The James Bond Books Compared to Their Film Adaptations: Tier Ranking the Books and Films
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- Опубликовано: 8 дек 2022
- The James Bond films have had an enormous cultural impact over the past 60 years, but what about the books that inspired them?
In their own way, Ian Fleming's James Bond novels were similarly groundbreaking, giving the emerging spy fiction genre a sense of style and panache while also bringing its brutality out of the shadows.
Bond became an archetype and role model despite his many character flaws. But Fleming didn't create Bond just to entertain readers. He had other objectives in mind, too.
In this video, I discuss some of Bond's origins and influences in the books Fleming wrote between 1952 and 1964. I also evaluate the books and compare them to their film versions.
0:18 Ian Fleming background
2:32 Bringing Bond to the page
5:11 A new kind of literary spy
6:14 Bond as propaganda
8:50 Bond's snob appeal
10:11 Evaluating the books
10:45 The evolution of the Bond novels
15:01 Bond films differ from the books
18:03 Book/film comparisons
20:01 Casino Royale
21:33 Live and Let Die
22:46 Moonraker
24:09 Diamonds Are Forever
25:28 From Russia with Love
26:35 Dr. No
27:34 Goldfinger
28:29 For Your Eyes Only
30:04 Thunderball
31:11 The Spy Who Loved Me
32:34 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
33:27 You Only Live Twice
34:35 The Man with the Golden Gun
36:06 Octopussy & The Living Daylights
37:26 Patterns
In another video ( • Video ), I discuss the early history of the spy genre leading up to James Bond.
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#booktube #jamesbond #007 #thrillers #vintagebooks #rarebooks #bookcollection
The one thing that always strikes me about the literary version of Bond is the amount of physical punishment he takes on the job. Every book involves him suffering some horrific injury, to the point that he ends up looking like Bruce Willis at the end of Die Hard, but he absolutely never quits because it's his duty to keep going or die trying. I remember my mom watching the License to Kill movie and being shocked that Bond got a bloody lip and mussed up his suit and hair.
I also appreciate the detail Fleming gives to Bond. There's a common view from the movies that Bond is just sort of a name or cipher - just hire any actor to play him, it doesn't matter, hell, hire a woman - but Fleming's Bond is absolutely a distinct character.
Great comment! The physical abuse and injury that Bond endures in the books might be what I remember the most from when I first read them. Very different from the movies.
I've been slowly picking away at the books and this was my first impression as well. I actually appreciated it as modern movies depict their protagonist as an invincible and stoic machine that is capable of both performing and surviving things outside of human capacity.
If you've been indoctrinated by the modern movie James Bond, where he jumps from crane to crane over 40 feet and survives without injury... or other protagonist like John Wick or who ever... these books along with other books of the era are a breath of fresh air.
Personally one thing I love about Flemings novels is not only how descriptive he is but also how Bond changes throughout. Even in Casino Royale alone, Bond goes from a dark lonely person to a man who is willing to give up everything for the woman he loves. Even by the time of Dr No, Bond develops his iconic sense of humor. James Bond is the only fictional spy character who actually feels like he could be a real person in the novels. Also one thing I will note. While Fleming mentions a lot of brands that are considered luxury today, most of them were not at the time. Take Rolex for example. At the time the novels were written and take place, Rolex watches were not luxury items but extremely high quality tool watches meant to be used and abused within an inch of its life. Similar to how GShock or Seiko watches are today. For reference in 1954, a brand new Rolex Submariner cost about $150($1200 when adjusted for inflation). Bonds watch is a more simple Rolex Oyster and he even uses it to beat a guard to death in On her majesty’s secret service. Literacy Bond isn’t so much a fan of luxury as he is a man who likes quality.
Great comment! Thanks for sharing.
One of the best comment ever ! Thanks a lot.
So true - to dismiss an over priced brand name in favour of a little known but superior little number discovered on one’s travels - is pure class !
My father was a big fan of the series when they first came out, , help him become a constant reader in his adult life
Thanks for sharing! One of the nice things about the Bond books is that they're all relatively short, so they don't require a large commitment of time or mental energy to read. They make a nice gateway to reading for people not in the habit of it.
I just gotta say man. You have the perfect storytelling voice.
You should consider doing e-books and voice acting
Thanks! I just dipped my toe in the storytelling water last week by recording an audiobook of a collection of classic short stories by Lord Dunsany. I uploaded two of the stories here on my channel if you're interested.
Cudos for your references to Raffles and Arsene Lupin as early influences on Bond. Spot on considering they are largely forgotten characters who have had massive influences on many modern franchises. Both Lupin and Fantomas, for instance, are intrinsic to the modern Mission Impossible films.
Thanks! I love the early adventure novels and gentleman thief stories from the late 1800s and early 1900s that helped inspire much of the later spy genre. I made a separate video about the roots of the spy genre last fall, and I plan to feature many of those authors and works in future videos.
I love the novels and films...to varying degrees, as is consistent with your own ratings and tiers. In my opinion, the novels were best when sticking to the more mundane and character-driven aspects of Bond. Some of my favorite parts of the books (and films) are when Bond is just living his life as an agent: traveling, eating, staying in hotels, and meeting either the Bond girls or allies while on a mission. When it got over the top or veered too far off into absurdity, that's when the books were their weakest.
That's pretty consistent with how I enjoyed the books. The more spectacle the books contained, the harder it was for me to suspend disbelief and ignore the plot holes and boneheaded decisions by Bond. You Only Live Twice (the book) made me wonder if Fleming was experimenting with controlled substances while he wrote it (similar to how Philip K Dick wrote many of his books and short stories). On the whole, I think the lure of TV and film adaptations (and the spectacle they demanded) were unfortunate influences on Fleming while he wrote many of his later books. Thanks for sharing!
This is an outstanding job for reviewing the books, novels and conducting a comparison. I appreciate the very insightful comments and analysis. This brought back points that I had forgotten and those that I didn't connect.
Thanks for your very kind comment! I had a lot of fun making this video, as well as a companion video on the roots of the spy fiction genre.
I hadn't read a Bond book since middle school, so this is a nice refresher to me, a lifelong fan of the Bond films. I remember being in third grade predicting (successfully) the next film would be Casino Royale. What I could never have predicted was just how legendary it would be!
I assume you're referring to the Daniel Craig version. The 1967 Woody Allen version is legendary, but in a very different way. :D
This has to be the best video on RUclips that covers the history of Ian Flemings James Bond!! Well Done and thank you sir :)
Thanks! Nearly all of the content on RUclips related to Bond seemed to be limited to discussion of the films. I decided to remedy that by highlighting the books that inspired the films (and that are often quite different from them).
Also wanted to add, the new Casino Royale and Goldeneye are two of my favorite films. Connery is my favorite Bond, followed by Craig. Judi Dench is an impeccable M.
Good choices! Early Connery (particularly in Dr. No), Craig and Timothy Dalton were the portrayals closest to how Fleming wrote Bond. Likewise, in the books, Bond's relationship with M is contentious, but also complex, and Dench's M taps into that complexity in way that earlier portrayals don't.
Great reviews. The comparisons of the books and the movies were pretty interesting and I don't hold a radically different opinion than yours in the ratings of books and movies.
Thanks! I'm very glad you enjoyed the video (and that I'm not alone in my tastes).
The amount of research that went into this segment is exceeded perhaps only by the skill and energy evident in the video production and editing. I'm gobsmacked, shaken, AND stirred. Lol
Thanks! It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun to produce.
Thanks for a wonderful video, your voice is so soothing :) I'm reading the novels for the first time in my life and I've thoroughly enjoyed them all up to this point (currently reading Dr. No but have also read the Horowitz Bond novels). My favourite Bond film is Goldfinger so obviously I'm very much looking forward to reading it soon.
Thanks! I'm very glad you enjoyed the video. For me, part of the fun of reading the Bond books is trying to figure out why the film adaptations vary so widely in their faithfulness to the source material. Goldfinger is perfect for that kind of analysis, because the film is almost faithful to the book, but in the few places it deviates, it's pretty significant.
So far I’e only read the first three and while Casino Royale has a lot going for it, Moonraker reads really well and may be my favorite. I live the mundane paperwork stuff we get in it, while also not taking chapters to explain the rules of baccarat.
Superb commentary, well-informed and entertainingly presented. Subscribed.
What a great companion to the history of spy fiction - I always learn so much from your videos, thank you 👍
Thanks! I'm so glad you enjoyed both videos.
"From Russia..." was my German aunt's first full novel in English... the suspense motivating her to reading it to the end....
Great review, I like it very much that you don't do a typical numeric ranking.
Your top right favorites were also the ones I reread most frequently as a teenager...interestingly, those are also the ones with the most compelling sex scenes.
Great video! Your editing skills are awesome, very well done indeed!
Thanks, Wiley! I try to do something new in each video so I can learn new skills. I also injected a little of the 1950s/60s vibe into this one (mainly through the music).
Another fantastic video Bridger. I really enjoyed your comprehensive treatment of the origins of Bond.
Thanks, Chas! This is part of a series of videos I'm working on in which I'll explore the origins of various genres and works of fiction.
Terrific video. I haven’t read all of the Fleming books but I remember when I started to read them: lunchtime in middle school, alone at my locker. I’m not sure where I started in the series, but I devoured a few of them before getting into other authors. I doubt that I understood some of the more adult content. I came back to the series later. The first Bond movie I saw was Diamonds are Forever on TV with my dad when I was about 7 or 8. So, I read the books just a few years later. I think it’s cool that the last Bond movie No Time to Die incorporated the poison garden from the You Only Live Twice novel (a feature that was neglected in the movie of that book).
Thanks! My first Bond film was Moonraker, which I saw with my dad in the theater. I'd never seen such spectacular stunts in a movie before, and the silliness of the script wasn't an obstacle for my juvenile mind at the time. I didn't start reading the books until about 20 years ago.
Good catch about the garden of death. I'm kicking myself that I didn't pick up on that callout when I watched No Time to Die a few months ago.
Great video! Your voice is also great! You could do some James Bond audiobooks, maybe the voices of some villains.
Thank you! I recorded a couple of spooky short stories and uploaded them for Halloween here on my channel. I might do more stories from other genres as well in the future.
Some of the plots from the books showed up in latter movies .
Felix fate from Live and Let Die , was used in License to kill and the garden of death from You only live twice , shows up in No time to die
I'm pretty much in agreement with your assessments. Something I thought about The Man with the Golden Gun is that it was difficult for me not to think that Bond was basically a broken man at that point. Fleming had really put him through the wringer: Finally falling in love, only to see his wife immediately murdered, suffering bad injuries that gave him amnesia, being brainwashed by the Russians, undergoing shock therapy.....holy moly, he went through a lot.
I agree. When I first read the books, the amount of physical and mental abuse Bond endures in them was one of the biggest surprises for me, in contrast with the films in which Connery, Lazenby and Moore barely ever suffer a scratch.
Also, Casino Royale was not an immediate success. It took CR six years to sell 10,000 copies. The growth in popularity of Bond in England was slow but steady.
Fantastic video! Really informative. I’ve somehow never read a single Bond book. I really need to do that.
Thanks, Michael! As I mention in the video, start at the beginning of the series and you're relatively safe. The first time I read Casino Royale was shortly after the 2006 film came out, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's not great literature, but it's a step up from a lot of the pulp fiction that was being written at that time. (From one pulp fiction fan to another.)
I probably don't have any desire to read the Bond novels, but did enjoy this video. I watched all of the Bond films a few summers ago, so they're fresh in my mind. My favorites were probably On Her Majesty's Secret Service, GoldenEye and Skyfall. Least favorite was easily Moonraker, although Octopussy and Dr. No I rated low as well. Thanks for a fun video!
Thanks, Josh. Moonraker is probably the silliest of the films, but I still remember the incredible feeling of awe and exhilaration I felt when I watched the opening sky diving sequence on a big screen in the theater as a kid. I recently learned that it took them nearly 90 jumps over a period of about a month to get all the shots needed for that stunt sequence. I imagine that was partly because cinema-quality movie cameras were a lot bulkier then and difficult to manage while in freefall.
I suspect Fleming would have enjoyed the Daniel Craig films. Their tone is a lot closer to the original books, although only one is based on a book.
OHMSS is underrated!
I have randomly come across an amazing channel!!! Subscribing, cant wait to binge your vids lol
Thank you and welcome aboard!
I’ll be honest, I like the films a bit more, but that’s only because they’re more cinematic and have a grander scale. Even the short stories made great films even though they just took the title, maybe a few characters and nothing else.
Also, I like the fact that the Goldfinger film took everything from the book, tweaked it a bit, and then made nearly every element a staple of spy films for the next 60 years.
I tend to agree with you. The Bond books are smaller in scale and scope, and if the films had remained faithful to them, Bond's cultural impact would have been more limited (and the films likely would have ended after Thunderball) in my opinion.
I love your voice dude. It's so dope and calming.
Hey, thanks!
Fantastic video, you have a great voice, very easy to listen to! Cheers from a Bond channel!
Thank you! I had a lot of fun making this video and a companion video about the early history of the spy genre in fiction.
Glad you finally found this Jeroen
I think he is an artificial intelligence character
You have a great voice, a pleasure listening to! I'll definitely be back to investigate more of this channel. BTW...my favorite Bond novel is Dr. No, but favorite film is From Russia With Love. Cheers!
Thank you! From Russia with Love is my favorite film in the series as well.
@@thelibraryladder You probably don't like videogames, but From Russia with Love was also a game for Playstation 2 and they had Sean Connory doing the lines and animations. I hold that movie dear to me. I only wish I'd find that book to buy. Or dreaming higher, the complete box, which seems to have only 1 to buy at a ridiculous price.
Amazing video! Lots of information.loved it!
Clicked because I was curious, stayed because of your caramel-crunch voice, subscription well earned.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy my other videos. I'll be making more non-SFF book content in the future.
The level of effort put in this + the level of taste with background music and paced low tone voice almost ASMR-like is amazing. Thanks for having made this video :)
PS.: shame to all parties involved in reprinting Fleming novels with woke adaptations.
Thank you! I had a lot of fun making this video.
Finally, a vid that explains the popularity of the Bond books from all perspectives.
Thank you so much, enjoyed every 38 minutes, 24 seconds!!! 😊👍
Thanks! I’m so glad you enjoyed it and found it informative.
@@thelibraryladder Thank you.
You have a soothing voice and a gift for story telling.
I'll readily admit this is my first vid from you so perhaps I'm late to the party but more vids about movies tied to books such as the Ripley series, etc. Would be informative/enjoyable to see.
Thanks again, keep up the good work.
I'm a longtime film enthusiast whose favorite TV channel is TCM. I've been contemplating making more crossover videos linking books to their film adaptations. To date, I've made two (this one and one a couple of years ago that compared the Perry Mason novels to their many TV adaptations), and I might do more in the future. Ultimately, my goal is get more people to read the books and not simply to watch the movies, though.
@@thelibraryladder There is a good book about short stories that have been turned into movies:
"Adaptations" by Stephanie Harrison. A good read.
Would love to see more like that.
Thanks for the suggestion! I haven't run across that book before.
As you asked....."No Time To Die" can go fudge itself. Yep, Im still not over it. 😬
Great video and very timely as I'm currently reading my way through the James Bond-novels. However, I respectfully disagree with your opinion on Honeychile Rider from the 'Dr. No' novel.
SPOILER WARNING
The book version is a much more complex and interesting character compared to the movie version who's just completely forgettable except for that first scene when she rose out of the ocean in that white bikini. Yes, she acts quite immature but that's to be expected of a woman who raised herself from childhood while living in an old basement and educating herself from encyclopedias. At the same time she is smart, ruthless and strong. She saves herself from her captors and later comforts and takes care of Bond after he's been tortured by Dr. No.
Those are all fair points about her character, and I would have mentioned her strengths if I had been doing a deeper dive in my reviews. My inner cringe stemmed mostly from how much of a caricature certain aspects of her are. Her immaturity, her unrealistic level of self-education (given her youth when orphaned), and her incomprehensible attraction to Bond (given her history and his purely animal response to her) didn't allow me to suspend disbelief while reading. She has considerably more substance than Ursula Andress' limited role in the film as eye candy. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Wow, great video dude.
My Top 5 Bond novels list would go like this:
Moonraker, Casino Royale, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, From Russia with Love, Dr. No
My Top 5 Bond films:
Casino Royale, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Skyfall, From Russia with Love, Licence to Kill
My Bond actor ranking:
Dalton, Craig, Connery, Moore, Brosnan, Lazenby
Thanks! Great lists. I'd rank the actors a little differently, but not a lot.
@@thelibraryladder That's fair, Connery and Craig tend to switch places for me.
I actually love The Man With The Golden Gun book. I think it's realistic as a story of an aging spy who makes mistakes and is burnt out. I would be so bold as to say it's my favorite book.
Thanks for watching and sharing! There's no objectively right or wrong answer to the question of which Bond book is best. We all have our own preferences, and I'm very glad that each of the Bond books has enthusiastic fans. :)
I'm binging a few of your videos after Chatting with Nutts. Instant Subsribe to your style of video content 💚. Hope to see you in other longer discussions/podcasts.
Thanks! I enjoyed last night's chat with Jimmy, and I hope to do it again in the future.
I started reading Bond books when I was 9 or 10 and love them more than the films that "stole" their names.
My favourite novel's are Moonraker (Which shares mire DNA with the film Die Another Day than it does the Moonraker film) and my overall favourite, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Thanks for sharing! I agree that those are among the best books. I'm going to guess that your favorite Bond film is either Casino Royale or From Russia with Love (for their faithfulness to the books).
@the library ladder Actually its Licence To Kill. Whilst Casino Royale is closer in plot, Dalton's portrayal was closer to the character in the books than Craig, or any other actor.
@@cutthr0atjake That makes sense. Dalton definitely was closest to how Fleming wrote Bond.
A shame Dalton didn't end up playing On Her Majesty's Secret Service.... probably Roger Moore would never have happened... being a fan of the books, Roger Moore was always a disappointment to me, my least favorite Bond actor.
Im getting into the James Bond books, I saw the films and are quite amazing, but I think that the books have more interesting things that I must know. Great video!👍🏻
Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the books!
Love to see you examine the Shaft novels with Ernest Tidyman!
That would be very cool. Thanks for the suggestion!
Ive gotten through most of the books, I find I tend to prefer the book when they differ from the movie, but if the movie is more faithful I prefer the film. My favorite book is probably diamonds are forever, I like the deep dive into smuggling, Bond working up through the ranks, tiffany case, spectreville, and bond on an ocean liner is something i would really like in the movies.
Thanks for sharing! I can understand your reaction to the books. I find it hard to keep the film versions out of my mind when reading the books, particularly when the two versions are very similar.
I read all of the original Fleming novels in a row over a single summer. My favorite novel is "Casino Royale", and my favorite movie is "Dr. No".
Those are great choices!
According to The James Bond Bedside Companion by Raymond Benson, Ian Fleming cannot be blamed for the way The Man With The Golden Gum turned out. Fleming died before he could revise, polish and add the rich detail he always incorporated after he had completed the first draft. Glidrose Productions finished the book for him and released it posthumously in 1965. Likewise, Glidrose cannot be blamed for the weak book, they were obligated to publish the book Fleming's fans were entitled to learn what happens to their hero since You Only Live Twice ends with a cliffhanger.
Thanks for sharing that tidbit!
I like the way this guy talks. It’s very relaxing!
Thanks! I try to be low-stress kind of guy.
Well written and informative lecture.
I'm glad it was helpful!
I never really liked Bond movies too much, so I skipped the books. Casino Royale was my favorite one though, even though it went a bit over the top - like Bond movies tend to - with gadgets and action scenes, it also was one of the very few in which both Bond and his adversaries felt human.
I've always enjoyed the Bond films for their spectacular stunts and gadgets (despite their over-the-top aspects), while the plots are mostly ridiculous and full of holes, and Bond himself is mostly a caricature. In contrast, many of the books are quite different, and the characters, including Bond, feel more real (particularly in the earlier books in the series).
Excellent precise of the Bond literary canon! As to Live and Let Die, I agree that the first half of the book is extremely dated and cringeworthy, but I think the later chapters that move the action to Florida and then Jamaica contain some of Fleming's best writing. He excelled when the plots took Bond to the Carribean and had an obvious love for the area, unlike most of the adventures that took Bond to the United States. I think we were just another strayed colony in Fleming's worldview.
Thanks! That's a good point about the later chapters in Live and Let Die. Those parts of the books salvaged somewhat the much worse early chapters.
Fantastic work as always. Your previous video has made me really want to pick up the Bond books and this has reinforced that opinion. Here's hoping they show up under the Christmas tree!
Also we have similar taste in Bone films. I love on her majesty secret service and from Russia with love
Go for it! (Or perhaps that's a message I should be sending to Santa.) As I mention in the video, I would read them in publication order, starting with Casio Royale, to get the best feel for how Fleming intended the character and also to maintain narrative continuity. If you enjoy the first book, that's a pretty good indicator that you'll enjoy at least some of the subsequent books in the series.
Actually, as uneven as he was as a student, Fleming was extremely strong at languages in school, and it was his studies of language and literature that helped him at Ruiters, and not the other way around.
First off, wonderful narration. Second, read these from grade school age 1963, i was 12- since at the time it became known they were a favorite of President Kennedy.
I remember listening to the audiobooks for the first three bonds in high school and reading the successive novel by Sebastian Faulks “Devil May Care” and thinking it was solid. I’d like to read Moonraker as I’ve heard it’s the actual best.
I agree that Moonraker (the novel) is among Fleming's best.
The depiction of Bond in the early stories is, by the standards of the movies, weirdly realistic. Bond is not simply a hedonist with a taste for the finer things in life. He is an assassin who knows that he has a 100% chance of being killed on the job at some point, so he literally lives like he has no tomorrow. He spends every penny he makes, because what's the point of saving money? He exclusively dates married women, because what's the point of forming emotional attachments? Fleming even provided Bond with supplementary income - an inheritance that provides him a yearly stipend that sounds ridiculously small in 21st century money, but was more than a government worker earned in the 60's. These details (minus inheritance) are even carried over into the Daniel Craig version of Dr. No, giving me hope that Craig would provide a relatively faithful version of Bond. Of course, we know that didn't pan out.
Some favorite things from the Bond novels - in Moonraker, Fleming describes Bond's day to day activities at the office, including firearms practice and reading case files. Prosaic and banal, it is none the less a realistic and fascinating look into what the office job of a government assassin might be like. I love the travelogue aspects of Fleming's stories; he loved to describe places and cuisine. Finally, I adore Bond's eulogy at the end of You Only Live Twice, because it lays out the history and accomplishments of a character that bears absolutely no resemblance to the character that fans spent the last dozen books reading about. Bond was an expert in martial arts and 'Oriental' culture? Really?
You Only Live Twice is easily my favorite Bond film, followed by The Spy Who Loved Me, itself a pastiche of You Only Live Twice. And it's easy to forget with the passage of time that Moonraker was a wildly successful movie. At the time of its release, it had the best box office of any Bond film (something true of every Bond film to that point). No, it didn't age well, but very few things do.
Thanks for sharing that great comment. I found the eulogy at the end of YOLT to be a little bizarre for the same reason you mentioned. Also, you make a good point about the similarities between the film versions of YOLT and TSWLM.
I disagree somewhat with what you said about Bond only dating married women. It's true that he's described as doing that in Moonraker, but that's not always the case. He falls HARD for the single Vesper in the very first novel, to the point where he considers marrying her. His grief and bitterness over what happens to her hardens him. In the second novel, Solitaire is not married. Bond goes for her. In the fourth book, he's so interested in Tiffany Case that he invites her to live with him.
Great list, I'd stack them pretty much alike with Thunderball, OHMSS and FRWL by far best and most enjoyable writing, Goldfinger and FRWL has to win as the best movies aka best adaptations, adding Connery as probably the most faithful Bond incarnation
Hi, LL. Kudos to you for obviously having read all the books and seen all the films, as have I. While I agree very strongly with most of your assessments, I disagree with a few.
I loved Live and Let Die, and having grown up in urban Chicago, did not find it cringe. Neither did I find Honey Ryder cringe, either. In fact, she's my favorite Bond girl bar none, particularly the way she assassinates the man who abused her by letting one of her poisonous spider friends into his room. Classic! Dr. No is also probably my favorite of the novels. The way Bond kills Julius No-under a giant pile of bird guano-is inspired.
But my favorite overall Bond story is For Your Eyes Only. The crime that is committed at the beginning is so vile and detestable, the victims so sympathetic, that I found myself really yearning for revenge against the villain, and the whole thing reads like a stripped-down, compact Bond story with no fat or nonsense to it.
I understand why you rate Quantum of Solace and Spy Who Loved Me low. Bond has almost no role to play in the first and only enters the second during the third act. But I found these stories fascinating. One of Fleming's best friends was Somerset-Maugham, and I'm guessing that these two outings were his attempt to imitate his friend's more literary work in his own way, without admitting he was doing so. I suspect he was also writing about his own early sex life and professional experience in Spy, disguised as Viv's. Only a theory, but that's why I liked them.
I also found Octopussy fascinating for similar reasons. Toward the end of that story, we find out that the ski pro and mountain guide murdered by the villain was a mentor of Bond's during his youth. This coincides closely with individuals from Fleming's own youth as does the alpine area depicted in the story. In other words, there's a flash of autobiographical detail here from a very private and secretive writer, which is interesting.
I mostly agree with your negative assessments of the later novels, but I would add that Fleming was already very ill from heart disease-or "the iron crab" as he called it-at this point in his life. He was also suffering from a failing marriage and legal troubles resulting from the misunderstanding over who exactly deserved credit for writing Thunderball. This can only have had a negative impact on his work.
It's a shame he died so relatively young, and after a long and debilitating illness. One can only imagine what wonderful work he might have written had he lived longer and healthier. That said, we should be enormously thankful for the fourteen or so books that we do have. Apropos, Fleming was among the first "grown-up" books I read as a child, having only just learned to read. I didn't understand half of what was going on, but it was so much fun.
Thanks for sharing your take on the books and the insights into Fleming’s history and personal life! Many aspects of the books have always felt somewhat autobiographical to me, and your comment has reinforced that feeling.
have you read the recent novels? Some are really good, I think the William Boyd one, and the Anthony Horowitz ones I especially liked.
Only Kingsley Amis' Colonel Sun (not exactly a recent Bond) and a couple of the Horowitz ones, which I enjoyed. I think Horowitz writes well in several genres, from spy thrillers to mysteries to children's books.
I prefer the less glitzy themes. From Russia with Love remains my favourite book and I would rate it as the best film, it remains (just) within the bounds of possibility but manages to include some believable and practical gadgets. I also feel the earlier book were better but I did enjoy Goldfinger, the first film I saw..
I feel much the same way. Thanks for sharing!
From Russia with Love is my #2. Nothing comes close to Casino Royale for me.
I have only seen the movies. Top and bottom five.
1. Casino Royale: Gritty and psychological.
2. In Her Majesty's Secret Service: Maybe the most 'Bond' of Bond movies.
3. License To Kill: Different, daring and brutal.
4. Thunderball: The chain of events starting with Palazzi's new demands and ends with Domino siding with Bond saves the day.
5. Goldfinger: Probably the most iconic.
Worst five in no particular order: Moonraker, Spectre, No Time To Die, Die Another Day, You Only Live Twice.
Never Say Never Again has been disqualified. But it would have been on the bottom five.
Your Top 5 list has a lot in common with my own, though I'm ambivalent about License to Kill, and I'd rank From Russia with Love higher. I'm more charitable than you toward the two most recent films in your Bottom 5, although I think they're somewhat bloated and make a hash of Bond canon. I enjoyed the Roger Moore films the most in my youth (they were the first ones I ever watched, and the stunts in them are spectacular), but most of them haven't aged well and are the least consistent with how Fleming wrote the character. Several of them would be in my Bottom 5 along with You Only Live Twice and Die Another Day.
Like you, I disqualified Never Say Never Again from consideration in this video. It's a far inferior remake of Thunderball. Thanks for sharing!
interesting, but what happened to 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'?
It's at the 32:34 mark. Thanks for watching.
An entertaining presentation and a perfect watch for Bond book beginners. 007 MAGAZINE (October 20, 2023)
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. My hope is to encourage more people to read the books.
Great video. He sounds like Wendell the librarian.
Thanks! Wendell is a source of inspiration to many. :)
Shorter video than expected. Thumbs up though.
I read most of them in paperback when I was quite a bit younger, though I saw a lot of the movies before I picked up a Fleming book.
I was born in 1961, a year before the first movie, Dr. No, came out. It seemed that the first few movies developed the movie Bond tropes, including the Bond girls, Q gadgets, cars that were cool and had modifications that always had a convenient scene to see what they could do. Once Roger Moore took over, like the later acton movie franchises (think Die Hard, or Fast and Furious) they became increasingly ridiculous by trying to top the action of the previous ones. I liked Moore’s first movie, Live and let die, but it was more a satire than it was a serious Bond story. I think Connery was the best Bond (probably because the movies were somewhat less over the top than later movies). However, my favorite Bond film is the only one starring George Lazenby as Bond, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
I haven’t watched many after Roger Moore’s era. I stopped enjoying the impossible action stuff, especially like that space fighting you showed. It looks like Daniel Craig’s movies might have reset the comedy and overly outlandish action. I’ve only seen one of them and will have to check out the others.
A few years later, I started reading the books. I enjoyed most of them. I thought Live and Let Die benefitted from Fleming living in Jamaica for a while. Casino Royale did seem more like a detective novel, with a straight, simple plot line, with mistakes by Bond. I suppose I’d have to call it my favorite, as well.
Thanks for your video!
Thank for sharing your perspective! I agree with you about Bond being best when he's not overwhelmed by spectacle. Daniel Craig's first outing as Bond in Casino Royale did a great job of resetting the franchise, although the last couple of his Bond films lost some story coherence in service to spectacle, in my opinion.
@@thelibraryladder Thanks for your reply. I recently, as a big self gift, got all 13 Folio Society editions of the Ian Fleming James Bond novels (@ $75 each). As I near retirement, I am building my library of books I want to read or reread. I plan to read them in publication order, and watch the corresponding movie as I go.
I can’t remember which Daniel Craig movie I watched (Quantum of Solace(?)), and there was a scene where he and the bad guy were running around a huge elephant cage style antenna. Even though it was definitely a somewhat overwrought scene, it could, at least, happen. The old films finally just eschewed reality to the point where I didn’t enjoy them.
Not sure why, but I've always pictured Bond as Mel Gibson in The Year of Living Dangerously. I like the books better than the movies, and I even liked The Man with the Golden Gun, maybe because I knew it was the last one.
From Fleming novels I was only able to get Live and Let Die and Diamonds are Forever, but I loved both of them. Live and Let Die has the better story but Diamonds are Forever has the best Bond Girl
Goldfinger and Moonraker were also particularly good.
Goldfinger started slowly with lots of character development, but then got well into the plot. Moonraker was VERY different from the movie, -my least favorite movie, BTW.
I've seen quite a few of the films over the years and when I saw a copy of Thunderball for $1 at a school fair in 2014, I bought and read it. My reaction to the book was to naturally compare it to the films.
Like you, I was struck by the lack of humour and the tendency for a lot of descriptive stuff about technology. I also thought the book version of Bond has little personality apart from a disdain for the 'modern' (where 'modern' = 1960s). What the book and film versions of Bond have in common, is that he blunders about and then reacts to what happens to him. In the book, it is his connections rather than gadgets that help him. There is a very strong sense of class system in the book. Where Bond considers himself well above most people.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about them. I agree that Bond is a capable spy when placed in difficult situations, but not a very smart one in many respects. It's my understanding that the addition of humor to Bond's personality in the films was a contract demand Connery made before he would accept the role. Upper-crust Fleming likely projected some of his own attitudes and behaviors onto Bond despite the character's more humble origins.
I read most of the novels one after another in order, before seeing any of the films... they were on my parents' bookshelf, Golden Gun came out while I was completing the series... I remember it as being a complete muddle, and unrecognizable from the book, after that Moonraker and Spy who Loved me were better movie productions, but I was always dissappoined when films departed from the novels. When I later saw the earlier films, I was still unhappy with the film adaptations... partly because I was watching them on television, and thought OHMSS was the best adaptation. In those days it never came on television, and it wasn't until after Roger Moore retired that I actually had a chance to see On her Majesty's Secret Service for the first time during a time when there were more Bond retrospectives. In the 80's no one thought much of Lazenby as a Bond actor, so much so that it was years until I learned that there even was another Bond actor between Connery and Moore.
Thanks for sharing! I agree with you that Lazenby's performance in OHMSS was unfairly panned. He didn't have the same physicality or cocky charm that Connery brought to the role, but he was a far more believable Bond than Moore ever was. I would have liked to see Diamonds Are Forever with Lazenby. Connery was past his prime in it, and his disinterest in the character at that point was readily apparent. Also, OHMSS definitely ranks among the best Bond books and films in my opinion.
Would love to see a video on Fleming’s more literary counterpart in popular spy fiction, John Le Carrè
Thanks for the suggestion! I plan to feature him in a future video. He was one of the best.
I highly agree!
I’ve come to accept the film Bond as an entirely different character, so I don’t care if the films match the books (mostly because I was a fan of the Sean Connery films long before I ever read any of the books). It’s the same with Tarzan. I had become too acquainted with the old films before I read the books and discovered how completely different the character was, so I simply enjoy the film iteration as a thing in itself without comparing it to the films. I suspect the reason I don’t care that the films match the books is because I was a film fan first. Had I read the books first, I’d probably complain about the films. In any case, thanks for the review. I’m enjoying your collections.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I tend to view the differences between the Bond books and films (and the Tarzan ones too) in much the same way. The differences are so large that one almost has to view them as separate creations. My hope with this video is to encourage more people to read the Bond books (or at least the better ones) and not assume that if they've seen the movie, they already know Bond and the corresponding book's plot.
As a bit of trivia, I learned recently that the inclusion of humor in the Bond films was a contract stipulation Sean Connery insisted on before he would agree to take the role.
nice Rod Serling-like narration....
Thanks! It was completely unintentional. :)
@@thelibraryladder reminded me of how much I love Twilight Zone...lol
I've read the cannon at least twice and have loved and despised the film adaptations over the years. I agree that Casino Royale and the 2006 film adaptation is the sweet spot for great cinema that is true to the original work. I think from Russia With Love is my favorite of the novels after Casino Royale and I really enjoyed George Lazenby in the film role (and his amazing stunt work). Aside from Daniel Craig's brutal true portrayal of Bond in Casino Royale, I can't help but love Sean Connery's interpretations of the character in the first films, my favorites of which are Thunderball (Never Say Never) followed by Dr. No.
Edit: Whoops! Confused the movie of On Her Majesty's Secret Service with the novel From Russia With Love. FRWL is my second favorite of the series of novels and OHMSS is my fourth pick for the cinema adaptations. Apologies for the muddle. It's been over ten years since I last read the full oeuvre.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with the books and films! They sound very similar to my own. I'm eager (and slightly nervous) to see what the film producers do with the next incarnation of Bond.
@@thelibraryladder I also watched your history of the spy novel and found it fascinating. I'll also post on your couplet of Neal Stephenson.
What Bond novel anthologies are available?
There are quite a few. Many are listed on this Goodreads page: www.goodreads.com/series/49623-james-bond-original-series
I have the two earliest anthologies that were published by Macmillan in 1961 and 1965 -- Gilt-Edged Bonds, and More Gilt-Edged Bonds. Each contains three of Fleming's Bond novels. Other anthologies containing more of the novels have been issued by various publishers in each decade since then. I hope that's helpful.
Drax's real identity is a major spoiler and even though I don't personally care about them I was shocked at how matter of factly you delivered it when you largely kept things vague in the first two reviews.
MOONRAKER is my favorite of the novels-- it has an almost Graham Greene quality and the final scene gets me every time.
Also LIVE AND LET DIE is a tricky one. The patois is very jarring but the actual prose is literally the best of Fleming's career and the thing has incredible sweep. I think the first five novels are all pretty good (DIAMONDS is the weakest, by far) and that's one where some products of its time stand out and obscure a great pulp adventure
I love the bridge (card game) scene in the book...
For me Drax and Goldfinger are nearly interchangeable as villains in the books ...
Great work and great voice. You should do ASMR! 🙂
Thanks! I'd never even heard of ASMR until I started this channel and started receiving comments like yours. :)
Love The Voice.
I gre up with Sean Connery and Roger Moore , but Cancino reroll with Daniel Craig I must say, is my favorite best film
Perhaps you should add a tier ranking of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. :-)
Nice one! The film version would win my vote.
The man with the golden gun is closely connected with You only live twice... the amnesia and kissy suzuki .. the spy who loved me has references to blofeld and is a sequel to thunderball.
You're right. And to a large extent, all of the Fleming novels (excluding the short story collections For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy/The Living Daylights) are sequels. Most are direct continuations of Bond's story from the preceding book(s). It's very different from the standalone aspect of the films.
@@thelibraryladder I wish the films respected that.. it would have been a far more engaging series.
Well, you cover a lot of different types of fiction in your videos, from sf to fantasy to espionage. Not that I'm complaining. I think a good reader is someone who's tried various types of fiction to find out what he really likes, and may well like a wide a variety of fiction.
As for Bond in particular, I was really impressed by the first book, Casino Royale. It's easy to see why it did well and captured the public as it did. I've read most of the books in the series, but maybe not all of them. Some of them don't stay in my mind too well. I was really looking forward to reading The Man With The Golden Gun, because that was first Bond film I saw as a kid growing up in the 70s. Plus it was initially published the same year I was born. Such a disappointment. I really liked the opening, where Bond comes back brainwashed and attempts to kill M. But then it's completely dropped, and Bond gets involved with gangsters and trains. I think they should have built on the opening and made the whole book about Bond's brainwashing, and dealing with that, or better yet, some kind of counterplot to go after those who did the brainwashing and finish whatever mission he had been on, or at least filled in the details involving the brainwashing for the sake of closure. Oh well, missed opportunities.
I know you were focused on the books, and only on the faithfulness of the film adaptations. But the faithfulness of the adaptation doesn't really describe the quality of the films. Several of the less faithful adaptations are great Bond movies, like The Spy Who Loved Me, or For Your Eyes Only. And speaking of those stories, I really liked several of the short stories, as uneven and incomplete as they are. For Your Eyes Only is definitely the best and most Bond-like, but I really liked Quantum of Solace and Octopussy, even if Bond was a superfluous and unnecessary character for those stories. Like many good short stories, they both managed an unexpected twist at the end for the reader. There seems to be a theme of nostalgia for Imperialistic Britain, and the idea that stiff upper-lipped Britishers can only let their hair down and have fun by *leaving* Britain.
Of course, I wouldn't rank the books as too high in realism, and the movies even less so. For my money, John LeCarre did much more realistic spy thrillers, and was still able to make them interesting stories. Especially in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
I wish he had written more like my favorite, For Your Eyes Only.
It's unfortunate that Fleming didn't write more Bond short stories. I think some of them are quite good (including For Your Eyes Only). Fleming used short stories to try out different story ideas and narrative forms and techniques, some of which worked well, while others are probably best described as failed experiments.
Regarding the hardcovers themselves - I see that you have a full set of Jonathan Capes first runs - but they all look to be different sizes... why did they do that?
I just checked, and the books are all nearly the same size. They're all the same height (7.5 inches), although the dust jackets on some of the books might have slid up slightly when I shot the footage, and two jackets (Diamonds Are Forever and For Your Eyes Only) are slightly smaller than the rest, which could make it seem like the books are different heights.
The cover widths do vary slightly by about an eighth of an inch, ranging from about 5.0 to 5.13 inches. I don't have an explanation for that variance, which might be due to cost-saving efforts or possibly loose manufacturing tolerances in the production of the front and rear boards.
If you thought you saw larger differences in size among the books, it's probably because I shot the footage of the individual books from inconsistent angles and distances, making some books seem smaller than others. Thanks for your question!
Timothy Dalton was the closest to Fleming's book version. Daniel Craig is a unique mixture of the Fleming Bond and the cinema Bond imo
I agree with your assessment of their portrayals of Bond. Thanks for sharing!
@@thelibraryladder 👍💯
What’s your beef with Honey Rider?
My favourite film is from Russia with love. My new year resolution is to collect n read the novels
Great resolution!
New Elric novel is now out!
Great! I hope to have my next Eternal Champion video up later this month.
I know it's not the most polished Bond novel but personally "The Man with the Golden Gun" is one of my favorites. It's the last Fleming bond story chronologically, and it reads like a swansong for the character where he's out to settle one last score with the assassin who's been killing other Secret Service agents. The film adaptation is just unfortunate considering how grounded the book is. Scaramanga's gun is just a gold-plated Colt .45, there's no energy crisis subplot, no giant evil lair, nothing. The character of Mary Goodnight is also way better-written, she's highly intelligent, if not more intelligent than Bond.
Thanks for sharing! Although "Golden Gun" isn't one of my favorite Bond novels, I agree with you completely that Mary Goodnight is a much more interesting character in the book than in the film.
Perhaps Bond was an early 77th Brigade project?
Good question. I don't know the answer.
Christopher Lee was a relative of Ian Fleming and upon whom James Bond is based.
Lee's mother was an Italian countess.
It's my understanding that the film producers considered casting Lee as Bond when Connery stepped down, but ultimately they decided he was too tall for the part. According to both Fleming and his biographers, the Bond character was a composite of several real persons Fleming knew during WWII (including himself). Lee might have been among them, but it's never been confirmed. Thanks for watching!
If i am not mistaken the countess was from the Carandini family!.
Lee’s mother was Estelle Marie Carandini of the Marquises of Sarzano (1889-1981). Her mother was the granddaughter of an Italian politician, Girolamo Carandini, 10th Marquess of Sarzano (1803-1870.
As a matter of fact Lee’s full name & title is Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (1922-2015).🙏
Imagine if he got a few more years and a few more books. James Bond gets an ending, and so would Ian as they spend the last little bit of time the have relaxing
I read all the Bond novels in a fortnight when I was a kid…as a result I can not identify what happens in each individual book. I’ve never felt any necessity to revisit them…
Completely understandable. I made this video as a kind of roadmap for people who are familiar with the films, but have never read the books and might have an interest in trying them.
Ian Fleming prohibited EON Productions from adapting The Spy Who Loved Me faithfully, let alone any smaller parts of the novel. He recognized the experiment as a failure, so the rights to the book were limited to the title and nothing else. We will never see Vivien Michelle, the hotel, the mobsters, the plot, or other details in film until the negotiated deal expires, which is in 2064, 100 years after Fleming's death.
I didn't realize Fleming barred the use of the original source material in the film. Thanks for sharing that nugget!
@@thelibraryladder It is possible that with copyright laws in the UK, the novel might go to the public domain before the deal expires, in which case EON Productions, if the company is still making 007 movies, could adapt the novel without technically violating the license deal for the book. However, I am not a lawyer, so don't take my word for it.
Maud Adams character in the movie specifically recounts the short story Octopussy. She’s supposed to be that traitor’s daughter. I always thought that was neat.
I liked the LALD and YOLT a little more than you did. I liked Goldfinger (both the book and the movie) a little less than you did. But otherwise that’s a good breakdown of their merits.
Fairly compatible until "You Only Live Twice" when it went totally pear shaped
Your voice is so mellow, it almost puts me to sleep.
You might try increasing the playback speed. :D
Regarding Octopussy, in the film, Octopussy herself thanks Bond for his tact in handling his mission to arrest her traitor father, presumably the subject of the short story.
That's a good catch of a subtle nod to the original short story. Thanks for sharing it.
Ian fleming in half profile looks like Maurizio Pollini
You're right! The similarities in their noses and mouths, in particular, are striking.
WHAT ARE BOOKS???
I liked the "James Bond was a tool" thumbnail better. 😂
I liked it better too, but this one has generated a much better viewer click-through rate. This was one of my worst performing videos until I changed the thumbnail, and since then it's performed considerably better.