Line #11 Literature/JohnMacnab


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/john_macnab.jpg]]
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3	''John Macnab'' is a 1925 novel by Creator/JohnBuchan (author of ''Literature/TheThirtyNineSteps''). It's the second book in the ''Edward Leithen'' series.
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5	Sir Edward Leithen is bored with life in general. So are his friends, John Palliser-Yeates and Charles, Earl of Lamancha. A story told by a mutual friend gives the three of them an idea: they'll stay in the Scottish Highlands, send challenges to their neighbours using the alias "John Macnab", and attempt to poach from their neighbours without being caught.
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7	The book was adapted into a 1976 TV series. Two sequels and a retelling have been written by different authors, one of which is a crossover with ''Literature/TheThirtyNineSteps''.
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9	!!Contains examples of:
10	* AccentSlipUp: This nearly gets Sir Edward caught. He's pretending to be a tramp and speaking with a suitably lower-class accent, but when Agatha visits him he accidentally reverts to his natural Eton-educated accent. Then he has to pretend to be a former Etonian fallen on hard times.
11	* CharacterOverlap: Archie Roylance is a friend of both Charles Lamancha and [[Literature/TheThirtyNineSteps Richard Hannay]], having previously appeared in ''Literature/MrStandfast''. Sir Edward and Hannay are members of the same club.
12	* CollectiveIdentity: "John Macnab" doesn't exist. It's an alias invented by Charles and also used by John and Sir Edward.
13	* InWhichATropeIsDescribed: Two of the chapter titles follow this pattern: "Chapter 1: In Which Three Gentlemen Confess Their Ennui", and "Chapter 10: In Which Crime is Added to Crime".
14	* NonStandardPrescription: The book opens with a doctor suggesting that Sir Edward "steal a horse in some part of the world where a horse-thief is usually hanged" as a cure for his boredom. The conversation when he mentions this to some friends leads to the actual plot of the story.
15	* ProtagonistTitle: Played with. John Macnab doesn't exist, but the alias is used by all three of the protagonists.
16	* RichBoredom: All three of the protagonists are suffering from it in the first chapter. Sir Edward describes it as going on strike against their privileges.
17	* RoguishPoacher: The three protagonists collectively become this as a means of alleviating boredom; they send letters to owners or tenants of three Highland estates declaring their intention to poach a deer or a salmon from their land and then deliver the carcass to them without getting caught, thus setting up the main plot.
18	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The book ends with a brief description of how the story was kept out of the papers and what happened to the main characters in the months after the events of the novel.
19	* YouDontWantToCatchThis: Archie wraps his face up because he has a toothache. Then some unwanted visitors call and ask what's wrong with his face. He sees a way to get rid of them and claims he's developing smallpox. They leave immediately. This backfires on him, though, when they report a case of smallpox to the local medical officers.

Context Literature / JohnMacnab