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Anyone like the novel The Thirty Nine Steps

Matt007Matt007
edited July 2013 in Literary 007 Posts: 1,314
By John Buchan?

My favourite book and one to read in a few sittings.

Comments

  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Not yet, but one I mean to in the future, definitely.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    edited July 2013 Posts: 9,117
    Classic, rip snorting stuff!

    I think I prefer the film on balance but still a corker and you can see the influence on Fleming in set pieces and keeping the page turning.

    Has anyone read the others? In on holiday now and have Greenmantle on the kindle. Following this thread I'll think I'll start it when I finish the exposé of FIFA I'm currently reading.

    Also which Bond villain is it where Fleming has Bond think about him that he could hood his eyes like a hawk which was the stuff of his Buchanan reading boyhood nightmares?
  • Matt007Matt007
    Posts: 1,314
    I always thought the final scene ...

    *spoilers*

    When they are playing cards and Hannay sees through their disguises is very cinematic.

    There are about 5 books aren't there? Isle of sheep being one. Not read any but maybe one day.
  • Sir_James_MoloneySir_James_Moloney
    Posts: 388
    Love the 39 Steps although agree with Wiz that the Hitchcock film is an improvement. I think the book and film really are the grandparents of modern action cinema. The other books in the series are all very enjoyable but not as good as the original.

    The West End show is also excellent and very highly recommended for fans of the film (tickets can usually be picked up pretty cheaply too)
  • Villiers53Villiers53
    edited July 2013 Posts: 802
    TheWizardOfIce wrote:
    Classic, rip snorting stuff!

    I think I prefer the film on balance but still a corker and you can see the influence on Fleming in set pieces and keeping the page turning.

    Has anyone read the others? In on holiday now and have Greenmantle on the kindle. Following this thread I'll think I'll start it when I finish the exposé of FIFA I'm currently reading.

    Also which Bond villain is it where Fleming has Bond think about him that he could hood his eyes like a hawk which was the stuff of his Buchanan reading boyhood nightmares?

    The great @TheWizardOflce & Sir James,
    You are so correct, rip snorting stuff and clearly a huge influence on Fleming.
    Personally, I prefer the book to Hitchcock's film version of the '39 steps' but both are good.
    As for the other Richard Hannay novels, I wasn't a great fan of 'Greenmantle' but 'The Three Hostages' is absolutely fantastic!

  • thelivingroyalethelivingroyale
    Posts: 12,837
    I haven't read it but I do like the Hitchcock film (haven't seen the 50s one for ages so I can't really fairly judge it).
  • Hank_ScorpioHank_Scorpio
    Posts: 68
    I think the Hannay novels as a whole (with the exception of the last one, Island of Sheep) are brilliant. 39 steps is indeed one of my favorite books. I like the Hitchcock film, but much like the novel YOLT and the film, you almost have to treat them separately. My other favorite Buchan novel is Greenmantle, a unique story that has some truth to it even today. The idea of a single radical Arab uniting the Middle East in a war against the west seems oddly prevalent today. Plus *spoiler* the idea of a woman as the villain was something even Fleming never delved into.
  • Perilagu_KhanPerilagu_Khan
    Posts: 2,483
    Rosa Klebb was quite the villain.
  • Hank_ScorpioHank_Scorpio
    Posts: 68
    Perilagu_Khan wrote:
    Rosa Klebb was quite the villain.

    To me she wasn't the head "mastermind" (that would be General G), she seemed more like a high up henchwoman. However, technically speaking I could give you her.
  • 007InVT007InVT Classified
    Posts: 893
    Funny, this novel has serendipitously come up for me a few other places.

    Will read this soon I think.
  • NapoleonPluralNapoleonPlural
    Posts: 512
    The film is as close to the book as some of the Bond films are to their source material, ie not very, but not always worse for that.

    I was a bit shocked to read the follow-up, Greenmantle. Hannay describes World War I's Battle of Loos as something like a 'skirmish', though 60,000 died in it. Reading it, you realise how so many got gulled into joining up; it must have seemed the right, proper thing to do go go willingly to slaughter and Buchan even posits the idea that a fella might not relish a cavalry charge only if he is a bloke who has never lived life to the full. Very odd in that context to read that hero Hannay admits that he has never had much dealings with women in his life ie he must be a virgin, hence his inexperience dealing with a femme fetale in the story. Fleming's Bond must have been written as a counterbalance.

    Greenmantle did put me off further Hannay novels, it's quite unlike The 39 Steps as he is recruited by the Govt, much as Bond would later be, and there are a lot of daft coincidences too, plus the thing is rather xenophobic. Oh, another odd thing. Though Hannay sidelines or tactfully avoids spelling out the slaughter of the Great War, he never actually kills anyone close up if I recall, he leaves them to fight another day, though they've just tried to kill him.
  • SaintMarkSaintMark
    Posts: 7,653
    As I understood from a brilliant documentary series I watched about WOI (of course BBC) there was a sensorship towards the general audience when it came to giving insight in the first BIG war as the goverment needed the bodies to replentish their huge losses in senseless and stupid battles.

    So it is possible that Buchan either walked the line set down by the home-office or was not quite as knowledgeable about the truth of WOI and what really took place.

    That said 39 steps is a great novel and the rest of them are just not as good. (similar to the Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper and the other 4 books about Nattie Bumpoo aka Hawkeye are decent but not as good).
  • fire_and_icefire_and_ice
    edited July 2013 Posts: 6,432
    Not read the book though Hitchcocks 39 steps is arguably his best pre hollywood movie. Though The lady vanishes is also brilliant.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    edited July 2013 Posts: 15,229
    Hank_Scorpio wrote:
    Perilagu_Khan wrote:
    Rosa Klebb was quite the villain.

    To me she wasn't the head "mastermind" (that would be General G), she seemed more like a high up henchwoman. However, technically speaking I could give you her.

    She was still the main antagonist of the novel and film, with Grant.

    I watched one of the movie adaptations of The 39 Steps, but not the Hitchcock one, the one with Robert Powell. It was enjoyable.
  • NapoleonPluralNapoleonPlural
    Posts: 512
    The handcuffed banter in 39 Steps is where you see a prototype Bond, v similar to that of Moore and Bach in Spy Who Loved Me.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited July 2013 Posts: 18,344
    Glad to see you over here too, @NapoleonPlural, even though you got my name wrong over on AJB! How could you forget @Dragonpol?
  • fire_and_icefire_and_ice
    edited July 2013 Posts: 6,432
    Dragonpol wrote:
    Glad to see you over here too, @NapoleonPlural, even though you got my name wrong over on AJB! How could you forget @Dragonpol?


    NapoleonPlural.
    Thought i recognized the name from AJB was on there about ten years ago or so.
  • NapoleonPluralNapoleonPlural
    Posts: 512
    Man, that's a long time for both of us to be on Bond forums!

    Hi Dragonpol, good to see you pop in on ajb! I still have it in mind to send you that DVD I promised (not porn, for anyone else reading this!).

    Back on topic, the final 'revelation' scene when the scales fall from Hannay's eyes is not unlike Cruise in the first Mission Impossible when he figures what really happened that night in Prague.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited July 2013 Posts: 18,344
    NapoleonPlural wrote:
    Man, that's a long time for both of us to be on Bond forums!

    Hi Dragonpol, good to see you pop in on ajb! I still have it in mind to send you that DVD I promised (not porn, for anyone else reading this!).

    Back on topic, the final 'revelation' scene when the scales fall from Hannay's eyes is not unlike Cruise in the first Mission Impossible when he figures what really happened that night in Prague.

    Hi again Nap,

    Which DVD may I ask? Sounds very interesting. I am in talks with Sir Miles about a possible return to AJB in 2014 at the moment. We'll see what comes out of it.

    Perhaps you will PM me later here on MI6.

    Best wishes,

    Dragonpol.
  • RichardoRichardo
    Posts: 135
    I have not read the novel. I prefer the filmic version as envisioned by Alfred Hitchcock.

    In a pinch for reading, I will perfunctorily go for the latest Dan Brown. Always.
  • bbartlettbooksbbartlettbooks
    edited August 2013 Posts: 10
    The novel is classic, and the Hitchcock film an improvement on it, but check out the recent (2010) BBC version - a bit more faithful to the novel and nicely done.

  • BentleyBentley
    Posts: 267
    bbartlettbooks wrote:
    The novel is classic, and the Hitchcock film an improvement on it, but check out the recent (2010) BBC version - a bit more faithful to the novel and nicely done.

    Absolutely the best version and Rupert Perry- Jones made a fabulous Hanny.
    I wish the BBC would make the "Three Hostages" with Perry - Jones repealing the role.

  • NapoleonPluralNapoleonPlural
    Posts: 512
    Didn't care for that version, seemed a bit twee and implausible. Having Hannay track down the villains on his todd seemed daft, though it may have been in the book. The Hitchcock version made more sense, and allowed for a real creepy moment.
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