I haven't seen the
film versions of
The Thirty-Nine Steps (there were three of them, the
Alfred Hitchcock being the first in
1935), but I read
John Buchan's
novel yesterday. Perhaps I should call it a
novella, though, because it has little over one hundred pages. I'm not going to go into the perceived differences between the novel and the film, because there are obviously a lot. This writeup will be solely about the original novel,
The Thirty-Nine Steps, written and published in
1915.
In which
genre would I place the novel? Well, it's an
adventure story, not the sort for children or teenagers, but for adults. It's a case of
good guys against
bad guys; and since the novel was written in
1915, it's the
English versus the
Germans. The novel contains
action,
suspense,
mystery and even pre-
WW1 politics; and a wonderful
main character named
Richard Hannay.
Since the novel is in
first person, the only information the reader learns of Hannay himself is through his thoughts or his conversations with others. At the beginning of the story, Hannay has just returned to
London after being a
mining engineer in
South Africa for a few years. He begins to
muse about how "the
Old Country" is considerably more boring than he had remembered. In fact, he makes a vow:
"I would give the Old Country another day to fit me into something; if nothing happened, I would take the next boat for the Cape."
Of course, something happens. A
mysterious man arrives at Hannay's door, begging
shelter and protection. This man is a sort of
spy, as it
transpires, who is being hunted for information that he has discovered. He tells Hannay everything, in the hope that our hero will help him with his
mission. Hannay doesn't really believe any of the
tall tale, until the next day when he returns home:
"My guest was lying sprawled on his back. There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him to the floor."
From that moment, Richard Hannay's life in in
peril. He is wanted by the police for his guest's murder, and he is chased by an even more
sinister network of enemy spies because
he knows too much. Hannay escapes to the deepest
rural Scotland, where he spends weeks evading
capture in the Scottish
moors, before it is safe for him to return and convince the
government of the
fiendish plot that he has uncovered.
Buchan writes what he knows, having been born and raised in Scotland and having worked in
South Africa for many years.
Hannay (who appears in four other Buchan novels) is the original
James Bond; a man who, without any experience of being a spy, manages to survive the length of the novel despite several dangerous situations. He speaks
fluent German, he is a
master of disguise, his knowledge of
explosives comes in handy, and his sharp mind keeps him
one step ahead of his enemies.
All in all,
The Thirty-Nine Steps is a thoroughly good read. It's full of
action and
adventure,
mystery and
suspense, but it's also one of the
classics. Buchan writes a
believable character, a
thrilling plot, and even adds a touch of
humour now and again. The most fascinating
aspect of the novel, in my opinion, is the ease with which Hannay is able to assume other identities and
personas, confusing his enemies at every turn. Buchan gets quite
philosophical about this issue; and it is essentially this, rather than the "
good versus evil" theme, that the novel is about: the
ultimate skill of the spy. As Hannay says:
"A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the same and is different."
All quotes taken from The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan