The thirty-nine steps.
Imagine the scene. You meet someone at the theatre, you have a conversation, they come back to your flat and spend the night in the spare room. The next morning you wake up when they come into your bedroom and drop dead, with a knife in their back. Or how about this? One of your neighbours knocks on your door and asks for help. Before you can say anything they have walked into your flat and pointed a gun at you. Now get out of that.
Alfred Hitchcock made such a good film in the thirties that it was copied, this time in colour, in the late fifties. It was remade again (i.e. version three) in the late seventies by another director and starring Robert Powell (more famous for playing Jesus Of Nazareth on American television). As this is my thirty-ninth article for this paper, I thought I'd write about the great story 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' by John Buchan. Without giving too much of the plot away, it's a crime thriller written in 1915 against the background of Prussian spies and a world just about to go to war.
Richard Hannay, the main character, has obviously thought of just telling the police. The trouble is, the police think he is a murderer. The Prussians think he has vital information and has to be stopped. There aren't that many people you can go to after that. And what are the thirty-nine steps anyway? Don't expect to get the same answers in the book as in the films (in fact the third version changes so much you might not think it was the same story as the first two). Somewhere on his journey, Hannay has to deal with armed police officers, a violent religious bigot in the middle of nowhere, a mysterious spy with half a finger missing, the problem of finding himself on live radio in front of an audience of schoolgirls, the problem of stopping a speeding train, and trying to turn back time (not in the science fiction sense).
The book is read by a lot of English students because it is easy enough to follow without using a dictionary five times a page. The films are exciting without depending on too many special effects (perhaps a couple of stuntmen) and one of them was by the 'master of suspense' himself. As for the plot, the next time you see a film where both the police and the criminals are chasing after our hero, you can bet the writer was thinking of 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' at the time.
Glossary
the plot akcja
a spy szpieg
to deal with zająć
armed uzbrojony
a stuntman kaskader
to chase gonić
Somewhere in this wordsearch are seven words to do with novels. Their definitions are underneath. Can you find them?
Y Q A B Y A Z G S R O C G Y A L H V T C
D J D G B R I Q Y E V Q W F K U X W I T
E U R R P I E B X T Q E O G L L L C Y X
D G Y U Q G T G Y P W U S D E O U X I F
M I N O R C H A R A C T E R T L L J X P
A V W I S T O P H H F Y S L Z M L U C L
C Q P A T L W F W C R A V I G H D G J R
E V V W W T Z G M R Z E E M W B M O P D
F Y D R J N E P C F U N H T C T Y H J Q
H J U O I I H S I Q W E I B O K W U R S
H X O P F K D U Y M E P P R G M L N P B
O G Q N O D P B D M K T X Q N X E V J K
V U B A G X S P K J D Q Q R J U B B P H
H I V K R K B L P U L I A E K F D Q W R
O I Z U F Q S O D S P M E C J S W O H E
X S R X M X K T Y D Z E Y I Z U K G M S
S G V X V E V Y W A S G H Z F T C R W S
K M X U A H U J R M T B G E V R D N S E
F Q Q D S I I D O J R U V C D R O Y T S
U J I U T G P M L E D G J E B Q O T J A
A standard way of dividing a novel up.
One of the people in the story.
Something that happens unexpectedly in the story.
Someone who does not appear for very long and isn't particularly important.
Where and when the action takes place.
Another story that continues where the first one finished (in the case of 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' it is 'The Three Hostages').
A smaller story that happens within the novel's main story.
KEY
chapter
character
twist
minor character
setting
sequel
subplot
Did you know?
In every Hitchcock film, Alfred himself appears somewhere. The next time you see one of his films, see if you can spot him.