"I LOVE ITS COLOUR, ITS BRILLIANCE, ITS DIVINE HEAVINESS… THE POWER THAT GOLD ALONE GIVES"

FLEMING, Ian. Goldfinger. London: Jonathan Cape, (1959). Octavo, original gilt-stamped black paper boards, original dust jacket. $5600.

First edition of the seventh James Bond thriller, in which Fleming's superspy thwarts Auric Goldfinger's plot to plunder Fort Knox.

"Written when Fleming was on top of his game," Goldfinger "is not only the longest entry in the [Bond] series but also one of the most exuberant, and garnered a certain degree of credibility in literary circles when author Anthony Burgess listed it in his Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939" (Gilbert, 230). Made into the 1965 film starring Sean Connery as Bond and Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore. First edition, first impression. Cloth in Gilbert's second state, without the extra skull detail: "both were available upon publication." Gilbert A7a (1.2). Biondi & Pickard, 45.

Book near-fine with a few instances of marginal staining to pages and text block edge; dust jacket extremely good with a bit of wear to spine ends, faint discoloration to back panel, slightest toning to spine.