"Why the ‘thirty-nine steps’? You’ll have to read the book to find out."
Adapted numerous times – including by Hitchcock – this 1915 novel is the first featuring arch adventurer Richard Hannay. Recently returned to London from a mining operation in South Africa, Hannay finds an unexpected corpse in his flat – the body of his neighbour, an American, a man who has already vouchsafed to Hannay the details of an assassination plot intended to trigger war in Europe.
Soon, Hannay finds himself on the run, fleeing both the authorities and the shadowy conspirators behind the plot. Seeking sanctuary in his native Scotland, he runs from pillar to post, attempting to decode the dead American’s notebook before he is hunted down. The Thirty-Nine Steps set the mould for innumerable chase thrillers that have followed.
Author John Buchan’s later suggested that Hannay was partly based on Edmund Ironside, a Scottish spy during the Second Boer War. In 2003, the book appeared on the BBC's Big Read poll of Britain's best-loved novels. Why the ‘thirty-nine steps’? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
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.
This spy story of 1915 by John Buchan (1875–1940) is an archetype of the genre, but may be better known today through its film and television versions (especially that of Alfred Hitchcock in 1935). Curiously, although all keep the theme of German espionage which will trigger a world war, none of them sticks at all closely to Buchan's original plot. This is the first of five novels in which Richard Hannay, formerly a mining engineer in colonial Africa, now a patriotic gentleman of leisure, finds himself pitted against the enemies of the British Empire.
| Primary Genre | Espionage and spy thriller |
| Other Genres: | |
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This spy story of 1915 by John Buchan (1875–1940) is an archetype of the genre, but may be better known today through its film and television versions (especially that of Alfred Hitchcock in 1935). Curiously, although all keep the theme of German espionage which will trigger a world war, none of them sticks at all closely to Buchan's original plot.
The Thirty-Nine Steps features in the following genres: eBooks of the Month, Recommendations, Crime and Mystery, Espionage and spy thriller, Historical Fiction, Thriller and Suspense, Fiction
Paperback, Hardback. Not Available.
The Thirty-Nine Steps was written by John Buchan and published by Cambridge University Press
The Thirty-Nine Steps has 258 pages
Yes it is part of Cambridge Library Collection - Fiction and Poetry series
