A Couple Questions about The Man From Barbarossa
Desert Kris
Posts: 27MI6 Agent
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?
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?
Comments
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!
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.
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.
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.