Mr. Standfast (Annotated‪)‬

Mr Standfast is the third of five Richard Hannay works by John Buchan, first published in 1919 by Hodder & Stoughton, London.

It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being Greenmantle (1916); Hannay's first and best-known adventure, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), is set in the period immediately before the war started.

The title refers to a character in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, to which there are many other references in the novel; Hannay uses a copy of Pilgrim's Progress to decipher coded messages from his contacts, and letters from his friend Peter Pienaar.


Set in the later years of World War I, Brigadier-General Hannay is recalled from active service on the Western Front to go on a secret mission hunting for a dangerous German agent at large in Britain. Hannay is required to work undercover disguised as a pacifist, roaming the country incognito to investigate a German spy and his agents, and then heads to the Swiss Alps to save Europe from being overwhelmed by the German army.


This edition has been formatted for your reader, with an active table of contents.  It has also been annotated, with additional information about Mr. Standfast and two other famous works by the author as well as information about John Buchan, including an overview, plot introduction, plot summary, characcters, and biographical information.