Likewise, if it’s your favourite film! But the books are better. Still, if Goldfinger is your favourite of Bond’s adversaries then this is the perfect book to start with.

For me, I gave the book a 7/10, which means that it’s of a professional quality – that says it all for me. IAN FLEMING - GOLDFINGER, published by UK publisher Pan G455, copyright 1959, First Printing ('This edition published 1961 by Pan Books' with no references to subsequent printings on the copyright page), true UK edition (not the Canadian edition which has a Canadian price on the cover and lists a different printing place on copyright page). Still, Fleming is a decent enough writer, and if you’re able to look past the casual racism that his writing contains, which is pretty standard for a writer from his era, then you’ll probably enjoy it, if this is your sort of thing. He had also taught Ernö Goldfinger (yes, look up the Ian Fleming link) and Le Corbusier. It also felt as though too much of the book was dedicated to setting the scene, and the end came as anticlimactic. In Calders book, Raw Concrete, I caught a page on my fathers architectural teacher at the École des Beaux-Arts: Auguste Perret. It’s not that it’s a bad book – it’s well-written, and just what you’d expect from a Bond novel, but it does drag on whilst you’re reading it.įor example, about a fifth of the book is dedicated to a golf match between Bond and Goldfinger, and I found it difficult to understand what was happening, and difficult to care as well. Still, I don't think I'd rate this as one of his best, in spite of its famous title.I’ve read quite a few of the different Bond novels now, and I’m sorry to say that Goldfinger was probably my least favourite so far. The rudimentary spycraft stuff (hidden cameras!) is fun. The racism and sexism are hard to ignore for modern readers, and I have to say that I'm coming to the conclusion that Fleming was probably not a person I'd have liked much.

Here are the major differences between the book and the movie. Still, it's Bond, and worth checking out, if only to remind yourself how much more realistic the books were than the silliness of the movies (Goldfinger wasn't that silly a movie, but it was early). Based on Ian Fleming's novel of the same time, Goldfinger follows fictional MI6 agent James Bond as he tries to stop gold tycoon Auric Goldfinger from destroying the United States gold reserve in order to increase the value of his own reserve. Then there's the long section where Bond tracks Goldfinger's Rolls down the back roads of France. Fleming knows a lot about a lot of things, and in this one, he can't resist proving it to you. Goldfinger is holding his interest, but it's not the same. I'm reading some of my childhood favorites aloud with my teenaged son.

Ian fleming goldfinger book