The Gap In The Curtain

By John Buchan

When a famous professor offers guests at a country-party the opportunity to see into their futures, several men, including two who see the news of their own deaths, must decide how to live their lives when faced with these inevitabilities.

With its supernatural premise, The Gap in the Curtain is a departure from author John Buchan’s usual adventure stories. The narrator, Sir Edward Leithen, features prominently in several other John Buchan novels, including The Power-House, The Dancing Floor, John Macnab, and Sick Heart River.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781443440929

John Buchan

John Buchan was a Scottish diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet and novelist. He published nearly 30 novels and seven collections of short stories. He was born in Perth, an eldest son, and studied at Glasgow and Oxford. In 1901 he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and a private secretary to the High Commissioner for South Africa. In 1907 he married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor and they subsequently had four children. After spells as a war correspondent, Lloyd George's Director of Information and Conservative MP, Buchan moved to Canada in 1935. He served as Governor General there until his death in 1940. Hew Strachan is Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford; his research interests include military history from the 18th century to date, including contemporary strategic studies, but with particular interest in the First World War and in the history of the British Army.

Reviews for The Gap In The Curtain

[eyejaybee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not one of Buchan's better offerings. The basic scenario was very interesting: Sir Edward Leithen is feeling jaded as a consequence of a long and frantic Parliamentary term running alongside a particularly onerous pell at the Bar. To relax he joins a houseparty in the country where he meets some intriguing fellow guests and the leading Scandinavian scientist (and recent Nobel Laureate) Professor Moe. Intrigued by Moe's sheer presenceand charisma Leithen reluctantly agrees to aprticipate in an experiment in which Moe hopes to demonstrate how, under certain circumstances, some people might be able accurately to foresee parts of the future. The experiment requires Leithen and various other house guests to study each day's copy of The Times in great detail and to focus particularly on one aspect of it (in Leithen's case the Law Reports). Professor Moe is convinced that if the participants focus sufficiently strongly then, with the aid of a special drug that he has devised, they will be able to catch a glimpse of the corresponding entry in the newspaper a year in the future.Alarmingly, two of Leithen's fellow guinea pigs imagine reading their own obituaries in that future edition of the paper. They and Leithen are then left to wonder whether they might be able to change that apparent destiny.Buchan's prose is as clear and stylish as ever but I felt that this novel never quite took off. The nod towards science fiction takes Buchan into an area with which he is not comfortable, and the story fails to develop his customary level of cohesion.

[figgles_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Seven guests at a country house party are selected for a scientific experiment. Five succeed and are granted a brief glimpse of their future. A sixth tells of what they did with that foreknowledge. Buchan at his most metaphysical.

[devenish_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Now I have to come clean and declare a prejudice here. For me John Buchan can do no wrong ! Whether it is writing his adventure,gung-ho type fiction,his historical novels or indeed his more serious non-fiction of various types,he is so good.Likewise with his under-rated supernatural stories of which this is the best I think. Very understated,it tells of a group of guests at a rather select party who are invited to 'look into the future' in an experiment which involves each person studying a different section of 'The Times' newspaper and attempting to see that section in the future--the leader page,the city page,the court page and the deaths.In this latter their own death is seen printed out in front of them.Highly recommended.

[leslie398 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2.5*

As in the previous book, this 4th book in the Leithen series had a mystic aspect. Sadly for me, instead of the adventures of my favorite Buchan books, the plot was focused on the psychological effects of the mystic experience on each of a group of people. In another mood, I might have enjoyed this more... However I still plan to read the final book in this series; fingers crossed that it will be more similar to the earlier books!