Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
I heard this book read as an audio book on the best audio books' classic tales podcast. That's the only thing that made it bearable (check out the podcast it's excellent). Well the mercifully short ending helped. The fact that Hitchcock managed to make this into a fantastic film proves once again that books and their films are as closely related as a man and his fifth cousin twice removed.
A little convoluted and full of what we now consider to be tropes of the spy genre (although I expect they felt fresher to readers in 1915). It was hard to follow at first as there are massive info-dumps and I had to rewind my audiobook a few times to make sure I had taken in all the information, but the pace picks up a little after the first few chapters.
This was very much what you expect from an adventure crime novel. It's fast-paced and fun. It's also highly implausible which errs on the edge of farcical. All in all though, I can appreciate this novel for what it was, being one of the first to employ the man-on-the-run style plot device.
I enjoy cosy stories like this, much like Sherlock Holmes. Where the sense of place is idyllic and on the whole, all the characters are lovely. This one I didn't enjoy quite as much simply because the story was so outlandish that it lost any sense of authenticity. That isn't a deal breaker in a fiction adventure like this for me though.
I enjoy cosy stories like this, much like Sherlock Holmes. Where the sense of place is idyllic and on the whole, all the characters are lovely. This one I didn't enjoy quite as much simply because the story was so outlandish that it lost any sense of authenticity. That isn't a deal breaker in a fiction adventure like this for me though.
Spy thrillers are the sort of books you buy during a long layover at the airport and then leave conveniently in the back pocket of an airplane seat when you are done with them. Why don’t you bring them home to your bookshelf to preserve them for posterity? Because they’re formula novels–if you’ve read one, you’ve read them all. Once you’ve navigated the twists and turns and know the ending, there’s no reason to ever crack the cover again.
But one thing to remember is that every genre of formula novel started somewhere with an original, a prototype that subsequent authors copy. And though the children of the formula only serve to while away a few hours of air travel, the grand old ancestor is often well worth revisiting. After all, his work was compelling and enduring enough to populate the whole world with clones.
John Buchan, born in 1875, is credited with being the “father of the modern spy thriller.” His hero, Richard Hannay, debuts in The Thirty-Nine Steps. A citizen of South Africa, Hannay is visiting England just prior to the start of World War I. Ordinary life in Britain, he discovers, is intolerably boring–until a mysterious stranger, sharing his apartment building, invades his privacy with a disturbing story of a conspiracy that will shake the foundations of Europe. When this new acquaintance meets the wrong end of a knife, Hannay takes over the stranger’s mission. Armed with only the sparsest of clues (what do the “thirty-nine steps” refer to?) and his own natural cunning, Hannay evades and foils the criminal masterminds of Europe and earns the undying thanks of the British Intelligence Service.
After reading The Thirty-Nine Steps, I continued on to Hannay’s second adventure entitled Greenmantle. In some ways, Greenmantle the was more exciting read because the stakes were higher. Now Richard Hannay has to stop the insidious Germans from using a Muslim fanatic to proclaim jihad and raising the whole of the East against Britain and the Allies. In other ways, Greenmantle was more tedious; Buchan has a set formula for his stories, and when you read two books of the same formula the one right after the other, you feel a hint of deja vu, perhaps even a sense of ennui.
Robin W. Winks, in the introduction to The Thirty-Nine Steps, offers this helpful analysis of the trademark Buchan plot that so many others have copied:
“What is the Buchan formula? The Thirty-Nine Steps shows the formula at its most pure…. Take an attractive man, not too young–Hannay is thirty-seven in Steps–and not too old, since he must have the knowledge of maturity and substantial experience on which he will draw while being able to respond to the physical rigors of chase and pursuit. Let the hero, who appears at first to be relatively ordinary, and who thinks of himself as commonplace, be drawn against his best judgment into a mystery he only vaguely comprehends, so that he and the reader may share the growing tension together. Set him a task to perform…. Place obstacles in his path–the enemy, best left as ill-defined as possible, so that our hero cannot be certain who he might trust. See to it that he cannot turn to established authority for help, indeed that the police, the military, the establishment will be actively working against him. Then set a clock ticking….”
Reading this description, I could not help thinking how it could just as easily fit Dan Brown’s hero Robert Langdon (from The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons) as it does Richard Hannay. But though I intend to shelve my copy of Buchan’s novels, my Dan Brown paperbacks have long since disappeared. There is a certain glory in being the first of a kind.
But one thing to remember is that every genre of formula novel started somewhere with an original, a prototype that subsequent authors copy. And though the children of the formula only serve to while away a few hours of air travel, the grand old ancestor is often well worth revisiting. After all, his work was compelling and enduring enough to populate the whole world with clones.
John Buchan, born in 1875, is credited with being the “father of the modern spy thriller.” His hero, Richard Hannay, debuts in The Thirty-Nine Steps. A citizen of South Africa, Hannay is visiting England just prior to the start of World War I. Ordinary life in Britain, he discovers, is intolerably boring–until a mysterious stranger, sharing his apartment building, invades his privacy with a disturbing story of a conspiracy that will shake the foundations of Europe. When this new acquaintance meets the wrong end of a knife, Hannay takes over the stranger’s mission. Armed with only the sparsest of clues (what do the “thirty-nine steps” refer to?) and his own natural cunning, Hannay evades and foils the criminal masterminds of Europe and earns the undying thanks of the British Intelligence Service.
After reading The Thirty-Nine Steps, I continued on to Hannay’s second adventure entitled Greenmantle. In some ways, Greenmantle the was more exciting read because the stakes were higher. Now Richard Hannay has to stop the insidious Germans from using a Muslim fanatic to proclaim jihad and raising the whole of the East against Britain and the Allies. In other ways, Greenmantle was more tedious; Buchan has a set formula for his stories, and when you read two books of the same formula the one right after the other, you feel a hint of deja vu, perhaps even a sense of ennui.
Robin W. Winks, in the introduction to The Thirty-Nine Steps, offers this helpful analysis of the trademark Buchan plot that so many others have copied:
“What is the Buchan formula? The Thirty-Nine Steps shows the formula at its most pure…. Take an attractive man, not too young–Hannay is thirty-seven in Steps–and not too old, since he must have the knowledge of maturity and substantial experience on which he will draw while being able to respond to the physical rigors of chase and pursuit. Let the hero, who appears at first to be relatively ordinary, and who thinks of himself as commonplace, be drawn against his best judgment into a mystery he only vaguely comprehends, so that he and the reader may share the growing tension together. Set him a task to perform…. Place obstacles in his path–the enemy, best left as ill-defined as possible, so that our hero cannot be certain who he might trust. See to it that he cannot turn to established authority for help, indeed that the police, the military, the establishment will be actively working against him. Then set a clock ticking….”
Reading this description, I could not help thinking how it could just as easily fit Dan Brown’s hero Robert Langdon (from The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons) as it does Richard Hannay. But though I intend to shelve my copy of Buchan’s novels, my Dan Brown paperbacks have long since disappeared. There is a certain glory in being the first of a kind.
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book was written during WWI but it feels like 1850. I can see the influence of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The main drawback is that there are so many impossibilities and nonsense decisions. The characters based life changing decisions on first impressions.
Action without any depth. It's a silly spy novel in the end. Convenient plot devices and quickly glossed over characters make this dime novel not worth contemplating how WW1 started for the UK. Are we supposed to know these government officials a century in the future? The moors of Scotland may be beautiful but they don't save these 10 chapters of action from a narrator who is on the run.
Early 20th century British spy thriller
This is a great book if you enjoy spy mysteries, but not if you are looking for an action-packed thriller. This book is very much a product of its time and its culture; it is very British! Imperialism, stiff upper lip, tea, etc.! All great if you like 1910s Britain, which I do. However, some may find it boring, especially if you are tricked by this book being called a "spy thriller." I thought it was an enjoyable read, and I will definitely read the sequels.
This is a great book if you enjoy spy mysteries, but not if you are looking for an action-packed thriller. This book is very much a product of its time and its culture; it is very British! Imperialism, stiff upper lip, tea, etc.! All great if you like 1910s Britain, which I do. However, some may find it boring, especially if you are tricked by this book being called a "spy thriller." I thought it was an enjoyable read, and I will definitely read the sequels.
We have had a season subscription to our local community theater group for as long as we've lived in Reading. Recently, they did an adaption of this novel of Buchan's, which was an early spy thriller, or something. Now that I have "mature" hearing, I didn't get a whole lot of the dialog. Much of it was in appropriate dialect, i.e. Scotts when in Scotland, working class London for the local milkman and so forth, which didn't help my hearing impairment. The dialogue also came fast and furious, as they were playing this as a comedic farce. Even though I didn't know what was going on much of the time, it did seem rather funny. So anyway, I figured I should check out the original. Unfortunately, there was enough of a gap between seeing and reading, that I'm not sure how faithful the play adaption was.
Whatever, this was a reasonably fun book, if perhaps a bit silly. Buchan makes it clear in his introduction that the book was meant to be pulp fiction, only vaguely plausible, but not totally impossible. I guess that's what the working class folks liked reading on their bus rides to and from the factories a century ago.
So, we have a young man, Richard Hannay, who made a fortune in Africa and has come back to Britain. He's bored out of his mind. His upstairs neighbor suddenly shows up and spins a tale about how he is a "dead man", meaning he has to pretend to be dead because some German spies are coming for him. He knows the secret of their plot, which will be unveiled in about two weeks' time, but he can't tell the authorities until the last minute. Something like that. So the guy wants to hide out in Hannay's digs.
Well, next thing you know, Hannay comes home and finds the guy had been stabbed. Hannay has to flee for his life. This involves hiding out in Scotland. The only problem is that the "bad guys" are on his tail almost immediately. He can't hide in the moors because they have an airplane. He can't hide in the villages because the bobbies are trying to arrest Hannay for the murder of the guy found stabbed in his study. So, we have all kinds of improbably escapes, and meeting up with weird characters, and Hannay's taking on different disguises, and so forth. Eventually, at the last minute, they catch the bad guys and save Britain from war (for a bit, anyway, WWI broke out shortly after this book was published).
Well, I just discovered that the play I saw was an adaptation of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The plot has some similarities to this book, and many differences. Whatever, it was a fine book for light reading, and short enough that even one who "reads at only half the speed required for success in college" could finish it in a reasonable period of time.
Whatever, this was a reasonably fun book, if perhaps a bit silly. Buchan makes it clear in his introduction that the book was meant to be pulp fiction, only vaguely plausible, but not totally impossible. I guess that's what the working class folks liked reading on their bus rides to and from the factories a century ago.
So, we have a young man, Richard Hannay, who made a fortune in Africa and has come back to Britain. He's bored out of his mind. His upstairs neighbor suddenly shows up and spins a tale about how he is a "dead man", meaning he has to pretend to be dead because some German spies are coming for him. He knows the secret of their plot, which will be unveiled in about two weeks' time, but he can't tell the authorities until the last minute. Something like that. So the guy wants to hide out in Hannay's digs.
Well, next thing you know, Hannay comes home and finds the guy had been stabbed. Hannay has to flee for his life. This involves hiding out in Scotland. The only problem is that the "bad guys" are on his tail almost immediately. He can't hide in the moors because they have an airplane. He can't hide in the villages because the bobbies are trying to arrest Hannay for the murder of the guy found stabbed in his study. So, we have all kinds of improbably escapes, and meeting up with weird characters, and Hannay's taking on different disguises, and so forth. Eventually, at the last minute, they catch the bad guys and save Britain from war (for a bit, anyway, WWI broke out shortly after this book was published).
Well, I just discovered that the play I saw was an adaptation of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The plot has some similarities to this book, and many differences. Whatever, it was a fine book for light reading, and short enough that even one who "reads at only half the speed required for success in college" could finish it in a reasonable period of time.
I picked this up because it was free and because I thought it was the same story that the Hitchcock movie was about. I actually don't remember what the movie was about but this story didn't read like a Hitchcock movie. Its a pretty short (good) well written book. The first third is strong, the middle third drags, and the end gets better again.