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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN num: 9780879238711
ISBN number: 0879238712
Label: David R Godine
Manufacturer: David R Godine
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 672
Printing Date: December 01, 1994
Publishing house: David R Godine
Sale Popularity Level: 99395
Studio: David R Godine
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Product Description:
Here, from the father of spy fiction, is the grand sequence of his great master spy's adventures in four famous books: The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast and The Three Hostages.
From the introduction by Robin W. Winks:
John Buchan is the father of the modern spy thriller. This is so even though the Hannay books are not, strictly speaking, about spies at all...They are about penetration of the enemy, about lonely escape and wild journeys, about the thin veneer that stands between civilization and barbarism even in the most elegant drawing-room in London.
The Thirty-Nine Steps shows...an attractive man, not too young...and not too old, since he must have the knowledge of maturity and substantial experience on which he will draw while being able to respond to the physical rigors of chase and pursuit. Let the hero, who appears at very first to be relatively ordinary, and who thinks of himself as commonplace, be drawn against his best judgment into a mystery he only vaguely comprehends, so that he and the reader may share the growing tension together. Set him a task to perform...Place obstacles in his path the enemy, best left as ill-defined as possible, so that our hero cannot be certain who he might trust. See to it that he cannot turn to established authority to help, indeed that the police, the military, the establishment will be actively working against him.
Then set a clock ticking...
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Rated by buyers 
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"The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay" gathers in one volume stories written by John Buchan during and after his service as an British intelligence officer during the First World War. The very first two stories were actually written and published as the war with Imperial Germany and her allies progressed, imparting a sense of urgency and uncertainty about the outcome that an historical novel written after the fact might not have captured in the same way. "The Thirty-Nine Steps", "Greenmantle", "Mr. Standfast", and "The Three Hostages" follow the career of South African mining engineer and British Army officer Richard Hannay. Hannay stumbles into the spy business through the murder of an accidental lodger in "The Thirty-Nine Steps", set in the time just before the outbreak of war, and is repeatedly called back to the spying businees, often from his military duties, in the remaining stories. Buchan's technique improved with practice; the stories develop more complicated plotlines and smoother deliveries.
Those familar with the Sherlock Holmes stories will find a similar sort of pacing in Buchan's adventure stories. Buchan relies heavily on coincidence and exotic settings in advancing his story lines, and some of the stereotypes and language will seem dated to modern readers. Some other portions of the stories will seem remarkably fresh, as for example Hannay's description of the opposition by some Britons to the War with Germany, proof, if we needed it, that human nature is remarkably constant. The story lines are engaging, and Richard Hannay is a sympathetic hero, if very much a man of his times. Buchan, a born and raised Scotsman, is often at his literary best in describing the people, land and simple details of ordinary living of Scotland and England.
Readers are highly encouraged to read the introductory essay by Robin Winks, which provides excellent background on the remarkable life of John Buchan and the context of his writing. In his description of the "Buchan Formula", Winks makes the case that Buchan is the literary forefather of later writers of spy fiction such as Jon LeCare.
This book is highly recommended to those fans of the spy genre who would like to explore its antecendants, and to those readers looking for authentic period piece stories.
Rated by buyers 
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Buchan hasn't held up. His people are shadows and caricatures that read like the over-made-up characters in some silent movie. He doesn't seem to have much of a grip on religion, language, ethnicity or simple human motivations. Authors fade into obscurity for a reason -- and there are reasons why book introductions, like the one offered here, take on such a defensive tone. In Buchan's case the reason is his tales of exotic adventure read like one part Kipling and 20 parts dishwater. If you must read him, don't go anywhere near "Kim" until you're well through.
Rated by buyers -
Having just finished Mr Standfast I felt it a good time to review my thoughts and emotions stirred by the book.
Mr Standfast, the third Buchan novel in the General Hannay series, is a fascinating study in the era in which it was both set and authored. Being published in 1919, the events of WW1, the topic of the book, were no doubt fresh in the authors mind.
The book is not easy for the 21st Century reader with many words not frequently in current use. Keep a dictionary handy. It is however a stimulating read with a great historical
backdrop. Whilst at times farfetched and Biggles like in it's gingoistic tone, the reader is drawn into Hannay's affection for his cause. Overall, a thoroughly recommended read.
Rated by buyers 
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As my title says, the Four Adventures are real classics that spawned a whole library of imitators. Written as they were during the First World War and immediate post-war period by someone who both hob-nobbed with the political movers and shakers of the time & may have participated in some intertesting Intelligence work on his own (see Peter Hopkirk's LIKE HIDDEN FIRE for some of the "facts" behind GREENMANTLE) they capture a time a place and a people at the height of British global dominance. Given that the very first three tales were written during some of the most desperate days of World War I it is no accident that there is some pro-British propaganda, but as the excellnt introduction to this edition points out, Buchan is remarkably kind to both friends and foes, and while the Bad-Guys are truly Bad, they also have their redeeming qualities. THIRTY-NINE STEPS has been made into a number of movies, none of which do it justice. GREENMANTLE is my personal favorite & reading it again for the umpteenth time last year I was struck by how remarkably prescient Buchan was as to the problems we now face with an Islamic Middle East. Mr. Standfast actually wraps things up nicely, with some excellent descriptions of fighting on the Western Front, and I always felt that THE FOUR HOSTAGES was a bit of a tag-on that really wasn't needed (the same can be said of the fifth and long out of print Hannay adventure THE ISLE OF SHEEP, which has been sensibly left out of this volume). If you like adventure stories with a strong male hero, a nice mystery, clearly defined Good and Evil, an appealing heroine (in the last three Adventures) and a good sense of history by someone who actually made part of it, this volume is for you. Readers of Alan Furst & the like will see where contemporary authors got their ideas & timing. This is a wonderful look into a now vanished world that still has clues to our troubled present.
Rated by buyers -
'Nuff said about the 39-steps; read the book. If I had written the 39-steps, I could have died without regret.
Buchan delved the emotional depths of strong, silent men, in the wild mystical motion of Greenmantle & in the static unshaken forces of endurance & will of Mr. Standfast. In these two tales, he brought the irresistible force & the immoveable object, the two opposing forces of nature, the storm & the rock, the Yin & the Yang, into being, in his writing.
Strangely, it is another, black, South African, the great Nelson Mandela, who typified in real life, the qualities of Buchan's fictional Boer, Peter Pienaar.
The three hostages was a cop-out, an afterthought, the dabbling of an artist who had reached the top of the mountain and was now relaxing & drawing pretty pictures for his grandchildren.
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