John Buchan

Extollager

Extollager

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Antiloquax mentioned John Buchan --

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/6197-book-hauls-475.html#post1734581

-- so I thought we could start a thread for discussing his work. He wrote many stories of suspense and adventure, the best-known, of course, being The Thirty-Nine Steps. However, a number of his short stories and novellas, and at least a couple of novels, belong in the category of supernatural fiction, weird tale, or even science fiction.

The novels I'm thinking of are The Dancing Floor and The Gap in the Curtain.

Scroll down here

The Literary Gothic | John Buchan

for an e-text link to some of the shorter works, in The Moon Endureth, etc.

I've read a lot of Buchan. His prose is generally a pleasure to read. Novels I particularly appreciate include Witch Wood, Huntingtower, etc.
DancingFloor.jpg
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Witch_wood.jpg
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Hi Extollager,
Thanks for starting this thread. I was not aware of the "weird fiction" aspect of his work. I like the Hannay books. I've read the first three and Greenmantle is my favourite of those. Currently reading Huntingtower. I have "Sick Heart River" ready to read at some point soon.
 
I liked Buchan for his own sake before I discovered that he was apparently something of a favorite of Tolkien's. Jared Lobdell has written about the possible influence of Huntingtower on The Hobbit -- his case actually makes good sense. Mark Hooker has also written on this topic.

Do you have The Three Hostages (the 4th of 5 Hannay books, I think)?

I think I'll reread a Buchan short story or two and post here. I should think all or nearly all of them are available online, but I think I'll pick up this book for "Space."
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Here's a photo of the anthologist. I wouldn't mind the chance to look at books in his library.
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"Space" uses the convention that was so popular a century and more ago, in which two or a few men are relaxing or waiting somewhere, and after a leisurely opening one of them tells the story. Many stories I have enjoyed use this kind of frame.

Basically the idea in "Space" is that by mental training an intelligent fellow becomes aware of a generally unseen "dimension," which leads to his death in mysterious circumstances.
 
Using a similar set-up (a rest at a sanatorium) is his collection, The Runagates' Club, which varies from near-slapstick to suspense to weird... "The Wind in the Portico" and "The Green Wildebeest", for instance, are included there. (Incidentally, unless my memory is deceiving me -- certainly possible, as I've not read this collection in nearly 30 years -- Hannay is one of the characters involved.)

His early Grey Weather is also well worth seeking out....
 
Extollager said:
I liked Buchan for his own sake before I discovered that he was apparently something of a favorite of Tolkien's. Jared Lobdell has written about the possible influence of Huntingtower on The Hobbit -- his case actually makes good sense. Mark Hooker has also written on this topic.
Click to expand...
Yes, that makes sense. Bilbo is quite like Dickson McCunn.

I've just got "The Three Hostages" and "The Island of Sheep" from Gutenberg Australia. I hadn't realised the rules about Public Domain were different there.

I was a little startled when he fell in love in "Mr. Standfast"!

"Space" can be found in this gutenberg ebook: "The Moon Endureth"
The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies by John Buchan - Free Ebook
 
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antiloquax said:
I've just got "The Three Hostages" and "The Island of Sheep" from Gutenberg Australia. I hadn't realised the rules about Public Domain were different there.

I was a little startled when he fell in love in "Mr. Standfast"!
Click to expand...

The copyright difference makes PG of Aus. a good source for some old good stuff. I believe they have most of Charles Williams's thrillers.

Yes, Buchan's Hannay character has a developing personal story through the five novels (Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast, The Four Hostages, and The Island of Sheep). Another continuing character, Leithen, also develops, ending in Mountain Meadow aka Sick Heart River.

Has anyone here read Buchan's autobiography? It's Pilgrim's Way in the US and Memory-Hold-the-Door in Britain, I believe. My understanding is that it is very good.
 
STRANGE ADVENTURES IN TIME is the one that really catches my eye but nobody's talking about it. Is it any good? Are the adventures what Clute/Nicholls would call proto-time travel yarns?
 
Contents of Strange Adventures in Time as listed by a bookseller: Some of the best stories with a "time" theme, from master story-tellers written during the last 100 years - Rip Van Winkle (Washington Irving), The Finest Story in the World (Rudyard Kipling), The Mystery of Joseph Laquedem (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch), The Man Who Could Work Miracles (H.G.Wells), The Left-Handed Sword (E. Nesbit), The Silver Mirror (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Space (John Buchan), The Crystal Trench (A.E.W.Mason), Three Ghosts (John Keir Cross).

The book was aimed at children/young adults. I got a (remaindered?) copy years ago for 95 US cents.
 
Many thanks for the info. For some reason I thought all the stories were by John Buchan. Now that would have been cool!
 
antiloquax said:
"Space" can be found in this gutenberg ebook: "The Moon Endureth"
The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies by John Buchan - Free Ebook
Click to expand...


Also in this convenient collection:

Collected Supernatural Stories

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The Project Gutenberg of Australia collection includes "No-Man's-Land," which Douglas Anderson anthologized in Tales Before Tolkien. (For some of the items in Anderson's anthology, though, you will have to get his book!)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603071h.html#04
 
dask said:
STRANGE ADVENTURES IN TIME is the one that really catches my eye but nobody's talking about it. Is it any good? Are the adventures what Clute/Nicholls would call proto-time travel yarns?
Click to expand...

Maybe you should try The Gap in the Curtain, all the narratives in which involve experimentation with time. I have to say that my memory is that I didn't find this book as good as Buchan's best, but my memory of it is pretty vague.

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301491h.html
 
Thank you for the link to Buchan's Grey Weather, JD.

From the title and what I know of the author, I would guess that he will be putting into poetic fiction something of his feeling for places he knows and loves.

That seems to be common in Late Victorian and Edwardian fantasy, which I suggest is the Golden Age of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/535117-whats-your-golden-age.html#post1575465

I would say further that this quality of much "Golden Age" writing is a key ingredient of what makes it Golden.

Later writers such as Tolkien who have such a strong feelings for landscape, wood and water, etc. are in the Golden Age tradition; but they had firsthand experience of vistas that inspired them. (Writing "vistas" makes me think of Lovecraft's cherishing of "sunset terrace" scenes.)

But what of people whose imaginations are being formed now? Do they have such experiences very often, or at all? if they don't, can we expect this quality in their writing?

Of course we see that that quality was rarer decades ago. Writers' imaginations are shaped by motion pictures, TV, games, etc. That is one reason there is so much dialog in current stuff. Conversely -- I think you would find a relative sparseness of dialogue (I would say, a better balance of dialogue and other elements) in your Buchan, Wells, Machen, Blackwood, Doyle, et al.
 
Extollager said:
Yes, Buchan's Hannay character has a developing personal story through the five novels (Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast, The Four Hostages, and The Island of Sheep).
Click to expand...

Well, I am planning to read The Three Hostages next. I just hope Hannay isn't too distracted by the enchanting Mary. :)
 
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