John Buchan, The Three Hostages

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 1924

Places

Scotland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

The Three Hostages is Scottish writer John Buchan's one sustained attempt at writing a detective novel, in the new format that had achieved great popularity in the wake of the success of Agatha Christie. He also used this novel to re-address to a post-war generation his lifelong theme of the thinness of the barrier between civilisation and anarchy. The Three Hostages was also the first post-war Hannay novel, and although Buchan was publishing at least two books a year at this point in his career, often more, in fiction and non-fiction, he knew that his main audience wanted to read Hannay. It is instructive, therefore, to consider this novel as a statement of Buchan's views to an audience who were highly selective in t…

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1204 words

Citation: Macdonald, Kate. "The Three Hostages". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 November 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=22845, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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