The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)

"At Oxford Circus I looked up into the spring sky and I made 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."

John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps is a fast paced spy thriller/political drama following a plot that may lead to the outbreak of a world war. It centres on Richard Hannay, an expat recently returned to England after several years in South Africa, drawn into a plot of international intrigue by an American who promptly ends up dead. Seemingly framed for the murder, Hannay goes on the run, dodging both the police and the agents of the conspiracy, narrowly escaping capture (or worse) several times as he struggles to unravel the plot that he has unwittingly stumbled into.

Buchan's prose is simple and unadorned, taking the reader from one incredible scene to the next switfly and with little fuss. Although the novel deals with a plot to assassinate a world leader, which in turn will lead to war, and was published during as the First World War was entering into its second year, there's a lightness to it and it plays out like a caper. One of the more entertaining aspects of the novel is the way Buchan details how Hannay shifts from one persona to another, altering his appearance on the fly and creating new characters for himself to play, although this sense that the adventure is something of a lark is somewhat difficult to reconcile with the seriousness of the plot, especially as the story nears its conclusion.

The Thirty-Nine Steps has been adapted to the screen numerous times and it's easy to understand why. Despite some minor inconsistencies with respect to tone, it's an exciting and taut thriller, the archetypal one man army/man on the run, type story, and Hannay is an interesting and engaging character. Hannay would go on to star in four more novels by Buchan, further exploring his wartime adventures, though The Thirty-Nine Steps is the best known and most enduring of the stories. Although parts of the novel sometimes feel a bit cliched in the light of 2011, The Thirty-Nine Steps holds up remarkably well and is well worth revisiting.