The Thirty-Nine Steps

by John Buchan, Nick Bullard Narrated by Multiple Narrators

Overview

'I turned on the light, but there was nobody there. Then I saw something in the corner that made my blood turn cold. Scudder was lying on his back. There was a long knife through his heart, pinning him to the floor.' Soon Richard Hannay is running for his life across the hills of Scotland. The police are chasing him for a murder he did not do, and another, more dangerous enemy is chasing him as well - the mysterious 'Black Stone'. Who are these people? And why do they want Hannay dead?

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

Another hot new series from Penguin, "Great Books for Boys" offers a handful of top adventure stories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Each volume sports a nice vintage-looking cover to complete the spell. Great fun (and girls can read them, too!).

—Michael Rogers

AudioFile

Frederick Davidson’s voice is properly sardonic, and his supercilious British articulation is just right. The story’s extended chase scene inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s movie of the same name.”

Telegraph (London)

Buchan’s technique as a writer is simple enough and well displayed in The Thirty-Nine Steps. He understood that in a thriller…what matters above all is to keep the reader focused on what is going to happen next…It doesn’t matter that the reader has no clue where he is being taken or, when he gets there, how the thing happened as it did. All that matters is that once you’ve started, you can’t put the book down.”

author of A History of Warfare John Keegan

It is the dimension of the mysterious that makes Buchan’s writing so unfailingly compelling.”

An officer on the front in World War I

It is just the kind of fiction for here. One wants something to engross the attention without tiring the mind. The story is greatly appreciated in the midst of mud and rain and shells, and all that could make trench life depressing.”

From the Publisher

"Lethal, spare, clean and contemporary." —Guardian

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171930332
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	11/15/2007
Series:	Oxford Bookworms Library Level 4
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos