Has any one read "The James Bond Dossier"

perdogg

Has any one read "The James Bond Dossier" by Kingsley Amis?

If so, How is it?

Ricardo C.

perdogg wrote:

Has any one read "The James Bond Dossier" by Kingsley Amis?

If so, How is it?

It's fantastic and I honestly can't reccomend it enough. Trust me, you'll never read a James Bond novel by Ian Fleming the same way again. However a prior warning, make sure you have read all of Fleming's work before reading The JB Dossier because there are massive spoilers.

perdogg

Ricardo C. wrote:

perdogg wrote:

Has any one read "The James Bond Dossier" by Kingsley Amis?

If so, How is it?

It's fantastic and I honestly can't reccomend it enough. Trust me, you'll never read a James Bond novel by Ian Fleming the same way again. However a prior warning, make sure you have read all of Fleming's work before reading The JB Dossier because there are massive spoilers.

I bought a used Pan paperback JB Dossier last week online. It wasn't cheap, ships out Monday.

Hardyboy

I bought mine over 20 years ago and haven't read it in ages, but it's a classic--get it if you can!

Napoleon Plural

Yeah, it's a goodie. I recommend the hardback cover that's generally black, but with the gunbarrels with pics from the Fleming books on it.

In a way, Snelling's 007 Report (I think) from a few years' later isn't much worse or different, but somehow Amis' account reads a bit better.

Silhouette Man

Yes, I've read it twice or more. It's a great and thought-provoking read. Go get it. -{

superado

I have, a few times! ...back in the 80's from my local library and they still have it. Back then there were very few analysis books on Bond, let alone the Fleming books. Now it seems pedestrian but Amis has the distinction of being a Fleming contemporary apart from being a "Flemingologist."

Silhouette Man

superado wrote:

I have, a few times! ...back in the 80's from my local library and they still have it. Back then there were very few analysis books on Bond, let alone the Fleming books. Now it seems pedestrian but Amis has the distinction of being a Fleming contemporary apart from being a "Flemingologist."

I think that it still remains a great read - although a cod academic piece, it hasn't really been bettered.

Charmed & Dangerous

Both the James Bond Dossier and O.F.Snelling's report are very well written and considered analyses, in a way that most books about Bond aren't, nowadays. Possibly that's because they were written, I seem to recall, at a time when the Bond movies were in their infancy.

Written at the same time but much wittier and even more enjoyable is The Book of Bond, or Every Man his own 007 - also by Kingsley Amis. Highly recommended too.

Enjoy the Dossier!

superado

Silhouette Man wrote:

superado wrote:

I have, a few times! ...back in the 80's from my local library and they still have it. Back then there were very few analysis books on Bond, let alone the Fleming books. Now it seems pedestrian but Amis has the distinction of being a Fleming contemporary apart from being a "Flemingologist."

I think that it still remains a great read - although a cod academic piece, it hasn't really been bettered.

No doubt it is and its comprehensive yet concise content remains a high watermark. Since then many other books of both single authors and collected works have offered some pretty good and often novel analysis on the subject.

Revelator

The James Bond Dossier remains the best work of criticism ever written on Ian Fleming's novels. That's a testimony to the wit and incisive nature of Amis's book, but it's also sad that nothing in the past 40-some years has come close--there are very few decent Fleming critics out there.

Snelling's Report was an okay read, but it barks up the wrong tree with the clubland heroes stuff (as Jeremy Duns has shown us), and spends more time examining inconsistencies in the Bond books rather than truly analyzing them. As for the most recent and substantial contribution to Fleming studies--Simon Winder's The Man Who Saved Britain--it's repulsively condescending and devoid of original ideas (David Cannadine and a thousand other people had already explored the idea of Bond as a salve for Britain's fading empire).

Amis's Dossier, for all its merits, is an intentionally light piece of criticism. There is room for more analysis of Fleming, especially in light of the changes in critical theory and practice that have occurred since the 60s.

mpoplawski

Thanks for the info on the Dossier. I found a copy and ordered it. I will look forward to reading it.

mpoplawski

Hey, I got the book and read it. Very good insight into Bond. I recommend it.