The Complete Richard Hannay Series
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Product Description
Product Description
Contains: Island of Sheep, Three Hostages, Mr Hostages, Mr Standfast, The 39 Steps.
About the Author
John Buchan (1875-1940) was born in Perth, Scotland and educated at Oxford where he published five books and won several awards, including one for poetry. He went on to be a barrister, a member of parliament, a soldier, a publisher, a historical biographer, and - in 1935 - he became the Govenor-General of Canada. Today he is best remembered as the author of his perennially popular adventure novels
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
157 of 157 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As its title suggests, this edition brings together in one volume all the adventures of John Buchan's hero, from his first appearance in The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) to his swan-song in The Island of Sheep (1936). Here is the perfect book for those who may have met Richard Hannay in his first and most famous outing - either in print or in Hitchcock's famous movie - and would like to follow his subsequent adventures. The Thirty-Nine Steps is often regarded as the first modern spy story (with the possible exception of Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands - also worth a look), and its breathless pace as its narrator is first pursued by and then pursues a network of German spies against the backdrop of the First World War, remains as effective today as when it was written. The two following books in the series, Greenmantle (1916)and Mr Standfast (1919) also pit Hannay against the might of the Kaiser (he even meets him on one occasion while posing as a pro-German Boer...), taking him across Europe and the Near East. We are also intoduced to his comrades-in-arms: multi-lingual Scottish laird and master of disguise, Sandy Arbuthnot; larger-than-life American industrialist Blenkiron; and Hannay's future wife, the feisty Mary Lamington. The final two books, The Three Hostages (1924) and the Island of Sheep are set after the War, mainly in Britain, and Hannay's adversaries this time are master criminals rather than spies, but the page-turning suspense is every bit as intense, as Hannay races against the clock to bring the malefactors to book... Hannay is a very likeable hero, more complex than the "stiff upper lip" stereotype might suggest. In many ways, he resembles the central characters of Dick Francis's racing thrillers. Like them, Hannay is no intellectual, but he is highly intelligent and has a healthy disrespect for gung-ho heroics. He is, moreover, a perceptive observer of the natural world, and brings a wry - and infectious - sense of humour to his study of human foibles. All in all, John Buchan's "shockers" (as their author called his Hannay stories) deserve a much wider audience and this Penguin omnibus edition is thus to be applauded.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This collection of the adverntures of the admirable Richard Hannay is an utter treat. While I can't concur with an earllier reviewer that his later adventures reach the heights of the 39 Steps, they are cracking adventure stories in their own right, and Hannay is one of those chracters whose fate one cares about - it is good to hear that he thrives - albeit amongst a series of hair's breadth escapes and nerve shattering adventures!
The one downside of this compilation that I would flag up to potential purchasers is that the book is a thick one - probably about 7-8 cm deep and correspondingly heavy. This makes it actually quite unwieldy to read - no settling this in one hand and a cup of tea in the other! Also I really don't think the binding quality is v good. By the time I had read all the books, the spine of the volume was very creased and somewhat loose despite my being careful while I read it - the weight of the rest of the book does the job by itself, I think.
The one downside of this compilation that I would flag up to potential purchasers is that the book is a thick one - probably about 7-8 cm deep and correspondingly heavy. This makes it actually quite unwieldy to read - no settling this in one hand and a cup of tea in the other! Also I really don't think the binding quality is v good. By the time I had read all the books, the spine of the volume was very creased and somewhat loose despite my being careful while I read it - the weight of the rest of the book does the job by itself, I think.
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I had no idea there were more Buchan novels beyond 39 Steps and only discovered the rest by accident. What a happy find! I am writing a fairly contemporaneous novel and thought this collection would make good research material, but I have to confess I haven't done much key-pounding since I bought it. All the tales are equally deserving of five stars but the descriptions of battle in Mr Standfast are quite outstanding. It's almost like being there, and the end, though terribly melodramatic, is very affecting. Even the endless improbable coincidences seem perfectly acceptable in this sort of writing. Yes, there is racism, homophobia, xenophobia, class snobbery, you name it, but somehow it all seems terribly innocent, even comical, to modern eyes and really doesn't matter. Just don't go calling anyone a 'kaffir' in modern South Africa or they'll lock you up!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Best Kindle purchase ever!
This is a series of spy/adventure novels set around the time of World War I. The 39 Steps has been made into a movie, but all of them are excellent. Read more
Published 22 days ago by Scientia
Richard Hannay Seies
I Thoroughly enjoyed these stories, they must have inspired other thriller writers,I am now a big fan of the author and have already started on other Buchan novels
Published 27 days ago by Pickwick
Hannay stories
Although very dated and containing racially abusive terms, by modern standards, the stories move on at a rattling rate, and I suppose you have to make alowances for the times in... Read more
Published 1 month ago by EMily
Hannay - so much more than 39 Steps
This is great value for the price. The books are accessible in this format and the stories remain great - as long as you read them in the context of when they were written. Read more
Published 1 month ago by MG Eldridge
Good old fashioned fiction
An excellent collection of good old fashioned thrilling stories which when started ,are very hard to put down. Read more
Published 1 month ago by B. J. Gregory
The Complete Richard Hannay: "The Thirty-Nine Steps","Greenmantle","Mr...
Having a hard copy of this great collection, I'm so glad to be able to get a copy on kindle. A combination of a broken arm and the amount I can carry has made the kindle a great... Read more
Published 6 months ago by billyb8
John Buchan _ Richard Hannay series
Some of these stories I read at school 60 years ago. I was great reading them again. But what thrilled me was to find other stories in the series I did not know about. Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2010 by BLD
These Buchan works should be heralded more loudly
Pure adventure, the Buchan style is so easy to read and enjoy, a simplicity that might be innocence, writing mastery or both. Read more
Published on 16 Nov 2009 by Ben Venus
Great Hannay Books by John Buchan
Five terrific 'thriller' books written by a great writer of the early 20th century, John Buchan.
The 39 Steps is a must for those readers interested in this genre and set in... Read more
The 39 Steps is a must for those readers interested in this genre and set in... Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2009 by Michael Guiliano
Complete Richard Hannay
If you are a fan of The Thiry Nine steps, this book gives you all the Richard Hannay adventures - all five complete in one book - a great summer read. Read more
Published on 16 July 2009 by JABright
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