LoveReading Says
Sick Heart River was John Buchan's most powerful novel, completed just days before his death in Canada and published posthumously in 1941. The rich, authentic descriptions of the rugged Canadian landscape were influenced by a voyage down the Mackenzie River in 1937, at which time Buchan was Governor-General of Canada. Lawyer and politician Sir Edward Leithen - perhaps the most autobiographical of Buchan's characters - is asked by a former colleague to find his niece's husband who has disappeared into the Canadian wilderness. Despite being diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis and given just a year to live he agrees to help.
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Sick Heart River Synopsis
"e;Sick Heart River"e; is a powerful and compelling novel originally published in 1941. It is John Buchan's last novel which was completed days before his death in 1940. It follows a dying protagonist, Edward Leithen, who confronts the question of the meaning of life while in the Canadian wilderness. Edward Leithen is perhaps John Buchan's most autobiographical character and here Leithen is an old man given a year to live, he chooses to help a friend find a man in the wild rugged interior of Canada. Vast sweeping landscapes are expertly described by Buchan using his own experiences of travelling around Canada. John Buchan (1875 - 1940) was a Scottish historian, novelist, and politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. He was a vocal advocate of literacy and the development of Canadian culture, receiving a state funeral in the country before his ashes were returned to Britain. Other notable works by this author include: "e;The African Colony"e; (1903) and "e;The Moon Endureth"e; (1912). This volume will appeal to those who have read an enjoyed other works by this author, and it is not to be missed by the discerning collectors of vintage literature. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781473373617 |
| Publication date: |
24th April 2015 |
| Author: |
John Buchan |
| Publisher: |
Read Books Ltd. |
| Format: |
Ebook (Epub) |
| Primary Genre |
Thriller and Suspense
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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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