The Thirty Nine Steps

While Hannay possesses unusual skills, Buchan works to keep him grounded and relatable and to integrate average citizens into the story. Hannay has good eyesight, can run fast, is able to get along with many kinds of people, speaks multiple languages including Scots and German, has experience with disguises and explosives, and has decoded messages before. These skills go beyond those of average reader. Yet Hannay is also an everyman, who attributes his success to being “miraculously lucky” (63). In the story's first half, this claim is not unfounded, as he comes across convenient helpers and evades his pursuers despite seeming to be followed wherever he goes. At the end of the novel, his luck begins to feel less plausible. While Hannay demonstrates deductive reasoning at the level of Sherlock Holmes to determine the location of the 39 steps and the Black Stone’s escape route, he attributes his success to guesswork: “I don’t know if I can explain myself, but I used to use my brains as far as they went, and after they came to a blank wall I guessed, and I usually found my guesses pretty right” (109). Hannay’s surprise at and understatement of his successes keep allows Buchan to portray him as an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances.