The Thirty-Nine Steps

John Buchan

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139568166

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. Although the book is an exciting, if occasionally implausible, adventure story, it may be marred for a modern readership by the racism and anti-Semitism it expresses, though this was not exceptional for the period. The writing is also noticeable, however, for lyrical descriptions of the Scottish border country in which Buchan himself grew up.

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The Thirty-Nine Steps

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp 1-4

TO THOMAS ARTHUR NELSON, LOTHIAN AND BORDER HORSE
pp 5-6

Contents
pp 7-8

CHAP. I - THE MAN WHO DIED
pp 9-35

CHAP. II - THE MILKMAN SETS OUT ON HIS TRAVELS
pp 36-50

CHAP. III - THE ADVENTURE OF THE LITERARY INNKEEPER
pp 51-78

CHAP. IV - THE ADVENTURE OF THE RADICAL CANDIDATE
pp 79-104

CHAP. V - THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECTACLED ROADMAN
pp 105-125

CHAP. VI - THE ADVENTURE OF THE BALD ARCHÆOLOGIST
pp 126-160

CHAP. VII - THE DRY-FLY FISHERMAN
pp 161-185

CHAP. VIII - THE COMING OF THE BLACK STONE
pp 186-203

CHAP. IX - THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS
pp 204-220

CHAP. X - VARIOUS PARTIES CONVERGING ON THE SEA
pp 221-253

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