The Dancing Floor

This article is about the novel by John Buchan. For the episode of Doctor Who, see The Celestial Toymaker.

The Dancing Floor
1st US edition
Author(s)	John Buchan
Country	Scotland
Language	English
Series	Edward Leithen
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton (UK) Houghton Mifflin (US)
Publication date	1926
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	Two Ordeals of Democracy
Followed by	Homilies and Recreations

The Dancing Floor is a 1926 novel by John Buchan featuring Edward Leithen. It is the third of five novels written about the character of Leithen.

Basic Plot Summary

Edward Leithen is an eminent lawyer who is introduced to the young and handsome Vernon Milburne. By chance, Leithen meets Milburne once again and they become close friends. Milburne divulges that since childhood he has had a recurring dream in which an impending and unknown threat approaches year by year. The year in which the threat is due to occur, the two friends find themselves on the Greek island of Plakos where they must save the beautiful Koré Arabin from the superstitious islanders.

Mary Butts in a 1933 essay described The Dancing Floor as "one of the first novels to owe its origin to The Golden Bough".^[1]

Characters

• Sir Edward Leithen - a lawyer and Tory MP
• Vernon Milburne - a tall, handsome young man who first appears as aloof and detached
• Koré Arabin - a stubborn and yet vulnerable daughter of a malicious miscreant

References

1. ^ Butts, Mary (1933). "Ghosties and Ghoulies: The Uses of the Supernatural in English Fiction". Ashe of Rings and Other Writings. Kingston, NY: McPherson & Co., p. 345.