The Power-House
By John Buchan
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
A group of anarchists known as the Power-House sees all of civilization as a vast and sinister conspiracy, something to be overcome and destroyed. Standing up against the Power-House is Tory member of Parliament and lawyer Edward Leithen, a self-described man of hesitation whose stance thrusts him into a reality he never knew existed. London becomes a sinister underworld in which he could be spirited away at any moment, never to be heard from again. Leithen quickly falls into a maze of paranoia, knowing that if he fails to stop the Power-House, their anarchy will consume the world.
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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.
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Reviews for The Power-House
35 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not among Buchan's finest work but still a very enjoyable example of his early "shockers". This book is also notable for introducing Edward (later Sir Edward) Leithen, perhaps the closest of Buchan's characters to a self portrait.The story opens in 1913 with Charles Pitt-Heron,one of Leithen's acquaintances, disappearing from London without notice but apparently in great terror for his life. Another mutual acquaintance, Tommy Doloraine, goes off after Pitt-heron intent upon finding him and returning him to London society. Left in London Leithen, who splits his time between a flourishing career at the Bar and the Houses of parliament where he is a newly-returned MP, starts looking into Pitt-Heron's affairs calling upon his wide network of contacts. By dint of coincidence (never very far away throughout Buchan's canon) he comes into contact with Andrew Lumley, a reclusive millionaire philanthropist who has recently had dealings of a covert nature with Pitt-Heron. Over what Leithen describes as "a light dinner" (before going on to describe the four sumptuous courses!) Lumley expounds his belief in the fragility of civilisation, citing what was to be come one of the most-quoted of Buchan's line: "You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilisation from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass." That fragility and potential vulnerability of the civilised world became a recurrent theme throughout his later works.Predicatbly, Lumley emerges as the leading figure in a network bent upon wreakling just that collapse of civilisation and a return to virtual barbarism, and only Leithen is able to stand in his way.This might all sound ratehr too whimsical, and certainly there is none of the gritty realism to which we have become accustomed today. however, leithen is a finely-drawn character and a man on great resource, and he sets himself to oppose Lumley and to do what he can to rescue his friend Pitt-Heron.The novel is prophetic in many ways - not least in identifying the future financial power of the then slumbering giant that was China - and is written with Buchan's customary beautiful prose.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This is a short mystery / adventure novel , takes place in London in the early 1900's. It wasn't that moving of a book , seemed to drag on to much.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5At a little over 100 pages, it really shouldn't have taken me five days to get through this. For me this was an adventure story that didn't really seem to get going until a chase to a London embassy that occurs towards the end. I've enjoyed The 39 Steps on page, on screen and on the stage, but The Power House was, by comparison, a disappointment.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52023 reread: 3½*
I am changing from 4 to 3 stars (rounding down instead of up). I enjoyed it but it really wasn't as good as some of Buchan's other books.
2018 review:
Perhaps only 3½* for this fairly short adventure novel about a man who discovers a secret anarchist society in pre-WW1 London.