The James Bond Dossier
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The James Bond Dossier (1965, Jonathan Cape) by Kingsley Amis is a critical analysis of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. Amis dedicated the book to his friend, the poet and historian Robert Conquest. Amis would become the first Bond continuation novelist, writing Colonel Sun in 1968 under the pseudonym Robert Markham.
Written at the height of Bond-mania, it is the first thorough analysis of Fleming's strengths and weaknesses as a thriller-writer. Amis had considerable respect for the Bond novels, and thought that they deserved to be taken seriously as popular literature. This itself was a fairly controversial stance, the novels having been subject to strong criticism for their anti-communism, violence and sexual content almost since the appearance of Casino Royale in 1953. The idea of taking them seriously as books was (so to speak) novel.
Amis first announced the idea of writing an article about James Bond after reading all of the then published books in November 1963.[1]. The idea grew to book length with Amis submitting it to his publisher, Cape in 1964. After Ian Fleming's death, Amis was asked to work on Fleming's uncompleted The Man With The Golden Gun with Cape requesting material on that book be included in the Dossier, publishing both books in 1965.[2]
Accordingly, although The James Bond Dossier is written in Amis's usual accessible, apparently light-hearted style, it is neither patronising or ironic in tone. He gives Fleming the full literary criticism treatment. It is notable that the book was published in both its hardcover and paperback initial editions, by Jonathan Cape, the same company responsible for publishing the Bond novels themselves in the UK.
Each chapter deals with one aspect of the novels:- 'No woman has ever held this man' concerns the character of James Bond himself (of whom Amis observes "Bond could be more boring than he is and still be acceptable"), 'Damnably clear grey eyes' is about M, 'A glint of red' is about the various villains, and so forth.
Along the way, Amis enjoys himself rebutting contemporary moral criticisms of Ian Fleming. He cites one critic as writing that "Mr Fleming obviously hates women dreadfully." After quoting from the closing chapter of Dr. No (in which Bond visits the heroine's house for the first time), Amis comments "I suppose it is possible that a man who can write like that 'hates women dreadfully'. But I cannot believe that he obviously does so."
The book was written prior to the publication of the final collection of Fleming short stories, Octopussy and The Living Daylights and therefore does not include discussion of these stories. A chart included in the book lists all the Bond girls, villains and gives a capsule synopsis for each story save for the ones in Octopussy and the Living Daylights.
Amis wrote more about the Bond phenomenon in 1969, that essay being included in his 1970 collection of literary criticism entitled 'What Became of Jane Austen and Other Questions'. In addition, he also wrote the tongue-in-cheek work The Book of Bond (1965) under the pseudonym William Tanner.
