When Does "The Thirty-Nine Steps" (1915) Take Place?
"The Thirty-Nine Steps" is a spy serialized (partwork) novel written by John Buchan that premiered June 5th, 1915. So when is "The Thirty-Nine Steps" set?
It takes place in the year:
We know this because in "Chapter IV", the narrator tells us "The first thing I learned was that it was no question of preventing a war. That was coming, as sure as Christmas: had been arranged, said Scudder, ever since February 1912." So it must be after February of 1912 AD.
1914 AD
We know this because in "Chapter IV", the narrator tells us "The first thing I learned was that it was no question of preventing a war. That was coming, as sure as Christmas: had been arranged, said Scudder, ever since February 1912." So it must be after February of 1912 AD.
More specifically, the very first line of "Chapter I" is "I returned from the city about three o’clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life." So it is most likely May of 1914 AD at the beginning as that's the closest to the clear setting of the end.
The last paragraph of the story reads, "Seven weeks later, as all the world knows, we went to war.", referring to Britain's real-world entry into World War I on August 4th, 1914 AD and 7 weeks is just shy of 2 months. So it is early June of 1914 AD at the conclusion.
8.1914 - 2 months = 6.1914.
It is the first story to feature Richard Hannay and can be read at its timeline point, before "Greenmantle" (1916).
It was adapted to film in 1935, as an audio-drama in 1937 and again in 1938 and a third time in 1939, then further audio-drama versions in 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1952, to film again in 1959, as more audio-dramas in 1960 and 1972, another film in 1978, another audio-drama in 1989, as a stageplay in 1996, a final audio-drama in 2001, and then as yet another film in 2008.
