======================================================================
= The_Thirty-Nine_Steps =
======================================================================
Introduction
======================================================================
'The Thirty-Nine Steps' is a 1915 adventure novel by the Scottish
author John Buchan, first published by William Blackwood and Sons,
Edinburgh. It was serialized in 'All-Story Weekly' issues of 5 and 12
June 1915, and in 'Blackwood's Magazine' (credited to "H. de V.")
between July and September 1915, before being published in book form
in October of that year. It is the first of five novels featuring
Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a knack
for getting himself out of tricky situations.
The novel has been adapted many times, including several films and a
long-running stage play. In 2003, the book was listed on the BBC's Big
Read poll of Britain's "best-loved novels."
Plot
======================================================================
The story's narrator, Richard Hannay, arrives in London from Rhodesia
early in 1914, having made a modest fortune as a mining engineer.
Disillusioned with his uneventful life as a man about town, he is on
the brink of resolving to leave England for good when a panicked
neighbour, Franklin Scudder, knocks at the door of his flat in
Portland Place. Scudder is a freelance journalist who claims to have
uncovered a plot against the Premier of Greece, Constantine Karolides.
According to Scudder, Karolides is to be assassinated in London in a
few weeks' time, on 15 June, an event which the plotters hope will
trigger war in Europe.
Fearing for his life, Scudder has gone to the trouble of faking his
own death, and needs to disappear from view. Hannay permits him to
hide in his flat, and is horrified when a few days later he returns to
find Scudder with a knife through his heart, now truly dead.
Determined to warn the government of the plot, but unwilling to go to
the police for fear of being arrested for murder, Hannay escapes the
building disguised as a milkman and takes a train to Scotland,
intending to find a remote area where he can lie low. He takes with
him the coded notebook in which Scudder had recorded his findings.
Hannay alights at a rural station in the Galloway Hills, and a
cat-and-mouse chase ensues as he evades both the plotters, who attempt
to spot him on the open hillside from an aeroplane, and the police.
Deciphering Scudder's notes, he learns that his adversaries are
members of a German spy ring known as the "Black Stone" whose goal is
to steal Britain's naval defence plans before war breaks out. Hannay
meets Sir Harry, landowner and local parliamentary candidate, and
takes him into his confidence. Sir Harry promises to write to his
godfather, Sir Walter Bullivant, Permanent Secretary at the Foreign
Office, to warn him of the plot.
Narrowly avoiding his pursuers, Hannay stumbles into a lonely cottage
and finds himself face to face with the Black Stone's leader. Hannay's
lies are convincing enough to leave the spies in doubt as to his true
identity, and they lock him in a storeroom rather than killing him
outright. Finding a cabinet full of explosives, Hannay uses his
experience as a mining engineer to escape by blowing the window from
its frame. Eventually he manages to catch a train south, hoping to
find Sir Walter Bullivant at his home in Berkshire.
Sir Walter accepts the bulk of Hannay's story, but doubts that
Karolides' life is in danger. An urgent government phone call,
however, informs him that Karolides is already dead. The two men
travel to London, where Sir Walter is to host a high-level official
meeting at his city townhouse. Hannay, now cleared of the Portland
Place murder, is left to his own devices, but a general feeling of
unease prompts him to call at Sir Walter's house. He arrives just in
time to see the First Sea Lord leaving; their eyes briefly meet, and
Hannay recognizes him as one of the spies in disguise. Hannay breaks
into the meeting, but by the time the deception is confirmed the man
has long gone, taking with him the naval secrets he has just learned.
Realising that the spies will have to cross the Channel to get their
information back to Germany, Hannay and the meeting attendees comb
Scudder's notebook for clues as to the planned point of departure. An
entry reading "Thirty-nine steps -- I counted them -- High tide, 10.17
p.m." leads them to a clifftop villa in Kent with a private flight of
steps -- 39 in total -- running down to the sea. A yacht waits
offshore. Hannay confronts the occupants of the villa and is mortified
to find what appears to be a perfectly ordinary group of English
friends who have been enjoying a game of tennis in the sun. But then
one of the men droops his eyelids in a characteristic gesture that
Hannay recognizes -- it is the owner of the cottage in Scotland.
Hannay blows his whistle, and the spies are arrested before they can
reach the yacht. Britain enters the Great War seven weeks later, and
Hannay is commissioned as a captain in the army. He comments, "But I
had done my best service, I think, before I put on khaki."
Principal characters
======================================================================
* Richard Hannay - protagonist and narrator; mining engineer recently
arrived from Southern Africa
* Franklin P Scudder - freelance journalist
* Sir Harry - Scottish landowner and local parliamentary candidate
* Sir Walter Bullivant - Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office;
Sir Harry's godfather
* Alexander Turnbull - roadmender
Background
======================================================================
John Buchan wrote 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' while he was ill in bed with
a duodenal ulcer, an illness which remained with him all his life.
Buchan's son William later wrote that the name of the book originated
when the author's daughter was counting the stairs at St Cuby, a
private nursing home on Cliff Promenade in Broadstairs, where Buchan
was convalescing. "There was a wooden staircase leading down to the
beach. My sister, who was about six, and who had just learnt to count
properly, went down them and gleefully announced: there are 39 steps."
The tunnelled stairway through the cliff actually consisted of 78
steps, but Buchan halved the number to make a better title. When the
original oak steps were later replaced, one of them, complete with a
brass plaque, was sent to Buchan. The concrete steps now number 108,
still running from the garden to the beach.
This novel was his first "shocker", as he called it -- a story
combining personal and political dramas. It marked a turning point in
Buchan's literary career and introduced his adventuring hero Richard
Hannay. He described a "shocker" as an adventure where the events in
the story are unlikely and the reader is only just able to believe
that they really happened.
Dedication
======================================================================
Buchan dedicated the novel to his friend Thomas Arthur Nelson, saying
"My Dear Tommy, / You and I have long cherished an affection for that
elemental type of tale which Americans call the 'dime novel' and which
we know as the 'shocker' -- the romance where the incidents defy the
probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible.
During an illness last winter I exhausted my store of those aids to
cheerfulness, and was driven to write one for myself. This little
volume is the result, and I should like to put your name on it in
memory of our long friendship, in the days when the wildest fictions
are so much less improbable than the facts.
Literary significance and criticism
======================================================================
'The Thirty-Nine Steps' is one of the earliest examples of the
'"man-on-the-run" thriller archetype subsequently adopted by film
makers as a much-used plot device. In 'The Thirty-Nine Steps', Buchan
holds up Richard Hannay as an example to his readers of an ordinary
man who puts his country's interests before his own safety. The story
was a great success with the men in the First World War trenches. One
soldier wrote to Buchan, "The story is greatly appreciated in the
midst of mud and rain and shells, and all that could make trench life
depressing."
Hannay continued his adventures in four subsequent books. Two were set
during the war, when he continued his undercover work against the
Germans and their allies the Turks in 'Greenmantle' (1916) and 'Mr
Standfast' (1919). The other two stories, 'The Three Hostages' (1924)
and 'The Island of Sheep' (1936) were set in the postwar period, when
Hannay's opponents were criminal gangs.
Adaptations
======================================================================
The novel has been adapted for multiple media; many of these versions
depart significantly from the text - for example, by introducing a
love interest absent from the original novel and inspired by
Hitchcock's film. In most cases, the title is often abbreviated to
'The 39 Steps', but the full title is more commonly used for the book
and 1978 film adaptation.
''The 39 Steps'' (1935)
=========================
The 1935 black-and-white film directed by Alfred Hitchcock deviates
substantially from the book. It stars Robert Donat as Hannay and
Madeleine Carroll as a woman he meets on the train. It is regarded by
many critics as the best film version. This was one of several
Hitchcock films based upon the idea of an "innocent man on the run",
such as 'Saboteur' and 'North by Northwest'. In 1999, it came 4th in a
BFI poll of British films and in 2004 'Total Film' named it the 21st
greatest British film of all time.
''The 39 Steps'' (1959)
=========================
The 1959 film directed by Ralph Thomas was the first colour version,
starring Kenneth More as Hannay and Taina Elg as Miss Fisher. It is
closely based on Hitchcock's adaptation, including the music-hall
finale with "Mr. Memory" and Hannay's escape from a train on the Forth
Bridge, scenes not present in the book. It features a musical score by
Clifton Parker.
''The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1978)
==================================
The 1978 version was directed by Don Sharp and starred Robert Powell
as Hannay, Karen Dotrice as Alex, John Mills as Colonel Scudder. It is
generally regarded as the closest to the book, being set at the same
time as the novel, pre-Great War, but still bears little resemblance
to Buchan's original story. Its climax bore no relation to the novel's
denouement, instead seeing Hannay hanging from the hands of Big Ben.
The film was followed by a spin-off television series, 'Hannay', also
starring Powell and featuring adventures occurring both before and
after
the events in 'The Thirty-Nine Steps'.
''The 39 Steps'' (2008)
=========================
The BBC commissioned a new television adaptation of the novel,
scripted by Lizzie Mickery and produced by BBC Scotland's drama unit.
The 90-minute film stars Rupert Penry-Jones, Lydia Leonard, Patrick
Malahide and Eddie Marsan, and was first broadcast on 28 December 2008
A romantic subplot was added to the story, featuring Lydia Leonard.
The storyline only very tenuously follows that of the book, many
characters being renamed, or omitted altogether. The film ends with a
scene involving a submarine in a Scottish loch, rather than the
original setting off the Kent coast, and the apparent death of one
character.
Radio
=======
There were numerous American radio adaptations during the two decades
following the release of Hitchcock's film, most of which were based on
its heavily altered plot. It remains a popular subject for modern live
productions done in a similar, old-time radio style.
* 1937, starring Robert Montgomery and Ida Lupino, part of the 'Lux
Radio Theater' series.
* 1938, starring Orson Welles, part of 'The Mercury Theatre on the
Air' series.
* 1943, starring Herbert Marshall and Madeleine Carroll, part of the
'Philip Morris Playhouse' series.
* 1946, starring David Niven, part of 'The Hour of Mystery' series.
* 1947, part of the Canadian Broadcasting Company 'Stage Series'.
* 1948, starring Glenn Ford and Mercedes McCambridge, part of the
'Studio One' series.
* 1952, starring Herbert Marshall, part of the 'Suspense' series.
There have been many full cast adaptations for BBC Radio and all are
based directly on Buchan's novel.
* 1939, in six parts, adapted by Winifred Carey and produced by James
McKechnie.
* 1944, in six parts, adapted by Winifred Carey and produced by Derek
McCulloch.
* 1950, 'The Adventures of Richard Hannay' in eight half-hour parts,
based on 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' and 'Mr Standfast' adapted by
Winifred Carey and produced by Donald McLean.
* 1960, in six episodes, adapted by J. C. Gosforth and produced by
Frederick Bradnum.
* 1972, 'The Adventures of Richard Hannay' based on 'The Thirty-Nine
Steps' and 'Mr Standfast' in six episodes, adapted by Winifred Carey
and produced by Norman Wright.
* 1989, dramatised by Peter Buckman, directed by Patrick Rayner, and
starring David Rintoul.
* 2001, starring David Robb, Tom Baker and William Hope, adapted by
Bert Coules.
There are also several BBC solo readings:
* 1947, in 12 parts, abridged by Hilton Brown and read by Arthur Bush.
* 1978, in five parts, abridged by Barry Campbell and read by Frank
Duncan.
* 1996, in ten parts, produced by Jane Marshall and read by John
Nettles.
* 2019, in ten episodes, produced by Karen Holden and read by Kenny
Blyth.
Other solo readings:
* 1994, abridged, read by James Fox and released by Orbis Publishing,
as part of their "Talking Classics" series. It consisted of an
illustrated magazine accompanied by a double CD or cassette.
* 2007, unabridged, read by Robert Powell and released by Audible
audiobooks.
* 2007, unabridged, read by Peter Joyce and released by Assembled
Stories audiobooks.
In 2014, BBC Radio 3 broadcast 'Landmark: The Thirty-Nine Steps and
World War I', a 45-minute documentary on the novel's initial impact at
home and abroad.
Theatre
=========
A comic theatrical adaptation by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon for a
cast of four actors premiered in 1995 at the Georgian Theatre Royal in
Richmond, North Yorkshire, before embarking on a tour of village halls
across the north of England. In 2005, Patrick Barlow rewrote the
script, keeping the scenes, staging and small-scale feel, and in June
2005 this re-adaptation premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, The
play then opened in London's Tricycle Theatre, and after a successful
run transferred to the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly where it became
the fifth longest running play until it closed in September 2015.
Although drawing on Buchan's novel, it is strongly influenced by
Hitchcock's 1935 film adaptation. On 15 January 2008, the show made
its US Broadway premiere at the American Airlines Theatre; it
transferred to the Cort Theatre on 29 April 2008 and then moved to the
Helen Hayes Theatre on 21 January 2009, where it ended its run on 10
January 2010. It reopened on Stage One of New York's Off-Broadway
venue New World Stages on 25 March 2010 and closed on 15 April 2010.
The Broadway production received six Tony Award nominations, winning
two - Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design - with the London
show winning an Olivier in 2007 and two Tony Awards in 2008. The play
also won the Drama Desk Award, Unique Theatrical Experience.
Television
============
A 1988 prequel television series named 'Hannay' was spawned from the
1978 feature film version.
'The 39 Steps' is a Netflix miniseries to be directed by Edward Berger
Video game
============
A 2013, Scottish developer 'The Story Mechanics' used the Unity game
engine to create 'The 39 Steps', a digital adaptation.
Interactive fiction
=====================
In 2008, Penguin Books adapted the story as interactive fiction under
the authorship of Charles Cumming calling it 'The 21 Steps'.
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Nine_Steps
