The Half-Hearted

The Half-Hearted is an early novel by the Scottish writer John Buchan, author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, first published in 1900. Set in the closing years of the nineteenth century, it tells the story of Lewis Haystoun, a young Scottish laird who is talented and well connected but unable to commit himself wholeheartedly to any course of action.

The book is divided into two parts. The first is a novel of manners and romance set among the Scottish upper class. Haystoun's hesitation costs him dearly when the woman he loves agrees to marry his rival. The second part turns into an adventure story: determined to confront what he regards as his own cowardice, Haystoun travels to the north-west frontier of British India, where the Empire faces the threat of a Russian advance through the mountain passes.

The novel combines a love story without a conventional happy ending with frontier adventure, and explores the themes of courage, duty, honour and self-doubt in the age of the British Empire.