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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic, 9 Oct 2007
Small as it is (barely a hundred pages), this book amply makes up for that lack of quantity by its sheer quality. Richard Hannay has just returned from South Africa and is barely back in London when a man is found murdered in his rooms ('There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him to the floor.' Don't you just love this kind of stuff? I know I do!). He sets out for his native Scotland, always just a step ahead of the police... not once does the pace of the story slacken until the very end, and you'll be reading it teeth on edge.
'The thirty-nine steps' was first published in 1915, but in my opinion it's still one of the very best suspense stories ever!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Classic That's Full Of Surprises, 7 Jan 2009
Reviewing classic novels often seems like something of a pointless exercise. When a book is as well known and loved as the 39 Steps futher critical analysis feels redundant.
How well known is The 39 Steps though? Yes, the name is well known, but I imagine that for a sizeable majority of people, like me, their only direct contact with John Buchan's tale has been via one of the multiple screen adaptations, be it the excellent 30's Hitchcock movie, the 60's or 70's movie versions or the recent BBC adaptation. If so then the book will come as a considerable surprise.
For a start the events in the novel play out over a far longer period of time than in any of the films. This is not some fast paced chase; Hannay evades capture for more than ten days. This extended timeframe gives the book a far more languid feel, although it is no less exciting.
There are also none of the more iconic moments that feature in the movies. There is no escape on the Fourth Bridge a la Robert Donat and no hanging off the clock face at Westminster. The book is far more low key affair, even if the conspiracy Hannay finds himself caught up in does have the potential to shake up the balance of global power.
Finally and most noticably there is no female companion for Hannay during his adventures. In fact there are almost no women anywhere in the book. This is an adventure written by a man in the early part of the twentieth century and intended for a male audience. Romantic subplots or strong female characters simply weren't found in such books and The 39 Steps is no exception.
So if you think you know John Buchan's most famous novel but have never read it then you're almost certainly wrong. This is a book that in addition to being incident and action packed also constantly surprises in terms of plot and writing style. Yes, it is horribly old-fashioned in many ways, some of them less forgivable than others, but it stands up as a thriller even after all these years. It may not please ardent fans of the Hannays played by Kenneth More or Robert Powell, but its still very much worth a read to see what inspired so many screen adaptations.
(Oh and the retro reprint looks fantastic. Well done Penguin.)
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for anyone who ever dreamt of adventure. Brilliant!, 20 Dec 2008
First published in 1915 when Europe was locked in conflict triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in the Balkans, John Buchan's Thirty-Nine Steps takes the tensions and conspiracies which led Europe to war as the backdrop for his timeless adventure story.
The lead character Richard Hannay, is simply a bored Gentleman in London pining for South Africa and his native Scotland until a man is murdered in his flat after pouring out in panic the details of a conspiracy which threatened war against the United Kingdom. Richard Hannay effortlessly takes up the dead man's position as he attempts to prevent national disaster whilst hunted by foreign conspirators and British police alike.
The author describes his novel, in a dedication to his friend Thomas Nelson at the beginning of the book, as a ``shocker' - the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible'. Certainly Richard Hannay has a remarkable ability to extract himself from the most difficult of situations throughout the tale.
The Thirty-Nine Steps is truly an adventure story because it takes an ordinary person as its hero. Richard Hannay is plunged into the adventure as suddenly as the reader and so there is an immediate connection. The author shamelessly betrays his love for the genre citing Rider Haggard and Conan Doyle as masters of adventure and crime writing within the book. This passion for the genre is very apparent and Buchan writes with a subtle humour throughout, evidence of how much he clearly enjoyed creating the story. Equally apparently is his love of the Scottish countryside which is described delightfully throughout and poetically at times, as are the host of minor characters which populate the landscape.
The story develops at pace and Hannay's chase from London across Scotland and back down to the South Coast means that without warning the reader finds himself tearing through the final chapter for resolution. The fact that the book is over all too soon can hardly be seen as a fault and whilst it could be said that Buchan's style can at times be rushed The Thirty-Nine Steps is a classic which should be approached without too much cynicism. Read it as it was read by soldier's in the trenches in a Europe where it must have constantly have felt that dark subversive forces were at play, forces which, it must have been felt, would prosper were it not for the improbable heroics of brave Brits like Richard Hannay.
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