Books

London: Jonathan Cape, 1962. First edition of the ninth novel in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Octavo, original black cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light shelfwear. Jacket design by Richard Chopping. An exceptional example. In light of the novel's immense presence as a classic thriller, it's amusing to learn that it was at first poorly received. The novel was banned in several countries due to its heightened sexual writing. The reception was so bad that Fleming wrote to Michael Howard of the Jonathan Cape publishing company to explain why he wrote the book: "I had become increasingly surprised to find my thrillers, which were designed for an adult audience, being read in schools, and that young people were making a hero out of James Bond ... So it crossed my mind to write a cautionary tale about Bond, to put the record straight in the minds particularly of younger readers ... the experiment has obviously gone very much awry" (Chancellor 2005). Upon…

The Spy Who Loved Me is the tenth novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published in 1962. Unlike the other Bond novels, this story is told from the perspective of a young Canadian woman named Vivienne Michel, who encounters James Bond after she finds herself in a difficult situation at a motel in the Adirondack Mountains. The narrative explores themes of love, trust, and the dynamics of power.