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    THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (Spy Thriller Classic): A Sinister Assassination Plot & A Gripping Tale of Love, Action and Adventure
    THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (Spy Thriller Classic): A Sinister Assassination Plot & A Gripping Tale of Love, Action and Adventure
    THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (Spy Thriller Classic): A Sinister Assassination Plot & A Gripping Tale of Love, Action and Adventure
    Ebook138 pages2 hours

    THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (Spy Thriller Classic): A Sinister Assassination Plot & A Gripping Tale of Love, Action and Adventure

    By John Buchan

    3.5/5

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    This carefully crafted ebook: "THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (Spy Thriller Classic)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.
    "I returned from the City about three o'clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life. I had been three months in the Old Country, and was fed up with it. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would have been feeling like that I should have laughed at him; but there was the fact. The weather made me liverish, the talk of the ordinary Englishman made me sick . . ." (Extract)
    Major-General Sir Richard Hannay is a character created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and based on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer War. In this adventure espionage classic Richard Hannay is buttonholed by an American stranger who knows of an anarchist plot to assassinate the Greek Premier during his forthcoming visit to London. It is now up to Hannay to save the day and stop Europe from destabilising.
    John Buchan (1875-1940) was a Scottish novelist and historian and also served as Canada's Governor General. His 100 works include nearly thirty novels, seven collections of short stories and biographies. But, the most famous of his books were the adventure and spy thrillers and it is for these that he is now best remembered.
    LanguageEnglish
    Publishere-artnow
    Release dateMar 25, 2016
    ISBN9788026851530
    THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (Spy Thriller Classic): A Sinister Assassination Plot & A Gripping Tale of Love, Action and Adventure
    Author

    John Buchan

    Author of the iconic novel The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan filled many roles including barrister, colonial administrator, publisher, Director of Intelligence, and Member of Parliament. The Thirty-Nine Steps, first in the Richard Hannay series, is widely regarded as the starting point for espionage fiction and was written to pass time while Buchan recovered from an illness. During the outbreak of the First World War, Buchan wrote propaganda for the British war effort, combining his skills as author and politician. In 1935 Buchan was appointed the 15th Governor General of Canada and established the Governor General’s Literacy Award. Buchan was enthusiastic about literacy and the evolution of Canadian culture. He died in 1940 and received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom.

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    Reviews for THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (Spy Thriller Classic)

    3.5/5

    1,291 ratings58 reviews

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    • 3/5
      An enjoyable yarn about a man on the run.

      While this could easily have been a dated pre-War thriller, its self-consciousness ("I say sir, the story you tell sounds like one of those Haggard novels!") endears it to the modern reader.
    • 4/5
      A fun adventure story full of the close encounters and unlikely coincidences that make great fiction
    • 3/5
      An early version of the spy thriller.The hero and the story races round pre first world UK, from the south of England to the Scottish borders, pursued by the forces of evil - in this case Imperial German plotters and spies - through a series of implausibly lucky encounters and events. Boys Own stuff but a good read.
    • 3/5
      very hard going when trying to understand dialect. it made it a chore for me, but its still a good book, just not dyslexia friendly.
    • 2/5
      I heard this book read as an audio book on the best audio books' classic tales podcast. That's the only thing that made it bearable (check out the podcast it's excellent). Well the mercifully short ending helped. The fact that Hitchcock managed to make this into a fantastic film proves once again that books and their films are as closely related as a man and his fifth cousin twice removed.
    • 5/5
      An excellent book. Doesn't seem unrealistic, although the hero is on the verge of failure most of the time. Keeps up the suspense admirably.
    • 5/5
      A good yarn—the basic plot was similar to the Hitchcock movie but the particulars were quite different. The title makes sense in the novel—it refers to a place that has exactly 39 steps. In the movie the clumsy attempt at explaining the title never did make sense. In the book—no girl (the original murder was of a man staying with Hannay and no girl handcuffed to him on his flight) and no Music Hall Show. The art of disguise plays a big role in this novel—for both sides. I wonder if I can still enjoy the movie? Maybe I should just consider them 2 different stories and enjoy them both.
    • 3/5
      I had read this years ago, but I literally didn't remember one word of it. According to the preface, it was written as a lark by a gentleman who had been ill and became bored reading dime novels. He thought he could write his own and went on to write several more. As a first effort, it was far more than just serviceable. It was entertaining and a bit suspenseful. You definitely could identify with the protagonist Richard Hannay. I look forward to reading Buchan's later Hannay works.
    • 3/5
      I was expecting more of a thriller, but after a while I stopped worrying about Hannay because the author keeps throwing him exactly what he needs, no matter how improbable.
    • 5/5
      Classic. One of the first crime novels I can recall reading and one I thoroughly enjoyed.
    • 4/5
      Bored Richard Hannay has already had enough of London, after returning from a life abroad. But then a neighbor drops by and Richard's life becomes very exciting, very fast. The coincidences are unbelievable at times in this espionage thriller as Richard becomes embroiled in trying to stop a secret plot to undermine the British war effort as Europe marches towards WW1. Still it was a fun ride as Richard races across Scotland by train, car and on foot as he tries to shake his pursuers and expose the plot.
    • 4/5
      A very exciting book about a man accused of a murdering the only person who knew the secrets of the black stone and the thirty nine steps. Running from the police and the German spies, he tries to decipher a notebook written in code. This book is one exciting adventure to another, as he runs for his life. Can he manage to save England from the black stone and find the 39 steps before it's too late?
    • 3/5
      I commend Keegan's introduction to the Penguin Classics edition for not only not containing any spoliers, but for calling out those which do.
    • 4/5
      Written in 1915 and definitely of its time regarding social attitudes, but enormous fun.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this a lot. The old style adventure/chase/thriller kind of book where the protagonist is helped by an endless parade of lucky breaks is always fun; reading one written by A writer like John Buchan makes it much more so.
    • 5/5
      Love this book! I grew up watching the Million Dollars Movies on TV with my mother and one of the greatest movies to this day, I think, is The Thirty-nine Steps, Produced by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Robert Donat (1905 to 1958) and Madeline Carroll (1906 to 1987.) So I was in for an awakening when I read the original book by John Buchan (1875 to 1940.) In The Thirty-nine Steps written is 1915 you follow Richard Hannay, who must decipher a murdered man's code book while threading through a maze of murder and mystery from England to Scotland and back again. You fall in love with the Scottish countryside as Hannay evades the German spies leading to the first World War and British police who think he has murdered the one man who knows how Germany will destroy the Britsh navy. With its 113 pages, The Thirty-nine Steps is a quick and wonderful read!
    • 3/5
      This is one of those rare instances where the movie was definitely better than the book. I can't remember much from the Hitchcock version, but PBS Masterpiece broadcast an updated version of The 39 Steps which was engaging, witty, and fun.

      The original source material has plenty of movement--it certainly doesn't bother with character--but it strangely lacks much excitement. Though fully the first half of the story involves one long chase, the circumstances are reported so matter-of-factly that they lack any tension.

      The 39 Steps, written in 1915, is recognized as the book that launched the whole genre of spy thrillers. As such, it is to be respected for its historical import. But as a "good read" almost a century later, I would search for an alternative among its many descendents.
    • 3/5
      fun clean tale of adventure.
    • 5/5
      I LOVED this book. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      A slight disappointment given this book is on so many "must read" lists. More Ian Fleming than John le Carre, with a shallow plot and even shallower protagonist. That said, the book was written in 1915 and arguably established the genre.
    • 3/5
      The accent - it's a problem. I've never gotten used to think accents, regardless of their origin - be they Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Brum, anywhere - and here Buchan decides, when he sends his hero scurrying up north to escape the police, to present all of the dialogue as close to the dialect as possible. It's hard work, as a result.
    • 3/5
      This book got me thinking about the way technology has developed over the years - to such a degree that a story like this could not really happen in the modern age. The main character would have been caught on so many CCTV cameras, and mobile phones would have been buzzing..... Not having modern communications made it possible to have chase stories like this, and whilst it's probably a bit far fetched even still it's all good fun.
    • 5/5
      Re-read this classic tale of adventure and derring-do a few months ago. Still think it's a terrific yarn in its depiction of one man being hunted through the moors and hills of Galloway in south-west Scotland, pursued by the agents of a foreign power. We're building up to World War I, and tensions in Europe are rising.There's the occasional throwaway remark illustrating the casual prejudices of the time which can bring the modern reader up short but there's much to admire too, particularly the terrific sense of place and the great characterisation.
    • 4/5
      A very entertaining Sunday morning read. I read this once before long ago but I kept getting the ending mixed up with the movie version. A pre-WW I suspense espionage that introduced the character Richard Hannay. The story involves someone getting caught up in an espionage plot somewhat like Eric Ambler's stories. The difference is that here there is a definite good guy and bad guy and the good guy wins. The book is well written and I recommend it as an entertaining story.
    • 4/5
      I came across this book on The Classic Tales Podcast and listened to it that way. It's basically an enjoyable old spy thriller, not too long and with a straightforward, linear plot. The premise is sound and plausible, and the protagonist is well-sketched.
    • 4/5
      Synopsis: Scottish born Hanney comes back from South Africa to his flat in London only to be confronted by an American who appears to know about an anarchist plot to destabilize Europe. After an apparent suicide and the murder of the American, Hanney flees for his life and ends up hiding in the Lake Country of England. Never knowing who to trust, Hanney must break up the plot and try to capture the anarchists.Review: This is one of the earliest novels about spies and plots to overthrow governments. While there are sections that are overly detailed, the story is involving.
    • 5/5
      A rollicking good little yard that doesn’t insult its readers’ intelligence with blatant impossibility. Perfect of its type.
    • 3/5
      We rarely fail to please with our classics. As a group we can see the merit in most of these literary gems, even if it does not fall into our preferred genre. The 39 Steps was seen for what it was; a boy’s own adventure with quick, punchy episodes written to entertain. The hero, Richard Hannay, delighted us as he skipped his way through the country side as a more than competent espionage agent dodging enemies and much of the humour was not lost to us.On a more serious note, we found the descriptive passages, particularly of the Scottish landscape beautifully written and believe Steps to be a book of its time that ticked many of boxes for an engaging adventure novel in 1915.A few of us were not quite so impressed, finding the writing a little amateurish with too many coincidences and an unbelievable story line. Old-fashioned it may be, but as a forerunner to the modern day adventure espionage novel, you are not likely toget anything better.
    • 5/5
      According to the dedication, John Buchan wrote this book whilst ill one winter when he had exhausted his supply of what he described as 'shocker' novels - 'the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities and march just inside the borders of the possible'. As a result he decided to write a 'shocker' novel himself and the result is one of the finest thriller/spy stories I've read. Published in 1915 the outlook of the colonial Richard Hannay can seem quaint and somewhat dated (and occasionally a little racist) but despite this The Thirty Nine Steps runs rings around most modern novels in this genre. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      Having seen three different movie versions of this story (my favorite being the one with Robert Powell and David Warner) I wanted to read the book to see what the original story was. So I did, and frankly I like the movies better...it wasn't bad, just not great.It is the story of Richard Hanney, mining engineer, who has lived in Africa. Now he's made money and has come to London to see the sights, but is frankly bored until a spy named Scudder confides in him and is the murdered. Hannay is accused of the murder and runs until he can figure out how stop the enemy spies and clear his name.

    Book preview

    THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (Spy Thriller Classic) - John Buchan

    John Buchan

    THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS

    (Spy Thriller Classic)

    A Sinister Assassination Plot & A Gripping Tale of Love, Action and Adventure

    e-artnow, 2016

    Contact: info@e-artnow.org

    ISBN 978-80-268-5153-0

    Table of Contents

    Chapter 1. The Man Who Died

    Chapter 2. The Milkman Sets Out on His Travels

    Chapter 3. The Adventure of the Literary Innkeeper

    Chapter 4. The Adventure of the Radical Candidate

    Chapter 5. The Adventure of the Spectacled Roadman

    Chapter 6. The Adventure of the Bald Archaeologist

    Chapter 7. The Dry-Fly Fisherman

    Chapter 8. The Coming of the Black Stone

    Chapter 9. The Thirty-Nine Steps

    Chapter 10. Various Parties Converging on the Sea

    DEDICATION

    TO THOMAS ARTHUR NELSON

    (LOTHIAN AND BORDER HORSE)

    My Dear Tommy,

    You and I have long cherished an affection for that elemental 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. During an illness last winter I exhausted my store of those aids to cheerfulness, and was driven to write one for myself. This little volume is the result, and I should like to put your name on it in memory of our long friendship, in the days when the wildest fictions are so much less improbable than the facts.

    J.B.

    CHAPTER 1

    THE MAN WHO DIED

    Table of Contents

    I returned from the City about three o’clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life. I had been three months in the Old Country, and was fed up with it. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would have been feeling like that I should have laughed at him; but there was the fact. The weather made me liverish, the talk of the ordinary Englishman made me sick, I couldn’t get enough exercise, and the amusements of London seemed as flat as soda-water that has been standing in the sun. ‘Richard Hannay,’ I kept telling myself, ‘you have got into the wrong ditch, my friend, and you had better climb out.’ It made me bite my lips to think of the plans I had been building up those last years in Bulawayo. I had got my pile—not one of the big ones, but good enough for me; and I had figured out all kinds of ways of enjoying myself. My father had brought me out from Scotland at the age of six, and I had never been home since; so England was a sort of Arabian Nights to me, and I counted on stopping there for the rest of my days.

    But from the first I was disappointed with it. In about a week I was tired of seeing sights, and in less than a month I had had enough of restaurants and theatres and race-meetings. I had no real pal to go about with, which probably explains things. Plenty of people invited me to their houses, but they didn’t seem much interested in me. They would fling me a question or two about South Africa, and then get on their own affairs. A lot of Imperialist ladies asked me to tea to meet schoolmasters from New Zealand and editors from Vancouver, and that was the dismalest business of all. Here was I, thirty-seven years old, sound in wind and limb, with enough money to have a good time, yawning my head off all day. I had just about settled to clear out and get back to the veld, for I was the best bored man in the United Kingdom.

    That afternoon I had been worrying my brokers about investments to give my mind something to work on, and on my way home I turned into my club—rather a pot-house, which took in Colonial members. I had a long drink, and read the evening papers. They were full of the row in the Near East, and there was an article about Karolides, the Greek Premier. I rather fancied the chap. From all accounts he seemed the one big man in the show; and he played a straight game too, which was more than could be said for most of them. I gathered that they hated him pretty blackly in Berlin and Vienna, but that we were going to stick by him, and one paper said that he was the only barrier between Europe and Armageddon. I remember wondering if I could get a job in those parts. It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.

    About six o’clock I went home, dressed, dined at theCafé Royal, and turned into a music-hall. It was a silly show, all capering women and monkey-faced men, and I did not stay long. The night was fine and clear as I walked back to the flat I had hired near Portland Place. The crowd surged past me on the pavements, busy and chattering, and I envied the people for having something to do. These shop-girls and clerks and dandies and policemen had some interest in life that kept them going. I gave half-a-crown to a beggar because I saw him yawn; he was a fellow-sufferer. At Oxford Circus I looked up into the spring sky and I made a vow. I would give the Old Country another day to fit me into something; if nothing happened, I would take the next boat for the Cape.

    My flat was the first floor in a new block behind Langham Place. There was a common staircase, with a porter and a liftman at the entrance, but there was no restaurant or anything of that sort, and each flat was quite shut off from the others. I hate servants on the premises, so I had a fellow to look after me who came in by the day. He arrived before eight o’clock every morning and used to depart at seven, for I never dined at home.

    I was just fitting my key into the door when I noticed a man at my elbow. I had not seen him approach, and the sudden appearance made me start. He was a slim man, with a short brown beard and small, gimlety blue eyes. I recognized him as the occupant of a flat on the top floor, with whom I had passed the time of day on the stairs.

    ‘Can I speak to you?’ he said. ‘May I come in for a minute?’ He was steadying his voice with an effort, and his hand was pawing my arm.

    I got my door open and motioned him in. No sooner was he over the threshold than he made a dash for my back room, where I used to smoke and write my letters. Then he bolted back.

    ‘Is the door locked?’ he asked feverishly, and he fastened the chain with his own hand.

    ‘I’m very sorry,’ he said humbly. ‘It’s a mighty liberty, but you looked the kind of man who would understand. I’ve had you in my mind all this week when things got troublesome. Say, will you do me a good turn?’

    ‘I’ll listen to you,’ I said. ‘That’s all I’ll promise.’ I was getting worried by the antics of this nervous little chap.

    There was a tray of drinks on a table beside him, from which he filled himself a stiff whisky-and-soda. He drank it off in three gulps, and cracked the glass as he set it down.

    ‘Pardon,’ he said, ‘I’m a bit rattled tonight. You see, I happen at this moment to be dead.’

    I sat down in an armchair and lit my pipe.

    ‘What does it feel like?’ I asked. I was pretty certain that I had to deal with a madman.

    A smile flickered over his drawn face. ‘I’m not mad— yet. Say, Sir, I’ve been watching you, and I reckon you’re a cool customer. I reckon, too, you’re an honest man, and not afraid of playing a bold hand. I’m going to confide in you. I need help worse than any man ever needed it, and I want to know if I can count you in.’

    ‘Get on with your yarn,’ I said, ‘and I’ll tell you.’

    He seemed to brace himself for a great effort, and then started on the queerest rigmarole. I didn’t get hold of it at first, and I had to stop and ask him questions. But here is the gist of it:

    He was an American, from Kentucky, and after college, being pretty well off, he had started out to see the world. He wrote a bit, and acted as war correspondent for a Chicago paper, and spent a year or two in South-Eastern Europe. I gathered that he was a fine linguist, and had got to know pretty well the society in those parts. He spoke familiarly of many names that I remembered to have seen in the newspapers.

    He had played about with politics, he told me, at first for the interest of them, and then because he couldn’t help himself. I read him as a sharp, restless fellow, who always wanted to get down to the roots of things. He got a little further down than he wanted.

    I am giving you what he told me as well as I could make it out. Away behind all the Governments and the armies there was a big subterranean movement going on, engineered by very dangerous people. He had come on it by accident; it fascinated him; he went further, and then he got caught. I gathered that most of the people in it were the sort of educated anarchists that make revolutions, but that beside them there 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.

    He told me some queer things that explained a lot that had puzzled me—things that happened in the Balkan War, how one state suddenly came out on top, why alliances were made and broken, why certain men disappeared, and where the sinews of war came from. The aim of the whole conspiracy was to get Russia and Germany at loggerheads.

    When I asked why, he said that the anarchist lot thought it would give them their chance. 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 fortunes by buying up wreckage. Capital, he said, had no conscience and no fatherland. Besides, the Jew was behind it, and the Jew hated Russia worse than hell.

    ‘Do you wonder?’ he cried. ‘For three hundred years they have been persecuted, and this is the return match for the pogroms. The Jew is everywhere, but you have to go far down the backstairs to find him. Take any big Teutonic business concern. If you have dealings with it the first man you meet is Prince von und zu Something, an elegant young man who talks Eton-and-Harrow English. But he cuts no ice. If your business is big, you get behind him and find a prognathous Westphalian with a retreating brow and the manners of a hog. He is the German business man that gives your English papers the shakes. But 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 who is ruling the world just now, and he has his knife in the Empire of the Tzar, because his aunt was outraged and his father flogged in some one-horse location on the Volga.’

    I could not help saying that his Jew-anarchists seemed to have got left behind a little.

    ‘Yes and no,’ he said. ‘They won up to a point, but they struck a bigger thing than money, a thing that couldn’t be bought, the old elemental fighting instincts of man. If you’re going to be killed you invent some kind of flag and country to fight for, and if you survive you get to love the thing. Those

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