The Thirty-Nine Steps - Books Babb.no

No cover — John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps (2006, 1st World Library)

eBook

English language

Published Jan. 6, 2006 by 1st World Library.

OCLC Number:: 85760235

From the book:I returned from the City about three o'clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life. I had been three months in the Old Country, and was fed up with it. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would have been feeling like that I should have laughed at him; but there was the fact. The weather made me liverish, the talk of the ordinary Englishman made me sick, I couldn't get enough exercise, and the amuse-ments of London seemed as flat as soda-water that has been standing in the sun. 'Richard Hannay,' I kept telling myself, 'you have got into the wrong ditch, my friend, and you had better climb out.' It made me bite my lips to think of the plans I had been building up those last years in Bulawayo. I had got my pile -not one of the big ones, …

From the book:I returned from the City about three o'clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life. I had been three months in the Old Country, and was fed up with it. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would have been feeling like that I should have laughed at him; but there was the fact. The weather made me liverish, the talk of the ordinary Englishman made me sick, I couldn't get enough exercise, and the amuse-ments of London seemed as flat as soda-water that has been standing in the sun. 'Richard Hannay,' I kept telling myself, 'you have got into the wrong ditch, my friend, and you had better climb out.' It made me bite my lips to think of the plans I had been building up those last years in Bulawayo. I had got my pile -not one of the big ones, but good enough for me; and I had figured out all kinds of ways of enjoying myself. My father had brought me out from Scotland at the age of six, and I had never been home since; so England was a sort of Arabian Nights to me, and I counted on stopping there for the rest of my days. But from the first I was disappointed with it. In about a week I was tired of seeing sights, and in less than a month I had had enough of restaurants and theatres and race-meetings.

58 editions

Rudi reviewed The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan

Review of 'The Thirty-nine Steps' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

While the plot is a bit repetative (a big chunk of the book is the main character on the run, but with a new unlikely helper in each chapter), the language of the book makes up for it. Because of later parodies, it's hard to take this kind of "jolly" British seriously today, but it makes the book a delight to read. I did not even know that Hitchcock had made a film adaptation of this book, but it makes sense as this is the kind of "man on the run"-thriller he was famous for. And despite being an early example of one, it's often quite thrilling (obviously due to it being published in a serialized form).

Rudi reviewed The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan

Review of 'The Thirty-nine Steps' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

While the plot is a bit repetative (a big chunk of the book is the main character on the run, but with a new unlikely helper in each chapter), the language of the book makes up for it. Because of later parodies, it's hard to take this kind of "jolly" British seriously today, but it makes the book a delight to read. I did not even know that Hitchcock had made a film adaptation of this book, but it makes sense as this is the kind of "man on the run"-thriller he was famous for. And despite being an early example of one, it's often quite thrilling (obviously due to it being published in a serialized form).