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attytheresa 's review for:
The 39 Steps
by John Buchan
I found this a wonderfully readable bit of spy fiction, and surprisingly timeless. Written and published just before WWI, in 1914/15, there is an innocence to the plotline and the character of this Scottish colonial returned to London from Africa only to fall into a spy adventure that from today's post 9/11 world is just too unbelievable. I rather enjoyed it, actually.
While the bones of the plot are much like those in the classic movie and recent Broadway show inspired by it, the details and many characters are often vastly different. This coupled with Buchan's brilliant writing makes this exactly what he describes here -an "elementary type of tale which Americans call the ‘dime novel,’ and which we know as the ‘shocker’– the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible."
Read for 2018 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge as my book that uus basis of a play or musical. Also for 2018 ATY #30. a short book (100 pages).
While the bones of the plot are much like those in the classic movie and recent Broadway show inspired by it, the details and many characters are often vastly different. This coupled with Buchan's brilliant writing makes this exactly what he describes here -an "elementary type of tale which Americans call the ‘dime novel,’ and which we know as the ‘shocker’– the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible."
Read for 2018 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge as my book that uus basis of a play or musical. Also for 2018 ATY #30. a short book (100 pages).