The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay: The Thirty-Nine Steps/Greenmantle/Mr. Standfast/the Three Hostages

Product Description

Here, from the father of spy fiction, is the grand sequence of his great master spy's adventures in four famous books: The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast and The Three Hostages.

From the introduction by Robin W. Winks:
John Buchan is the father of the modern spy thriller. This is so even though the Hannay books are not, strictly speaking, about spies at all...They are about penetration of the enemy, about lonely escape and wild journeys, about the thin veneer that stands between civilization and barbarism even in the most elegant drawing-room in London.

The Thirty-Nine Steps shows...an attractive man, not too young...and not too old, since he must have the knowledge of maturity and substantial experience on which he will draw while being able to respond to the physical rigors of chase and pursuit. Let the hero, who appears at first to be relatively ordinary, and who thinks of himself as commonplace, be drawn against his best judgment into a mystery he only vaguely comprehends, so that he and the reader may share the growing tension together. Set him a task to perform...Place obstacles in his path the enemy, best left as ill-defined as possible, so that our hero cannot be certain who he might trust. See to it that he cannot turn to established authority to help, indeed that the police, the military, the establishment will be actively working against him.

Then set a clock ticking...

Customer Reviews:

The Original Spy Thrillers.......2006-02-06

"The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay" gathers in one volume stories written by John Buchan during and after his service as an British intelligence officer during the First World War. The first two stories were actually written and published as the war with Imperial Germany and her allies progressed, imparting a sense of urgency and uncertainty about the outcome that an historical novel written after the fact might not have captured in the same way. "The Thirty-Nine Steps", "Greenmantle", "Mr. Standfast", and "The Three Hostages" follow the career of South African mining engineer and British Army officer Richard Hannay. Hannay stumbles into the spy business through the murder of an accidental lodger in "The Thirty-Nine Steps", set in the time just before the outbreak of war, and is repeatedly called back to the spying businees, often from his military duties, in the remaining stories. Buchan's technique improved with practice; the stories develop more complicated plotlines and smoother deliveries.

Those familar with the Sherlock Holmes stories will find a similar sort of pacing in Buchan's adventure stories. Buchan relies heavily on coincidence and exotic settings in advancing his story lines, and some of the stereotypes and language will seem dated to modern readers. Some other portions of the stories will seem remarkably fresh, as for example Hannay's description of the opposition by some Britons to the War with Germany, proof, if we needed it, that human nature is remarkably constant. The story lines are engaging, and Richard Hannay is a sympathetic hero, if very much a man of his times. Buchan, a born and raised Scotsman, is often at his literary best in describing the people, land and simple details of ordinary living of Scotland and England.

Readers are highly encouraged to read the introductory essay by Robin Winks, which provides excellent background on the remarkable life of John Buchan and the context of his writing. In his description of the "Buchan Formula", Winks makes the case that Buchan is the literary forefather of later writers of spy fiction such as Jon LeCare.

This book is highly recommended to those fans of the spy genre who would like to explore its antecendants, and to those readers looking for authentic period piece stories.

The spy who bored me.......2004-11-14

Buchan hasn't held up. His people are shadows and caricatures that read like the over-made-up characters in some silent movie. He doesn't seem to have much of a grip on religion, language, ethnicity or simple human motivations. Authors fade into obscurity for a reason -- and there are reasons why book introductions, like the one offered here, take on such a defensive tone. In Buchan's case the reason is his tales of exotic adventure read like one part Kipling and 20 parts dishwater. If you must read him, don't go anywhere near "Kim" until you're well through.

Mr Standfast.......2003-07-06

Having just finished Mr Standfast I felt it a good time to review my thoughts and emotions stirred by the book.
Mr Standfast, the third Buchan novel in the General Hannay series, is a fascinating study in the era in which it was both set and authored. Being published in 1919, the events of WW1, the topic of the book, were no doubt fresh in the authors mind.
The book is not easy for the 21st Century reader with many words not frequently in current use. Keep a dictionary handy. It is however a stimulating read with a great historical
backdrop. Whilst at times farfetched and Biggles like in it's gingoistic tone, the reader is drawn into Hannay's affection for his cause. Overall, a thoroughly recommended read.

Classic adventure yarns.......2003-07-06

As my title says, the Four Adventures are real classics that spawned a whole library of imitators. Written as they were during the First World War and immediate post-war period by someone who both hob-nobbed with the political movers and shakers of the time & may have participated in some intertesting Intelligence work on his own (see Peter Hopkirk's LIKE HIDDEN FIRE for some of the "facts" behind GREENMANTLE) they capture a time a place and a people at the height of British global dominance. Given that the first three tales were written during some of the most desperate days of World War I it is no accident that there is some pro-British propaganda, but as the excellnt introduction to this edition points out, Buchan is remarkably kind to both friends and foes, and while the Bad-Guys are truly Bad, they also have their redeeming qualities. THIRTY-NINE STEPS has been made into a number of movies, none of which do it justice. GREENMANTLE is my personal favorite & reading it again for the umpteenth time last year I was struck by how remarkably prescient Buchan was as to the problems we now face with an Islamic Middle East. Mr. Standfast actually wraps things up nicely, with some excellent descriptions of fighting on the Western Front, and I always felt that THE FOUR HOSTAGES was a bit of a tag-on that really wasn't needed (the same can be said of the fifth and long out of print Hannay adventure THE ISLE OF SHEEP, which has been sensibly left out of this volume). If you like adventure stories with a strong male hero, a nice mystery, clearly defined Good and Evil, an appealing heroine (in the last three Adventures) and a good sense of history by someone who actually made part of it, this volume is for you. Readers of Alan Furst & the like will see where contemporary authors got their ideas & timing. This is a wonderful look into a now vanished world that still has clues to our troubled present.

39-steps: Buchan wrote the book, on the classic adventure.......1998-05-09

'Nuff said about the 39-steps; read the book. If I had written the 39-steps, I could have died without regret.

Buchan delved the emotional depths of strong, silent men, in the wild mystical motion of Greenmantle & in the static unshaken forces of endurance & will of Mr. Standfast. In these two tales, he brought the irresistible force & the immoveable object, the two opposing forces of nature, the storm & the rock, the Yin & the Yang, into being, in his writing.

Strangely, it is another, black, South African, the great Nelson Mandela, who typified in real life, the qualities of Buchan's fictional Boer, Peter Pienaar.

Book Description

In The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), the best-known of his thrillers (made into a popular movie by Alfred Hitchcock), John Buchan introduces his most enduring hero, Richard Hannay, who, despite claiming to be an "ordinary fellow," is caught up in the dramatic and dangerous race against a plot to
devastate the British war effort.
In this, the only critical edition available, Christopher Harvie's introduction interweaves the writing of the tale with the equally fascinating story of how John Buchan, publisher and lawyer, came in from the cold and, via The Thirty-Nine Steps, ended the war as spy-master and propaganda
chief.

Customer Reviews:

On the Run from German Spies.......2007-08-25

This classic spy novel published in 1915 is a fine read for the twenty-first century; it's fast-moving with a driving narrative. I read this book when I was a kid and loved it. Three movie versions have been made, the most famous being the Hitchcock version of 1935.
In November of 2006 in London I saw and greatly enjoyed a hilarious stage version based more upon the movie treatment than the book. It had only four characters, and two of them were called Clowns. The Clowns played all sorts of characters in the play including cops and spies. A female actress played three roles. The stage effects simulating the movie action were wonderful. It is scheduled for a Broadway production during the 2007-2008 season. Any similarity between the play and the novel are purely coincidental.
In the novel there is no love interest, and there are no important female characters, but in the stage and movie versions women play key roles.
In most of the book Richard Hannay is on the run, mainly in Scotland, a fugitive from the police and the German spies. Most people he meets aid him in his flight. He's a cunning man who can decipher coded messages and foil plots that are a lead-up to the First World War. The book is still worth reading and is a good diversion. Don't expect subtlety, but do expect a clever yarn, a well-told tale.

The Daemon in Our Dreams
Nine Lives Too Many
The Rice Queen Spy

The Man Who Knew Too Much.......2007-05-26

Richard Hannay was visiting London in May. He had left Scotland at age six to work and find a small fortune in South Africa. Hannay was tired and bored after a month in London. At his flat a neighbor asked to speak to him in private, and asked for help. This stranger told of his travels in the Balkans and the things he learned about those who stirred up a revolution. Its all due to a conspiracy (money can be made on a falling market). But now Franklin P. Scudder knows too much to be allowed to live. An important foreign leader will visit London. He will be murdered by an Austrian and the evidence will point to Vienna and Berlin. Scudder told how he faked his own death! Hannay believed him, and sheltered him for days. When Hannay returned to his flat he found Scudder stabbed dead. Hannay now believes Scudder's story to be true. But Hannay will either be the next target or be charged and convicted for the murder. Life is no longer dull.

Hannay took steps to disguise himself and disappear. He found Scudder's notebook and tried to decipher its coded entries. Hannay must evade the police search and those seeking to kill him. The chapters tell of his flight and the events of his capture by the killers and escape. Buchan describes the country and the characters Hannay met. Some of the words are obscure ("burnside"). Hannay finally meets Sir Walter and learns more. The police will no longer be an inconvenience. There is a new surprise when Hannay returns to Sir Walter's London mansion. Hannay figures out who is the spy, and his method. The next step is to intercept and stop him before he leaves England with the secret information. Of course this story has a happy ending.

The 1930s film by Alfred Hitchcock changed very many of the details of this story, so the novel will be fresh and interesting to a reader. Note how a person can simply disguise himself by a complete change of clothes and hat. Dashiell Hammett also mentioned this in his "Red Harvest". People remember clothing better than a face.

Flawed but fun .......2006-07-24

Entertaining story about a man on the run from some secret German society, although it is never really explained who these people exactly are and what their actual secret is. Every now and then the word "black stone" is thrown into the text, but....???? In most chapters the hero, Richard Hannay, gets cornered and then makes a miraculous escape. It's set against a political background (the outbreak of WW1), but there's no political meaning/message or any other deeper meaning in this book, except some anti-semitism here and there. It's entertainment first, and if you read it like that, it's not a bad read.

Don't stop here.......2006-07-07

Buchan's famous proto-thriller, a suspenseful foot-to-the-metal flight through pre-WW1 Scotland, is handled deftly and masterfully throughout. It is neither well-thought-out nor intricately plotted, but a good part of the fun comes from seeing Buchan inventing as he goes along with incredible ease and skill. Unlike his more serious works, it's concise and tautly-constructed, but it also lacks the character development and philosophical insights of his other books. An excellent place to start reading Buchan, but a bad place to stop! If you read this book, make sure you read the sequels: they keep getting better.

Good over evil........2006-06-22

As Europe is bracing for the Great War everyone knows is inevitable, Richard Hannay meets an interesting American outside his London flat. He's Mr. Franklin Scutter of Kentucky and he's privy to a secret which will bear heavily on the national security of Great Britain in the days to come. Scutter shares his disturbing secret with Hannay. Though short on details, it involves a sinister German plot to intercept top secret information about the planned deployment of the British fleet.

Soon thereafter, Scudder is murdered for knowing what he knows and Hannay flees London to avoid a similar fate. Hannay winds up in his native Scotland where he's pursued by both Scudder's killers and the British police who believe he's the murderer. Traveling primarily by foot, Hannay covers a great deal of Scottish countryside. Author John Buchan helpfully describes how Hannay traverses the glens, the heaths, the moors, the ridges, the high roads, the burns, the hollows, the vales and the occasional bog. (For a while there, I thought I was reading National Geographic.)

This book was first published in 1915, a good 20 years before Eric Ambler, acknowledged father of the modern spy story, wrote his first novel. It is one of the seminal works in the now very popular genre of international espionage. Sad to say, The 39 Steps has not held up well to the test of time. Though fast paced and not without charm, this novel fails to make the grade in today's literary world. The reason is that the plotting is so unrealistic, it goes beyond just being outlandish to find itself firmly ensconced in the realm of the utterly preposterous. Too much of the narrative relies on coincidence, luck and events that could never occur in the real world, then or now.

The 39 Steps gets 4 stars for the important place it occupies in the pantheon of spy novels. But based on the merits it deserves a lesser rating.

The Thirty-Nine Steps (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

Grand-daddy of the thriller genre is still a good read
On the run from German spies and British police in Victorian Britain
Is this book a classic?
Very fast

The Thirty-Nine Steps (Penguin Classics)
John Buchan
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141441178
Release Date: 2004-08-31

Book Description

Famous as the basis for several films, including the brilliant 1935 version directed by Alfred Hitchcock, The Thirty-Nine Steps is a classic of early twentieth-century popular literature.

Richard Hannay has just returned to England after years in South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his life in London. But then a murder is committed in his flat, just days after a chance encounter with an American who had told him about an assassination plot that could have dire international consequences. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay goes on the run in his native Scotland where he will need all his courage and ingenuity to stay one step ahead of his pursuers.

Customer Reviews:

Grand-daddy of the thriller genre is still a good read.......2007-04-20

Richard Hannay, a Canadian visiting England is plunged into intrigue, which could affect the very security of England.

Buchan's venerable 1915 short novel is the grand-daddy of the thriller genre and it's still a good read. You can see why this novel so appealed to Hitchcock who filmed it brilliantly in 1935 - themes of an innocent man plunged into danger and evil lurking behind a respectable facade reappear in many Hitchcock works. Hitchcock added a large romantic element that is entirely missing from the novel.

Buchan lovingly evokes the Scottish countryside where much of this story is set. The "common" local people are presented with affection and respect - and it is the interlopers living in their mansions and country houses that are to be mistrusted.

This novel includes an introduction and excellent notes by Sir John Keegan.

On the run from German spies and British police in Victorian Britain.......2007-01-26

An innocent conversation with a neighbor on the stairs draws colonial Richard Hannay into a vortex of political intrigue and danger. Events rapidly develop as Hannay is framed for a murder and decides to run for it. Even though he's wanted by both murderous spies and the British police, he's determined to uncover the riddle and stop an impending catastrophe for the British Empire. All the while he's on the run - sometimes literally - in the wilds of Scotland. The book is a colorful 103-page action adventure and, like most spy novels, sometimes unbelievable. However, it's an entertaining read. I recommend it to anyone who likes action, adventure, or spy novels.

(By the way, I noticed the British author used "on the weekend" in this 1915 publication. Interesting, because now almost all English say "at the weekend".)

Is this book a classic?.......2006-03-26

I'm not arrogant enough to say a certain thing shouldn't be held in high regard just because I don't like it. Everybody has varying tastes and different opinions. And since opinions and tastes can't be proven true or false or right or wrong, what does it all mean anyway?

I will say I definitely didn't like The Thirty-Nine Steps. Why?

1. How can an adventure story with chases and disguises be so dry and drab? I stopped caring about what Hannay did by the third chapter. I just kept on reading because of my "must finish all books I start" policy. Plus, I wouldn't have had any credibility to judge this book had I stopped.

2. The Plot. I still don't know what the whole thing was about. Either the reason these spies were chasing him was for the most convoluted reason in the world, or the thinnest, near nonexistent reason. There is a reason why I avoid espionage, Tom Clancy-like books. This one just happened to sneak up on me. Why did every man Hannay bumped in to just happen to be about his size?
Who buys that you wouldn't be able to recognize someone just because they were in a different surrounding? Buchan used these two devices to help his hero even though both are improbable.

The book is short, therefore my pain was short. If you want a really, really good mystery, I suggest The Red Right Hand by Joel Tinsley Rogers, or even some Hercule Poirot books by Agatha Christie.

Very fast.......2005-07-20

And nothing like the Alfred Hitchcock film. I guess he just took the basic idea of evil German spies and worldwide conspiracies and formed his own story around it. As it is, it's a fun adventure novel, though a little bit confusing at times.

A bored adverturer called Richard Hannay has a man die in his London apartment and takes off for the cover of the Lothian and Borders countryside before the police and the murders can get him too. Unfortunately the killers are more resourceful than Hannay thinks and follow him. A great number of hair-breadth escapes and strange disguises follow. It's fun stuff and very easy-going. The bit about believing yourself in a role in order to be a really good spy was well done and put to good effect. But I never really understood the end.

What was the deal with the deep rumbling below the beach house and the cloud of chalkish smoke erupting from the basement? What was that German phrase yelled about the Black Stone? It was all on the very last page and I'm afraid it just totally lost me. However it is well written and I did appreciate the couple of references to Sherlock Holmes (my God, in-jokes in 1915).

I hear there are five novels starring Richard Hannay. I have no idea what they are called or where they begin and end but I will surely check them out if I come across them.

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The 39 Steps: A British Film Guide
Mark Glancy
Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris
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The 39 Steps

ASIN: 186064614X

Book Description

Combining humor and thrills in equal measure, The 39 Steps (1935) established Alfred Hitchock's name as the "master of suspense" and is the best remembered and most acclaimed of his British films. Included in this original companion to the film are the intriguing story of the film's production, an examination of its influences, including John Buchan's novel, an original and close analysis of the film, its critical legacy and a survey of the successive films also based on Buchan's novel.

The Thirty Nine Steps and The Power-House

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The Thirty Nine Steps and The Power-House
John Buchan
Manufacturer: The Folio Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J2K1IU

The Thirty-Nine Steps [EasyRead Comfort Edition]

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The Thirty-Nine Steps [EasyRead Comfort Edition]
John Buchan
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
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ASIN: 142500962X
Release Date: 2006-10-01

Book Description

A fast-paced thriller that narrates the journey of protagonist from London to Scotland is presented. It is the story of an ordinary-man-turned-spy in the backdrop of an international conspiracy.

The Thirty-Nine Steps (Penguin Readers, Level 3)

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The Thirty-Nine Steps (Penguin Readers, Level 3)
John Buchan
Manufacturer: Pearson ESL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0582416418

The Thirty-nine Steps (Penguin Popular Classics)

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The Thirty-nine Steps (Penguin Popular Classics)
John Buchan
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140621091

The Thirty-Nine Steps (Oxford Bookworms, Level 4)

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The Thirty-Nine Steps (Oxford Bookworms, Level 4)
John Buchan , Nick Bullard , and Tricia Hedge
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0194230481

Book Description

'I turned on the light, but there was nobody there. Then I saw something in the corner that made my blood turn cold. Scudder was lying on his back. There was a long knife through his heart, pinning him to the floor.' Soon Richard Hannay is running for his life across the hills of Scotland. The police are chasing him for a murder he did not do, and another, more dangerous enemy is chasing him as well - the mysterious 'Black Stone'. Who are these people? And why do they want Hannay dead?

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The Thirty-Nine Steps (Large Print)
John Buchan
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 1425001254
Release Date: 2006-10-01

Book Description

A fast-paced thriller that narrates the journey of protagonist from London to Scotland is presented. It is the story of an ordinary-man-turned-spy in the backdrop of an international conspiracy.

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