#john buchan

[oldshrewsburyian]

I just saw The 39 Steps for the first time this evening. Would you recommend Buchan's book? Or any other films featuring Robert Donat? He's reminding me of Ronald Colman at certain angles, which is entirely down to you, as the only Colman film I've seen thus far is Champagne for Caesar.

Ahh, delightful! (Also hi and happy new year, friend!)

Would I recommend Buchan's book? To you, yes; it is a fun romp. It is also full of ideas about Englishness™ and Modern Technology™ and Simple But Wholesome Scottish Peasants™. Also gender. So as an artifact of its time and fun espionage caper, absolutely yes.

2. Would I recommend other films featuring Robert Donat? yes

The Ghost Goes West (1935). Is this film good? Probably not!! Did I love it when I was a small child? Absolutely yes. A ghost who lives in his ancestral Scottish castle (tm) travels with it when it is bought by an American millionaire. Hijinks ensue.

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). Is this film extremely sentimental? yes. Do I cry every time? Also yes. The book is my favorite, but I also love this adaptation. And Greer Garson, who is also in it.

Knight Without Armour (1937). Is this film good? Eh, possibly not. Is it dated? Extremely. Does it feature Robert Donat and Marlene Dietrich in a fraught situational romance? YES. Look, my sexuality is basically people with repressed feelings and good cheekbones, for which I blame 1930s films and novels.

...also I love knowing this about your Ronald Colman exposure via this blog, and am practically vibrating with zeal about recommending other Ronald Colman movies in addition to the delightful Champagne for Caesar, but that would be a digression.

P.S. I would also recommend the 2008 miniseries with Rupert Penry-Jones and Lydia Leonard, speaking of my thing for people with repressed feelings and good cheekbones.

[dickensianenglishbulldog]

I feel that Lord Peter and Sir Percy would get on well.

Also Sam Vimes and Richard Hannay

[folkhorrorrevival]

Forests Damned and Furrows Cursed: Book Review

Forests Damned and Furrows Cursed: Book Review

Forests Damned and Furrows Cursed is a new anthology of classic Folk Horror novellas harvested by the author William P. Simmons of Shadow House Publishing. We say ‘Folk Horror’ but all of the contained novellas were written in the late 19th/early 20th Century before the term Folk Horror was widely applied as a sub-genre or mode, therefore all are written with a purity of independence, free from…

[streamondemand]

Alfred Hitchcock's 'The 39 Steps' on Max and Criterion Channel

The 39 Steps (1935), Alfred Hitchcock’s first great romantic thriller, smoothly plays the “wrong man” gambit with the light, black-humored grace that would reach its apex in North by Northwest. Robert Donat stars as Richard Hanay, an affable Canadian tourist in London who becomes embroiled in a deadly conspiracy when a mysterious spy winds up murdered in his rented flat and both the police and a…

[bookmaven]

“Well it seemed like a good idea.” part 6

Electronic and physical books whose covers are just. plain. wrong.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Jane Austen); JANE EYRE (Charlotte Bronte); WUTHERING HEIGHTS (Emily Bronte)

THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (John Buchan); THE AWAKENING (Kate Chopin); THE MOONSTONE (Wilkie Collins)

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (Roald Dahl); DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? (Philip K. Dick); MIDDLEMARCH (George Eliiot)

[valiantarcher]

DEDICATION To a Young Gentleman of Eton College Honoured Sir, On your last birthday a well-meaning godfather presented you with a volume of mine, since you had been heard on occasion to express approval of my works. The book dealt with a somewhat arid branch of historical research, and it did not please you. You wrote to me, I remember, complaining that I had "let you down," and summoning me, as I valued your respect, to "pull myself together." In particular you demanded to hear more of the doings of Richard Hannay, a gentleman for whom you professed a liking. I, too, have a liking for Sir Richard, and when I met him the other day (he is now a country neighbour) I observed that his left hand had been considerably mauled, an injury which I knew had not been due to the War. He was so good as to tell me the tale of an unpleasant business in which he had recently been engaged, and to give me permission to retell it for your benefit. Sir Richard took a modest pride in the affair, because from first to last it had been a pure contest of wits, without recourse to those more obvious methods of strife with which he is familiar. So I herewith present it to you, in the hope that in the eyes of you and your friends it may atone for certain other writings of mine with which you have been afflicted by those in authority. J.B. June, 1924.

John Buchan, The Three Hostages.

[ulrichgebert]

Nachdem wir keine rechte Kraft für die Affen oder Werwölfe aufbringen konnten (aber sie werden unweigerlich über kurz oder lang wieder auftauchen) entschieden wir uns dann wie prophezeit für eine Schurkenrolle im Gedenkfilm für den immer fleißigen David Warner: Als skrupellosen Landesverräter in der 70er-Jahre-Neuverfilmung von The Thirty-Nine Steps. Sie kommt etwas werkgetreuer, aber betulicher daher als Alfred Hitchcocks unseriöse Ausdeutung, obwohl sich Robert Powell als unfreiwilliger Hobbyspion eigentlich besser zu helfen weiß als Robert Donat,  ist aber zauberhaft ausgestattet und bietet in Verneigung vor der Hitchcockblondine doch eine irritierende schöne Frau. Sie ist vor allem deshalb irritierend, weil man sie sonst eigentlich nur als kleines Mädchen in Mary Poppins präsent hat.

[cantodogargula]

O que é Gótico Imperial

O Gótico Imperial, mais do que ser uma vertente literária, é um grande espelho do contexto sociopolítico da Era Vitoriana.

O medo do “outro” é um assunto recorrente na literatura. Para o Gótico Imperial, no entanto, essa figura do estrangeiro é muito mais do que um tema, é sua principal ferramenta. Todo e qualquer tipo de arte é um ato político. Isso porque, independente de ser uma pintura, uma escultura, uma obra de ficção ou autobiográfica, a arte transmite o contexto sociopolítico no qual ela está…

[frimleyblogger]

The Seven Sleepers

My thoughts on The Seven Sleepers by #FrancisBeeding #BookReview

A review of The Seven Sleepers by Francis Beeding – 231221 Originally published in 1925, The Seven Sleepers, written by the duo, John Palmer and Hilary Saunders under the nom de plume of Francis Beeding, is an all-action thriller very much in the style of John Buchan’s Thirty Nine Steps. There are murders, three particularly brutal ones, but the focus of the story is whether the narrator, Thomas…

[milliondollarbaby87]

The 39 Steps (1935) Review

The 39 Steps (1935) Review

When Richard Hannay is in London he gets more than he bargained for when meeting Annabella Smith who claims she is running away from secret agents, he agrees to help her by hiding her but she is murdered during the night and he quickly becomes the prime suspect and must go on the run to save himself. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (more…)

[movie-titlecards]

The 39 Steps (1935)

My rating: 7/10

I think there must be several versions of this movie, because this had a bunch of stuff I did not remember, yet not a single mention of the Nazis I spoke of in my first review. Still, a great early example of the "innocent man on the run" subgenre Hitchcock helped popularize, and good times all around.

[andrew-buchan-fansite]

So, Mr Crespigney, you had developed an attachment to the missing, broken harness?

[dickensianenglishbulldog]

[alexrideraep]

had a random urge to edt andrew buchan or ian rider to artic monkeys idk even know why i just feel like it 

[doyouwanttoseeabug]

The same list was also talking about how John Buchan was a conservative which, yeah, but also is he a Conservative Novelist or a novelist who happens to be a deeply colonial conservative? He's not doing what Trollope and, say, Waugh are doing - there isn't a political and social argument being played out in the 39 Steps or Greenmantle. He's just writing Fun and Racist stories about white people saving the day. It's still worthy of criticism but I don't think you can describe Castle Gay as a reactionary ideological project in the same way that the Paliser novels are.

[bookmaven]

All-Story Weekly (15 June 1915) featuring THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS by John Buchan.[According to Wiki, Blackwood’s Magazine published the first serialization in July, August, and September 1915, but that doesn’t precede All-Story. (?)]

THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS by John Buchan (Edinburgh: Blackwood & Sons, 1915) First edition.; current e-book cover.

(London: Pan, 1939) (London: Pan, 1947) (? Birlinn, 2011)

book

The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll; (1939) directed by Ralph Thomas, starring Kenneth More and Taina Elg; (1978) directed by John Mills, starring Robert Powell and David Warner.

___

John Buchan was a Scottish diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet and novelist. He published nearly 30 novels and seven collections of short stories. His research interests include military history from the 18th century to date, including contemporary strategic studies, but with particular interest in the First World War and in the history of the British Army.

THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS is the first of 5 books featuring Richard Hannay. It is one of the earliest man-on-the-run thrillers.