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Goldfinger (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

by Ian Fleming (Author) "James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death ..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (3 Jun 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141187522
  • ISBN-13: 978-1856132657
  • Product Dimensions: 19 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 17,382 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #7 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > F > Fleming, Ian
    #64 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Thrillers > Spy Stories

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Product Description

Product Description
Auric Goldfinger is the kind of man Bond loves to hate: cruel, clever, frustratingly careful - a cheat and a crook. So Bond relishes his mission to discover what this man - the richest in the country - intends to do with his ill-gotten gains, andwhat his connection is with SMERSH, the feared Soviet spy-killing corps. Bond soon discovers that Goldfinger's schemes are not only more grandiose, but also more lethal, than even he could have imagined.

About the Author
Born in London in 1908, Ian Fleming worked variously as a banker and journalist before serving in the British Naval Intelligence during World War II. He published his first novel CASINO ROYALE in 1953 and thus started the astoundingly successful James Bond novels and films. Fleming died in 1964.
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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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Goldfinger (Penguin Modern Classics)
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo, Mr Bond!, 28 Jul 2008
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.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie From A So-So Novel, 6 Jul 2009
By C. Green "happily low brow" (Faringdon, Oxon, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
In most polls of critics and fans alike Goldfinger regularly tops the list of the best Bond movies ever. Its ironic therefore, that the book from which it was adapted is one of the weaker Fleming novels.

The plot of the book, which doesn't differ wildly from the plot of the film, is well known so I will not bother with providing a potted summary. What I will say however, is that was what works well on film is nowhere near as successful on paper. For a start Bond's run in with Goldfinger in Miami and M subsequently giving him the mission of investigating the gold magnate without knowing about the two men's past connection just feels too coincidental on the page. Equally Goldfinger's reasons for keeping Bond alive after he's captured in Switzerland don't really make much sense in the book. On screen and having been substantially reworked they feel far more logical.

The book's cause is also not helped by the characters Bond comes up against. Tilly Masterton, who is killed off quickly on film but survives for longer here, is an utterly unrealistic creation and behaves in a totally irrational manner most of the time. The same goes for Pussy Galore, here a lesbian gangster rather than the leader of a female flying circus. Like Tilly, Pussy is utterly unrealistic, as is her behaviour. Whilst strong women were not Fleming's forte he seems to have included Pussy Galore simply so that Bond can 'cure' her of her lesbianism; something he does apparently effortlessly (it also can't be an accident that Tilly, another lesbian who rejects Bond's masculine charms for Pussy's feminine ones, dies whilst Pussy herself, who switches to being heterosexual, lives).

The males support doesn't come off any better. Fleming's almost comical concept of what American organised crime bosses are like gets another unwelcome run out here after a first appearance in 'Diamonds Are Forever'. The dozen or so gang bosses recruited by Goldfinger are so OTT and implausible as to utterly unthreatening that they rob the big finale, 'Operation Grand Slam', of anything approaching plausibility.

Worst of all Goldfinger himself, so wonderfully portrayed on screen by Gert Frobe, is a shadow of his cinematic self on the page. The literary Goldfinger is really nothing more than a fat redheaded crook and feels like a rehash of Hugo Drax from Moonraker. He certainly isn't as memorable as or threatening as Frobe made him on screen.

The only individual who retains any of his cinematic appeal beyond Bond himself is Oddjob, who remains a real physical threat, keeps his killer hat and is rewarded with a suitably colourful demise near the end.

For the first time since I began reading all the Bond novels in order from Casino Royale onwards I have been really disappointed by one of the spy's adventures. The fact that it was Goldfinger that has disappointed me came as a real shock. With this book however, some of Fleming's worst habits as a writer are too much to the fore. They include his reliance on implausible conincidence or sheer luck to move the plot forward (Bond is saved here by an observant cleaner rather than his own skill as a spy), poor pacing of the story and his undeniable misogyny.

In previous Bond adventures these weaknesses have been mitigated or disguised by decent characterisation, genuine excitement and other strengths but with Goldfinger these are absent from much of the book's length and certainly the second half once the action switches to the US. The result is book that has its moments, the rightly celebrated golf match being a highlight, but for the most part is a horribly dated, implausible and worst of all not terribly exciting mess saved only by the presence of 007 himself.
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4.0 out of 5 stars James Bond gets his man as usual..., 3 Dec 2008
By Uncle Barbar (Essex, England) - See all my reviews
  
I've just finished Goldfinger - Ian Fleming's 7th Bond book and thoroughly enjoyed it (as always). He keeps you gripped from page 1 til the end. I mean you KNOW Bond is going to get the girl and come out of it alive... or do you. This one has a couple of twists in it - particularly including the female characters which may have been quite risque' in 1959 when it was first published.

Goldfinger is such a great villain - not 100% evil which leads to a more rounded character. OK so he is quite dismissal of people's lives and happy to have thousands of people die to get his way but he also has a softer side... possibly...

I can't speak highly enough pof the Bond series - am enjoying them for the first time over 20 years after seeing them all as films. Hope you too can find the time to read them all!
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4.0 out of 5 stars Up to the usual Bond series standard
The seventh (1959) instalment in the Bond series is up to the usual high standard (only Diamonds are Forever has disappointed so far), and is another fine adventure story... Read more
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