THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
First impression, the only book in the James Bond series told from the point of view of a woman rather than from Bond's own perspective.
Near fine in very good plus jacket.
Price: $800.00
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
"So it crossed my mind to write a cautionary tale about Bond [...] It was impossible to do this in my usual narraitve style and I therefore invented the fiction of a heroine through whom I could examine Bond from the other other end of the gun barrel so to speak." – Fleming, letter to Michael Howard, 19 April 1962
This novel contains the most "adult content" of the Bond books, a decision Fleming later came to regret and caused him to try to give it "as short a life as possible." Though he requested that no paperback version appear, the series proved too popular in the long term and this book-length mistake has remained in the canon. Written in first person through the heroine Vivienne Michel (who is given a co-author credit on the title page), THE SPY WHO LOVED ME demonstrates the limits of the worldview that created the masculine ideal of Bond: the simple elegance of Fleming's usual style falters when pressed into a perspective fundamentally alien to him. Fleming would find his feet again in later novels, with THE SPY WHO LOVED ME demonstrating by contrast where the author's strengths lie.
Read more: Gilbert, Ian Fleming: The Bibliography, A10a 1.1; F. Fleming (editor), The Man with the Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming's James Bond Letters.
The Object
London: Jonathan Cape, (1962). 7.25'' 4.75''. Original dark grey textured cloth, silver-lettered spine, knife vignette with silver-stamped blade on front board. In original unclipped (15s net) color pictorial dust jacket designed by Richard Chopping. Red endpapers. No quad mark on title page (no priority, ref. Gilbert). 221, [1] pages. Jacket with faint rubbing at joints, shallow creasing around edges and a couple very short closed tears, light foxing to rear panel primarily near fold. Book lovely with only light foxing to edges.
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