Richard Hannay, feeling really bored in London, suddenly gets involved in an international conspiracy. One of his neighbours tells him what he found out about the conspiracy and then is murdered in Hannay's flat. Fleeing from the enemies who killed his neighbour and from the police who thinks of him as the murderer Hannay tries to prevent what he can concerning the conspiracy...

This is a little book full of suspense up to the last page, which I really enjoyed reading.

Eines von sieben Büchern, die ich soeben in einem Anfall von absoluter Libromanie (und großer Selbstüberschätzung, was meine Lesekapazität und -zeit angeht) vom Meet-Up weggeschleppt habe. Jedenfalls freue ich mich schon gehörig auf die Lektüre. :)

My first encounter with "The Thirty-Nine Steps" was while watching "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", and I was rather flustered when there was a literature question rated as rather easy (500 pounds or what, I can't remember now) that I could not answer, having never even heard of the book. Now, a couple of years later and after reading the book, I guess that Chris Tarrant (the show's host on British TV) must have been right after all: it was an easy question, and this book should be known. :) Still, no wonder that at the time hadn't heard of it, as this is -unfortunately- not the stuff that comes up in school books, and that is only rarely made into university lectures. The author referred to his stories as "shockers", the introduction to this edition tells us, and indeed there is not a single dull moment in this book. Not exactly high literature, maybe, but certainly excellent entertainment -- and more than well worth reading!
The story of "colonial man" Richard Hannay takes us back to Britain on the eve of the First World War (so I'm afraid the Germans are the bad guys ...again) and is a feast for all who enjoy taking a look at a romantically historic Britain including landed gentry, Highland folk, gentlemen's clubs and early-20th-century colloquialisms, fast-paced action in the manner of an early James Bond, and conspiracy theories. A brilliant read.

Now, after the book, I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for either of the three movie versions, most importantly the Hitchcock one, in which I gather they have introduced a female figure as a love interest for our hero. As if the original hadn't held enough excitement already! *shrug* But I love the movie tagline "The man who but the "man" back into romance" :) -- that alone may be worth introducing the love thread to the story.

RELEASE NOTES:

Auf zu Mika17!

Habe das Buch heute erhalten. Vielen Dank an Linguistkris.