The Thirty-nine Steps
(John Buchan)
The Thirty-nine Steps is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, first published in 1915 by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous habit of getting himself out of sticky situations.In May 1914, Europe is close to war and spies are everywhere. Richard Hannay has just arrived back in London from Rhodesia to begin a new life when a freelance spy called Franklin P. Scudder calls on Hannay to ask for help. Scudder takes Hannay into his confidence and tells him that he has uncovered a German plot to murder the Greek Prime Minister in London and to steal British plans for the outbreak of war. He is following a ring of German spies called the Black Stone.A few days later, Hannay returns to his flat to find Scudder murdered. If Hannay goes to the police, they will arrest him for Scudder?s murder. He decides to continue Scudder?s work and his adventure begins. He escapes from the German spies watching the house and makes his way to Scotland.The hunt for Hannay begins. He is chased across Scotland both by the police and by the German spies.The mysterious phrase Thirty-nine Steps first mentioned by Scudder becomes the title of the novel and the solution to its meaning is a thread that runs through the whole story.
In The Thirty-nine Steps, Buchan holds up Richard Hannay as an example to his readers of an ordinary man who puts his country?s interests before his own safety. The story was a great success with the men in the First World War trenches. One soldier wrote to Buchan, "The story is greatly appreciated in the midst of mud and rain and shells, and all that could make trench life depressing."Buchan continued to work for the intelligence services during and after the war and Richard Hannay continued his adventures in Greenmantle and other stories.
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