The Thirty Nine Steps: Classic Adventure Story of Richard Hannay #1 (Illustrated)

Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — The 39 Steps by John Buchan. Adventurer Richard Hannay, just returned from South Africa, is thoroughly bored with London life-until he is accosted by a mysterious American, who warns him of an assassination plot that could completely destabalise the fragile political balance of Europe. Initially sceptical, Hannay nonetheless harbours the man-but one dayreturns home to find him murdered An obvious s Adventurer Richard Hannay, just returned from South Africa, is thoroughly bored with London life-until he is accosted by a mysterious American, who warns him of an assassination plot that could completely destabalise the fragile political balance of Europe.

An obvious suspect, Hannay flees to his native Scotland, pursued by both the police and a cunning, ruthless enemy. His life and the security of Britan are in grave peril, and everything rests on the solution to a baffling enigma: Paperback , pages. Richard Hannay , Sir Walter Bullivant. Scotland London, England United Kingdom. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The 39 Steps , please sign up. Caroline Actually, it was made into three feature movies, one BBC made-for-television movie, a British theatre one , and several radio adaptations, including …more Actually, it was made into three feature movies, one BBC made-for-television movie, a British theatre one , and several radio adaptations, including one with Orson Welles.

None stick to the book, and nearly all include a love interest for Hannay, which is not in the book, either. See all 9 questions about The 39 Steps…. Lists with This Book. In the edition that I read Toby Buchan, grandson of John Buchan, wrote an introduction that was almost an apology. About half way through the book I understood the need for an apology.

The book pales in comparison to the movie. The writing is jaunty and for a while sustains the reader, but soon I was searching desperately for the dialogue or the scenes that I loved most about the movie. They are not there. Charles Bennett adapted the novel to the screen and Ian Hay wrote the dialogue. They took a Buchan framework and turned it into an entertaining and exciting movie. I recently rewatched The 39 Steps during one of the Hitchcock weekends on TCM which made me that much more interested in reading the book that inspired the movie.

Most of the book is one long chase scene involving motor cars, planes, bicycles, and leg races over hill and dale. There are numerous disguises, car crashes, and one rather large explosion. No overtones of sexual attraction or for that matter Indulge me while I plug the movie. I had three favorite scenes from the movie that I hoped would be in the book or at least that there would be other memorable scenes that Bennett and Hay decided not to use.

None of these scenes are in the book unfortunately. That kiss, so easy to give, might be the very thing she needs to sustain herself or to break free. The scene where Richard Hanney has made it to what he feels is a safe haven only to discover that his benefactor is the very man he has been trying to thwart. They escape from police custody and end up wet and very annoyed with each other in a room over a bar. They have the police and a pair of henchmen looking for them.

In the room she sits down to peel her wet stockings off her legs and because he is cuffed to her his hand travels down each leg with her hands. It is one of the most sensual, sexy scenes in movie history and no one is naked. Toby Buchan did provide me with a tidbit of information in his introduction to the book that was interesting. The character of Richard Hanney was based off the exploits of Lord Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside who had a long distinguished British military career. At the end of the war, he was part of the small force which escorted Jan Smuts to the peace negotiations.

He then disguised himself as an Afrikaans-speaking Boer, and took a job as a wagon driver working for the German colonial forces in South West Africa. This intelligence work ended unsuccessfully, however; he was identified, and escaped shortly before being caught. This escapade later led to claims that he was the model for Richard Hannay, a character in the novels of John Buchan; it is interesting to note that Ironside himself enjoyed these novels, reading Mr Standfast in the implausibly romantic setting of the passenger seat of an open-cockpit biplane flying from Iraq to Persia.

I prefer my armchair traveling where I can experience escaping captivity or flying in an open-cockpit biplane from Iraq to Persia from the safety of my oversized leather reading chair, but it does make me feel like my life is My advice is to skip the book and go watch the movie. If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http: View all 56 comments. 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 that 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 four-star average after hundreds of reviews on Amazon in the US, which accurately reflects how much fun this is to read. 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. That thrill you got as a youngster reading a mystery adventure by flashlight beneath the covers was captured by Buchan and moved forward into adulthood, and on that level it doesn't just succeed, it shines.

It's on The Guardian's list for good reason. A rollicking good old-fashioned tale that set a bar seldom reached since. 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.

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View all 24 comments. I never imagined it would be such a painfully boring slog. I believe The Thirty-Nine Steps falls into this last category. It arguably introduced the world to the "spy" genre and has resulted in many attempted imitations over the years since its publication in But in terms of plot, writing and characters it just seems to me to have very little to offer. It may be one of the first of its kind, but many other authors have bettered the genre, in my opinion. The novel begins with the bored Richard Hannay who is determined to give London just one more day to hold his interest before he leaves for a more exciting alternative abroad.

Richard, however, gets way more than he bargained for when a new American acquaintance is murdered in Hannay's flat just a few days after the pair meet. Realising he is now likely the main target of the group who assassinated his new friend, and realising he will be the police force's main suspect for the murder, Richard takes off on the run around Scotland.

Richard is given very little characterization or development, he has no personality and the novel focuses on what happens to him, instead of who he is, why he acts in a particular way, or what he cares about - apart from the desire to avoid capture by the police or the assassins. Though he is being chased by two groups who either want to kill him or lock him up, I got no sense of his fear, desperation or urgency. The novel lacked emotion and I felt like I could be reading a cold, uncaring police report of events, rather than a first-hand account of them.

This whole mess seemed like a little inconvenience in Richard Hannay's life, not something that was a real danger to him. Most of all, it was boring. The conclusion wasn't satisfying enough to be worth putting up with the sequence of boring events for. I think this review says a lot about the novel's plot: He hides in this field. He hides in that field. Some shadowy figures close in, and off he goes, running again.

View all 9 comments. Feb 23, Paul Bryant rated it did not like it Shelves: He was very young, but he was the man for my money. He watched me with a smile. I believe you are speaking the truth. So this is not The Wire. This whole novel is one long chase scene. So Scudder explains that there is a dastardly German organization operating in England called the Black Stone.

They are trying to steal military secrets and assassinate foreign politicians! Away behind all the governments and the armies there was a big subterranean movement going on, engineered by very dangerous people… I gathered that most of the people in it were sort of educated anarchists that make revolutions, but that beside them were financiers who were playing for money.

A clever man can make big profits on a falling market, and it suited the book of both classes to set Europe by the ears. Everything would be in the melting pot, and they looked to see a new world emerge. The capitalists would rake in the shekels, and make fortuned by buying up the wreckage. Capital, he said, had no conscience and no fatherland.

Besides, the Jew was behind it. A nice summary of what certain people must have been thinking as Europe did indeed slide into war and the Russian revolution was just around the corner. So for the first half the Black Stone is pursuing Richard Hannay, our well-heeled ex-colonial, and for the second half he and the British government is pursuing them.

The 39 Steps

This novel is somewhat past its sell-by date. I think its sell-by date was June View all 11 comments. Nov 19, Fabian rated it liked it. A sure predecessor to "The Fugitive," it has our main man running from the law while hiding and acting the parts of the British lower classes. The theme being that camouflage is the best defense, while you're out on the offense. There's reverse psychology, the usurping of identities, and the amateur loss of evidence here, a motor-car, a bicycle.

Stupid, gullible people, drunk sometimes, also stumble upon the protagonist just when he needs them, the pre-WWI Good Samaritans, the most. It's a hide-and-seek in the British countryside. Tame, slightly engrossing, a tad too unspecial in a world filled with more complex and superior stories of detection. Yes, it being a prewar novel, it has some historical value.

View all 7 comments. Sep 13, Joey Woolfardis rated it it was ok Shelves: A fairly conceited man gets embroiled in a rather far-fetched murder-cum-political-conspiracy that can only be described as Man Walks Through A Lot Of Heather. Mercifully short, this book could have been even shorter if we didn't have to follow Mr Hannay the length and breadth of Scotland, only to hear about his aching feet. Fairly regular stuff, adventurous without too much danger to quicken your pace-maker.

Not an awful lot of depth even if it was purposefully written that way, though that's hardly an excuse. It was also lacking in any kind of depth in terms of plot there's a conspiracy, but what it is no-one really knows an awful lot about it: Short, not that sweet, but a vaguely interesting run-of-the-mill wee read for if you miss the train and don't have Bradshaw to hand. Or the Trainline app. View all 3 comments. How can a classic be so bad? Melodramatic, as expected, but Buchan piles improbability upon improbability insulting your intelligence until by the end you just want to slap him.

This is an important book in that it sprung many imitators, and some claim it is the start of the spy genre. It has been filmed three times, adapted for radio and television, inspired the chase film genre, and certainly it gave Alfred Hitchcock his basic subject. Buchan was a political man, and he uses the book for a lit How can a classic be so bad? Buchan was a political man, and he uses the book for a little bit of political and social satire. Well and good, but the ridiculous plot, narrative short cuts, and silly but always convincing to the other characters disguises make this a bad, bad book.

It has one of the least credible and least exciting endings I have read in a thriller: Yet, credit due, Buchan invented a lot narratively that became part of popular culture, and has found a compelling voice for his first person narrator.

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View all 8 comments. When it was first published, this novel must have been fascinating reading. At the time the UK was at war with Germany and there were no doubt German spies in the country. The book was initially serialised in a magazine and many chapters end on the proverbial cliff hanger. As a result the story is fast paced and full of action. I cannot put it better than that. Bored with London society he initially relishes the intrigue offered by his chance meeting with Scudder but his situation soon deteriorates. I found the Hannay and the other leading characters somewhat stereotypical but that is not altogether surprising in an action novel of this length.

I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of country life in Galloway which would then have been a world away from life in an English city. Yes, it may seem a bit thin and dated but before you question its definition as a Classic novel, consider the thousands of spy thrillers published in the intervening century which follow the same format. I am sure we have all read work from authors who could well have been influenced by John Buchan. The Thirty Nine Steps deserves a read if only for its historical status.

I have awarded it three stars. Reviewed by Clive on www. Jul 27, Alex rated it it was amazing Shelves: I hadn't heard of this book until recently, when it made a surprise appearance on The Guardian's Best English Novels list. It's an early spy novel, written in and set just before WWI, and a smashing and brisk read. Baron Tweedsmuir, at your service sirrah It cites Kipling and Conrad as influences, appropriately, and there's some mention of Holmes as well, but its primary influence is clea I hadn't heard of this book until recently, when it made a surprise appearance on The Guardian's Best English Novels list.

Baron Tweedsmuir, at your service sirrah It cites Kipling and Conrad as influences, appropriately, and there's some mention of Holmes as well, but its primary influence is clearly Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. There's a scene involving hiding and sweltering on top of a dovecote that's a direct play on a similar one in Kidnapped, but above all they share Scottishness, which manifests itself in a love of running about on moors and in a general unawareness of the existence of women.

There are zero women in this book. Seriously, you never even pass one on the sidewalk.

The 39 Steps (Richard Hannay, #1) by John Buchan

I don't remember her but I'm willing to believe it. The 39 Steps 5. Hound of the Baskervilles 4. Return of the Native 2. Wuthering Heights What Buchan is really, really into is disguises: Buchan's hero, Richard Hannay, is a master of disguise: His Moriartyesque nemesis is even better, which leads to a denouement that isn't really believable but gets the job done.

This is more of a novella than a novel, and - arguably aside from some semi-interesting talk about the philosophy of disguising oneself - it's not very deep. It's a nonstop thrill ride, is what it is. But it's a hell of a good time. You know what else is a good time is just saying Baron Tweedsmuir.

We meet again, Baron Tweedsmuir. View all 4 comments. This is a novel the literary importance of which I have no trouble appreciating. First published in , it's the ancestor of the espionage thriller genre featuring the rugged-man-of-action-on-the-run style of hero. I would probably have enjoyed it more if I was a regular reader of that genre. I'm not and consequently I was distinctly underwhelmed. What I didn't like about the work first.

For me, the main problem is that the plot pushes the concept of implausibility to its extreme limits. I'm g This is a novel the literary importance of which I have no trouble appreciating. I'm generally quite willing to suspend disbelief - an attitude instilled in me by years of reading crime fiction - but I had a lot difficulty doing so in this instance.

The hero, Richard Hannay, who is back in London after a long spell doing this and that in South Africa, gets caught up in a conspiracy relating to a German spy ring. Simultaneously on the run from the police who believe him implicated in a murder and the said German spy ring, Hannay spends a lot of time in disguise - luckily other people's clothes seem to fit him perfectly - and the rest of his time legging it across the Scottish and English landscape.

His escapes are frankly ludicrous and the final scene defies any degree of willingness to accept the implausible and go along for the ride.

Another problem is the complete lack of character development. Hannay is a first person narrator who has the potential to be interesting, but he displays little personality and no psychological depth. He's pretty much cardboard-cut-out-man from beginning to end. The villains are suitably evil, but they have no more impact on the reader than the rest of the characters. There are some positives, though. Howards End Mobi Classics. Tarzan Of The Apes. The John Carter of Mars Collection.

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