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Folio Society. Bound in cloth, blocked in gold, and printed with individual designs. Illustrated with drawings by Nick Hardcastle, with a colour frontispiece in each volume. 8" x 5". In a five-volume set "The Adventures of Richard Hannay" with slipcase blocked in matt gold foil.
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: World War I espionage thriller meets modern-day morality tale in Mr. Standfast, the third of five Richard Hannay novels written by acclaimed storyteller John Buchan. Follow Hannay's exploits as a soldier and a spy in a fast-paced book that echoes may of the themes and motifs of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress..
User reviews
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Richard Hannay, now a brigadier general, is once again called from the front lines of World War I for a more dangerous mission. Hannay must track down an enemy spy by going undercover as a pacifist among an anti-war crowd. With the opposing forces locked in a stalemate, success for the Allies may
This book was published shortly after the war's conclusion. The battle scenes reflect the communication breakdowns I read about in Keegan's history of the war. I read The Thirty-Nine Steps after seeing the movie and I was surprised that there wasn't a female love interest in the book. After reading the first two Hannay novels, I was equally surprised when a female love interest appeared in this one. Recommended for espionage or adventure readers who are willing to overlook occasional expressions of class and racial attitudes typical of the era.
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hinge on the success of Hannay's mission. Hannay is aided by some old friends as well as some new ones, and they all share an interest in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.This book was published shortly after the war's conclusion. The battle scenes reflect the communication breakdowns I read about in Keegan's history of the war. I read The Thirty-Nine Steps after seeing the movie and I was surprised that there wasn't a female love interest in the book. After reading the first two Hannay novels, I was equally surprised when a female love interest appeared in this one. Recommended for espionage or adventure readers who are willing to overlook occasional expressions of class and racial attitudes typical of the era.
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LibraryThing member edella
When Richard Hannay, the hero of The Thirty-nine Steps, is recalled by the Head of British Intelligence from the Western Front at a critical moment in the battle for France, he has little idea that his contribution to the war effort will be much more crucial than the command of his Brigade in
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Flanders. In his strange odyssey to unravel the most sinister of conspiracies to defeat the allies in the West he travels from an idyllic manor house in the Cotswolds to a provincial Garden City where pacifism is the order of the day, through Scotland and London under attack, and thence back to the trenches, and the greatest battle of the First World War. There, amid the devastation and the squalor, he finds both love and a horrifying glimpse of chemical warfare before the thrilling dénoument in the skies above the battlefield. Show Less
LibraryThing member nina.jon
Written in a style typical of its time. Despite its length, this is a very fast-paced adventure, full of derring do's with a heroic protagonist and a happy, although somewhat convoluted ending. Classic good versus evil, in a wartime setting, with a leading man who is always a gentleman, yet can
This would make an excellent film. I'd love to see this story set in another time, with different enemies, but the same goodies.
Nina Jon is the author of the newly released Magpie Murders - a series of short murder mysteries – and the Jane Hetherington's Adventures in Detection crime and mystery series, about private detective Jane Hetherington.
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fire a gun when he has to.This would make an excellent film. I'd love to see this story set in another time, with different enemies, but the same goodies.
Nina Jon is the author of the newly released Magpie Murders - a series of short murder mysteries – and the Jane Hetherington's Adventures in Detection crime and mystery series, about private detective Jane Hetherington.
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LibraryThing member jon1lambert
Great dustjacket, the hero hanging from the carriage of a train, the number 3 prominent. The book is in the 1/6 novels series.
LibraryThing member antiquary
This is the third in the Richard Hannay series; frankly, to me it is well below the level of The Thirty Nine Steps and Greenmantle, but they are so high on my personal list that even so it still fairly good. it chiefly set in Britani, where Hannay pretends to be an anti-war man to get a line on a
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German. Some of Buchan's patriotic satire of the anti-war movement is too heavy-handed for my taste. I got boggd down in that when I last reread it. Show Less
LibraryThing member Figgles
The third Richard Hannay adventure. Although in many ways a pacy WWI spy thriller there's some interesting subtleties at work here. Although the villain (returned from the 39 Steps) is pure evil there is plenty of scope for different types of good to stand in contrast to Hannay's bluff and somewhat
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unsophisticated patriotism. There's a fascinating portrait of an artistic suburb and then of the union world of Aberdeen where Hannay goes undercover to tease out the spy ring that is hiding amongst pacifists and unionists, and Hannay is surprised to find how much honesty and strength of character he finds in what he thought were unlikely places. The other surprise (and it surprises Hannay himself) is the introduction of Mary Lamington who's role goes way beyond the cliched "love interest", she's an active participant and is given her own space and agency and the admiration of the men who she works with - "she can't scare and she can't soil". We are also reintroduced to the scout Peter Pienaar, American John Blenkiron, and meet Sir Archie Roylance for the first time. For the non military types some of the battle descriptions in the final chapters are heavy going but I defy anyone not to be moved to tears by the ending. Lots of fun with some serious stuff underlying it - there's some casual racism from some characters which makes one catch one's breath (and which can only be partly attributed to the "period") but still worth a read. Show Less
LibraryThing member Roarer
Mr Standfast has probably not stood the test of time. After a while the scrapes Richard Hannay encounters seem repetitive, and the reappearance of the main characters in various far-flung places made me remember Brenda from Bristol's celebrated comment, "You;'re joking - not another one!" I fear I
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prefer a flawed hero. It is interesting that the love interest seems to evaporate at the end Hannay and Mary at a graveside, not disappearing into blissful domesticity in a storm of confetti, and I couldn't help suspecting that their future would involve PTSD. Clearly it is written in homage to John Milton's Pilgrim's Progress, and knowledge of that probably helps make sense of the book. The accounts of the use of military aircraft in WWI appealed to me, because a great-uncle had spent the war building aircraft somewhere near Paris (carving wooden propellors). Show Less
LibraryThing member Vesper1931
The final part of the trilogy starts with Richard as Cornelius Brand being sent on a mission by Bullivant and Macgillivray. But where will it end for Hannay and his comrades.
A story which contains adventure, a mystery, a little romance and the battlefields of France in World War I. And of course a
A story which contains adventure, a mystery, a little romance and the battlefields of France in World War I. And of course a
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cast of wonderful characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member AliceAnna
These Richard Hannay novels were really ahead of their time. This one was written in 1919 and took place during the first World War. This one wasn't quite as talky as the first two in the series, but I still drifted off occasionally when the characters talked too much for my taste. But it did have
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a lot of action to counter that, both on the front as behind the scenes as Hannay continues to spy on the Boche. The characters aren't overly fleshed out, but they are still compelling and the story is a bit of a banger. I really enjoyed the mountaineering scene and found it very evocative. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1919
Physical description
8 inches
ISBN
no isbn
Local notes
His masters in Whitehall ask Richard Hannay to shadow a spy at the heart of a network that is smuggling vital military secrets out of the country. Any illusions Hannay may have had about the nature of the task are shattered with the reappearance of an old adversary, a grandmaster of disguise who has fooled Hannay before and will surely do so again.