Posted on 05/31/2008 8:48:37 AM PDT by Rummyfan
When one reads the books, one is struck by the idea that Bond would die early from his excesses if he did not end up getting killed on duty. In a way that happened, as Fleming only lived to be 56.
I < heart> good British writing of any sort. Brits have a knack for it. Some British writing is rubbish, but the best of it is unsurpassed.
So many folks think they KNOW the Bond stories and Fleming’s writing because they saw the movies.
As much fun as those wonderfully camp movies were—and Sean Connery will always be “Bond, James Bond”—the books, especially the earlier ones, had enough reality to them to stir my desire to write adventure/spy thrillers.
I remember reading almost all of the Bond novels while I was in the hospital at Clark AB in the Philippines in 1965. I could not wait for the book cart to come around so I could get another one. The books are SOOOOOO much better than any of the movies. Just wonderful writing.
To give him credit, Alan Furst’s thrillers are pretty good, too. I especially liked “Kingdom of Shadows.” They are both good writers in their different ways, IMHO.
That snotty, catty quotation indicates more than a tad of jealousy, maybe because Furst isn’t getting the same kind of movie money. Dumb thing to say, because it only makes him look small.
On a personal note, I happened to get to know Charlie Engelhardt, the former chairman of Engelhardt minerals in South Africa. He was a friend of Fleming’s, who as a private joke portrayed his friend as Goldfinger.
I first read them in the mid seventies - picked them all up used for 15 cents each :D
That is probably true about most books made into movies although there are rare exceptions where a movie is better than its source. I think part of the reason is that with a book your mind has to do the visualizing and is thus more engaging than a movie where that part is done for you. I read the books maybe 10 years after you.
‘From Russia with Love’ is very close to the book. The others use the title and little else.
To me shifting the villains from the soviets to spectre was a major change. Some say On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is the one closest to the book in plot. Goldfinger and Thunderball were pretty close too. The movie that really departed from the book for the first time was You Only Live Twice.
MacLean is one of my favorites - Caravan to Vaccares rocks, but I was bitterly disappointed by the movie. Where Eagles Dare was much closer. I picked up a nonfiction book by Fleming, written in the 50’s, about diamond smuggling recently. Fascinating stuff!
I want to put in a word for Desmond Bagley, Mary Stewart, and M.M. Kaye. You’d probably have to pick them up at a used bookstore or some such by now.
I love Alistair Maclean. I used to go to market in England every week and scoop up whatever the bookseller had of him. Although I did get ticked off when the movie changed the relationship between Mallory and Andrea in The Guns of Navarone and I was never a big Gregory Peck fan.
I’m glad I kept all his books, they’re as readable today as they were when they were written.
Another one for out and out great writing is John Mortimer’s Rumpole series.
The first four (Dr No, FRWL, Goldfinger and Thunderball) are pretty close to the books. They have the same plots and characters (aside from bringing in SPECTRE and dispensing with SMERSH). IMO, Goldfinger the movie is better than the book. All the rest, aside from On Her Majesty's Secret Service have little to do with the books.
My favorite book was Moonraker, and the movie had nothing to do with that book. My second favorite was Live and Let Die. The movie only barely resembled that book, and one of the most suspenseful sequences was used in the dreary License to Kill. Much of the recent Casino Royale was drawn from the book. I rate Casino Royale the movie right behind the first three Connery films.
I should probably re-read the novels. One thing I liked about them is that they are gripping, and generally run around 200 pages or less. Too many of today's writers could learn a thing or two from Fleming about editing.
As I think most of us should know, James Bond was a Pennsylvanian.
Bet James is rooting for the Pittsburgh Penguins to win the Stanley Cup, hehe. BTW, I read all the Bond paperbacks circa 1965 and they were quite a ride.
He'd still be upset.
"I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them." --Ian Fleming
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