Mystery novels are hugely popular nowadays, but the subjects of this episode of Talking Books are not the genre’s usual suspects. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton and The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan were first published 100 years ago, and are considered classics of crime fiction. Recently republished by Penguin Canada, both books evoke a bygone era, when the frontiers were still wild and a clever hero could solve a crime without relying on detailed forensics.
Led by host Ian Brown, the Talking Books panel of Saskatoon poet Bill Robertson, Halifax actor and writer Joel Thomas Hynes and Toronto mystery writer Alison Gordon consider whether these two novels, bestsellers in their day, stand the test of time. (Gordon also reveals a personal connection: her grandfather, Charles William Gordon, using the pen name Ralph Connor, published several bestselling adventure novels set in the Canadian West and was a contemporary of John Buchan’s.)
The panel discusses the antiquated style of language in the novels, and the underlying faith that the hero, usually an Englishman, would save the world. They also recommend other classic adventure stories, including The Lost World (Penguin) by Arthur Conan Doyle and The Riddle of the Sands (Penguin) by Erskine Childers.
Listen to their conversation here:
Originally aired January 5, 2008. [runs 26:00]
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