The Thirty-Nine Steps

Rating:
Summary: Harmless little thriller...
Review: ...this one is. While the "Thirty-Nine Steps" (recommended to me, as it appears it was to many others of the reviewers, as a great thriller) is not Buchan's best work, neither is it poor. The plot does lack development in areas; at times it also seems as though Buchan is endeavouring to rush the action along at expense if character development, whereas at other times the action drags, and an excessive characterisation (the entire work consumes some 108 pages) is provided. Despite shortcomings, it is nonetheless an enjoyable, quick read. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Ripping Yarn
Review: A 'ripping good yarn' are the best words I can think of to describe this story. It is simply a tremendously thrilling and entertaining adventure. It is fun, involving, and easily read in just a few sittings. Buchan's classic tale takes the reader on an escapade beginning in London and continuing as the hero, Richard Hannay, dashes across the Scottish Highlands in his frantic attempt to elude the police. The little insights into Hannay's random thoughts during the early scenes of the book are fantastically witty, and those familiar with Hitchcock's film version will not be able to avoid hearing the voice of Robert Donat coming through. Similarly, some of the oddball characters and amusing situations Hannay finds himself in throughout the course of the novel provide light relief to a story of espionage, murder and political intrigue (to coin an old cliche). Read it. It'll tickle you.

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Summary: Seminal British thriller.
Review: A breezy little read, John Buchan's "The 39 Steps" was quite the success in its' day, and has apparently never been out of print.
The book is an example of an author being not so concerned where the story ends, but in having a lot of fun actually getting there.
Hitchcock's film, liberally quoted in other reviews, is a marvel, and should be required viewing by pretty much everyone. But it's about 50% different than the novel, keeping about half of the stuff found between these pages.
That makes reading the novel after seeing the film an unexpectedly surprising experience. The plot justs gallops along, one adventure and colorful character after another. Buchan's evocative and picturesque Scottish highlands breathe. His cocky hero, Richard Hannay, is a joy to follow. I had no idea there are FOUR subsequent novels featuring Hannay, which I now proudly own, in spectacular Folio editions!
One last thing: the "anti-Semitism" mentioned comes only from the decidedly evil character (and is totally within character), and not seen anywhere else in the novel.
This is not a classic in the "heavy, literal, dense, highbrow" sense. This is a classic that you can imagine thousands of people, early in this century, having just the best time reading.

Rating:
Summary: Great book that became an even greater film!
Review: A great espionage thriller, involving danger, murder, and the future of England, set just before World War I. The pace is fast, and it makes for a quick but enthralling read. It was the basis for the very popular film by Alfred Hitchcock, made in 1935, starring Robert Donat.

Rating:
Summary: Can be re read indefinitely!
Review: An effortless adventure classic that spans the void between dime shocker and quality literature. The rapid elaboration of the plot, that is so well known that it has passed many images into popular conciousness, is still satisfying after many reads. Richard Hannay returned to England, after making his fortune in South Africa, is unwillingly ensnared in a tortured plot to assassinate Karolides the Greek premier and so plunge Europe into war. Scudder, an American journalist turned spy has coded information relating to the plot but is murdered in Hannay's luxurious flat before he can pass on the code. Hannay, with all fingers pointing to him as the murderer escapes by Scottish express and with Scudder's coded notebook .Decamping from the train in the Sottish lowlands ( the Forth Bridge escape from the train was created with the 1935 Hitchcock film adaptation ) he is pursued across hill and dale by the police and the enemy agents intent on seizeing the notebook. In his flight he holes up in a remote wayside inn with a literary inn keeper, who can quote Kipling. It is here that he masters the code and learns Scudder's secrets. From then on it's a race to get to London and notify the authorities. One of the brilliant scenes on the way, concerns Hannay posing as road mender to evade his pursuers. To do this, Hannay explains how you must become one with the environment you're using as a cover; one of Buchans's favourite ploys and one employed in many of his novels. Hannay exchanges pursued for pursuer and tracks the agents to their escape channel and ultimately the title of the book is explained. Every reading of this splendid and timeless novel reveals further delights that may have been missed before and even well remembered scenes take on a fresh vividness and charm. My praise may seem fulsome but after experiencing 'The Thirty Nine Steps' you too will be won over

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't live up to its potential
Review: I picked up the Dover Thrift Edition of this novel on the basis of the back cover blurb; I've never seen the film, so I didn't know what to expect except some atmospheric chases and tense proto-espionage thrills. This appealed to me, as lately I've been getting into some Victorian/Edwardian thriller writers such as H. Rider Haggard and Sax Rohmer. Unfortunately, even at 88 pages this novel(la?) is too long. It opens well with an exciting series of events, so I had high hopes for the book, but the story then begins to drag into repetitive hijinks on the Scottish moors which lack very much real suspense - you never really worry for the safety of our hero, Richard Hannay, or feel that he isn't going to escape from the marauders always a few steps behind him. I was indeed bothered by the pervasive anti-Semitism which keeps cropping up (though it is sometimes downplayed and outrightly discarded), but ultimately as other reviewers have said that turns out to be more or less a red herring - and anyway, I feel that you can enjoy a work of art which is a product of its times without endorsing all its now-offensive values. (King Solomon's Mines, to take another example, is blatantly colonialistic, paternalistic and racist-in-benevolent-clothing, and those values should be condemned, but I for one can appreciate the other aspects of the novel while disapproving of Haggard's biases.) A much bigger problem for "The Thirty-Nine Steps" is that it is frankly not very interesting or thrilling; the action picks up a little in the final chapters, but (not to give anything away) just when we expect a mind-blowing twist or reversal, everything ends in a thoroughly predictable and bland way. Oh well.

Rating:
Summary: The 39 Steps - Danielle De Gendt
Review: I saw the movie; the 39 steps. At first I thought it was an old-fashion detective story, but I was wrong. I found the story a bit funny, at times predictable, but I enjoyed the film. I really don't like detectives, but this film was quite good.

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Summary: A Spymaster Who Writes Spy Novels
Review: It was not until recently that actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and others learned and revealed the information that John Buchan, author of "The Thirty-nine Steps" as well as the highly successful Greenmantle series, had been the head of the secretive British domestic intelligence agency which parallels the FBI in the United States, MI-5. With that knowledge it is increasingly easier to see how the Scotland-born Buchan was able to write such penetrating spy stories, which contain such a strong tone of believability.

"The Thirty-nine Steps" traces the activities of Richard Hannay into the world of master spies. This gripping first person account details how an innocent was drawn into the grimy world of espionage after an American called Scudder who lived in his Portland Place apartment building contacted him one day, telling him he was about to be assassinated by a group of master spies. When the act is accomplished Hannay becomes a sought after potential victim as the spy group fears what he might know about their enterprise. He is also pursued by police as a murder suspect in Scudder's death.

Hannay, a former international mining engineer, tells adventure stories about his foreign experiences and uses common sense resourcefulness to prevent the police from arresting him as the suspected killer of Scudder and the spy masters who want him dead for what he might have learned from his former neighbor Scudder.

Buchan, a former mountain climber and a distinct man of action, presents Hannay as a man much like himself, using mental and physical resourcefulness to stay out of harm's path. Scotsman Buchan presents excellent descriptions of chase sequences in the Scottish moors as Hannay hides in and steps through heather and brush, eluding those who chase him.

Eventually Hannay is able to solve the case by using logic in the way of Arthur Conan Doyle's presentation of Sherlock Holmes. Buchan was influenced by Doyle. This influence is particularly notable at the story's fascinating conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: Taut, Smart, Dramatic Little Thriller
Review: It's not hard to see why Hitchcock made John Buchan's "The Thirty-Nine Steps" into a film (which I have not seen). It's a taut, smart, dramatic little thriller, full of the unlikely events Hitch really grooved on. I was quite pleased at the end of this breezy novel, which is a pretty obvious source of LeCarre, Fleming, et al. It's also a marvelous example of fiction incorporating the zeit geist of the era in which it was written.

Richard Hannay, late of South Africa, finds himself terribly bored in London, 1914 (which, having been to London, can't possibly imagine), until he meets the mysterious Franklin Scudder. Allowing Scudder to live in his home, Hannay is astonished by Scudder's bizarre raving tale of an elaborate conspiracy to initiate war among the European powers. Hannay takes this story with a bit of skeptisism until he comes home one night to find Scudder pinned to the floor by a knife. Thus begins an elaborate and episodic chase, as Hannay, fully believing Scudder's claims, must run from the police and from the conspiracy, the Black Stone.

Buchan is most successful in creating Hannay's elaborate schemes and escapes. Hannay is a likeable hero, so the reader readily roots for him. Further, the villains, while never fully developed (it is Hannay's story), make for sinister threats just off-page, so to speak. The denouement is satisfying, if more than a little tragic.

This book is also fascinating because the conspiracy, with changes in detail, basically mirrors the events that ignited World War I. Various radical interests seek to assassinate a prominent figure (although Princip had no idea of the consequences of assassinating Franz Ferdinand), and trip the various political alliances to start a war. Thus, Buchan incorporates the weird mixture of patriotism and panic that most historians point to when they chronicle the First World War.

The downside of that zeit geist is that Buchan incorporates a certain level of anti-Semitism, some of it being of dubious necessity. Scudder is convinced that Jews are responsible, because they want Russia to be destroyed by the war. While we later learn that Scudder had prejudices against Jews, Scudder himself acknowledges the anti-Semitic history of Russia. Another occasion, Hannay makes an analogy that plays on the stereotypes of Jews as being wealthy. Again, that is probably an accurate reflection of the times, but it is uncomfortable. To Buchan's credit, the conspiracy is more than simply an "evil Jewish plot" (it's telling that some of the rhetoric Buchan uses is still floating around today).

Nonetheless, as with most older literature, you have to take the prejudices in context of when the book was written. "The Thirty-Nine Steps" is not an heir to the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". It is an exciting thriller, featuring a heavy does of suspense and intrigue. Simply put, it's a blast.

Rating:
Summary: High-quality potboiler of the Edwardian era
Review: John Buchan claims to have written this fast-paced "dime novel" while recovering from an illness. The story of how Richard Hannay stumbles upon and then escapes from a pre-WWI German spy plot DOES have that "Perils of Pauline" flavor to it: in each chapter our hero Hannay seems to get himself in an impossible bind, then magically right out of it again. (A sample: Hannay is tied up and locked in a windowless shed in which, remarkably, the crooks have left a flashlight (!) and some explosives (!). And, boom boom, on we go to the next chapter).

The underlying scheme is never fully explained (what ARE the Germans up to, why is the visit of the Balkan consul so important, etc.), but it doesn't really matter. The scent of the heathered hills of Scotland over which Hannay escapes rises from the pages, and the black-and-white specter of the classic movies Alfred Hitchcock made on the basis of this book will run through your mind's eye in the few short hours it will take you to finish it.

I agree, however, with others who mention that Buchan's occasional gratuitous anti-Semitism is jarring and put this book beyond the pale for many readers.