This book was written partly as propaganda and
in the hope that it would help to bring America into the First World War.
The first instalment of this exciting adventure story with a wonderful title and a ‘man with a mission on the run in enemy territory’ scenario appeared in the magazine Land and Water in July 1916, and the entire story was published in book form later that year.
Greenmantle was a great success. It is still very popular, all the more because of current events in the Middle East. However, a radio dramatisation was dropped from the BBC’s schedule in 2005 for containing ‘unsuitable and sensitive material’.
Greenmantle is my favourite John Buchan book. It is an old friend. I have already mentioned it briefly in an article about Robert. A. Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy, and I covered the spying aspect in articles about energy vampires and John Buchan's fellow author of exciting adventure stories, Rafael Sabatini.
The best of Greenmantle
It is difficult to think of anything more or something
new and original to say about this enthralling story with its excitement,
adventure, danger and double dealing.
Greenmantle has much to offer its readers. It has educational background information; it has moving scenes and amusing scenes, and there is some material that has a wider application.
Much can be learned from the book about Germany and Turkey’s relationship during the First World War. Kaiser Wilhelm II even makes a brief appearance.
The episode where Richard Hannay takes refuge with a desperately poor German woman and her children in a cottage in a remote area is very moving:
“’There is food in my rucksack—biscuits and ham and chocolate. Pray take it for your use. And here is some money to buy Christmas fare for the little ones.' And I gave her some of the German notes...
The children looked better nourished, but it was by their mother's sacrifice. I did my best to cheer them up. I told them long yarns about Africa and lions and tigers, and I got some pieces of wood and whittled them into toys. I am fairly good with a knife, and I carved very presentable likenesses of a monkey, a springbok, and a rhinoceros. The children went to bed hugging the first toys, I expect, they ever possessed.”
The scene where the horrible German Colonel von Stumm interrogates Richard Hannay and Peter Pienaar is very amusing. He says to his colleague, “I'll talk to them, Excellency...You are too academic for those outland swine.”
Colonel von Stumm insults my favourite colour:
“’You see that map,' and he pointed to a big
one on the wall. 'South Africa is coloured green. Not red for the English, or
yellow for the Germans. Some day it will be yellow, but for a little it will be
green—the colour of neutrals, of nothings, of boys and young ladies and
chicken-hearts.'”
As for the more profound material with wider
applications, I like the suggestion that you can’t fool the Germans but you can
bluff them.
This could be useful when dealing with energy
vampires and hostile, negative people. As I said in the above-mentioned energy vampire article, in which I outlined some key elements in the
plot, “A difficult task indeed, and perhaps a metaphor for surviving and
escaping detection in this world while attempting to make a positive
difference.”
Richard Hannay is subject to recurring bouts of malaria, a legacy of his days in Africa. He knows that the only thing to do is lie down and rest and leave it to work itself out; he must just endure the weakness and wait for it to pass.
This could be applied to bad memories from the past, the sort that take people right back so they relive painful experiences. There is nothing to do but ride it out and endure it until it goes away.
The plot may seem preposterous, what Richard Hannay would call ‘confounded nonsense’, and the book may be dated, not politically correct and contain an embarrassingly stereotyped American character, but Greenmantle is still going strong.
It speaks for itself that the book is still
being bought even though there are free versions available on Project Gutenberg.
Two attractive covers from the many different editions:
