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.
Rating:
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: 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: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Buchan's "shocker" entertains
Review: Some modern Scottish thriller writers are contrasted (not always favourably) with two perceived greats of Scottish fiction - Robert Louis Stevenson and John Bucahn. I love Stevenson, the fast pace of his stories, and his characterisation. This was the first Buchan I read. While it will not be the last I felt a little disappointed. The Thirty Nine steps is said to be one of the most important novels in the thriller genre. Featuring Richard Hannay a former South African miner, who is caught in a spy story, the effects of which may lead to war in western Europe. The story is fast moving. Hannay is placed in predicament after predicament (like the Perils of Pauline) following the discovery of a body in his London flat. He escapes to Galloway, then Dumfriesshire (rural south west Scotland). Pursued by both police and foreign agents Hannay's life is at risk - and we witness his use of a number of disguises, and his experience as a mining engineer, in escaping each predicament. At times the novel feels like a loosely related series of escapades, but the final chapters (as in Childers' The riddle of the sands) pull the disparate strands together satisfyingly. Fast paced with an appealing central character, the novel is recommended as a quick and easy entertainment. However, there are some flaws readers ought to be aware of. In the Scottish sections of the novel Buchan writes the dialogue of the locals in dialect, contrasting this with the the "received pronunication" of the other characters. As a technique it appears to belittle the validity of the dialect spoken, and appears to patronise the locals. Although, Buchan's sleight here is countered by his portrayal of the locals. They share a certain cunning and deviousness. Additionally, the use of dialect (and a particular type of lowland Scots dialect) renders parts of the text difficult to follow. Most concerning about the book is the inherent anti-semitism. Analgoies and metaphors rely on negative imagery of jews; and one of the characters (scudder) is overtly anti-semitic in his comments. While this was a prevalent attitude in a certain strata of British writing pre- World War Two, it jars today - and rendered parts of the novel, for this reader, offensive. Buchan is certainly readable, but his work has dated. His influence is apparent in the work of Greene, and inherent in his work are the influences of American thriller writers of the early twentieth century, and Conan Doyle's Holmes, Challenger, and Brigadier Gerard stories. If you enjoyed this novel you might want to try Graham Greene's Gun for sale; The Confidential Agent; Stamboul Train; and The Ministry of fear.
Rating:
Summary: Short, quick read
Review: The 39 Steps is actually a quick read and a rather dry thriller. I think part of that apparent dryness is a result of it being the inspiration for so many spy thrillers. It is impressive to see a book published in 1915 still in print -- so many books don't have this long of a life in print. All the comedic bits that make it a memorable Hitchcock film aren't there. Even as a young filmmaker he was already exercising his authority as an up and coming auteur.
Rating:
Summary: The quintessential early 20th century adventure story
Review: The Thirty Nine Steps is the quintessential early 20th century adventure story. Narrator and hero Richard Hannay is a rich man recently arrived in London; bored out of his skull, he finally perks up a bit at the advent of a group of ingenious, well-equipped conspirators bent on murdering him. There proceeds a thrilling chase across the wilds of Scotland, complete with secret codes, explosions, and aeroplanes. In many ways the story is rather rudimentary, with Hannay frequently the beneficiary of extraordinary good luck; it's only about half way through that he finally encounters some real reversals and the suspense and sense of real danger increases. It is, however, never dull, with a constant parade of colourful characters and entertaining slices of rural life, all written in a fast, spare style, and admirably brief. Hannay seems ridiculously gung ho and super-competent at first, but I was soon drawn into his world enough for the vague sense of camp to fade into the background. As an admirer of PG Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster stories, I often found myself experiencing a joy of recognition, as some stock phrase used ironically by Bertie would come, entirely without irony, from Hannay's mouth. And indeed the 'radical candidate' Hannay encounters is reminiscent of Bertie. Oh, and if you've seen any of the movie adaptations, you might be pleasantly surprised to learn that the explanation of the "Thirty Nine Steps" is different in the novel (or at least it's different to the two movie adaptations I've seen), so there is still a surprise or two in store.
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