The House of the Four Winds

Dickson McCunn #3

by John Buchan

The House of the Four Winds is a 1935 adventure novel by the Scots author John Buchan. It is a Ruritanian romance, and the last of his three Dickson McCunn books. The novel is set in the fictional Central European country of Evallonia and opens two years after the events recounted in Castle Gay.

Genres: Fiction, Adventure, Mystery, British Literature, Classics, Scotland, Mystery Thriller

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

John Buchan was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.
As a youth, Buchan began writing poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, publishing his first novel in 1895 and ultimately writing over a hundred books of which the best known is The Thirty-Nine Steps. After attending Glasgow and Oxford universities, he practised as a barrister. In 1901, he served as a private secretary to Lord Milner in southern Africa towards the end of the Boer War. He returned to England in 1903, continued as a barrister and journalist. He left the Bar when he joined Thomas Nelson and Sons publishers in 1907. During the First World War, he was, among other activities, Director of Information in 1917 and later Head of Intelligence at the newly-formed Ministry of Information. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities in 1927.
In 1935, King George V, on the advice of Canadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, appointed Buchan to succeed the Earl of Bessborough as Governor General of Canada and two months later raised him to the peerage as 1st Baron Tweedsmuir. He occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan promoted Canadian unity and helped strengthen the sovereignty of Canada constitutionally and culturally. He received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The oft-quoted line from the classic film Casablanca – “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine” – comes to mind when considering the situation that sees numerous characters from previous Buchan novels find themselves, through one route or another, caught up in the politics of the fictional European country of Evallonia.  Or, as Buchan scholar Kate MacDonald notes, the book’s ‘crossover tendencies between the separate Buchan worlds’.

I’ll confess it was hard work at times trying to keep up with (or maintain much interest in) the different political factions challenging for control of Evallonia, and which characters belonged to which faction. As well as the elements you might expect from a Buchan adventure – kidnapping, miraculous escapes, cunning disguises – there are some lighthearted moments, such as a fortuitous rescue involving a circus elephant – at which point a character remarks, “Had this been an episode in a novel, it would have been condemned for its manifest improbability”.

The formidable woman who features on the dust jacket of my copy (see image above) and is much talked about by other characters – the splendidly named Countess Araminta Troyos – makes a relatively late entrance to the story in person. When she does, she has a rather disappointing role to my mind. It doesn’t help that she’s pretty much a painting by numbers femme fatale along the lines of Hilda von Einem in Buchan’s Greenmantle. (Kate MacDonald places her alongside Hilda in the ‘exotica’ category of Buchan’s female characters.)

As most critics have said The House of the Four Winds is not Buchan at his best. The book is entertaining but no more than that and, even though I’m not a particular fan of the Dickson McCunn series, I have to say the first two books, Huntingtower and Castle Gay, are better if only because they’re set in a location more familiar to Buchan.

#ReadJB2019

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm stretching things by putting this in with war/thrillers but I think Lord Tweedsmuir would approve. It is certainly full of adventure and why shouldn't a retired Glasgow grocer have a chance at wild adventure like any other man. This story of revolution and restoration was written in 1935 and went through 5 printings between May and September of that year, so it must have caught the imagination of a number of people. Buchan is careful to provide enough background that it doesn't matter if you haven't read Castle Gay or Huntingtower, the two preceding novels, and actually gives you enough hints that you feel you should find and read those earlier tales.
I wonder if Buchan wrote these stories for his own amusement because while the characters have to deal with real problems the answers come quite pat and while carrying things off requires nerve little things like needing someone to be ready at a distant window or castle servants not to notice makeup are just shrugged off. This is a real Prisoner of Zenda tale, complete with fictional central European country(Evallonia), heroic female leader (Countess Araminta Troyes, referred to as the Blood Red Rook for her love of the colour red), exiled king (Prince John), and wise loyal councilors (Prince Odalchini)but it also has a mad English gentleman who owns a traveling circus with a large elephant.
Buchan was well experienced in government; his last job was as governor general of Canada and he died here in office in 1941. He handles those parts of the plot smoothly but there is a considerable amount of coincidence necessary to bring the characters together in Europe so far from Scotland. He has our grocer (Dickson McCunn) sent to a German kurhaus to regain his health, John Galt sets off on a hike across Europe to think about life after Cambridge, Sir Archibald Roylance goes to Geneva for a government conference and Alison Westover is called to her parents who arae at the same kurhaus. It's all very upper class and Agatha Christie-ish, but that was Buchan's milieu.
The sad thing that comes through several times is Buchan's feeling that Youth will save the world, that the Idea paired with determination and stamina will brush aside all the mustiness of the past. His Juventus has echoes of the Hitler Youth and even he comments on the Juventus green shirts that so much seems to be riding on "fancy haberdashery". Unfortunately, if the Idea is a dangerous or wicked one it can take over just as easily as a good one can and by 1935 he should have been aware of some of what was coming. It's easy to enjoy this book because you don't hear Buchan's anti-semitism which turns up in others of his novels including The Thirty-nine Steps.
I could have done with a little less of the villain being described as a vicious beast, though, and his house being dirty with paper falling from the walls, while the good guys have a castle that is a little shabby but carefully maintained. The bad guy seems all dark - clothes, hair, et al - while our good guy wears a white linen suit.
This would make a "jolly" adventure film.

[Melanie T · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book over all the others, although I know it was not so regarded by others. It is so dated, mad ideas and a romp through a vanished world if it indeed ever exist.

[Sadie Slater · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Wanderlust I found myself in the mood to read more about walking, and as for my money John Buchan is hands-down the best writer of fictional walks, I thought I'd read the third of the Dickson McCunn trilogy (following Huntingtower and Castle Gay).

Unlike the first two books, which are both set in Scotland, The House of the Four Winds is set in the fictional central European country of Evallonia, where retired Glasgow grocer and incurable romantic Dickson McCunn, former Gorbals Die-Hard and now Cambridge graduate and rugby international Jaikie Galt and friends find themselves involved in a revolution. It's an entertaining Ruritania romp with plenty of mild peril, likeable characters and particularly likeable and deeply competent female characters and some nice descriptions of scenery. I did feel that there was a sad kind of irony in a novel that sees a populist youth movement playing an instrumental role in the restoration of a benevolent and enlightened monarchy, published in 1935 in a Europe where fascism had already gained a strong hold. It's clear from a couple of passages and references to Hitler and Mussolini that Buchan the politician was not unaware of the gathering shadows and their possible implications, and that his adventure story is also a fantasy about how the world could be diverted into a different course (with the help of the English and English educations, naturally), and there's definitely a poignancy to reading it knowing how events really worked out.

[Eugene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this 1935 tale of classic Ruritanian derring-do. OK, so the plotting is far-fetched at times - understatement - but I looked forward every evening to the pleasure of opening this book and finding out what next disaster befalls plucky retired grocer Dickson McCunn, former Gorbal Die-Hards Jaikie and Dougal, the lovely Alison Westwater, good-old Archibald Roylance, etc. and how they wriggle out of it. Buchan writes beautifully, his descriptions of Evallonia are wonderful, the action is exciting, and I love his remarkable cast of characters.

Sigh. Sadly this is the third and final instalment in the adventures of Dickson McCunn. A shame, as I would happily continue reading ...

One last thought: I wonder what Anthony Hope, the author of the Prisoner Of Zenda would have made of this? Is it a coincidence that Hope dies in 1933 and the book was published in 1935? McCunn's stepping into the shoes of a European king rings a very big bell!

[Gordon Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can't fail to enjoy any novel that has the fabulous Dickson McCunn and the Gorbal Die-hards. JB must have enjoyed writing these adventures as each book becomes more and more absurd.
Fantastic fun.

[Caroline Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed this romp through pre 2nd World War Central Europe and the fictional land of Evallonia. The story is ridiculous involving the takeover of the country by the evil Mastrovin whose plot is foiled by plucky Scots, Jaikle Galt, Dickson McCunn, Alison Westwater and the Roylances not to mention Randal Glynde and the travelling circus. One can't help feeling some uneasiness when reading the admiration the author encourages of Juventus, the youthful brigade who appear to resemble Hitler's Youth, but I think and hope Buchan had his tongue in his cheek for a lot of this story. It has encouraged me to read the earlier adventures of this group of characters in Buchan's earlier books

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buchan's Zenda, a charming and busy thriller (which also recalls "Blind Corner" by Dornford Yates) with McCunn, Jaikey, et al making sure Evallonia gets the Mussolini-inspired regime it deserves after a decade of insidious republican rule.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best of the three Dickson McCunn books. Classic Buchan.

[Not · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fun as far as an afternoon Saturday movie is. Fun entertainment, nothing more, and you're not likely to "watch" (read) it again. Part of my issue was that I started partway through a series and I think this is why the characters where a little too on the surface for me to get too interested in them. There were glimpses however into their personalities which were intriguing, I just don't think there was enough there for me to really bond with any one of them. The politics of the story were quite confusing to me and I mostly glazed over that stuff (which is A LOT of the story). It was also hard to really care about the political feat of their adventure when virtually none of our main characters cared themselves. They simply found themselves caught in the middle of it, and out of loyalty to their friends (natives of the country under political tumult) they continued, but none of them actually cared that much about what they were doing, which was a put off for me.
I LOVE the authors creative naming of chapters. They are intriguing but I didn't always feel like the content lived up to the names, even the name of the book. I picked it up because The House of the Four Winds sounded whimsical, glorious, beautiful, haunting, but it was rather dry, and the actual house was only ever involved in 1 scene of the story! Really didn't need to be called this.
The names of the characters were rather difficult to follow, because there were so many characters and they usually had about three names, not to mention disguises.
I was quite disappointed that the book ended with a character who had very little to do with this book in the series, Dickson McCunn, rather than the main character we had been following all along, Jaikie. However, I understand this is the last book in a series and I'm pretty sure the first book was about Dickson McCunn so it might be a more satisfying ending to the readers who read the series from the beginning.
All that being said, I would have given the book 3.5 stars if I was able, because there were parts of it that were particularly gripping. I was really on the edge of my seat when they came head to head with Mastrovin and the clock kept counting down. But the following chapters were rather boring to me.
I would recommend it as a weekend read for a little clean entertainment, but wouldn't expect too much from it.

[Stephen Simmonds · Rating 2 out of 5]

John Buchan's guide to being a monarchist:

1. First, get yourself a copy of John Buchan's The House Of The Four Winds (1935, Hodder & Stoughton). First edition preferably, and a little ragged, to prove that it's a well-used, well-regarded tome.

2. Don't discuss political theory, philosophy, or ideology. It just muddies the waters.

3. Your enemy is the republican. He's a venal, ugly ratbag - and his manners are appalling. But he will be no danger: he will inevitably die of the violence that he himself instigates.

4. Republicans are "shadows of the dark which vanish when the light comes", "hating what they did not understand".

5. Communists are, of course, beyond the pale. Risible at best, they are not even worthy to be considered as foes.

6. Commandeer a catchy refrain for the monarchists to pass secret signals to each other. Dvorak's Humoresque, say. It helps if your daughter's been learning this piece on violin, so you'd better get her started pronto*.

7. In a monarchy, "everyone will share in its government... all will be sovereigns, because all will be subjects". ...Oops, that abrogates #2, better drop that. Pretend it's a mere trifle you picked up at Cambridge.

8. There's no dishonour in recruiting the services of foreigners for a bit of legerdemain at strategic junctures. Particularly if they're of good breeding. Or Scottish.

9. To further cement your legitimacy, join forces with (ie subvert) a populist organisation that actually has a wide power base. Something along the lines of a Hitler - oops I mean German - Youth Movement.

10. Finally, and most resoundingly: monarchs are, of course, handed their office by the simple mechanism of universal acclaim.


*viz Book 3 of the Suzuki Method.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good romp from John Buchan first published in 1935 and very much influenced by world events of the time. To get the most out of this book you really need to be familiar with his characters from reading Castle Gay and others that include the Gorbals Die Hards and associated characters. This book is about Evallonia and the complicated plans to restore the monarchy. We came across Evallonia in Castle Gay as well as the ner-do-well Mastrovin as well the Prince in the battle for that house. Well everyone is back and coincidentally (or not) crossing paths out in a small space in Europe.

Alison is having to chaperone elderly relatives on their holiday and so Jaikie takes himself for a long walk across Europe. Dickson is at a retreat in Europe somewhere and the mysterious Mr Glynde is threaded through it all. Jaikie finds himself willingly crossing the border into Evallonia and, in that jolly hockey sticks public school wheeze just has to help his old chum out of the fix he has himself in and restore the monarchy. Of course, what else do you do on holiday? Fortunately just when Jackie needs him Dickson appears en route somewhere else and stumbles across Jaikie (needle in haystack style) and, of course, has to jump into the fun. Alison is, naturally, walled up with her relatives near by and stumbles upon the activity taking it upon herself to lend a hand. Queue a highly contrived “putting the band back together” moment.

Of its time and pretty ridiculous in places it really is a good read for all that - if you just accept it for what it is and go along with the narrative.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Buchan always writes a great adventure novel, although there is colonialist slant to them. I wish I had read the other two Dickson McCann novels first since they are referred to often. However, the novel is enjoyable on its own as a group of British (mostly Scottish) folk are drawn into a revolution in Evallonia, a Central European country where there is a youth movement Juventus, monarchists, and communists all vying for control of the country. John Galt aka Jaikie is able to go among the groups, gaining the respect of both the monarchists and Juventus, before being captured by the evil communists. There is lots of action, as the British effect a compromise between the two groups, Dickson McCann pretends to be an elderly heir to the throne, and Jaikie is sprung from the grip of the communists by a British agent who is running a circus. Lots of fun and Jaikie gets to show off both his rugby prowess and get the girl at the end!

[Avril · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the one hand, gotta love a John Buchan book whose heroes are a retired Glaswegian grocer and a young man who spent his early life in a Glaswegian slum. But the really interesting thing about this pleasant adventure is that Buchan is writing about a fascist youth movement in 1935, and imagining it being used for good with a decent leader. The Greenshirts are an obvious Hitler Youth avatar, with all their training and dangerous energy that needs to be properly channeled. I don’t think Buchan has convinced me that any mass military-style youth movement is a good idea, but maybe that’s hypocritical of me given my past association with the Scouts.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun lark, with more Dickson McCunn than the previous novel, Castle Gay, but not representative of Buchan at his best. An interesting interwar spin on the Ruritanian romance, though. Full review for John Buchan June at the blog.

[Hannah Dee · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one was really not my cup of tea - in the "adventuring oxbridge types interfere with the politics of less developed peoples" mould. Not helped by being #3 in a series, with no attempt at backfill or recap.

[dragonhelmuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kindled for free. The final book in the Dickson McCunn saga is also the best of the three, and probably one of Buchan’s finest. The modern and fresh outlook, believable characters (male and female) and fun plot all go together her to make this one a really good read, even if the plot is a bit of a strange one. DIckson’s two adopted “children”, now fresh out of Cambridge go on a trek through Europe but end up playing a part in some very important affairs. That synopsis makes it sound very Famous Five but actually I really enjoyed it, and enough properly adult characters come in that this isn’t a book about children. Some of the best parts of the books are the realistic depictions of what it’s like to be young though, which is strange considering the age of Buchan as he wrote this.


{Buchan’s fun youths}
And yet, in the two years I have known you, you have filled up your time with the craziest things. First"--she counted on her fingers--"you went off to Baffin Island to trade old rifles for walrus ivory." Jaikie grinned. "I made seventy-three pounds clear: I call that a success." "Then you walked from Cambridge to Oxford within a day and a night." "That was a failure. I was lame for a fortnight and couldn't play in the Welsh match." "You went twice as a deck hand on a Grimsby trawler--first to Bear Island and then to the Whales' Back. I don't know where these places are, but they sound beastly." "They were. I was sick most of the time." "Last and worst, it was only your exams and my prayers that kept you from trying to circumnavigate Britain in a sailing canoe, when you would certainly have been drowned.

{not so different from modern uni life}
There was a time at the start when Jaikie's mind had been filled with exasperating little cares, so that he turned a blank face to the world he was traversing. His future-- what was he to do now that he was done with Cambridge? Alison--his need of her grew more desperate every day, but what could he offer her worthy of her acceptance? Only his small dingy self, he concluded, with nothing to his credit except a second-class degree, some repute at Rugby football, and the slenderest of bank balances. It seemed the most preposterous affair of a moth and a star.
...
Especially he thought happily about Alison. He did not think of her as a bored young woman with peevish parents in a dull health resort, but as he knew her in the Canonry, an audacious ally in any venture, staunch as the hills, kind as a west wind.


{class concerns in oxbridge even then}
He was aware that, without Cambridge, he would have always been a little shy and suspicious of the life of a class into which he had not been born; now he knew it for what it was worth, and could look at it without prejudice but also without glamour. "Brother to a beggar, and fellow to a king"--what was Dougal's phrase?

[Valeria Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

In some ways this was a lovely read, but I have to admit that John Buchan read in 2013 is not quite the John Buchan I read fifty years ago. This novel is set between the wars in the fictitious Evallonia and involves our heroes from Huntingtower and strange characters. Most alarmingly, a youth movement called Juventus. Was Buchan aware of the Balilla and the Hitlerjugend forming in Europe??? Considering his diplomatic background, maybe I was expecting more...The story was readable but pretty far-fetched, and much as "Jaikie" the former Gorbals Diehard is a lovable character, I felt that Buchan had lost it a bit.....pity.

[Rog Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly lighthearted adventure story set in a small European country featuring many of the characters from "Castle Gay" and also Archie and Janet Roylance. About three quarters of the way through the book it becomes more serious and indeed one of the characters feels,"that he had stumbled out of comedy into a melodrama which might soon darken into tragedy." However after some tension, reminiscent of the Richard Hannay stories, leading to the death of an unpleasant character the mood becomes more lighthearted and there is a happy ending.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each of Buchan's other Dickson McCunn and Richard Hannay books have absorbed me in at least parts of the story. This book did not. I found the plot a bit too predictable (though my wife says I'm uncannily good at predicting plots) and the adventure more bland than other books by Buchan which I've read. I'm glad to have read it and finished out the series, but I don't think it will merit a reread ever, unlike the other above mentioned books.

[Paul Barron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read very much like the famous Five had all grown up and were continuing their adventures. The story centered around Jaikie and his friends who all end up in Evallonia. The plot was a bit too linear and one dimensional for me. A few sub plots involving the other main characters would have made it more interesting.

[Chris Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third part of the Dickson McCunn trilogy, where he and the usual sidekicks fall into a plot involving an exiled prince's attempt to regain the throne despite the efforts of bad guys to keep him from it. Silly and endearing adventure tale from the 20s.

[Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not his best, but worth it just for the description of Jaikie's walking tour through the Pyrenees.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Buchan seems to be an acquired taste that I haven't.

[Margareth8537 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best of the McCann books, but still quite enjoyable

[Alayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel reunited many of the characters from John Buchan's other novels - Archie and Janet Roylance along with Alison, Jaikie, Dougal and Dickson, in a rollicking story of revolution and cat-and-mouse secrecy. Very enjoyable.