Mr. Standfast

About the book

Richard Hannay is recalled from military service to investigate an enemy network operating beyond the battlefield. Assuming a civilian role brings him into unfamiliar company, where the opinions people express cannot be taken as a simple guide to their allegiance. Buchan moves the pursuit through Britain and continental Europe, combining coded communication, disguise, difficult travel, and the pressure of wartime deadlines. Mary Lamington and Hannay's other allies make the mission depend on qualities beyond physical courage, including patience and the ability to revise a judgment. References to The Pilgrim's Progress give the adventure a language for endurance and moral testing. The novel asks its narrator to recognise that people who appear uncomfortable or unheroic may possess forms of courage that his own preferred habits initially make difficult to see.

• Disguise and loyalty
• Courage
• Wartime judgment

Why read it

For a Hannay adventure that tests its soldier hero through secrecy, patience, and unexpected forms of bravery.

English text