Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
adventurous
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Rather too many turns of good luck but interesting to acquaint myself with this classic.
nur weil es der erste Spionage Thriller ist, heißt nicht, dass man es lesen sollte
Pretty safe to say I'm not finishing this piece of shit :)
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I regard it as a step above The Big Sleep, though it shares many of the same problems. At its core this novel has a fast paced chase narrative with lots of fun disguises. The historical references feel like they might have been current events at the book's original publication, but are arduous to get through in the modern day. The better way to enjoy this book would just be to recognise that [character b] wants [character a] dead for reasons that you shouldn't think too hard about.
The values are also very much early-20th-century in the worst ways; anti-semitism is a quirky character trait, and I'm fairly sure this novel doesn't have a single woman in it. It's a product of its time and all that, but still it begs the question:
if this novel is a half-decent chase story with some esoteric contextual references and questionable values (both of which are better off ignored), wouldn't it be better to just read a more recent chase novel which doesn't have these two flaws?
The values are also very much early-20th-century in the worst ways; anti-semitism is a quirky character trait, and I'm fairly sure this novel doesn't have a single woman in it. It's a product of its time and all that, but still it begs the question:
if this novel is a half-decent chase story with some esoteric contextual references and questionable values (both of which are better off ignored), wouldn't it be better to just read a more recent chase novel which doesn't have these two flaws?
John Buchan was, according to Christopher Hitchens, "the father of the modern spy thriller". But, as the introduction to this, his most famous novel, explains, he was a writer "of his time". That's code for "bigoted".
In a famous passage in this novel -- the conspiracy theory par excellence -- a leading character tells the book's hero that "if you're on the biggest kind of job and are bound to get to the real boss, ten to one you are brought up against a little white-faced Jew in a bath-chair with an eye like a rattlesnake. Yes, sir, he is the man ruling the world just now ..."
Stuart Kelly's introduction dismisses this as the ranting of a character which will be dismissed later in the book, but the narrator himself has throw-away lines like "when a Jew shoots himself in the City and there is an inquest, the newspapers usually report that the deceased was 'well-nourished'."
It may well have been the basis of a classic Hitchcock film, but this 1915 novel has little by way of plot (basically, the hero is running away from villains, escaping them by a combination of his own brilliance at disguise, and dumb luck). Not convincing, not interesting, and "of its time" in the very worst sense of the word.
In a famous passage in this novel -- the conspiracy theory par excellence -- a leading character tells the book's hero that "if you're on the biggest kind of job and are bound to get to the real boss, ten to one you are brought up against a little white-faced Jew in a bath-chair with an eye like a rattlesnake. Yes, sir, he is the man ruling the world just now ..."
Stuart Kelly's introduction dismisses this as the ranting of a character which will be dismissed later in the book, but the narrator himself has throw-away lines like "when a Jew shoots himself in the City and there is an inquest, the newspapers usually report that the deceased was 'well-nourished'."
It may well have been the basis of a classic Hitchcock film, but this 1915 novel has little by way of plot (basically, the hero is running away from villains, escaping them by a combination of his own brilliance at disguise, and dumb luck). Not convincing, not interesting, and "of its time" in the very worst sense of the word.
Wish it had a bit more depth to the story. Ending was pretty anticlimactic.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
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
One of the first "spy" novels published. Interesting to see the genesis of the genre, so to speak. Too many coincidences and too many times Hannay just decided that he could "tell" that someone was to be trusted. But I still liked it and wouldn't be averse to reading the next.