A Couple Questions about The Man From Barbarossa

Desert Kris

Hi all. Before I started reading the original Fleming novels, the first two original JB novels I read were Gardner's Licence Renewed and For Special Services. And they were fine. Understated compared to the movies, yet seemed akin. I had no notion of how different the Fleming books are, as a baseline for gauging Gardner's style.

I'm aware that Barbarossa is controversial, which is fascinating to me. I'm also obsessed about books that the authors experiment with (so Fleming's TSWLM is also one I'm looking foward to). My thoughts on reading order is to continue through the original Flemings in publication order, and pick up again with Gardner (and then Benson). I don't remember what order I read Gardner's first two, but they seemed to be pretty user friendly as jumping on points.

So, my first question; is Barbarossa standalone, and to what extent? Is there some references or hints to the past, or is detached from backstory and references to prior books?

My other question relates to editing. I read elsewhere on the forum here that Barbarossa was heavily edited down, had a substantial amount of material chopped out for US editions. Can anyone comment on how bad it is? My edition is the Berkley mass market 1992 paperback, would that be an edition that has content removed? Would the newer reprint have restored material, or should I buy a UK copy?

Barbel

I know a little about this but I suspect Silhouette Man, as our resident Gardner expert, may know more.

Silhouette Man

Firstly, thank you to Barbel for alerting me to this thread's existence. I'm just sorry that I haven't been able to reply in-depth much sooner but work commitments have laid me low for some months. I finally have six days off in a row on holiday, so now seems the best time to revisit this thread. Better late than never, as they say!

I'll move onto the substantive points of the thread in my next post.

philpog

Silhouette Man wrote:

Firstly, thank you to Barbel for alerting me to this thread's existence. I'm just sorry that I haven't been able to reply in-depth much sooner but work commitments have laid me low for some months. I finally have six days off in a row on holiday, so now seems the best time to revisit this thread. Better late than never, as they say!

I'll move onto the substantive points of the thread in my next post.

Hi Silhouette, could you direct us to a link (preferably thru Amazon) for the uncut Barbarossa? I'd like to order a copy, but I keep finding what I assume is the U.S. version. What is the page count for the uncut U.K. version?

Thanks!

Barbel

Allow me: 231, in the first edition (Hodder & Stoughton).

Silhouette Man

Barbel wrote:

Allow me: 231, in the first edition (Hodder & Stoughton).

Thank you, Barbel. I don't believe that I own the UK first edition of TMFB though I do have the Putnam US first edition. It was the first edition of the novel that I acquired on a day trip to Dublin in August 2002, in fact.

To answer philpog's question I would recommend buying a copy of the UK Coronet paperback edition of TMFB. The copy I have is a Coronet early export edition 1991. It's ISBN 0 340 57112 8. It has 231 pages. The UK edition is the full, uncut edition. To avoid the vastly truncated US version of the novel refrain from buying the Putnam first edition or the Berekely mass paperback edition. I hope this helps you in your purchase.

philpog

Silhouette Man wrote:

Barbel wrote:

Allow me: 231, in the first edition (Hodder & Stoughton).

To answer philpog's question I would recommend buying a copy of the UK Coronet paperback edition of TMFB. The copy I have is a Coronet early export edition 1991. It's ISBN 0 340 57112 8. It has 231 pages. The UK edition is the full, uncut edition. To avoid the vastly truncated US version of the novel refrain from buying the Putnam first edition or the Berekely mass paperback edition. I hope this helps you in your purchase.

It does, thanks!

Silhouette Man

philpog wrote:

Silhouette Man wrote:

Barbel wrote:

Allow me: 231, in the first edition (Hodder & Stoughton).

To answer philpog's question I would recommend buying a copy of the UK Coronet paperback edition of TMFB. The copy I have is a Coronet early export edition 1991. It's ISBN 0 340 57112 8. It has 231 pages. The UK edition is the full, uncut edition. To avoid the vastly truncated US version of the novel refrain from buying the Putnam first edition or the Berekely mass paperback edition. I hope this helps you in your purchase.

It does, thanks!

Great. If you can't find one I'll post a link to an Amazon copy in the morning. I'm on my smartphone at the minute.

I should have added that the new Orion editions of the Gardner novels in the UK also have the full UK text of TMFB and the other novels in the series.

Polar Bear 0007

There are a few copies of this edition on the bay.

Desert Kris

I've seen some of these newer paperback reprints of John Gardner's Bond novels, but didn't really give them a second glance for a while. I found a couple again sometime during this last holiday season while Christmas shopping, including a copy of TMFB. It seemed like it was much longer than the US Berkley mass market paperback edition could contain, so I took a chance and bought it on a whim.

It's been a while since I checked back here. It looks like this new copy is an Orion paperback. The text is characteristic of British formatting, with dialogue 'enclosed in markings like this' as opposed to the US punctuation "which looks like this". It's publishing year is 2012. Were there only paperback printings from Orion, or did they do a hardcover and then a paperback; or does it even matter? Hopefully, this new copy is the whole story! )

Thank you very much for checking in on this thread, Silhouette Man, and for the information and guidance. And also much thanks to Barbel for bringing it to Silhouette Man's attention.