Product Description
The original and best adventure story ever told, with spies, thrilling chase scenes and explosions.
With an Introduction by Stella Rimington.

May 1914. Britain is on the eve of war with Germany. Richard Hannay is living a quiet life in London, but after a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger he stumbles into a hair-raising adventure -- a desperate hunt across the country and against the clock, pursued by the police and a cunning, ruthless enemy. Hannay's life and the security of Britain are in grave peril, and everything rests on the solution to a baffling enigma: what are the thirty-nine steps? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Interesting Read
Interesting play, but you will be lost if you have no knowledge of the movies this play is based on.Probably better onstage than as a book read.

Should have gone through 12 steps first
Good story, particularly given its time and place, but this particular copy was owned by a heavy smoker.Holmes could probably have identified the particular brand, but I could only identify the particulate matter.Wish the seller had mentioned this before I bought it, but at least now I know why the price was right.

The Man Who Knew Too Much
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.

A Ripping Good Yarn
A 'ripping good yarn' are the best words I can think of to describe this story. It is simply a tremendously thrilling and entertaining adventure. It is fun, involving, and easily read in just a few sittings. Buchan's classic tale takes the reader on an escapade beginning in London and continuing as the hero, Richard Hannay, dashes across the Scottish Highlands in his frantic attempt to elude the police. The little insights into Hannay's random thoughts during the early scenes of the book are fantastically witty, and those familiar with Hitchcock's film version will not be able to avoid hearing the voice of Robert Donat coming through. Similarly, some of the oddball characters and amusing situations Hannay finds himself in throughout the course of the novel provide light relief to a story of espionage, murder and political intrigue (to coin an old cliche). Read it. It'll tickle you.

An entertaing adventure.
Richard Hannay's boring stay in London quickly turns in to an adventurous run for his life and a quest for the ultimate survival of England.A story that is compact and to the point, a credit to the writing of John Buchan. ... Read more

Product Description
In ?The Strange Adventures of Mr Andrew Hawthorn? and the other stories in this collection, peculiar worlds of temptation, adventure or iniquity are perilously close at hand. Mr Hawthorn himself steps outside to allow his porridge to cool and disappears for five years and more, a Glasgow grocer is shipwrecked and ultimately worshipped as a god, a young mathematician discovers an entirely new aspect of reality and becomes terrified by what he finds there, and an ageing sinner clings grimly, weakly to a hard-won life of decency: John Buchan in each demonstrating his abilities as a gripping writer of short stories.In his introduction, Giles Foden explores Buchan?s innate sense of the fascination held by sudden jeopardy and vanished comfort, and the themes of the will and fate in his work. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / General; Poetry / General; Fiction / General; Poetry / General; Poetry / Inspirational ... Read more

Product Description
Vernon Milbourne, orphaned since childhood and haunted by a recurring dream, is friends with the protective lawyer and MP Sir Edward Leithen. An Aegean cruise takes them to the mysterious island of Plakos where Vernon is fascinated by the island's myths. Local superstitions turn to menace as Vernon's encounter with a beautiful woman results in obsession and adventure. ... Read more

Product Description
Four Great Suspense Classics, One Low Price! Here is one of the most filmed and televised novels of all time, The Thirty-Nine Steps, in which combat vet Richard Hannay stumbles on and saves England from a plot by enemy agents. Then thrill to three more masterpieces of suspense and adventure as Hannay is called upon to risk his life and exercise his skill to save friends and nations in their time of peril! Four of the greatest mystery classics of all time, over 2000 pages in hard cover, for one low price! ... Read more

Product Description
Lawyer and MP Sir Edward Leithen is given a year to live.Fearing he will die unfulfilled, he devotes his last months to seeking out and restoring to health Galliard, a young Canadian banker.Galliard is in remotest Canada searching for the River of the Sick Heart.Braving an Arctic winter, Leithen finds the banker.Leithen's health returns, but only one of the men will return to civilization. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good book
The story is captivating, good description of a man's soul searching, and being in peace with God and nature.

Philosophy the cold way
I recently read this book for a report in my English class.I usually never read anything outside of Sci-fi, fantasy, or well known classics.Although the first 30 or so pages I had trouble staying awake, it changedquickly into a book I couldn't put down.There are some great charactersin this book, and Buchan leaves the reader (listener) on your toes a lot. This book had a great deal of philosophy in it, and though it took me sometime to appreciate it, eventually I found that this book has a very deepmeaning to it.Sick Heart River may only be available in tape-form now,but it is the same story that I read. Sick Heart River has more twists andturns in the plot than some sci-fi I've read.I hope that you enjoy thisbook as much as I did.The way of ending the book is also VERY original. Other than this book's slow start up, I enjoyed every page.Kudos toBuchan, a wonderful written book! ... Read more

Product Description
The works of Scottish politician, statesman and thriller writer John Buchan examined the nature of good and evil and explored the shifting boundaries between civilization and anarchy. Buchan published the best-selling The Thirty-Nine Steps in 1915, one of 40 novels of his long career, which also included 60 works of non-fiction.

This comprehensive companion to Buchan's mystery fiction includes entries on the characters, novels, short fiction, films, themes, and symbols with special attention to the serialized secret agent Richard Hannay, Buchan's most famous character. Also included are photographs, chronologies, appendices, a brief biography, a bibliography and a thorough index. ... Read more

Product Description
I mind as if it were yesterday my first sight of the man. Little I knew at the time how big the moment was with destiny, or how often that face seen in the fitful moonlight would haunt my sleep and disturb my waking hours. But I mind yet the cold grue of terror I got from it, a terror which was surely more than the due of a few truant lads breaking the Sabbath with their play. ... Read more

Product Description
Set in the bleak Yorkshire hamlet of Hungrygrain, this is a stirring tale of treason and romance.Anthony Lammas, minister and Professor of Logic at St Andrews University finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue that threatens the country.His boyhood allegiance to a brotherhood of deep-sea fishermen involves him and his handsome ex-pupil with a beautiful but dangerous woman. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Another great John Buchan deventure
"The Free Fishers" is a lesser known but nevertheless great and exciting John Buchan adventure. It belongs to those historical adventures of his (like "Witchwood") which have an 18th century setting and Scottish connection but it is as enjoyable to read and entertaining as his better known, more modern thrillers written in the early part of the 20th century such as "The Thirty Nine Steps" or (my favorite) "Greenmantle."

Exciting and mysterious doings on the lonely wilds of Hungrygrain and at the Merry Mouth, with heroes and villains not exactly who they seem to be. ... Read more

Product Description
CONTENTS.


Prologue

1. How a Retired Provision Merchant felt the Impulse of Spring.
2. Of Mr. John Heritage and the Difference in Points of View.
3. How Childe Roland and Another came to the Dark tower.
4. Dougal.
5. Of the Princess in the Tower.
6. How Mr. McCunn departed with Relief and returned with Resolution.
7. Sundry Doings in the Mirk.
8. How a Middle-aged Crusader accepted a Challenge.
9. The First Battle of the Cruives.
10. Deals with an Escape and a Journey.
11. Gravity out of Bed.
12. How Mr. McCunn committed an Assault upon an Ally.
13. The Coming of the Danish Brig.
14. The Second Battle of the Cruives.
15. The Gorbals Die-Hards go into Action.
16. In which a Princess leaves a Dark Tower and a Provision Merchant
returns to his Family.

Excerpt:
To W. P. Ker.

If the Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford has not forgotten the rock whence he was hewn, this simple story may give an hour of entertainment.I offer it to you because I think you have met my friend Dickson McCunn, and I dare to hope that you may even in your many sojournings in the Westlands have encountered one or other of the Gorbals Die-Hards. If you share my kindly feeling for Dickson, you will be interested in some facts which I have lately ascertained about his ancestry.In his veins there flows a portion of the redoubtable blood of the Nicol Jarvies.When the Bailie, you remember, returned from his journey to Rob Roy beyond the Highland Line, he espoused his housekeeper Mattie, “an honest man’s daughter and a near cousin o’ the Laird o’ Limmerfield.”The union was blessed with a son, who succeeded to the Bailie’s business and in due course begat daughters, one of whom married a certain Ebenezer McCunn, of whom there is record in the archives of the Hammermen of Glasgow. Ebenezer’s grandson, Peter by name, was Provost of Kirkintilloch, and his second son was the father of my hero by his marriage with Robina Dickson, oldest daughter of one Robert Dickson, a tenant-farmer in the Lennox.So there are coloured threads in Mr. McCunn’s pedigree, and, like the Bailie, he can count kin, should he wish, with Rob Roy himself through “the auld wife ayont the fire at Stuckavrallachan.”

Such as it is, I dedicate to you the story, and ask for no better verdict on it than that of that profound critic of life and literature, Mr. Huckleberry Finn, who observed of the Pilgrim’s Progress that he “considered the statements interesting, but tough.” J.B.


* * * * *


PROLOGUE.

The girl came into the room with a darting movement like a swallow, looked round her with the same birdlike quickness, and then ran across the polished floor to where a young man sat on a sofa with one leg laid along it.

“I have saved you this dance, Quentin,” she said, pronouncing the name with a pretty staccato.“You must be lonely not dancing, so I will sit with you.What shall we talk about?”

The young man did not answer at once, for his gaze was held by her face.He had never dreamed that the gawky and rather plain little girl whom he had romped with long ago in Paris would grow into such a being.The clean delicate lines of her figure, the exquisite pure colouring of hair and skin, the charming young arrogance of the eyes--this was beauty, he reflected, a miracle, a revelation.
Her virginal fineness and her dress, which was the tint of pale fire, gave her the air of a creature of ice and flame.

“About yourself, please, Saskia,” he said.“Are you happy now that you are a grown-up lady?”


More Reading:
In The Dickson McCunn Novels by ADB Publishing
(The Original) Castle Gay (1930)
(The Original) Huntingtower (This Book)
(The Original) The house of the Four Winds (1935)
... Read more

Product Description
NOTE: This edition has a linked "Table of Contents" and has been beautifully formatted (searchable and interlinked) to work on your Amazon e-book reader or iPod e-book reader.

Richard Hannay was one of the first modern spy thriller heroes and as such has heavily influenced the genre.

Included in this volume:

Book One: The Thirty-Nine Steps
Richard Hannay, who, despite claiming to be an "ordinary fellow", is caught up in the dramatic race against a plot to devastate the British war effort. Hannay is hunted across the Scottish moors by police and a pitiless enemy in the corridors of Whitehall and, finally, at the site of the mysterious 39 steps. The best-known of Buchan's thrillers, this novel has been continuously in print since first publication and has been filmed three times.

Book Two: Greenmantle
This novel continues the story of Richard Hannay, taking him from convalescence following the Battle of Loos, back to London for a vital meeting at the Foreign Office, and thence on a top-secret mission across war-torn German-occupied Europe.

Book Three: Mr. Standfast
It's 1917 and Hannay is brought out of the battlefield to perform the desperate task of tracking down and destroying a network of German spies. Hannay's opponent is Morton Ivery, the bland master of disguise, who seeks to outwit Hannay as he and his agents are pursued through England, Scotland, France, and Switzerland. For its pace and suspense, its changes of scene, and thrilling descriptions of the last great battles against the Germans, Mr Standfast offers everything that has made its author so enduringly popular.

These are well-written, thrilling suspense stories. A must-have for classic pulp action fans! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent collection
This is an excellent collection of Richard Hannay.Although not listed in the description or table of contents, The Man from The Norlands is also included.It just shows up after The Three Hostages.It's wonderful on Kindle as you have access to the dictionary, which helps with the verbage of that era.
This was treat to read and I highly recommend it to history buffs or if you just enjoy a good old fashioned yarn!

Kindle-specific review - AGB
This is a Kindle-specific review by AGB.

The set consists of the 5 Hannay novels, The Thirty-Nine Steps; Greenmantle; Mr. Standfast; The Three Hostages; The Island of Sheep.

The text has been well-formatted for Kindle, and there is a simple opening navigation page to the start of each individual novel.

Metadata - the Title is simple and easy to find in the Kindle list; on my version the Author was incorrectly set, and indexed on "J" for John rather than "B" for Buchan (I applied a time-consuming Mobi2Mobi fix myself to correct the metadata....).

A recommended set.
... Read more

Product Description
This book offers an introduction to the breadth and diversity of the literary and non-literary work of John Buchan (1875-1940). It stakes a claim for him as an engaged interpreter of twentieth-century modernity, and provides evaluative readings of his output. In addition to demonstrating how Buchan's work complicates the reductive view of early twentieth-century literature as neatly cordoned-off into 'low' and 'high' forms of production, this book discusses his theories of empire and imperialism, his account of historiography, and his response to the First World War. In addition to his many roles as a journalist, propagandist, war reporter, editor, civil servant, and statesman, Buchan was a committed literary critic, philosopher, and writer of history. This book explores the many connections between his work and such modernists as Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, D.H. Lawrence, and Wyndham Lewis, and it situates Buchan as an intellectual figure who provided a distinctive set of readings of his modern times. Running throughout is a consideration of Buchan's fascination with binaries, doubles, and duality, which his work variously upholds and investigates. It ends with a discussion of Buchan's most famous work - 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' (1915) - in relation to paranoia and pathology. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "John Buchan," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have John Buchan in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with John Buchan when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name John Buchan, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Product Description
Witch Wood is a story of seventeenth-century witchcraft in the Wood of Caledon in the Scottish Borders.The parish minister tries in vain to prevent devil worship and protect his protestant congregation.Meanwhile, civil unrest of the Scottish Wars of the Covenant divides the minister's loyalties.Buchan also weaves in a romantic love story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Beauty of Sacrificial Love
Strange things haunt the woods. Stranger things haunt the human heart. Rev. David Semphill does battle with both.

Feint-hearted professions are commonplace. The blindness is willful. Preoccupied with the English Civil Wars and upholding the Solemn League and Covenant, Semphill's Scottish Presbytery ignores his pleas for help. Eventually, they turn against him, leaving the young minister alone in his battle with the Paganism that grips his parish.

In its attempt to destroy both, Hypocrisy masquerades as truth and beauty. Buchan's novel pulls away the veil, revealing, especially through Semphill's personal struggles, the ugliness of hypocrisy and the beauty of unreserved, sacrificial love.

Surprisingly Good
Buchan is best known today as the author of the espionage thriller, The 39 Steps, though more people have probably seen the Hitchcock movie version than read the book.Readers expecting something similar to 39 Steps or Buchan's other thrillers will be disappointed by Witch Wood.This is, however, a better book than the thrillers.Buchan patterned Witch Wood after Robert Louis Stevenson historical novels like Kidnapped or The Master of Ballantrae, books which take a human issue and the historical setting seriously.Set in 17th century lowland Scotland, the hero of Witch Wood is a young and idealistic Presbyterian minister.This book, which has adventure elements, is essentially a story of conflicts of conscience faced by the hero.Buchan was the son of a Presbyterian minister, had a strong interest in church history, and at one point in his public career, was directly involved in the affairs of the Church of Scotland.I suspect as well that elements are based on his own boyhood.While aspects of the plot are a bit contrived and some parts anachronistic, Buchan really does well in making something human and interesting out of the doctrinal politics and theology of Presbyterianism at this time.

C. S. Lewis said: "That's the way to do it"
C. S. Lewis liked this novel so much that he sent the author a fan letter, stating his appreciation for Buchan's novels but speaking especially of his gratitude for Witch Wood.Lewis commended the skilful buildup of atmosphere.You can find this Lewisian nugget in Janet Adam Smith's John Buchan and His World.

As for myself - - I suppose I have read this novel three times, with much enjoyment.

stick to the witches, buchan!
some really really great descriptions here, of forest and sabbaths. the greatest i have read in fact. a priest tries to persuade his congregation to become good christians. some worship ancient religions. there is a coven performing rituals in the woods. if only Buchan would have sticked to that. but no. intrigues, a love story, doubts, and worst of all: another story completely different than this is formed, and this story is boring. for political reasons the priest needs to defend an action. and that destroys the previous story. in the end it all becomes a mediocre blur.

Witch Wood
A good, engaging read. Well developed characters and an excellent insight into a peculiar time of history. Also, a healthy examination of the religious doctrines and culture that define the Scottish Presbyterianpresence in what is now referred to as the Reformed Faith. ... Read more

Product Description
Edward Leithen is the closest of Buchan's protagonists to the author's own experience and imagination. A prosperous Scots lawyer and MP in London, Leithen seeks adventure to relieve the tedium of respectability. In The Power House he is forced by event and accident to see civilisation as a thin veneer over the human jungle; in John Macnab he makes his own adventure by playing the poacher; in Sick Heart River, seeking a lost friend he meets death and redemption in the wastes of Canada. Each book contrasts with the others; each pulls us into Buchan's world and holds us there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Man Worth Discovering
John Buchan is a man worth reading, worth studying--a kind of omnicompetent hero like Theodore Roosevelt. This volume collects an interesting variety of his stories, and though I did not enjoy them as much as I did his novel series The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay: The Thirty-Nine Steps/Greenmantle/Mr. Standfast/the Three Hostages (I still haven't read the last volume), I am glad to have learned more about Buchan from these stories that take us into Canada and into a later time of his life experience. ... Read more

Product Description
This historical adventure romance portrays the lives of the Covenanters in the Scottish Borders.It is the seventeenth century and treachery and revenge feature when a young nobleman sets out to gain an education abroad.In his absence he is betrayed by his cousin. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

John Burnet of Barnes
My wife is a descendant of the Burnett's of Barnes. We ordered the four hardbacks you had available for Christmas presents. Each had been removed from a library in excellent condition and each was received timely from different vendors. Thanks ... Read more