LoveReading Says
A classic and hugely influential thriller and featuring possibly the most exciting and famous chase in fiction. It's also one of the most filmed, most adapted and best-loved spy thrillers in history. May 1914, Richard Hannay is asked for help by an American spy who has uncovered an assassination plot. The spy is promptly murdered in Hannay's flat, and Hannay is compelled to flee and prevent the assasination while on the run from the police in Scotland. With an Introduction by Stuart Kelly.
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The Thirty-Nine Steps Synopsis
John Buchan, a Scot, wrote the adventure book The Thirty-Nine Steps. Richard Hannay, a mining engineer who had previously worked in Rhodesia, returns to London in 1914. Franklin P. Scudder, a neighbor, claims to be investigating a group of German spies known as the Black Stone who are attempting to steal Britain's naval defense blueprints in preparation for war. Hannay leaves his flat while it is being watched, feeling as though he now has to thwart the plan. He poses as the milkman. Hannay boards an eastbound train but deviates from the path by getting off between stops. He ultimately comes upon an inn and convinces the proprietor to let him remain the night. Fortunately, when on the moor, he comes upon a road mechanic who is severely intoxicated. The grateful employee is sent home for the day when Hannay offers to take over for him. Unfortunately, it turns out that person is Hannay's lethal foe and the head of the spy ring. Unexpectedly, he gets a call from London informing him that Karolides has been killed. The next morning, when Hannay and Sir Walter return to London, they clear his record with Scotland Yard, which then releases him.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9789357480703 |
| Publication date: |
1st January 2023 |
| Author: |
John Buchan |
| Publisher: |
Double 9 Books an imprint of Repro India Limited |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
108 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Espionage and spy thriller
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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About John Buchan
John Buchan led a truly extraordinary life: he was a diplomat, soldier, barrister, journalist, historian, politician, publisher, poet and novelist. He was born in Perth in 1875, the eldest son of a Free Church of Scotland minister, and educated at Hutcheson’s Grammar School in Glasgow. He graduated from Glasgow University then took a scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford. During his time there – ‘spent peacefully in an enclave like a monastery’ – he wrote two historical novels.
In 1901 he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and a private secretary to the High Commissioner for South Africa. In 1907 he married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor; they had three sons and a daughter. After spells as a war correspondent, Lloyd George’s Director of Information and a Conservative MP, Buchan – now Sir John Buchan, Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield - moved to Canada in 1935 where he had been appointed Governor-General.
Despite poor health throughout his life, Buchan’s literary output was remarkable – thirty novels, over sixty non-fiction books, including biographies of Sir Walter Scott and Oliver Cromwell, and seven collections of short stories. In 1928 he won the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Britain’s oldest literary prize for his biography of the Marquis of Montrose. Buchan’s distinctive thrillers – ‘shockers’ as he called them – were characterised by suspenseful atmosphere, conspiracy theories and romantic heroes, notably Richard Hannay (based on the real-life military spy William Ironside) and Sir Edward Leithen. Buchan was a favourite writer of Alfred Hitchcock, whose screen adaptation of The Thirty-Nine Steps was phenomenally successful.
John Buchan served as Governor-General of Canada until his death in 1940, the year his autobiography Memory Hold-the-door was published. His last novel Sick Heart River was published posthumously in 1941.
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