world literature

This book had all of the elements of a good spy novel--danger, exotic locations, and neat plot twists. It is about a young mining engineer's espionage adventures during World War I. The book was a real page-turner and I couldn't put it down. However, some of the political information confused me. If you're a World War I buff you might understand some of the technical stuff, though. This book also continues the adventures of one of my favorite characters, Richard Hannay, who first appeared in The Thirty-Nine Steps. He is an extremely likable character and this book is a great one if you like espionage novels and adventure stories. P.S. Read it and you'll see why this would make a great movie.

You know, I really don't like war stories (although I do tend toward wartime authors) and I wouldn't have read this book if I hadn't been bored. But I did, and I've been thankful ever since. Yes, it contains racism, but it is simply the way people thought then. Yes it does tend to get technical, but John Buchan was doing the best thing a writer can do and "writing what he knew". And yes, the philo/psycological discusions can get old after a few readings, but I found them another interesting look at the thought life of wartime Europe. The characters are all well developed (I can't stand characters that all act the same), so well that I can't say who is my favorite (permit me a feminine little sigh, however, over the heartbreaking Sandy. But if I did that I'd have to giggle over Peter and argue about Blenkiron and hold my breath with Richard Hannay). The book does seem to start out slow, but keep on going, and don't skip a thing. I'll tell you a secret, though, despite all I just said, I really read this book for the last three pages! The thing is, you can't really "get" all the beauty and relief and grandur of it unless you read the rest, there's just something missing in it, believe me, I've tried.

A friend recommended I read Greenmantle. My friend thought Buchan predicted the emergence of Jihad as a factor in world politics. If so, I didn't notice it.

The story is rather lame, never providing much of a surprise or emotional undercurrent. Buchan relies on luck to extract our hero from almost every plot twist. The 'mystery' code is solved without requiring any discoveries by our spying expedition, so I had to wonder why they even left on their adventure.

Waiting for the insight on Jihad, I forced myself to finish the book. It never arrived. The Turks appearing in the plot are universally dim witted fools and/or larcenous scoundrels. Buchan suggests the jihad can be organized by the man who wears the 'green mantle'. Even Buchan seems uncomfortable with this plot device. Of course, the British and the Turks somehow fail to notice their 'prophet' is a British officer and spy. The book concludes with the British spy charging off into the sunset followed by a host of obedient Turks. I guess this was what Buchan and his faithful readers made of Jihad.