Frère d'armes de Richard Hannay - le héros des Trente-neuf marches - l'avocat Leithen se trouve confronté dans ce roman à la confrérie audacieuse et redoutable qui donne son titre à l'ouvrage.Au fil de rebondissements dignes d'un film d'Hitchcock, Leithen parviendra à déjouer l'étrange complot qui menace son pays. Comme dans le reste de son œuvre, John Buchan apparaît captivant, prophétique, profondément original.

La Centrale d'énergie

"The Power-House" is a spy novel written by John Buchan in 1913. It is set in London, and tells the story of a lawyer and MP who discovers an incredible plot aimed at destroying the foundations of Western democracies through an anarchist organisation called The Power-House. "The power-house" was first serialised in Blackwood's magazine and then was released as a book in 1916. Preceding the famous The Thirty-Nine steps, little known, The Power-House is a fascinating spy novel. Filled with considerations about civilization and chaos, Nietzschean references, predictions about the future, Buchan's "The Power-House" is political philosophy wrapped into a thriller inside conspiracy theory. A must-read, if only for the first encounter between the hero & narrator and the head of the Power-House. Discover The Power-House with an original preface and biography in this new edition by Les Éditions de Londres.

The Power-House

John Buchan (1875-1940) 

"J'achevais de déjeuner et je bourrais ma pipe lorsqu'on me remit la dépêche de Bullivant.

Ceci se passait à Furling, la grande maison de campagne du Hampshire où j'étais venu terminer ma convalescence, après la blessure reçue à Loos. Sandy, qui s'y trouvait dans les mêmes circonstances que moi, était, à ce moment précis, à la recherche de la marmelade d'oranges. Je lui jetai le télégramme qu'il parcourut en sifflant. 

- Eh bien ! Dick, vous voilà à la tête d'un bataillon... À moins que vous ne soyez versé dans un état-major ! Vous allez devenir un sale embusqué et vous dédaignerez les malheureux officiers de troupe ! Quand je songe à votre manière de traiter les embusqués autrefois ! 

Je demeurai songeur quelques instants. Le nom de Bullivant me reportait à dix-huit mois en arrière, à cet été brûlant qui précéda la guerre. Je n'avais pas revu Bullivant depuis, mais les journaux avaient souvent parlé de lui. Depuis plus d'un an, j'étais tout occupé de mon bataillon, n'ayant d'autre souci que de former de bons soldats. J'y avais assez bien réussi, et il n'y eut sûrement jamais d'homme plus fier que Richard Hannay lorsqu'il franchit les parapets des tranchées à la tête de ses Lennox Highlanders, par cette glorieuse et sanglante journée du 25 septembre. La bataille de Loos ne fut pas une partie de plaisir, et nous avions déjà connu quelques chaudes journées auparavant. Mais j'ose dire que les plus durs moments de la campagne traversés jusque-là étaient fort anodins, comparés à l'affaire à laquelle je m'étais trouvé mêlé en compagnie de Bullivant, au début de la guerre.

La vue de son nom au bas de ce télégramme sembla changer toute ma manière de voir..." 

Angleterre 1915 : Blessé à la bataille de Loos, Dick Hannay est tranquillement en convalescence. Il est contacté par sir Bullivant qui lui propose une mission secrète et dangereuse : Que se trame-t-il en Turquie ? A lui de le découvrir au péril de sa vie...

Le prophète au manteau vert

Adventurer Richard Hannay, just returned from South Africa, is thoroughly bored with London life-until he is accosted by a mysterious American, who warns him of an assassination plot that could completely destabalise the fragile political balance of Europe. Initially sceptical, Hannay nonetheless harbours the man-but one dayreturns home to find him murdered... An obvious suspect, Hannay flees to his native Scotland, pursued by both the police and a cunning, ruthless enemy. His life and the security of Britan are in grave peril, and everything rests on the solution to a baffling enigma: what are the 'thirty nine steps?'

Les Trente Neuf Marches

John Buchan's "The Thirty-Nine steps" is a 1915 spy novel set in London and  Scotland, during the few weeks preceding the outbreak of World War One. Made  famous by Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 cinematographic adaptation, "The Thirty-Nine  steps" is Buchan's most famous work. Originally an attempt at creating a  "dime-novel" or a "shocker", the novel is often considered as one of the  greatest adventure or spy novels of all times, and it probably invents the  genre. Rediscover "The Thirty-Nine steps" with its original preface and biography  in this new edition by Les Éditions de Londres.

The Thirty-nine steps

Londres, 1914. Lorsque Richard Hannay découvre le corps du mystérieux Franklin Scudder dans son appartement, c'est le début d'une véritable course contre la montre. Notre héros, ancien ingénieur des mines, n'aura que vingt jours pour dénouer un complot international, échapper à une organisation criminelle et comprendre la signification d'un étrange nom de code : « les trente- neuf marches ».

Les 39 marches

The Thirty-Nine Steps Level 3

Set just before the onset of the First World War, The Thirty-Nine Steps introduces one of literature's most memorable detectives, Richard Hannay, an expatriate Scot who has just returned to London from South Africa. Four days after hearing of an assassination plot and plans to steal Britain's military strategies, Hannay's informant is found dead in his apartment. Forced to flee from both the murderers and the police, Hannay must use his wits to stay ahead of his pursuers and warn the government before it is too late. One of the most popular adventure stories ever written, The Thirty-Nine Steps is regarded as the starting point for espionage fiction and established John Buchan as the original thriller writer. The Thirty-Nine Steps, the first book in the Richard Hannay series, inspired many others novelists and filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock who directed the first of four film adaptations of the novel. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

The Thirty-Nine Steps

I spent one-third of my journey looking out of the window of a first-class carriage, the next in a local motor-car following the course of a trout stream in a shallow valley, and the last tramping over a ridge of downland through great beech-woods to my quarters for the night. In the first part I was in an infamous temper; in the second I was worried and mystified; but the cool twilight of the third stage calmed and heartened me, and I reached the gates of Fosse Manor with a mighty appetite and a quiet mind.

As we slipped up the Thames valley on the smooth Great Western line I had reflected ruefully on the thorns in the path of duty. For more than a year I had never been out of khaki, except the months I spent in hospital. They gave me my battalion before the Somme, and I came out of that weary battle after the first big September fighting with a crack in my head and a D. S. O. I had received a C. B. for the Erzerum business, so what with these and my Matabele and South African medals and the Legion of Honour, I had a chest like the High Priest's breastplate. I rejoined in January, and got a brigade on the eve of Arras. There we had a star turn, and took about as many prisoners as we put infantry over the top. After that we were hauled out for a month, and subsequently planted in a bad bit on the Scarpe with a hint that we would soon be used for a big push.

La Centrale d'énergie

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