Description
Review “Masterful, beautifully written.” ―Raymond Chandler “The most artfully bold, dizzyingly poised thriller of the decade. You’d much better read it than read about it.” ― New York Herald Tribune “Magnificent writing.” ― Time “Wildly funny…hair-raising in a loony way.” ― San Francisco Chronicle “Fleming, by reason of his cool analytical intelligence, his informed use of technical facts, his plausibility, sense of pace, brilliant descriptive powers and superb imagination, provides sheer entertainment.” ― Spectator “We should be grateful to Mr. Fleming for providing a conveniently accessible safety-valve for the boiling sensibility of modern man.” ― Manchester Guardian “The usual sado-masochistic free-for-all, plus octopuses.” ― Observer About the Author Ian Fleming was born in London on May 28, 1908. He was educated at Eton College and later spent a formative period studying languages in Europe. His first job was with Reuters News Agency where a Moscow posting gave him firsthand experience with what would become his literary bête noire ―the Soviet Union. During World War II he served as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence and played a key role in Allied espionage operations. After the war he worked as foreign manager of the Sunday Times , a job that allowed him to spend two months each year in Jamaica. Here, in 1952, at his home “Goldeneye,” he wrote a book called Casino Royale ―and James Bond was born. The first print run sold out within a month. For the next twelve years Fleming produced a novel a year featuring Special Agent 007, the most famous spy of the century. His travels, interests, and wartime experience lent authority to everything he wrote. Raymond Chandler described him as “the most forceful and driving writer of thrillers in England.” Sales soared when President Kennedy named the fifth title, From Russia With Love , one of his favorite books. The Bond novels have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide, boosted by the hugely successful film franchise that began in 1962 with the release of Dr. No . He married Anne Rothermere in 1952. His story about a magical car, written in 1961 for their only son Caspar, went on to become the well-loved novel and film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang . Fleming died of heart failure on August 12, 1964, at the age of fifty-six. Learn more about Ian Fleming at www.ianfleming.com.
Features & Highlights
- Dispatched by M to investigate the mysterious disappearance of MI6’s Jamaica station chief, Bond was expecting a holiday in the sun. But when he discovers a deadly centipede placed in his hotel room, the vacation is over.
- On this island, all suspicious activity leads inexorably to Dr. Julius No, a reclusive megalomaniac with steel pincers for hands. To find out what the good doctor is hiding, 007 must enlist the aid of local fisherman Quarrel and alluring beachcomber Honeychile Rider. Together they will combat a local legend the natives call “the Dragon,” before Bond alone must face the most punishing test of all: an obstacle course―designed by the sadistic Dr. No himself―that measures the limits of the human body’s capacity for agony.
- The text in this edition has been restored by the Fleming family company Ian Fleming Publications, to reflect the work as it was originally published.
