Tuesday, March 06, 2018

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE




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On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Ian Fleming, New American Library, 1963, 288 pp
 
 
I don't know what came over me but I decided to read all of Ian Fleming's James Bond books as well as see, or see again, all of the movies. The part of my autobiography I am currently working on involves the Cold War years and its effect on my life as a young adult, so I thought reading these books and watching the movies would give me the flavor of that from a spy's perspective. Though there were more literary authors writing spy fiction during the Cold War (John le Carre, Graham Greene, etc), I think it was the glamorous James Bond who captured our imagination in the United States and the movies just inflamed us more.
 
I made a list of the books. They span 13 years with as many books. The releases of the movies were in a completely different order. For example, Fleming's first book, Casino Royale, was published in 1953 but the movie came out in 1967. The first movie was Dr No in 1962 though that book was published in 1958.

I started with On Her Majesty's Secret Service because it was published in 1963 and that is the year I am reading right now. I don't know yet how I will coordinate the reading and movie watching.

In any case, it was an entertaining read and I knocked it off in one day. There is a beautiful, sexy girl (of course), Bond's old enemy Blofeld from earlier books, the head of the French mafia (the girl's father), a Swiss hideout, lots of skiing, and even genealogy is involved. Bond seems to have found the love of his life but a spy is never in control of his heart's desire.

The skill of Ian Fleming lies in this: you know Bond won't die and you know it won't work out with the girl but he makes you worry desperately for Bond's life and believe that the romance will have a happy ending. Every other spy fiction writer creates his own variation of this, but after reading just one book, I don't think any of them does it better than Ian Fleming.


(On Her Majesty's Secret Service is available in paperback by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)

12 comments:

  1. I hear the literary Bond is vastly different from the movie one, the glamour for one. I'll go with whatever you say. I've seen some of the books on sale on Amazon but I haven't felt inclined to buy them, which I find rather odd because I loooove spy fiction. Those who know the genre say that no one has done it better, though perhaps they haven't read Frederick Forsyth; he is not too much into the exciting as he is into getting things right, which I appreciate, and to a certain extent prefer. Wow, enough with my babbling... ;-)

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    1. What I discovered in at least this one is the pure entertainment value. What is funny is that Ian Fleming was British but it was in the US that he really caught on, thanks to Hollywood. Also he was a British Naval intelligence officer, so his knowledge of spy craft was based on experience, as was le Carre's. I have not read Forsyth. I will check him out.

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  2. I've seen most, if not all of, the James Bond movies at least once in my lifetime, but I had never read any of Ian Fleming's novels until 2015!

    I finally decided to read an Ian Fleming novel to see what his writing was like and how it differed from the Hollywood movie versions of his novels. I read Casino Royale and of course, no surprise, Ian Fleming's writing was so different from the movies. I found James Bond to be so much darker in Casino Royale than his movie persona.

    I felt like Daniel Craig perhaps comes the closest in terms of the James Bond persona that Ian Fleming created in his novels.

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    1. So you read the first one! Your comments are so interesting. I agree on the darker side of James being found in the books, at least for the one I have read. I will watch for what happens when Daniel Craig takes over the movie role.

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    2. I think Daniel Craig does a good job in terms of his acting in James Bond films... I initially didn't like him as James Bond when I first saw him in the first film. I remember feeling that Daniel Craig's performance of James Bond was so dark and drastically different from that of Sean Connery, Roger Moore, etc.

      But after reading Casino Royale, I felt like Daniel Craig's portrayal of James Bond was spot on to how James Bond was portrayed by Ian Fleming in Casino Royale... That's what I meant to write/convey when I wrote "I felt like Daniel Craig perhaps comes the closest in terms of the James Bond persona that Ian Fleming created in his novels." But realized I didn't make that clear or clear enough?

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    3. Yes you made it clear. I remember the change to Daniel Craig and it was a different bond in many ways, so I get what you are saying. Now I will observe that change even more closely. When I get to it-:)

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  3. Judy where do you find the time, LoL?! Reading all the Bond books plus your regular list. I will try to keep up with your posts. I haven't read Ian (just seen the movies) but I think my brother read all of them & my hub most of the le Carre. My Question: Are the Bond books dated stories & sexist? Or enjoyable entertainment that still hold some relevance? thx

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    1. Oh it will probably take years to get through all of them, but this one was a very fast read. Yes, dated and sexist to a degree though the women always seem willing. But then a man wrote them, so. As far as relevance goes, it seems whatever the political configuration of the world is at any given time, there are always spies. That and the Cold War era interest me.

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  4. Then now I suggest you read Trigger Mortis https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23347686-trigger-mortis
    I have to say, I have not read Fleming, and I'm not too familiar with the James Bond movies, but those who are told me this book was an amazing take on it.
    Horowitz is an incredible writer, I so enjoyed his take on Sherlock Holmes ( I did a short video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u40nVkzEBEo) and the one on Agatha Christie

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  5. I read several of these books back in the day. WAY back in the day. I really can't remember if this was one of them, but my memory is that they were popcorn for the brain, except a bit more exciting than that. Maybe white cheddar popcorn for the brain.

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    1. That pretty well describes the reading experience. Though now with the benefit of hindsight, maybe a little jalapeno flakes on the popcorn.

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