BUCHAN. JOHN

John Buchan (1875-1940), Barón de Tweedsmuir, nació en Escocia y estudió cultura clásica en Oxford donde inició su carrera literaria. Fue abogado, editor, periodista y diplomático. Reportero para The

"Los 39 escalones" (1915) y su secuela, "Mantoverde" (1916), son las dos primeras novelas del espía Richard Hannay. Con ellas, John Buchan creó el patrón oro del "thriller" moderno y marcó la hoja de ruta que señala el camino a autores como Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, John le Carre o Frederick Forsyth, ejemplos destacados de la nomina de escritores que imitan, negocian, se inspiran o responden a la formula de Buchan. Con un estilo directo, claro y entretenido, ambos libros inauguran los motivos fundamentales de gran parte de la narrativa de espias hasta nuestros dias: las tensiones entre barbarie y civilizacion (especialmente en el contexto geopolitico internacional), el solipsismo del agente moderno, el manejo de la informacion secreta, la concepcion del espionaje como tarea antiheroica, aunque inexorable, la paranoia como pilar de la identidad nacional, el empleo de la tecnologia para (re)territorializar el espacio, la gestion de la podredumbre moral y, en ultima instancia, la redencion espiritual. En el presente volumen, Eduardo Valls Oyarzun ofrece una nueva y cuidada traduccion de las dos novelas y un completo analisis del trabajo de Buchan (incluyendo una comparativa entre "Los 39 escalones" y la celebre adaptacion cinematografica de Alfred Hitchcock), ademas de numerosas notas textuales.

Here, from the father of spy fiction, is the grand sequence of his great master spys adventures in three famous books: The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle and Mr. Standfast.

John Buchans The Thirty-Nine Stepsis anadventure novelfeaturing the recurrent protagonist Richard Hannay. The story is set right before the outbreak of the Second World War in London. It starts when Hannay is visited one day by his neighbor who begs to stay with him in his apartment. The mysterious neighbor, named Scudder, later reveals that he is an American spy with information about a very dangerous German plot to assassinate the Greek premier and spread disorder throughout Europe. For this reason, Scudder is now chased by his enemies. When Hannay later finds Scudder dead in the apartment with a knife through his heart, he understands that his own life is now at stake and decides to run away. He ultimately succeeds in reaching Scotland where he soon realizes that he is followed by both the German spies and the countrys police. When Hannay becomes determined to carry on Scudders mission and save his country and the whole continent from the German plot, he has to escape from numerous snares set by his mysterious enemies. The title of the novel is itself a mystery mentioned by the spies and which Hannay and his companions have to solve. They discover by the end that it refers to a place in Kent with thirty-nine steps from which the spies intend to flee England.

Major General Sir Richard Hannay is the fictional secret agent created by writer and diplomat John Buchan, who was himself an Intelligence officer during the First World War. The strong and silent type, combining the dour temperament of the Scot with the stiff upper lip of the Englishman, Hannay is pre-eminent among early spy-thriller heroes. Caught up in the first of these five gripping adventures just before the outbreak of war in 1914, he manages to thwart the enemys evil plan and solve the mystery of the thirty-nine steps. In Greenmantle, he undertakes a vital mission to prevent jihad in the Islamic Near East. Mr Standfast, set in the decisive months of 1917-18, is the novel in which Hannay, after a life lived wholly among men, finally falls in love; later, in The Three Hostages, he finds himself unravelling a kidnapping mystery with his wifes help. In the last adventure, The Island of Sheep, he is called upon to honour an old oath. A shrewd judge of men, he never dehumanises his enemy, and despite sharing some of the racial prejudices of his day, Richard Hannay is a worthy prototype hero of espionage fiction.

Major General Sir Richard Hannay is the fictional secret agent created by writer and diplomat John Buchan, who was himself an Intelligence officer during the First World War. The strong and silent type, combining the dour temperament of the Scot with the stiff upper lip of the Englishman, Hannay is pre-eminent among early spy-thriller heroes. Caught up in the first of these five gripping adventures just before the outbreak of war in 1914, he manages to thwart the enemys evil plan and solve the mystery of the thirty-nine steps. In Greenmantle, he undertakes a vital mission to prevent jihad in the Islamic Near East. Mr Standfast, set in the decisive months of 1917-18, is the novel in which Hannay, after a life lived wholly among men, finally falls in love; later, in The Three Hostages, he finds himself unravelling a kidnapping mystery with his wifes help. In the last adventure, The Island of Sheep, he is called upon to honour an old oath. A shrewd judge of men, he never dehumanises his enemy, and despite sharing some of the racial prejudices of his day, Richard Hannay is a worthy prototype hero of espionage fiction.

Sir Edward Leithen - perhaps the autobiographical of Buchans characters - is dying of tuberculosis and has been given a year to live. After this prognosis, Leithen undertakes a profoundly heroic quest from London to the Canadian Northwest, tracking down a missing man who is literally sick at heart. In the course of this epic journey, Leithen finds redemption for himself. Sick Heart River is John Buchans most powerful novel, completed just days before his death. The rich, authentic descriptions of the rugged Canadian landscape were influenced by a voyage down the Mackenzie River in 1937, at which time Buchan was Governor-General of Canda.With an introduction by James Buchan. This edition is authorised by the John Buchan Society.

For three minutes you will turn your eyes inward into the darkness of the mind which I have taught you to make. Then I will give the sign you will look at the paper. There you will see words written, but only for one second. Bend all your powers to remember them.What begins as a welcome, if slightly dull, weekend at his friend Lady Flambards house in the Costwolds becomes for Sir Edward Leithen something altogether more intriguing. A fellow guest the brilliant Professor Moe enlists the help of Leithen and his companions in an experiment. If they do as he says, each will get a glimpse a year into the future in the pages of The Times.One of Buchans most unusual novels, The Gap in the Curtain is a tense tale of unexpected from the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps.With an introduction by Stuart Kelly.This edition is authorised by the John Buchan Society.

After distinguished service in the First World War, Richard Hannay settles into peaceful domesticity with his wife Mary and their young son. However, news comes to him of three kidnappings. With no more than a few tantalisingly cryptic lines of verse as clues, he is soon on the trail of Dominick Medina a charismatic polymath but a man utterly and consumedly wicked. As Hannay uncovers an international plot to twist innocent minds through hypnotism and blackmail, it appears that he has met his match in one of Buchans most memorable villains. With an introduction by Christopher Hitchens. This edition is authorised by the John Buchan Society.

Plakos is a strange place, for the tides of civilisation and progress seem to have left it high and dry. It is a relic of old days, full of wild beliefs and pagan habits.Young Englishwoman Kore Arabin has inherited a remote Greek island, Plakos, from her unscrupulous father, who was reviled by the locals. The superstitious islanders blame Kore for every minor mishap and natural disaster, and they are about to sacrifice her as a witch in the sacred ground called The Dancing Floor. Sir Edward Leithen and his acquaintance Vernon Milburne must save her. The Dancing Floor is one of Buchans most intriguing novels a love story, a dramatic thriller and a tale of the clash between paganism and Christianity. With an introduction by Robert Hardy.This edition is authorised by the John Buchan Society.

"Mr. Standfast", first published in 1919, is a classic espionage novel by John Buchan. Although "Mr. Standfast" is a sequel to "The Thirty-Nine Steps" (and the third novel from the 5-book series of the Richard Hannay novels also including "Greenmantle") and continues the adventures of Richard Hannay, it offers far more characterisation and philosophy than the earlier book. For its pace and suspense, its changes of scenery and thrilling descriptions of the last great battles against the Germans, "Mr. Standfast" offers everything that has made its author so enduringly popular.In this nail-biting adventure story, the already known hero Richard Hannay must outwit a foe far more intelligent than himself; muster the courage to propose to the lovely, clever Mary Lamington; and survive a brutal war. The plot concerns counter-espionage work in Britain, with Hannay, recalled from the Western Front, posing as a pacifist to learn about a German spy ring.

''I was to be offered up as a sacrifice to some heathen god an awful fate for a Free-kirk elder in the prime of life'' In ''The Strange Adventures of Mr Andrew Hawthorn'' and the other stories in this collection, peculiar worlds of temptation, adventure or iniquity are perilously close at hand. Mr Hawthorn himself steps outside to allow his porridge to cool and disappears for five years and more, a Glasgow grocer is shipwrecked and ultimately worshipped as a god, a young mathematician discovers an entirely new aspect of reality and becomes terrified by what he finds there, and an ageing sinner clings grimly, weakly to a hard-won life of decency: John Buchan in each demonstrating his abilities as a gripping writer of short stories. In his introduction, Giles Foden explores Buchan''s innate sense of the fascination held by sudden jeopardy and vanished comfort, and the themes of the will and fate in his work. Selected with an introduction by GILES FODEN

First published in 1933, "A Prince of the Captivity" is the epic story of one mans courage. Adam Melfort is an officer and a gentleman. A brilliant career lies ahead of him until he is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Afterwards, he embarks on daring missions in the service of his country. Dangerous work behind enemy lines in World War I and espionage in 1920s are adventures he bravely undertakes.

"Prester John" was written as a boys adventure story set mostly in South Africa. It was published in 1910 when John Buchan was 35. The South African background was based on the two years from 1901 which Buchan spent as a private secretary to Lord Milner, High Commissioner to South Africa and later governor of the Transvaal and Orange Free State.Although the novel contains observations on relations between blacks and whites, the clash of different cultures and civilisations and the role of imperial paternalism, it needs to be read primarily as a fast-moving novel of adventure in the style of novels by Robert Louis Stevenson and Rider Haggard.Nineteen-year-old David Crawfurd travels from Scotland to South Africa to work as a storekeeper. On the voyage he encounters again John Laputa, the celebrated Zulu minister, of whom he has strange memories. David had met Laputa some years before in weird circumstances.In his remote store David finds himself with the key to a massive uprising led by the minister, who has taken the title of the mythical priest-king, Prester John.Davids courage and his understanding of this man take him to the heart of the uprising, a secret cave in the Rooirand.

First published in 1906, "A Lodge in the Wilderness" is a political novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. The novel relates an imagined conference arranged by a multi-millionaire, Francis Carey, to discuss Empire. The guests are contemporary figures from the upper and professional classes, nine men and nine women who have in common superb articulateness, wide experience, and an interest in understanding how Empire might be a positive influence. Buchan uses the opportunity to set out a variety of views on political and social issues, and to play Devils Advocate.

Richard Hannay gets caught up quite suddenly, on a dull London afternoon, in a situation of extreme danger. Before he knows what is happening he is the obvious suspect for a murder committed in his own flat, and has to go on the run to his native Scotland.

In 1925, John Buchan published his second most famous novel, John Macnab.Three powerful men suffering from boredom concoct a plan to cure it. They notify three Scottish landowners that they intend to poach from each two stags and a salmon in a given time. They sign collectively as John Macnab and await the responses. Alas, boredom soon turns into panic when the unsuspecting men land themselves in hot water. John Macnab is a light interlude within the Leithen Stories series - an evocative look at the hunting, shooting and fishing lifestyle in Highland Scotland.*Includes handcrafted original images.

Major General Sir Richard Hannay is the fictional secret agent created by writer and diplomat John Buchan, who was himself an Intelligence officer during the First World War. The strong and silent type, combining the dour temperament of the Scot with the stiff upper lip of the Englishman, Hannay is pre-eminent among early spy-thriller heroes. Caught up in the first of these five gripping adventures just before the outbreak of war in 1914, he manages to thwart the enemys evil plan and solve the mystery of the thirty-nine steps. In Greenmantle, he undertakes a vital mission to prevent jihad in the Islamic Near East. Mr Standfast, set in the decisive months of 1917-18, is the novel in which Hannay, after a life lived wholly among men, finally falls in love; later, in The Three Hostages, he finds himself unravelling a kidnapping mystery with his wifes help. In the last adventure, The Island of Sheep, he is called upon to honour an old oath. A shrewd judge of men, he never dehumanises his enemy, and despite sharing some of the racial prejudices of his day, Richard Hannay is a worthy prototype hero of espionage fiction.