The Thirty-nine Steps
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| Author | John Buchan |
|---|---|
| Country | Scotland |
| Language | English |
| Series | Richard Hannay |
| Genre(s) | Thriller, Novel |
| Publisher | William Blackwood & Sons |
| Released | 1915 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Followed by | Greenmantle |
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.
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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[edit] Background
John Buchan wrote The Thirty-nine Steps while he was ill in bed with a duodenal ulcer, an illness which remained with him all his life. The novel was his first "shocker", as he called it - a story combining personal and political dramas. The novel marked a turning point in Buchan’s literary career and introduced his famous adventuring hero, Richard Hannay. He described a "shocker" as an adventure where the events in the story are unlikely and the reader is only just able to believe that they really happened.
[edit] Plot introduction
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 claims to be 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.
[edit] Plot summary
Richard Hannay, the protagonist and narrator, an expatriated Scot, returns from a long stay in Southern Africa to his new home, a flat in London. One night he is buttonholed by a stranger, a well-travelled American, who claims to be in fear for his life. The man appears to know of an anarchist plot to destabilise Europe, beginning with a plan to assassinate the Greek Premier, Karolides, during his forthcoming visit to London. He reveals his name to be Franklin P. Scudder. Hannay lets Scudder hide in his flat, and returns later the next day to find that another man has been found shot dead in the same building, apparently a suicide. Four days later Hannay returns home to find Scudder dead with a knife through his heart.
Hannay fears that the murderers will come for him next, but cannot ask the police for help because he is the most likely suspect for the murders. Not only does he want to avoid imprisonment, but he also feels a duty to take up Scudder's cause and save Karolides from the assassination, planned in three weeks' time. He decides to go into hiding in Scotland and then to contact the authorities at the last minute. In order to escape from his flat unseen, he bribes the milkman to lend him his uniform and exits wearing it. Carrying Scudder's pocket-book, he catches a train to Scotland.
Arriving at the countryside somewhere near Galloway, Hannay lodges in a shepherd's cottage. The next morning he reads in a newspaper that the police are looking for him in Scotland. He boards a local train and jumps off between stations. He is seen but escapes, finding an inn where he stays the night. He tells the innkeeper a modified version of his story, and the man is persuaded to shelter him. While staying at the inn, Hannay cracks the substitution cipher used in Scudder's pocket-book. The next day two men arrive at the inn looking for Hannay, but the innkeeper sends them away. When they return later, Hannay steals their car and escapes.
On his way, Hannay reflects on what he has learnt from Scudder's notes. They contradict the story that Scudder first told to him, and mention an enemy group called the Black Stone and the mysterious Thirty-nine Steps. The United Kingdom appears to be in danger of an invasion by Germany and its allies. By this time, Hannay is being pursued by an aeroplane, and a policeman in a remote village has tried to stop him. Trying to avoid an oncoming car, Hannay crashes his own, but the other driver offers to take him home. The man is Sir Harry, a local politician, and when he learns of Hannay's experience of South Africa, he invites him to address a meeting that afternoon. Hannay's speech impresses Sir Harry, and Hannay feels able to trust him with his story. Sir Harry writes an introductory letter about Hannay to a relation in the Foreign Office.
Hannay leaves Sir Harry and tries to hide in the countryside, but is spotted by the aeroplane. Soon he spots a group of men on the ground searching for him. Miraculously, he meets a road mender out on the moor, and swaps places with him, sending the workman home. His disguise fools his pursuers, who pass him by. On the same road he meets a rich motorist, whom he recognises from London, and whom he forces to exchange clothes with him and drive him off the moor.
The next day, Hannay manages to stay ahead of the pursuers, and hides in a cottage occupied by an old man. Unfortunately, the man turns out to be one of the enemy, and with his accomplices he imprisons Hannay. Fortunately, the room in which Hannay is locked is full of bomb-making materials, which he uses to break out of the cottage, injuring himself in the process.
A day later, Hannay retrieves his possessions from the helpful roadmender and stays for a few days to recover from the explosion, and catches a train to England, to meet Sir Harry's relative at the Foreign Office, Sir Walter, at his home in Berkshire. As they discuss Scudder's notes, Sir Walter receives a phone call to tell him that Karolides has been assassinated.
Sir Walter, now at his house in London, lets Hannay in on some military secrets before releasing him to go home. Hannay is unable to shake off his sense of involvement in important events, and returns to Sir Walter's house. He is just in time to see a man, whom he recognises as one of his former pursuers in Scotland, leaving the house. Hannay warns Sir Walter that the man has been spying, and they realise that he is about to return to Europe with his stolen information. At that point Hannay realises that the phrase "the thirty-nine steps" could refer to the landing-point in England from which the spy is about to set sail. Throughout the night Hannay and the United Kingdom's military leaders try to work out the meaning of the mysterious phrase.
After some reasoning worthy of Sherlock Holmes, and with the help of a knowledgeable coastguard, the group decide on a coastal town in Kent. They find a path down from the cliff that has thirty-nine steps. Just offshore they see a yacht. Posing as fishermen, some of the party visit the yacht, the Ariadne, and find that at least one of the crew appears to be German. The only people onshore are playing tennis by a villa and appear to be English, but they match Scudder's description of the conspirators, The Black Stone. Hannay, alone, confronts the men at the villa. After a struggle, two of the men are captured while the third flees to the yacht, which meanwhile has been seized by the British authorities. The plot is thwarted, and the United Kingdom enters the First World War having kept its military secrets from the enemy.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
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.
[edit] Characters in "The Thirty-Nine Steps"
- Richard Hannay – an expatriated Scot recently returned from South Africa, protagonist and narrator
- Franklin P. Scudder – freelance spy
- Karolides – Greek Premier under threat of assassination
- Sir Harry – a local Scottish politician
- Sir Walter – Sir Harry's relation at the Foreign Office
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
There have been several film versions of the book; all depart substantially from the text, for example introducing a love interest absent from the original novel. For the films, the title is often abbreviated to The 39 Steps, but the full title is more commonly used for the book and for the 1978 adaptation.
An interesting feature of the phrase "the 39 Steps" is that its meaning in each of the film versions is essentially different not only from the book, but also between the various films. In the 1935 film and the 1959 remake, the phrase refers to the clandestine organisation itself; in the book and in 1978 film version, it does refer to physical steps, but located in different places and with different significance to the plot.
[edit] 1935
Alfred Hitchcock's version of the story, starring Robert Donat as Hannay.
[edit] 1959
A remake of Hitchcock's version, starring Kenneth More.
[edit] 1978
A more faithful adaptation of Buchan's novel, with Robert Powell playing Hannay.
[edit] 2006
A second remake of the Hitchcock version by director Robert Towne was planned for 2006, announced in 2004, although he had since commented that this project is, "sort of on the back burner."[1]
Also in 2006, a comic theatrical adaptation by Patrick Barlow opened in London's Tricycle Theatre, and after a successful run transferred to the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly. Although based on Buchan's novel, it is also highly influenced by Hitchcock's 1935 film adaptation.
[edit] The Real Thirty-Nine Steps
Buchan wrote the book while he was recuperating from illness at a house called St Cuby, Cliff Promenade, Broadstairs. A set of stairs, tunnelled into the cliff, still runs from the garden to the beach.[2]
[edit] Trivia
At the old Wembley Stadium thirty nine steps needed to be climbed to reach the Royal box and collect a winner's trophy.
[edit] External links
- The Thirty-Nine Steps, available freely at Project Gutenberg
- The Thirty Nine Steps. Free HTML eBook, Houghton Mifflin Company 1919.
- The Thirty-Nine Steps Free PDF eBook
- Free digitally-voiced audiobook of The Thirty-Nine Steps at Babblebooks.com
- A review of the book from MysteryGuide.com
- An article on Buchan and The Thirty-Nine Steps from the "California Literary Review"
- 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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John Buchan's Richard Hannay novels |
|
The Thirty-nine Steps | Greenmantle | Mr Standfast | The Three Hostages | The Courts of the Morning | The Island of Sheep |
| Film adaptations |
|---|
| The 39 Steps (1935 film) | The 39 Steps (1959 film) | The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978 film) |
