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Loading... The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)by John Buchan
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. An ok story. There are problematic view on Jews. Richard Hannay goes on the run after being told of a assassination plot. Parts of it drag. Than things are wrapped up at the end. ( ) Read it because it's a classic---but it's just hilarious now. Really a hoot. When Hannay tosses the knife in the air and catches it in his lips to show his steady nerves I thought gosh, it can't get sillier than this but it does. There is a creepy anti-Semitic feel and just ridiculous twists and turns. I'm amazed that it was so popular in it's time. I was pleasantly surprised by this little story that caught my attention from the very first page. It's not my normal genre but I've been wanting to cross a few easier reads off my classics challenge lists. Reading it with the author's dedication in mind, it was fun to imagine him cooking up this little tale for his friend to enjoy. This was a super fun story with lots of likeable characters and just enough setting description to keep a little picture in my mind. I love how it ended---splendid! Interesting as an example of the kind of invasion adventure story serial from the period but doesn't really hold up today. The opening chapter has a guy describe a Jewish conspiracy and then when we find out he was wrong about the Jewish part our narrator calls a Greek person a "dago" - very charming example of British upper class prejudices. Overall there's just not an interesting story and the episodes are so clearly tied to fulfilling a serial format that as a novel it's hard to take seriously. It's basically readable but it's so daft and generic with boring chases around the same tiny patch of Scottish land that there's no reason to. Just a historical curiosity. 1 star is a little harsh maybe but it's just. Not good . Belongs to SeriesRichard Hannay (1) Belongs to Publisher SeriesCrime de la Crime (Arbeiderspers) detebe-Klassiker (20210) — 16 more Heritage of Literature (A41) Penguin English Library, 2012 series (2018-06) Pocket Books (69) Reclams Universal-Bibliothek (9051) Zephyr Books (27) Is contained inFour Tales: The Thirty-Nine Steps; The Power-House; The Watcher by the Threshold; The Moon Endureth by John Buchan British Mystery Multipacks Vol. 6 - British Spy Mysteries: The 39 Steps, The Riddle of the Sands, Bulldog Drummond, Passenger from Calais, The Czar’s Spy 2 sequels to The 39 Steps (Illustrated) by John Buchan Is retold inHas the adaptationIs abridged inInspiredHas as a studyHas as a student's study guideNotable Lists
John Buchan takes us back to Edwardian Britain on the eve of the First World War in the modern thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps. An inexplicable murder drives the innocent Richard Hannay, on the run from a manhunt that never seems to end, to hide in remote Scottish moorland. Disguise and deception are his only weapons, as he struggles to decode the clues left by the murdered man to prevent the theft of naval secrets by an unfriendly foreign power. The best-known of Buchan's thrillers, The Thirty-Nine Steps has been continuously in print since its first publication and has been filmed three times, including the brilliant 1935 version directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The Thirty-Nine Steps was also a powerful influence on the development of the detective novel, the action romance, and the spy story. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.912Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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