Need new Author similar vein to John Buchan?

[spotty]

I don't mind John Buchan's books. I also love Joseph Conrad. I'm looking for a new author to read though.
Turn of the century era.
Spy or adventure type stuff. Sea faring good too!
Not too serious and heavy, but not too light either.

Any suggestions?

I've read some Edgar Rice Burroughs and some Jules Vern, but am looking for something else.
Robert Louis Stephenson is good too.

I just don't want anything too emotionally heavy and depressing. Too much of that in real life right now. I want to escape.

Thanks in advance.

[dfloyd]

There are many authors in the John Buchan genre. One is E. Philips Openheim. Try The Great Impersonation by Openheim. For a little later but pre WWII, try Eric Ambler. A great book is A Coffin for Demetrious. It was also made into a fine movie with Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet, and Zachary Scott.

As far as Edgar Rice Burroughs goes, I prefer the Tarzan series. Burroughs vocabulary is extensive so you'll learn a lot of new words. There are 23 titles in the Tarzan series so start with the first one, Tarzan of the Apes, and go from there. After the first one, you can read them in any order.

A few great adventure stories include King Slomon's Mines by H. Ryder Haggard, Scaramouche and Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, and The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope.

[spotty]

Awesome.
Ive read a few Tarzan's and love the language.

I will most definitely be pursuing some of the other ones you mentioned at the used bookstore tonight.

Thanks so much.

[Whifflingpin]

Cutcliffe-Hyne might meet your requirements - google "Captain Kettle"

and A E Dingle (Sinbad) wrote, as you might expect, sea yarns (fictional, but he was real and knew what he was talking about.)

John Masefield, also a seafarer in his youth, a bit lighter than Conrad (OK - much lighter than Conrad.)

[MANICHAEAN]

Spotty
I must admit I also enjoyed some of the John Buchan books. They are not exactly politically correct but it is refreshing in its straight, almost naive approach e.g. In the Thirty-Nine Steps "I can see you are a white man" or somthing in that vein.

A few alternate authors you might try that I think cover your criteria:

Rafael Sabatini "The SeaHawk"

Anything by Raymond Chandler.

Dashiell Hammett. He seemed to produce most of his mystery detective fiction 1922 - 1934 and the recurring theme was man's basic corruptibility.

[spotty]

Thanks folks. My list is growing.

(BTW just started Prester John by Buchan. Rousing good stuff!)

[dfloyd]

you should try a few of the John Le Carre novels of the cold war. The Spy who came in from the Cold and The Karla trilogy are spy literature at its acme. Another good one is The Perfect Spy. Not to denigrate Buchan, but Le Carre is a much better writer.

An interesting book is V. by Thomas Pynchon. The book carries on two tales at once: the story of V., a turn-of-the-century spy, who keeps losing a portion of her anatomy with every adventure and the story of hunting full-grown albino alligators in the sewers of NYC. This stems from the urban legend of miniature alligators purchased at fairs and circuses by indulgent parents, then flushed own the toilet to get rid of the little reptiles.

[mal4mac]

Why not try some of Dickens earlier novels? The adventures tend to be rather 'domestic' compared to the authors you mention, but any lack of 'high adventure' is more than made up for by comedy, characterisation, and plot. For 'lightness' and 'escape' try Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby. H.G. Wells' classic science fiction stories are also great escapist reads - War of the Words, The Invisible Man, collected short stories...

[kasie]

Again on a more modern note - if you like sea-faring tales, you might enjoy Patrick O'Brien's books about Jack Aubrey. The first title in the series is Master and Commander - take no notice of the film, they tried to meld two stories into one and it didn't quite work, imo.

I'd second dfloyd's suggestion of Le Carre, too.

[spotty]

Thanks so much everyone.

[Emil Miller]

Thanks so much everyone.

A better writer than Le Carre and someone who actually was a spy is Somerset Maugham. His 'Ashenden', a series of inter-connected short stories based on his own experiences in the First World War is as authentic as you can get about the dangers and deceptions of spying and makes James Bond look like Harry Potter.

[dfloyd]

I have read all the Le Carre books and all the short stories of Ashendon. Even watched the Ashendon movie with Peter Lorre playing the curly-haired Mexican. While overall, in short stories and novels, Maugham is a better writer than Le Carre, the Ashendon stories do not approach Le Carre's best in Tinker,Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and the Perfect Spy. The last, the story of Magnus Pym, spy extroidinaire, is spy telling at its zenith. If interested in spy literature, one should read Maugham and Le Carre, with some Eric Ambler thrown in with John Buchan. Some of Le Carre's novels, such as The Night Manager, are not his best, but I don't think you can compare the Ashendon stories to the non-linear, convulted spy novels of Le Carre since in the first instance, you can't compare short stories to a complete novel. I have read extensively of the spy genre, from E. Philips Openeheim to John Lecarre, and when Le Carre is at his best (see titles above), there is no one better.

[Emil Miller]

I have read all the Le Carre books and all the short stories of Ashendon. Even watched the Ashendon movie with Peter Lorre playing the curly-haired Mexican. While overall, in short stories and novels, Maugham is a better writer than Le Carre, the Ashendon stories do not approach Le Carre's best in Tinker,Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and the Perfect Spy. The last, the story of Magnus Pym, spy extroidinaire, is spy telling at its zenith. If interested in spy literature, one should read Maugham and Le Carre, with some Eric Ambler thrown in with John Buchan. Some of Le Carre's novels, such as The Night Manager, are not his best, but I don't think you can compare the Ashendon stories to the non-linear, convulted spy novels of Le Carre since in the first instance, you can't compare short stories to a complete novel. I have read extensively of the spy genre, from E. Philips Openeheim to John Lecarre, and when Le Carre is at his best (see titles above), there is no one better.

I agree that Le Carre has written some excellent novels around the theme of espionage although I have only read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and A Small Town in Germany. I thought Maughman's stories were just what espionage was about, especially as it was based on his own experience. Did you know, for example, that they were so accurate that the British Secret service actually recommended they should be read by new recruits.
I have seen the film with Peter Lorre, it was called Secret agent and I don't think it did Maugham's book justice.
I would second your recommendations re Eric Ambler, he was a first rate novelist of the kind we no longer see today. I don't know if you have seen the film of Le Carre's The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. It's one of the closest adaptations of a novel that I have seen on the screen and in my view Richard Burton's performance as Alec Leamus is the best thing he ever did on film.

[spotty]

I'm now reading Ashenden by Maughm, and I absolutely LOVE it.
Thanks for the tip!

[punk sheep]

I've read 39 Steps and I would recommend Rogue Male (http://www.amazon.ca/Rogue-Male-Geoffrey-Household/dp/1590172434/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276265912&sr=1-1) by Geoffrey Household.

[kasie]

I agree that Le Carre has written some excellent novels around the theme of espionage although I have only read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and A Small Town in Germany. I thought Maughman's stories were just what espionage was about, especially as it was based on his own experience. Did you know, for example, that they were so accurate that the British Secret service actually recommended they should be read by new recruits........

It was said at one time that le Carre used his own experiences in MI5/6 as a basis for his stories, too, though I don't know if this was actually the case: he was a civil servant though whether he was one of the Grey Men has not been confirmed, as far as I know.

[PrimordialBeast]

For adventure and sea faring I'd recommend anything by Jack London: Call of the Wild, White Fang, To Build a Fire, and also The Sea Wolf for a great sea faring story, by far one of my favorites.

[spotty]

So, I'm about 10 pages from finishing Ashenden. Its a quirky book. The first 3/4 is very much about spy work, and is narrated in a very detached 'male' fashion , but starting halfway through and growing in intensity it becomes much more of a human nature drama, more sensitive and emotional.

I like it, but it almost seems to me as if he got bored with being so cold and his heart took over as he wrote the book, making it more classic Maughm as he proceded along.

[kasie]

....it almost seems to me as if he got bored with being so cold and his heart took over as he wrote the book....

That's an interesting comment, spotty - I felt much the same way about the main character in Of Human Bondage: I really could not feel any sympathy or sense of identification with him until nearing the end of the book when he stops whinging about life and gets stuck into living it and recognises the humanity and needs of others.

[_Shannon_]

Having a serious love for what I dub "Boys' Adventure novels" I wanted to add to this great list -- The Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged--the Buss translation available from Penguin is an easy read) , The Three Musketeers, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Maybe also some Kipling-Captain's Courageous is so fun!. Oh...and definitely The Hornblower books by CS Forrester. She by Haggard is also good, in addition to the aforementioned King Solomon's Mines.

[_Shannon_]

Oh--and Jack London...of course!

[_Shannon_]

OOoh! Oooh! I just found the coolest lists:
Fiction:
http://artofmanliness.com/2009/06/02/the-essential-man%E2%80%99s-library-adventure-edition-part-one-fiction/

Non-fiction:
http://artofmanliness.com/2009/06/29/50-non-fiction-adventure-books/

[spotty]

Those lists are awesome. You rock!