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1Greenmantle

By John Buchan

Greenmantle is the second of five Richard Hannay novels by John Buchan, first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being Mr Standfast (1919); Hannay's first and best-known adventure, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), is set in the period immediately before the war started. - Hannay is called in to investigate rumours of an uprising in the Muslim world, and undertakes a perilous journey through enemy territory to meet up with his friend Sandy in Constantinople. Once there, he and his friends must thwart the Germans' plans to use religion to help them win the war, climaxing at the battle of Erzurum. (Summary from Wikipedia)

2Thirty-nine Steps

By John Buchan

Richard Hannay’s boredom is soon relieved when the resourceful engineer is caught up in a web of secret codes, spies, and murder on the eve of WWI. This exciting action-adventure story was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1939 classic film of the same name. John Buchan (1875-1940) was Governor General of Canada and a popular novelist. Although condemned by some for anti-Semitic dialog in The Thirty-Nine Steps, his character’s sentiments do not represent the view of the author who was identified in Hitler’s Sonderfahndungsliste (special search list) as a "Jewish sympathiser." (Summary by Adrian Praetzellis)

This classic adventure novel by the author of Greenmantle and The Thirty-Nine Steps relates the first-person exploits of young David Crawfurd before the age of twenty. <br/><br/>As a boy growing up on the coast of Scotland, minister's son Davie and two friends were pursued with murderous intent along the cliffs one night by John Laputa, a visiting black African preacher, whom they had witnessed performing un-Christian rites round a campfire on the beach. A few years later, when his father's death forces Davie to quit college and join the tribe of wandering Scots, our hero finds himself in South Africa, assistant shopkeeper in a seemingly sleepy back-veldt store. There he re-encounters Laputa, now charismatic leader of an incipient native uprising, secretly preaching the incendiary creed of "Africa for the Africans," and proclaiming himself heir to the mantle of Prester John, a legendary 15th-century Christian king of Ethiopia.<br/><br/> Can young Davie possibly penetrate the megalomaniac's mountain stronghold, foil the insurrection, prevent a massacre of white settlers, and make off with the rebels' war-chest of gold and diamonds? It's going to take some doing - and not a little derring-do!

4Mr. Standfast

By John Buchan

This is the third of Buchan's Richard Hannay novels, following The Thirty-nine Steps and Greenmantle. Set, like Greenmantle, during World War I, it deals Brigadier-General Hannay's recall from the Western Front, to engage in espionage, and forced (much to his chagrin) to pose as a pacifist. He becomes a South African conscientious objector, using the name Cornelius Brand. Under the orders of his spymaster, Sir Walter Bullivant, he travels in the book through England to Scotland, back to the Western Front, and ultimately, for the book's denouement, into the Alps. Those who know Greenmantle will meet some old friends again here, including Bullivant, the American John Blenkiron, the South African Peter Pienaar and others.<br /><br /> To quote Hannay's contemporary, Sherlock Holmes, “The game's afoot!” How will it come out? And though Hannay is no James Bond, might he perhaps be a literary ancestor of Ian Fleming's Agent Double-O Seven? Judge for yourself.<br /><br /> There are also a fair number of unpronounceable Gaelic names. A further warning: this book was published in 1919 and it reflects a certain number of standards and mores of the day. It is by no means free of racist remarks and attitudes, and it is quite clear that Hannay has no use for pacifists, socialists, feminists, overly intellectual professors, and so forth. How far Hannay's fictional views mirror those of Buchan himself, I could not possibly say. Buchan of course went on to become first Baron Tweedsmuir, and Governor-General of Canada from 1935 until his death in 1940 (if you go to his Wikipedia site, you can see him very unhappily attired in a Native American headdress. President Calvin Coolidge, photographed the same way in 1927, looked equally unhappy).<br>(Introduction by Nicholas Clifford)

5Huntingtower

By John Buchan

Dickson McCunn, a respectable, newly retired grocer, plans a walking holiday in the hills of south-west Scotland. He meets a young English poet and finds himself in the thick of a plot involving the kidnapping of a Russian princess, who is held prisoner in the rambling mansion, Huntingtower. This modern fairy-tale is also a gripping adventure story. (Summary by Simon Evers)

6Greenmantle (Version 2)

By John Buchan

Greenmantle is the second of five Richard Hannay novels by John Buchan, first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being Mr Standfast (1919); Hannay’s first and best-known adventure, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), is set in the period immediately before the war started. – Hannay is called in to investigate rumours of an uprising in the Muslim world, and undertakes a perilous journey through enemy territory to meet up with his friend Sandy in Constantinople. Once there, he and his friends must thwart the Germans’ plans to use religion to help them win the war, climaxing at the battle of Erzurum. - Summary by Wikipedia

The Power-House is a novel by John Buchan, a thriller set in London, England. It was written in 1913, when it was serialised in Blackwood's Magazine, and it was published in book form in 1916. The narrator is the barrister and Tory MP Edward Leithen, who features in a number of Buchan's novels. The urban setting contrasts with that of its sequel, John Macnab, which is set in the Scottish Highlands.<br /><br /> The Power-House of the title is an international anarchist organization led by a rich Englishman named Andrew Lumley. Its plan to destroy Western civilisation is thwarted by Leithen with the assistance of a burly Labour MP.<br /><br /> "The dominant theme of Buchan's fiction is the fragility of civilisation," it has been said in the context of a discussion of The Power-House. What the critic Christopher Harvie calls "perhaps the most famous line in all Buchan" occurs during the first meeting between Leithen and Lumley, when the latter tells the former, "You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilisation from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass" (Chapter 3). Harvie cites a comparable passage from the second volume of The Golden Bough, where Frazer speaks of "a solid layer of savagery beneath the surface of society," which, "unaffected by the superficial changes of religion and culture," is "a standing menace to civilisation. We seem to move on a thin crust which may at any time be rent by the subterranean forces slumbering beneath." - Summary by Wikipedia

8Three Hostages

By John Buchan

The Three Hostages is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels. The Richard Hannay novels are action/mystery/spy novels with a James bond feel. This book starts out with Richard Hannay married to Mary Lamington living in Fosse Manor. He is asked to work undercover and figure out who kidnapped three children of prominent people, while Scotland Yard investigate the abductions officially. Different friends help him solve the mystery. It's suspenseful and a fun action packed mystery! - Summary by Kimberly Shoemaker

This is the first of a four-volume history of the First World War, covering the period from its outbreak in the summer of 1914 to the campaign in Neuve Chapelle of March 1915. The author, John Buchan, was most widely known as the writer of the spy-thriller, The Thirty-Nine Steps; and he was also a politician and a diplomat. According to the writer in his preface, this work appeared originally in twenty-four volumes between February 1915 and July 1919, and was thus partially contemporaneous with the war itself. The volume starts with the triggering event, i.e., the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand; then the author gave a general background of the world's political and social situations that contributed to the more deep-rooted cause to the final showdown between the antagonistic powers. For the rest of the volume, the author narrated, in a chronological fashion, the major individual battles that had been fought; and the gradual escalation of the armed conflicts that were to spread ultimately to almost every part of the world. Details were given to the relative power and military preparation of each belligerent in an emerging battle, the topography of the battle theatre, a blow-by-blow account of the actual fighting, and the strategical significance of its aftermath. There are also interluding chapters to take stock of the overall situation after a series of major campaigns had been played out. In general, the author took a rather formal approach by describing the war from a more macroscopic level, packed with factual details, but from the perspective of a patriotic British national. (DavidReader)

Richard Hannay thirsts for adventure. Down and out in early retirement in South London, Hannay bores of the easy life. When Franklin Scudder reveals a secret ploy to set all of Europe to arms, Hannay finds his cure. With experience, intelligence, and a good deal of luck, Richard Hannay peels the layers one step at a time. (Summary by Tom Haire)

11Thirty-nine Steps (Version 3)

By John Buchan

The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure spy novel by John Buchan written in 1914. Told from the first-person point of view, it relates the adventure of "ordinary fellow" Richard Hannay, who is thrust into a plot involving the theft of crucial military intelligence by German anarchists. - Summary by Cliff Stone

12Greenmantle (Version 3)

By John Buchan

Hannay is called in to investigate rumours of an uprising in the Muslim world and undertakes a perilous journey through enemy territory to meet his friend Sandy in Constantinople. Once there, he and his friends must thwart the Germans' plans to use religion to help them win the war, climaxing at the battle of Erzurum.

The author, John Buchan, maintains that "the main lines of the earth's architecture have been determined" during the first two decades of the twentieth century, and all that remains is but "amplifying our knowledge of the groyning and buttresses and stone-work." In this history of exploration, he tells of nine of those momentous final discoveries that placed the earth's last big secrets firmly on the map, from the mysterious "cloud city" of Lhasa, to the slopes--but not yet the summit--of Mount Everest. - Summary by Steven Seitel

This is the second of a four-volume history of the First World War, covering the period from the opening of the Dardenelles Campaign in September 1914 through the first stage of The Battle of Verdun, stopping in mid-April, 1916. As David Reader noted for volume 1, "the author took a rather formal approach by describing the war from a more macroscopic level, packed with factual details, but from the perspective of a patriotic British national." - Summary by Lynette Caulkins

15Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies

By John Buchan

Celebrated Scottish author John Buchan, creator of the Richard Hannay series of thrillers (including The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle) brings light this wonderfully diverse collection of short stories and poetry showcasing Buchan's skill at both satire and the weird. This book was described in a review by The Athenaeum upon its release as showing "a marked leaning towards the mysterious and bizarre" and is bursting with "considerable imagination. Join us for a jaunt into the fantastical and otherworldly realm of John Buchan's short fiction! (Summary by Ben Tucker)

This is the third of a four-volume history of the First World War, coming in along the Ypres Salient in February 1916 and stopping mid-November 1917. Buchan continues to give us a comprehensive war history that provides clear understanding of the complexities involved without feeling bogged down. - Summary by Lynette Caulkins

This is the fourth of a four-volume history of the First World War, coming in during 1917, when Germany is reorganizing and Russia is about to fall. Buchan continues to give us a comprehensive war history that provides a clear understanding of the complexities that are involved without feeling bogged down. - Summary by Lynette Caulkins

Sir Edward Leithen and his friends Lord Lamancha, Palliser-Yeates, and Archie Roylance are bored of life. After Leithen's doctor recommends a hearty adventure, they set out to Scotland for a season of shooting--on other people's grounds. Determined that being a gentleman poacher who gives notice to the one being poached from will be the adventure they need, Leithen and company embark on an adventure that has a bit more at stake than they realized. - Summary by AdeledePignerolles

John Buchan was a Scottish writer, poet and diplomat who became Governer General of Canada. Best known for his novels (The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, etc) he also wrote poetry in both English and Scottish dialect. (Summary by Alan Mapstone)