Books

London: Jonathan Cape, 1961. First edition. 8vo, publisher’s original black cloth lettered in gilt on the spine, in the pictorial dustjacket. 254 pp. A very handsome and clean copy in a complete and only very lightly mellowed dustjacket. FIRST EDITION. Fleming’s books have had a staying power that few thriller-writers can match, perhaps because Bond is such an intriguing and morally ambiguous hero. Some admire him as a suave, supremely competent man of action who always gets the girl; others decry him a superficial playboy with a streak of sadism. According to Fleming, “Bond is not a hero, nor is he depicted as being very likeable or admirable. He is a Secret Service agent. He’s not a bad man, but he is ruthless and self-indulgent. He enjoys the fight--he also enjoys the prizes. In fiction, people used to have blood in their veins. Nowadays they have pond water.” The ninth James Bond thriller finds the high-living superspy guzzling carrot juice in a…

Thunderball is the ninth book in the James Bond series, and the eighth full-length James Bond novel, written by Ian Fleming. It is famous for introducing the criminal organization SPECTRE and the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld.