The Thirty-Nine Steps

by John Buchan

Overview

A thrilling blend of adventure and spy novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps has been continuously in print since first publication in 1915 and has been adapted for stage and screen multiple times.

‘Ordinary fellow’ Richard Hannay returns home one night and is horrified to find a dead body. He recognises the murdered man as his American neighbour who, just a few days earlier, had warned him about a secretive organisation planning an assassination which threatens to plunge the country into war. Fearful of becoming a suspect, but resolved to scupper the plot, Hannay escapes in disguise and goes on the run. Hunted from England to Scotland by police and villains alike, he is determined to outwit his enemies and secure his country’s safety.

Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781035076567
Publisher:	Macmillan Collector's Library
Publication date:	06/16/2026
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	3.70(w) x 5.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Buchan was a prolific author who wrote poetry and biographies as well as novels, but he is best remembered for The Thirty-Nine Steps, the most famous of his five Hannay novels. Buchan was born in Perth, Scotland in 1875, the son of a minister. His early career was as a lawyer working in South Africa then in 1906 he became a partner in a publishing firm. He married Susan Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster’s cousin, in 1907 and they had four children. Elected to Parliament in 1911, Buchan served in various capacities during the First World War, including the role of Director of Information. In 1935 he was appointed Governor-General of Canada and became Lord Tweedsmuir. He died in 1940.

Table of Contents

I The Man Who Died
II The Milkman Sets Out on His Travels
III The Adventure of the Literary Innkeeper
IV The Adventure of the Radical Candidate
V The Adventure of the Spectacled Roadman
VI The Adventure of the Bald Archaeologist
VII The Dry-Fly Fisherman
VIII The Coming of the Black Stone
IX The Thirty-Nine Steps
X Various Partied Converging on the Sea

Editorial Reviews

Frederick Davidson’s voice is properly sardonic, and his supercilious British articulation is just right. The story’s extended chase scene inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s movie of the same name.”

AudioFile

Buchan’s technique as a writer is simple enough and well displayed in The Thirty-Nine Steps. He understood that in a thriller…what matters above all is to keep the reader focused on what is going to happen next…It doesn’t matter that the reader has no clue where he is being taken or, when he gets there, how the thing happened as it did. All that matters is that once you’ve started, you can’t put the book down.”

Telegraph (London)

It is the dimension of the mysterious that makes Buchan’s writing so unfailingly compelling.”

author of A History of Warfare John Keegan

It is just the kind of fiction for here. One wants something to engross the attention without tiring the mind. The story is greatly appreciated in the midst of mud and rain and shells, and all that could make trench life depressing.”

An officer on the front in World War I

"Lethal, spare, clean and contemporary." —Guardian

From the Publisher