FORGOTTEN BOOKS: JOHN MACNAB!JOHN BUCHAN
Last weekend I finally saw and enjoyed the latest production of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps on PBS. This latest version starred an effective Rupert Penry- Jones as Richard Hannay along with lots of running across the Scottish Moors, swooping planes, and vintage cars.
I’ve seen all of the films, and the recent stage play, based on The 39 Steps (unarguably Buchan’s most famous work), and this new version held up well. However, It could not erase the scene in the Robert Powell version, where Powell (as Hannay) finds himslef hanging from the hands of Big Ben.
After my DVR finished showing this latest outing, I felt the need to comb through my fairly complete collection of Buchan’s tales kept in an obscure corner of my bookshelves. In doing so, I picked up and begand to reread my favorite Buchan book John MacNab.
A ‘rattlin guid yarn,’ published in 1925, John MacNab is the perfect example of Buchan's peculiarly Scottish combination of Romanticism and Calvinism – daring living and high thinking.
Part myth, part ancient legend, John MacNab was a daring Scottish gentleman poacher, a mist on the moors who was never caught, and a blight on the rich landowners who could never trip him up. When the owners of three Scottish estates receive a note, signed John MacNab, informing them of a plan to poach two stags and a salmon from each without getting caught, it appears the legend is back.
The three heroes behind the ressurection of John Macnab have everything to lose if their daring exploit should fail. Each is a leader in his field – one is a barrister and was the Attorney-General, one a Cabinet Minister, one an eminent banker – yet each is suffering from an indefinable boredom and lethargy in London.
In their attempt to cure themselves of ennui, each man finds himself risking more than his reputation as Buchan, at the height of his writing power, delights in the twists of his story, his richly drawn characters, and the Highland landscape in what endures as his best-loved, if not most famous, tales of adventure.
I thoroughly enjoyed rediscovering John MacNab and recommend it highly as a cure for anyone suffering from reading ennui.
0 comments:
Post a Comment