| Subcategories | | Condition (condition-type) | | • | New | | • | Used |
|
|
|
|
The Man with the Golden Gun | 
 enlarge | Author: Ian Fleming
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.02
You Save: £4.97 (62%)
New (21) Used (4) Collectible (1) from £2.20
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 71962
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0141188731
EAN: 9780141188737
ASIN: 0141188731
Publication Date: October 5, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - ***Delivery usually * 3 - 5 * working days - From Aphrohead of SOUTHPORT, Lancs, uk *** . Priority Airmail used Worldwide on International orders. Thanks from all at Aphrohead.
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews:
 The "western gunfight" novel... not quite up to par with the rest August 16, 2008
Alejo (Andorra)
Well, I have finished them all. This was the last book published (posthumously) by Ian Fleming.
As I have told before in my reviews of the rest of the books, about beginning of the summer I decided to read the Bond novels in order... and I think once done... it was worth the time.
I agree the novels have to be put/read in context... Great Britain was no longer a major power after WWII and Fleming resented this... and the beatnicks!... when he died The Beatles were still touring. But the general public wasn't so much aware of the fact (not that The Beatles were touring), the slow fall down of the idea of the British Empire...
On the other side the idea of the british gentlemen for Fleming was David Niven (perhaps quite correctly mind...) see YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE... and the idea that James Bond and "M" were still playing in the Major Leagues is of course ludicrous with hindsight but romantic in a way.
Of course the main interest of the outpout is the moral attitude of the time confronted with Bond's and M's for that matter... the sex and violence was "hard" for the times I guess, and "the baddies" are a bit of a caricature but still very imaginative... probably Scaramagna is one of the least credible of them all.
In fact this book is four stars (at best) but I can rate five stars the whole series without problem... and this last volume is perhaps one of the lower moments.
For today's standards James Bond is quite prudish in the books and his conscience bothers him much more than the cool image of the films... he is in turns out of form, depressed, brainwashed and whatever, and is much more HUMAN and lovable in the books (discounting of course the silly British sense of superiority over the rest of the world Fleming distiled).
Quite a literary sensation and a modern classic in it's own right.
RECOMMENDED
ADB
 Another fast-moving, (slightly less) prejudice-laden adventure May 23, 2008
Mr. Nicholas J Robertson (Kent, UK)
The imminent arrival of "Devil May Care", the latest Bond Novel, by Sebastian Faulks under licence from the Fleming Estate, seemed a good time to re-read this, the last of Fleming's Bond novels, which was published posthumously in 1965, Fleming having died of heart failure in 1964. (Octopussy, published later, was a collection of short stories.) Fleming had almost killed Bond off at the end of "You Only Live Twice", and I wonder whether he had intended to write a further book at that stage - or whether, indeed, he had expected to have the chance.
Bond returns to London, brainwashed by the KGB, on a mission to kill M, fails, is restored to sanity (or at least, his normal mental state) and is sent on a suicide mission in the Caribbean to find and despatch the eponymous "Pistols" Scaramanga. He finds him in Jamaica - convenient, of course, because that was Fleming's holiday home, where he had a bungalow, called Goldeneye, next door to Noel Coward's (more impressive) one. Several Bond stories, of course, are set in Jamaica, which had a touch of exoticism and where Fleming could easily provide all necessary touches of local colour.
As a result we get little of the taste of living the 50s/60s high-life in England, but much local detail from a Jamaica which has probably also vanished. As was often the case, Bond passed up the chance to complete his mission when he could have done so easily, instead infiltrates his enemy's organisation, is rumbled, gets a helping hand from ex-CIA man Felix Leiter and an improbably named female (in this case, Mary Goodnight), escapes to fight a desperate battle with his quarry, and prevails, suffering serious (but survivable) wounds in the process. Formulaic? - not half! So why have I enjoyed this and all Fleming's other books so much?
Bond stories are first and foremost gripping tales, and Fleming wrote them brilliantly. Had Bond been a more regularly efficient agent, (as he tends to be in the short stories), content simply to carry out his mission and go home, then the stories would have been shorter and less interesting. The fictional hero has to take his time, work out his foibles, and interact with the target. I find Fleming's Bond novels fascinating as a comment on attitudes prevailing, or perhaps just hanging on, in 1950s society. Fleming suggests that Britain was still a "great power" when in fact there were now just two superpowers. Bond's sexism and racism are breathtaking by modern standards, although this book is much less prone to either. Fleming clearly greatly loved the Jamaicans - especially Jamaican comrade "Quarrel", sadly killed in the course of Dr No - although it was a reverence influenced by his strong class awareness: at best, I feel, he admires and respects them as subordinates, much as he does his Scottish housekeeper May. Interestingly, in this novel, he seems to take a swipe at homosexuality - suggesting that Scaramanga, a very active womaniser, was in fact gay, and much other pseudo-psychological nonsense beside. Given that Fleming was himself bisexual, and clearly wrote in part to amuse Mr Coward next door, I do wonder what to make of this. One day I'll read one of the many biographies and try to find out.
This is a great novel if you like action stories with a touch of period detail and can view the prejudice from a distance (God forbid that you like it!) - although I would recommends starting with Casino Royale and working forwards. They are not particularly good value for money, as you can finish them within a few hours if you wish. I wait, with interest, to see how Faulks renders Bond. I suspect that he will be more politically correct, for a start, and clearly rather longer . That will be fine if the story is as fast and exciting.
|
|
|
www.pcprotech.co.uk | |
