Complete set of James Bond novels

Ian FLEMING

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Complete set of James Bond novels

“BOND… JAMES BOND”: FULL FIRST EDITION SET OF IAN FLEMING’S 007 SERIES, HANDSOMELY BOUND

FLEMING, Ian. Complete set of James Bond novels. Casino Royale. WITH: Live and Let Die. WITH: Moonraker. WITH: Diamonds Are Forever. WITH: From Russia with Love. WITH: Dr. No. WITH: Goldfinger. WITH: For Your Eyes Only. WITH: Thunderball. WITH: The Spy who Loved Me. WITH: On Her Majesty's Secret Service. WITH: You Only Live Twice. WITH: The Man with the Golden Gun. WITH: Octopussy and the Living Daylights. London: Jonathan Cape, (1953-66). Together, 14 volumes. Octavo, modern full burgundy morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, all edges gilt.

Full first edition, first issue, set of the 14 volumes of novels and short stories that make up Fleming’s Bond series, handsomely bound.

Novelist Kingsley Amis, who would finish The Man with the Golden Gun after Fleming's death, noted that "On the publication of Casino Royale it was apparent to many that a remarkable new writer had arrived on the scene… Bond, at any rate on the surface, was a carefully constructed amalgam of what many men would like to be— and of what perhaps rather fewer women would like to meet: handsome, elegant, brave, tough, at ease in expensive surroundings, predatory and yet chivalrous in sexual dealings, with a touch of Byronic melancholy and remoteness thrown in." As a writer of spy novels, "Fleming holds the early Cold War years to himself. Shedding the carapace of moral, psychological and societal complications that weighed down his immediate predecessors, Fleming established a world similar to that of the early years of the century: villains are clearly identified and patently evil; necessary heroics by an individual patriotic and incorruptible male (James Bond) once again can save the world" (Biondi, 30). All volumes are first editions, first issues.

Interiors generally near-fine to fine with occasional soiling and a few spots of foxing, bindings handsome and fine. An exceptional set.

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