Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Oxford University Press (1994), Paperback, 280 pages
Description
John Macnab is the second most famous novel by John Buchan, published in 1925. It is a story of three successful men - a barrister, cabinet minister and banker who are bored. They decide to alleviate the boredom by anonymously informing three Scottish estates that they intend to poach a stag or a salmon and returning it to them undetected. It is about daring thinking and high living set in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland and evoking images of the hunting, shooting and fishing lifestyle.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
This is one of my all-time favourite novels. Like so much of Buchan's prolific out put, it might nowadays seem rather archaic, romantically conjuring a Corinthian age that probably never existed, but it sespouses simple values that could stand the test of any time.
The novel opens on a summer day in
As always with John Buchan's works the prose is beautiful - clear and sonorous - and his love of the Scottish landscape comes shining through. Though i have no love of hunting, the descriptions of the stalking manoeuvres are described in close, though never overwhelming details, and the characters all appear entirely plausible.
A heart-warming paen to a better ordered time.
The novel opens on a summer day in
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the mid-1920s with Sir Edward Leithen, accomplished barrister and MP, visiting his doctor seeking a remedy for a dispiritng lethargy or ennui that has recently befallen him. His doctor is unable to identify any physical source of Leithen's discomfort and recalls the bane of the intellectual community in the Middle Ages who were plagued with tedium vitae. His suggestion for a rememdy is that Leithen should endeavour to steal a horse in a country where horse-rustling is a capital crime. Later that evening Leithen dines in his club and meets an old friend John Palliser-Yates, an eminent banker, who has been similarly smitten. When the two of them are joined for a glass of restorative brandy by Charles, Lord Lamancha, Cabinet Minister and general grandee, who is also suffering from this disturbing listlessness, and Sir Archibald Roylance, general good chap. the four of them hit upon the idea of issuing a poacher's challenge, writing to three landowners and stating that they will bag a deer or slamon between certain dates and inviting the landowner to do their best to stop them. They will base themselves at Sir Archie's highland estate, and challenge three of his neighbours. Seeing a half-empty bottle of John Macnab whisky on a neighbouring table they choose that name as their soubriquet.As always with John Buchan's works the prose is beautiful - clear and sonorous - and his love of the Scottish landscape comes shining through. Though i have no love of hunting, the descriptions of the stalking manoeuvres are described in close, though never overwhelming details, and the characters all appear entirely plausible.
A heart-warming paen to a better ordered time.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Davidgnp
I have fond memories of this book from my reading in early adolescence, so I was pleased to find it available to download free to my Kindle. It was published in 1925 but still feels fresh and spirited. This upper class world of fine manors and expansive grounds is as far away from me now as it was
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when I first read it as a miner's son in a council house, but that is part of the charm. The class assumptions are amusing, and relieved by Buchan's essentially liberal sentiments despite his being very much part of the aristocratic world in his day job as diplomat and governor. Above all, he is a supreme writer of adventure; here the reader is caught up by the thrill of the chase as three friends try for a dare to hunt game from heavily defended estates, using the collective pseudonym John Macnab. I know nothing whatsoever about hunting and shooting (am temperamentally opposed to both), but I found myself rooting for 'Macnab' and as a reader inhabiting his skin - that's the power of the story and the skill of a great writer in the genre. When I settled down to read, I wondered if I would be as absorbed as I had been nearly fifty years before. The magic was still in the pages, or in this case the screen. By the way, much though I love books, I feel my pleasure was not lessened in any way by using the electronic reader. This was one of my first sustained experiences with the Kindle, and I'm sure I'll be doing a lot more of my reading in this form from now on, especially when I can get it for free. Show Less
LibraryThing member CarltonC
A ripping yarn which just grabs you and carries you along. It is a hugely enjoyable tale of three respectable London men in the early 1920s (a barrister, a banker and a politician) who are suffering from ennui and so create a challenge to poach stag or salmon from three neighbouring Scottish
I also found its setting in the 1920s very interesting when comparing it to the humorous books of Wodehouse (Jeeves & Wooster and the Blandings series), as it did mention the Great War both as in the past for one of the major characters and for a minor character near the end.
This book is a real joy to read.
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Estates. I know nothing about fishing or shooting, but this does not stop you enjoying the story for what it is, which is a thriller. There is humour, romantic interest, a little politics and a bit about shooting & fishing, but the driver is the chase.I also found its setting in the 1920s very interesting when comparing it to the humorous books of Wodehouse (Jeeves & Wooster and the Blandings series), as it did mention the Great War both as in the past for one of the major characters and for a minor character near the end.
This book is a real joy to read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
This is one of my favourite novels, ever, and I seem to re-read it just about every year. Like so much of Buchan's prolific output, it might nowadays at first sight seem rather archaic, with characters romantically hankering after a Corinthian past largely of their own imagining, but it espouses
The novel opens on a summer day in the mid-1920s with Sir Edward Leithen, accomplished barrister and MP, visiting his doctor seeking a remedy for a dispiriting lethargy or ennui that has recently befallen him. His doctor is unable to identify any physical source of Leithen's discomfort and recalls the bane of the intellectual community in the Middle Ages who were plagued with tedium vitae. His brutal prescription to the beleaguered barrister is that Leithen should endeavour to steal a horse in a country where rustling is a capital crime. Later that evening Leithen dines in his club and meets an old friend, John Palliser-Yates, an eminent banker, who has been similarly smitten. When the two of them are joined for a glass of restorative brandy by Charles, Lord Lamancha, Cabinet Minister and general grandee, who also claims to be suffering from this disturbing listlessness, and Sir Archibald Roylance, general good chap about town, the four of them hit upon the idea of issuing a poacher's challenge, writing to three landowners and stating that they will bag a deer or salmon between certain dates and inviting the landowner to do their best to stop them. They base themselves at Sir Archie's highland estate, and proceed to challenge three of his neighbours. Seeing a half-empty bottle of John Macnab whisky on the next table they adopt that name as their soubriquet.
As always with John Buchan's works the prose is beautiful - clear and sonorous - and his love of the Scottish landscape comes shining through. Though I have no love of hunting, the descriptions of the stalking manoeuvres are described in close, though never overwhelming details, and the characters all appear entirely plausible. Buchan has often been dismissed as writing stereotypical characters wholly lacking in political or social conscience. This novel triumphantly decries that: it positively rattles with social conscience, often dispensed from unexpected sources.
It also offers a heady mix of out and out adventure, humour, and even a love story. A little bit of everything, conveyed in Buchan's unerringly gifted prose.
A heart-warming paean to a better ordered time.
Show More
simple values that effortlessly stand the test of any time.The novel opens on a summer day in the mid-1920s with Sir Edward Leithen, accomplished barrister and MP, visiting his doctor seeking a remedy for a dispiriting lethargy or ennui that has recently befallen him. His doctor is unable to identify any physical source of Leithen's discomfort and recalls the bane of the intellectual community in the Middle Ages who were plagued with tedium vitae. His brutal prescription to the beleaguered barrister is that Leithen should endeavour to steal a horse in a country where rustling is a capital crime. Later that evening Leithen dines in his club and meets an old friend, John Palliser-Yates, an eminent banker, who has been similarly smitten. When the two of them are joined for a glass of restorative brandy by Charles, Lord Lamancha, Cabinet Minister and general grandee, who also claims to be suffering from this disturbing listlessness, and Sir Archibald Roylance, general good chap about town, the four of them hit upon the idea of issuing a poacher's challenge, writing to three landowners and stating that they will bag a deer or salmon between certain dates and inviting the landowner to do their best to stop them. They base themselves at Sir Archie's highland estate, and proceed to challenge three of his neighbours. Seeing a half-empty bottle of John Macnab whisky on the next table they adopt that name as their soubriquet.
As always with John Buchan's works the prose is beautiful - clear and sonorous - and his love of the Scottish landscape comes shining through. Though I have no love of hunting, the descriptions of the stalking manoeuvres are described in close, though never overwhelming details, and the characters all appear entirely plausible. Buchan has often been dismissed as writing stereotypical characters wholly lacking in political or social conscience. This novel triumphantly decries that: it positively rattles with social conscience, often dispensed from unexpected sources.
It also offers a heady mix of out and out adventure, humour, and even a love story. A little bit of everything, conveyed in Buchan's unerringly gifted prose.
A heart-warming paean to a better ordered time.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nholmes
A splendid romp, very well sustained
LibraryThing member ben_a
Not the best Buchan, but still Buchan. I think I've written elsewhere about the characteristic Buchan moral tone. It is in evidence here. What a lovely man.
LibraryThing member flyfisher64
three bored English gentlemen dream up a scheme to get them out of their ennui. They decide to see if they can poach two stags and a salmon from three different Scottish estates. Each of them is to take on one of the poaching duties. Sir Edward Leithen is a superb fly fisher and it is his task to
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poach a Salmon by rod and reel. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
This is one of my favourite novels, ever, and I seem to re-read it just about every year. Like so much of Buchan's prolific output, it might nowadays at first sight seem rather archaic, with characters romantically hankering after a Corinthian past largely of their own imagining. It does, however,
The novel opens on a summer day in the mid-1920s with Sir Edward Leithen, accomplished barrister and Member of Parliament, visiting his doctor seeking a remedy for a dispiriting lethargy or ennui that has recently befallen him. His doctor is unable to identify any physical source for Leithen's discomfort and recalls the bane of the intellectual community in the Middle Ages who were plagued with tedium vitae. His brutal prescription to the beleaguered barrister is that Leithen should endeavour to steal a horse in a country where rustling is a capital crime.
Later that evening Leithen dines in his club and meets an old friend, John Palliser-Yates, an eminent banker, who has been similarly smitten. When the two of them are joined for a glass of restorative brandy by Charles, Lord Lamancha, Cabinet Minister and general grandee, who also claims to be suffering from this disturbing listlessness, and Sir Archibald Roylance, general good chap about town, the four of them hit upon the idea of issuing a poacher's challenge, writing to three landowners and stating that they will bag a deer or salmon between certain dates and inviting the landowner to do their best to stop them. They decide to base themselves at Sir Archie's highland estate, and proceed to challenge three of his neighbours. Seeing a half-empty bottle of John Macnab whisky on the next table they adopt that name as their soubriquet.
As always with John Buchan's works the prose is beautiful - clear and sonorous - and his love of the Scottish landscape comes shining through. Though I have no love of hunting, the descriptions of the stalking manoeuvres are described in close, though never overwhelming details, and the characters all appear entirely plausible. Buchan has often been dismissed as writing stereotypical characters wholly lacking in political or social conscience. This novel triumphantly decries that charge. It positively rattles with social conscience, often dispensed from unexpected sources.
It also offers a heady mix of out and out adventure, humour, and even a love story. A little bit of everything, conveyed in Buchan's unerringly gifted prose. A heart-warming paean to a better ordered time.
Show More
espouse simple values that effortlessly stand the test of any time.The novel opens on a summer day in the mid-1920s with Sir Edward Leithen, accomplished barrister and Member of Parliament, visiting his doctor seeking a remedy for a dispiriting lethargy or ennui that has recently befallen him. His doctor is unable to identify any physical source for Leithen's discomfort and recalls the bane of the intellectual community in the Middle Ages who were plagued with tedium vitae. His brutal prescription to the beleaguered barrister is that Leithen should endeavour to steal a horse in a country where rustling is a capital crime.
Later that evening Leithen dines in his club and meets an old friend, John Palliser-Yates, an eminent banker, who has been similarly smitten. When the two of them are joined for a glass of restorative brandy by Charles, Lord Lamancha, Cabinet Minister and general grandee, who also claims to be suffering from this disturbing listlessness, and Sir Archibald Roylance, general good chap about town, the four of them hit upon the idea of issuing a poacher's challenge, writing to three landowners and stating that they will bag a deer or salmon between certain dates and inviting the landowner to do their best to stop them. They decide to base themselves at Sir Archie's highland estate, and proceed to challenge three of his neighbours. Seeing a half-empty bottle of John Macnab whisky on the next table they adopt that name as their soubriquet.
As always with John Buchan's works the prose is beautiful - clear and sonorous - and his love of the Scottish landscape comes shining through. Though I have no love of hunting, the descriptions of the stalking manoeuvres are described in close, though never overwhelming details, and the characters all appear entirely plausible. Buchan has often been dismissed as writing stereotypical characters wholly lacking in political or social conscience. This novel triumphantly decries that charge. It positively rattles with social conscience, often dispensed from unexpected sources.
It also offers a heady mix of out and out adventure, humour, and even a love story. A little bit of everything, conveyed in Buchan's unerringly gifted prose. A heart-warming paean to a better ordered time.
Show Less
LibraryThing member leslie.98
Unlike many Buchan books, the adventure in this one has no political side to it (except for the fact that some politicians take part). Rather, it is adventure purely for the fun & sport of it.
Language
Original publication date
1925
Physical description
280 p.; 7.32 inches
ISBN
0192829351 / 9780192829351