A gripping tale of adventure that has enthralled readers since it was first published, John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps is edited with an introduction and notes by Sir John Keegan in Penguin Classics.
Adventurer Richard Hannay has just returned from South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his London life - until a spy is murdered in his flat, just days after having warned Hannay of an assassination plot that could plunge Britain into a war with Germany. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay picks up the trail left by the assassins,... more
Adventurer Richard Hannay has just returned from South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his London life - until a spy is murdered in his flat, just days after having warned Hannay of an assassination plot that could plunge Britain into a war with Germany. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay picks up the trail left by the assassins,... more
Reviews and Recommendations
We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Thirty-Nine Steps (Richard Hannay, #1) from the world's leading experts.
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Frank Cottrell Boyce It’s quite a good book, but it’s got one great idea, and Hitchcock ran with it. When adapting a book it’s much better to take the thing that’s brilliant about it and polish it. (Source)
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Michael Farr Hitchcock said of The Thirty-Nine Steps that it was a wonderful book to film because you didn’t need to do a storyboard, it was all there already. (Source)
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Sam Bourne It is extraordinarily fast paced. A huge part of any good thriller is the chase, and this is very good on that. (Source)