The Thirty-Nine Steps

by Derek Strange (Adapted by), John Buchan

[Penguin Readers Level 3]

64 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Ruth This one · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a bit tiresome for a chap who's frightfully bored, doesn't claim to be much of a brain, but happens to have eyesight of a hawk and intuition teamed with razor sharp wits and muscles toned in the velds. It's tiresome to be hanging around London with nothing to do but dine on pork products three times a day waited on by my man or at my club. It's tiresome, that is, until my white male upper class natural destiny reveals itself. It's jolly good sport to get all these bigwigs out of a pickle and save the day.

It's an old book, but worth reading with critical eyes to understand a bit more how established the white male British saviour trope is in our collective literary fantasies. Yes I think he's meant to be Scottish, but it's clear that he nevertheless fancies himself patronisingly superior to all the poor, humble, simple honest folk he meets.

Prototype 007?

Sigh.

[Joanne Eaton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had never read The Thirty Nine Steps before but I had seen the classic Robert Donat and Keneth More film versions of the story.
I was expecting a fast paced read full of intrigue and suspense but instead crawled through a story of one man who turns into a kind of superman risking his life for what seems to me none of his business. So why does he bother?

[Dija Elzeiny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hated