- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (4 April 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0141002859
- ISBN-13: 978-0141002859
- Product Dimensions: 18.1 x 10.9 x 2.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 869,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Goldfinger
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Product Description
Review
Nobody does this sort of thing as well as Mr Fleming (Sunday Times )
Mr Fleming is the best thriller writer since Buchan (Evening Standard ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Mr Fleming is the best thriller writer since Buchan (Evening Standard ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
A friendly game of two-handed canasta turns out to be thoroughly crooked and a beautiful girl ends up dead. In Bond's first encounter with Auric Goldfinger - the world's cleverest, cruellest criminal, useful lessons are learned.
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First Sentence
James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bravo, Mr Bond!,
This review is from: Goldfinger (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
For any Bond afficionado this novel is a 'must read'. Fleming's descriptive knack with very few words is underestimated. The golf game is a masterpiece of its kind, breaking up the technicalities of the sport with an evocation of beautiful, peaceful England in high summer as a backdrop to the deadly intent of the game being played out against lengthening, afternoon shadows. There is plenty of depth to the plot and the background story of gold, delivered to Bond by Colonel Smithers of the Bank of England, is interesting in itself, particularly when viewed in comparison to today's money markets. The revelation that Goldfinger is not just an obsessive meglomaniac but also in thrall to the Russians is a masterly detail that gives real substance to the cold-war ploy to rob Fort Knox. The gangsters necessary for Goldfinger's purposes are deployed with a light, almost amusing, touch but none of the heroines have much empathetic appeal, not even the fabulously named Pussy Galore. The Masterton sisters are very one-dimensional. Jill is only there, really, to kickstart the second part of the story and, although Fleming tries to make Tilly interesting with her lesbianism, she comes across instead as 'neither flesh nor good, red herring'. In fairness, this is how Bond sees her when he deliberates patronisingly over her mixed up hormones. There are remarks about Japs and Koreans that would never make it into print today, but the joy of Bond is that he is so much a product of the 1940s and '50s, forever politically incorrect. I know many people love the films, but for me the books are incomparably better.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A book of two halves,
This review is from: Goldfinger (James Bond 007) (Paperback)
The first half of this book is as fine as any that Fleming wrote: Auric Goldfinger is the paradigm of the classic Bond villian; memorable, ingenious and with a soupçon of depravity. The cat-eating Oddjob, the blueprint for the many indestuctible sidekicks that the Bond movies seem to love, is unforgettable and fascinating. All the illustrious features of the film-version are present and correct, in fact: the gadget-filled Aston Martin; the razor-rimmed bowler hat; the testosterone-fuelled one-upmanship in the celebrated golf game; a gold-painted Jill Masterton; Pussy Galore. The plot-device that introduces Goldfinger, the game of two-handed Canasta, is a delight and the aforementioned game of golf is very much an extended version of the brilliant card-game scene from Moonraker, and very enjoyable for it.Much is different from the film, of course, mainly the second half of the story, and this is where the book does actually suffer in comparison to the celluloid version. The book's plot features a much more prosaic (and strangely less believable)attempt to steal the gold from Fort Knox, rather than the ingenious idea to irradiate the bullion. Pussy Galore is a lesbian, and is subject to rather un-PC treatment by Fleming. In fact, this book is where Bond starts to become rather eyebrow-raisingly chauvinistic and occassionally racist (towards Koreans mainly). One of the other reviewers on this site stated that there is a startling revelation towards the end of the book that Goldinger works for SMERSH; in actuality, this is strongly hinted at throughout the book, and it is Bond's suspicions regarding this matter that motivate many of his actions throughout the story. So, to summarise, it could have been brilliant, but a slack and not vey plausible second-half lets the side down to the extent that all in all it's a bit of a mixed bag, but enjoyable nontheless.
3.0 out of 5 stars
One of the weakest Bond novels,
By
This review is from: Goldfinger (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
I was surprised to find Goldfinger to be one of the weakest James Bond novels. After a chance encounter with the eponymous villain, Bond is sent after him by the Bank of England, only to find himself involved in planning a massive crime.Character seems surprisingly lacking in this story. Compared to previous enemies, Goldfinger is fairly ill defined, and the 'Bond girls' all seem quite run of the mill. Bond himself comes across as an opinionated woman magnet rather than the genius super spy he appears as in earlier stories. The plot itself is outlandish and stretches credibility even more than in Dr No, and takes an awfully long time to set up, with the resolution over quite quickly. Bond seems to be a passive participant in events, just letting himself be carried along with the flow rather than taking an active role. Finally, the passages which today just come across as racism and homophobia really serve to date the novel - much like Live and Let Die - and honestly drag down the enjoyment for a modern reader. The use of long dashes to replace the strongest swear words remains cute however, but does rather break the flow of the narrative.
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