Published 1915 / Length 138 pages
‘Richard Hannay’s neighbour, Colonel Scudder, tells him of an anarchist plot to murder the Greek premier and tip Europe into war. When Hannay later finds Scudder dead, he thinks the police will accuse him of murder, and goes on the run. So begins Buchan’s classic page-turner, which sees Hannay pursued by both the police and German spies through Galloway, Berkshire and Kent. Throughout this brief and gripping chase narrative, Hannay uses resource and cunning to avoid his pursuers. A certain suspension of disbelief is required to buy into the novel’s close scrapes and unlikely coincidences. But disbelief duly suspended, you’ll enjoy a fast-paced romp that helped shape the thriller genre, and a dashing spy-catcher who served as a prototype for countless heroes to come. And if some of Hannay’s escapades seem a bit clichéd or old-fashioned now, it’s only because Buchan’s formula was so mercilessly aped by the writers who followed him.
‘Despite its archaic tone, the novel was enjoyable, and had enough twists and turns to keep me involved. The character of Richard Hannay was a bit two-dimensional, though. He just seemed to be a straightforward hero with no weaknesses.’ – COLLETTE, 28
• The novel is often classified as ‘genre’ fiction rather than serious literary fiction. Is there really such a difference between the two?
• How are the upper and lower classes presented in the book? What does this tell us about attitudes to class in the early twentieth century?
• In his preface, Buchan describes the novel as a ‘shocker’, which he defines as a book ‘where the incidents defy the probabilities and march just inside the borders of the possible’. Do you think he succeeded with this last aim?
• How does the novel compare to more recent thrillers? How does Hannay differ from modern heroes?
• The novel has been filmed three times: in 1935, 1959 and 1978. The best known remains Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 version, which was ranked fourth in a British Film Institute poll of the greatest British films ever made.
• Like Jeffrey Archer and Edwina Currie, Buchan was a Conservative MP as well as a novelist.
• Buchan is said to have modelled the character of Richard Hannay partly on his friend Edmund Ironside, who worked as a spy in the Boer War.
• The adventures of Richard Hannay continue in four other novels – Greenmantle (1916), Mr Standfast (1919), The Three Hostages (1924) and The Island of Sheep (1936).
• The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. TOLKIEN – some early sections of Tolkien’s epic recall Buchan’s pursuit narrative.
• Casino Royale by IAN FLEMING – suave secret agent James Bond takes over the derring-do where Richard Hannay left off.
• The Third Man by GRAHAM GREENE – twisting the espionage genre to explore moral and political anxieties.
• The Da Vinci Code by DAN BROWN – reviving the formula of conspiracies, ciphers, breathless pursuit and wrongly accused hero to blockbusting effect. But will future generations remember it as fondly as The Thirty-Nine Steps?