John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps

Kate Macdonald (University of Ghent)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.3: Scottish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1915

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Spy and Espionage

Resources

The Thirty-Nine Steps is Buchan’s most famous novel, and is the single Buchan title most likely to be reissued by publishers. In popular terms it defines his writing. Most discussion of Buchan the writer starts and stops with The Thirty-Nine Steps, and moves swiftly on to talk about the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film which was based on the book. What is rarely realised is that this short thriller was Buchan’s seventeenth published work. It was not the work of a beginner, and it is completely different from anything he had published before.

Buchan began writing The Thirty-Nine Steps in August 1914 while he and his daughter were recovering from illness. They were staying at a house in Broadstairs, Kent, …

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2872 words

Citation: Macdonald, Kate. "The Thirty-Nine Steps". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 August 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20323, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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