking with him a notebook belonging to the dead man. He set out for Galloway in southwest Scotland, the closest wild place he could think of, and one where he felt he could easily pass. The notebook was in cypher, which Hannay cracked. He discovered a much more sinister plot. This was May 1914 and Karolides death would be the trigger sparking a war for which Britain was totally unprepared.
Hannay was now being sought as a murderer throughout the UK. His picture had been made public. He couldn't turn himself in with his hare brained story, so he decided to try to prevent the assassination. However, he was now in even worse danger from the Black Stone; the people who had murdered the man in his flat and who were behind the plot.
Buchan takes the reader on a great romp through Dumfries and Galloway, with Hannay on the run from the double threats. Hannay lived by his wits, forced to make snap judgements about those he encountered along the way. Most of the time he was right; at times he was dangerously wrong. Buchan himself was a Scot and a major in the WWI intelligence corps. Both these aspects come through in his writing. There are descriptions of the rural world and its people, and then there are some valuable lessons in deception.
Hannay narrates his own story, giving the reader glimpses into that prewar world, where being a gentleman was enough in just about any circumstance:
Luckily for him, he did not know just how far that rising middle class would go.
Looking back a century from 2015, there is a welcome lack of technology in Hannay's world. Such a story today would be full of tracking devices, computer analysis and weapons. It would be over in no time. Hannay could only rely on his innate abilities. The Thirty-Nine Steps is the first in a series of Richard Hannay novels. I look forward to reading more. show less
Richard Hannay, a Scottish mining engineer, had made a small fortune in South Africa, and had now returned to the UK looking for the next stage in his life. Sitting in London, "the best bored man in the United Kingdom", he had all but made up his mind to go back to South Africa when things got really interesting.
A terrified man, announcing himself dead, turned up on Hannay's doorstep, begging to be taken in. Hannay decided he was probably a madman, but let him in. The stranger had a tale of intrigue show more which culminated in the planned assassination of Greek Prime Minister Karolides when he visited London on June 15th, just three weeks hence. A few days later, Hannay came home to find his guest skewered to the floor with a knife through his heart. That was just Chapter 1.
Hannay of course was the obvious suspect. He fled, taking with him a notebook belonging to the dead man. He set out for Galloway in southwest Scotland, the closest wild place he could think of, and one where he felt he could easily pass. The notebook was in cypher, which Hannay cracked. He discovered a much more sinister plot. This was May 1914 and Karolides death would be the trigger sparking a war for which Britain was totally unprepared.
Hannay was now being sought as a murderer throughout the UK. His picture had been made public. He couldn't turn himself in with his hare brained story, so he decided to try to prevent the assassination. However, he was now in even worse danger from the Black Stone; the people who had murdered the man in his flat and who were behind the plot.
Buchan takes the reader on a great romp through Dumfries and Galloway, with Hannay on the run from the double threats. Hannay lived by his wits, forced to make snap judgements about those he encountered along the way. Most of the time he was right; at times he was dangerously wrong. Buchan himself was a Scot and a major in the WWI intelligence corps. Both these aspects come through in his writing. There are descriptions of the rural world and its people, and then there are some valuable lessons in deception.
If a man could get into perfectly different surroundings from those in which he had first been observed, and -- this is the important part-- really play up to these surroundings and behave as if he had never been out of them, he would puzzle the cleverest detectives on earth.
A fool tries to look different; a clever man looks the same and is different.
If you are playing a part, you will never keep it up unless you convince yourself that you are it.
Hannay narrates his own story, giving the reader glimpses into that prewar world, where being a gentleman was enough in just about any circumstance:
A man of my sort, who has travelled around the world in rough places, gets on perfectly well with two classes, what you may call the upper and the lower. He understands them and they understand him. I was at home with herds and tramps and roadmen, and I was sufficiently at my ease with people like Sir Walter and the men I had met the night before. I can't explain why, but it is a fact. But what fellows like me don't understand is the great comfortable, satisfied middle-class world, the folk that live in villas and suburbs. He doesn't know how they look at things, he doesn't understand their conventions, and he is as shy of them as of a black mamba.
Luckily for him, he did not know just how far that rising middle class would go.
Looking back a century from 2015, there is a welcome lack of technology in Hannay's world. Such a story today would be full of tracking devices, computer analysis and weapons. It would be over in no time. Hannay could only rely on his innate abilities. The Thirty-Nine Steps is the first in a series of Richard Hannay novels. I look forward to reading more. show less
A breezy thriller from a time before the 'thriller' was codified – John Buchan referred to his The Thirty-Nine Steps as a 'shocker'. This is the originator of the 'man on the run' formula now common to the increasingly uninspired thriller genre, and serves as a bridge from the old-style imperial gentleman-adventures – "pure Rider Haggard and Conan Doyle", as one character puts it (pg. 29) – to the modern page-turners.
The plot of The Thirty-Nine Steps is very lean, but still with a prose quality a cut above the modern thriller. Buchan's short book came along at a time when readers were beginning to expect to be spoon-fed, but when it was still expected that the spoon be somewhat gilded. The major flaw, rather, is that the plot is show more scarcely believable, chock-a-block with coincidences and cunning disguises and all that rot. It works because Buchan brazens it out, but to all intents and purposes The Thirty-Nine Steps survives only as a curiosity. show less
The plot of The Thirty-Nine Steps is very lean, but still with a prose quality a cut above the modern thriller. Buchan's short book came along at a time when readers were beginning to expect to be spoon-fed, but when it was still expected that the spoon be somewhat gilded. The major flaw, rather, is that the plot is show more scarcely believable, chock-a-block with coincidences and cunning disguises and all that rot. It works because Buchan brazens it out, but to all intents and purposes The Thirty-Nine Steps survives only as a curiosity. show less
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Author Information
280+ Works 17,557 Members
John Buchan was born in Perth on 26th August, 1875. Educated at Glasgow University and Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1898 Buchan won the Newdigate Prize for poetry. Although trained as a lawyer, Buchan became private secretary to Lord Alfred Milner, high commissioner for South Africa. In 1903 he returned to England where he became a director of show more the publishing company, Thomas Nelson & Sons. In 1910 Buchan had his first novel, Prester John, published. In July 1914, Blackwood's Magazine began serializing Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps. With Britain on the verge of war, the nation was obsessed with German spy fever and its subject matter made it an immediate success. When it was published in book form, it sold over 25,000 copies in three months. Charles Masterman, the journalist, was appointed head of the government's War Propaganda Bureau. Masterman recruited Buchan and asked him to organise the publication of a history of the war in the form of a monthly magazine. Published by his own company, the first installment of the Nelson's History of the War appeared in February, 1915. A further twenty-three appeared at regular intervals throughout the war. In the spring of 1915, Buchan agreed to become one of the five journalists attached to the British Army. He was given responsibility for providing articles for The Times and the Daily News. In June 1916, Buchan was recruited by the British Army to draft communiqués for Sir Douglas Haig and other members of the General Headquarters Staff. Given the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps, Buchan was also provided with the documents needed to write the Nelson's History of the War. Buchan's History of the War provided the public with a completely false impression of what was going on the Western Front. Buchan also wrote a series of propoganda pamphlets published by Oxford University Press. In February, 1917, the government established a Department of Information. Given the rank Lieutenant Colonel, Buchan was put in charge on the department on an annual salary of £1,000 a year. After the war Buchan continued to write adventures stories such as Huntingtower, The Three Hostages, and Witch Wood (1927). He also became involved in politics and in 1927 was elected Conservative MP for the Scottish Universities. Buchan held the seat until granted the title Baron Tweedsmuir in 1935. Buchan was president of the Scottish History Society from 1929 to 1932, and wrote biographies of Montrose and Sir Walter Scott. Buchan also served as governor-general of Canada from 1935 to 1937 and chancellor of Edinburgh University from 1937 to 1940. John Buchan died on 12th February, 1940. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Is contained in
Four Tales: The Thirty-Nine Steps; The Power-House; The Watcher by the Threshold; The Moon Endureth by John Buchan
The 39 Steps - Greenmantle - Prester John. A Trilogy from John Buchan (A Collection of John Buchan's Novels) by John Buchan
British Mystery Multipacks Vol. 6 - British Spy Mysteries: The 39 Steps, The Riddle of the Sands, Bulldog Drummond, Passenger from Calais, The Czar’s Spy 2 sequels to The 39 Steps (Illustrated) by John Buchan
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Thirty-Nine Steps
- Original title
- The Thirty-Nine Steps
- Original publication date
- 1915
- People/Characters
- Richard Hannay; Sir Walter Bullivant; Franklin P. Scudder; Peter Pienaar; Macgillivray; Moxon Ivery
- Important places
- Scotland, UK; England, UK; London, England, UK; Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, UK; Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, UK; Berkshire, England, UK
- Important events
- World War I
- Related movies
- The 39 Steps (1935 | IMDb); The Thirty Nine Steps (1978 | IMDb); The 39 Steps (1959 | IMDb); The 39 Steps (2008 | IMDb); The 39 Steps (2011 | IMDb)
- Dedication
- TO
THOMAS ARTHUR NELSON
(LOTHIAN AND BORDER HORSE)
My Dear Tommy,
You and I have long cherished an affection for that elementary type of tale which Americans call the 'dime novel' and which we know a... (show all)s the 'shocker' - the romance where the incidents defy probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible. During an illness last winter I exhausted my store of those aids to cheerfulness, and was driven to write one for myself. This little volume is the result, and I should like to put your name on it in memory of our long friendship, in the days when the wildest fictions are so much less improbable than the facts.
J. B. - First words
- I returned from the City about three o'clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life.
Richard Hannay is not, on the face of it, the most exciting of adventurers, yet more than any other hero he has come to embody the man of action pitted against the forces of misrule. (Introduction, some editions) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)But I had done my best service, I think, before I put on khaki.
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