By John Buchan, 1915, eBook Made by PlanetPDF

"It is the dimension of the mysterious that makes Buchan’s writing so unfailingly compelling." -John Keegan

The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure novel by John Buchan, first published in 1915 by William Blackwood & Sons. 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.

The novel formed the basis for a number of film adaptations, notably Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 adaptation The 39 Steps, a 1959 colour remake and a more authentic 1978 version.

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Book Description:

In The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), the best-known of his thrillers (made into a popular movie by Alfred Hitchcock), John Buchan introduces his most enduring hero, Richard Hannay, who, despite claiming to be an "ordinary fellow," is caught up in the dramatic and dangerous race against a plot to devastate the British war effort.

In this, the only critical edition available, Christopher Harvie's introduction interweaves the writing of the tale with the equally fascinating story of how John Buchan, publisher and lawyer, came in from the cold and, via The Thirty-Nine Steps, ended the war as spy-master and propaganda chief.

Useful Links:

• The Thirty-Nine Steps, available for free via Project Gutenberg
• The Thirty Nine Steps. Free HTML eBook, Houghton Mifflin Company 1919.
• A review of the book from MysteryGuide.com
• An article on Buchan and the Thirty-Nine Steps from the "California Literary Review"
• Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935) at The Internet Movie Database
• The 39 Steps (1959) at The Internet Movie Database
• The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978) at The Internet Movie Database
• The 39 Steps (2006) at The Internet Movie Database

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