The Bond Affair (1965)

The magic figures 007 now provoke instant recognition in almost any major city of the western world, and of late, even a response from James Bond's traditional enemies behind the Iron Curtain. Regarded variously as a good joke, a bad joke, a boon to the manufacturers of consumer goods and a decisive influence on the youth of today, the myth created by Ian Fleming and perpetuated by the Bond film-makers deserves the serious yet far from over-earnest consideration as a sociological phenomenon which it receives here.

The publishers of The Bond Affair are convinced that it is a much needed contribution to the bibliography of the Secret Service's most famous agent. Eight prominent Italian writers here examine the Bond phenomenon in an international context. Their researches range from the novels themselves and their cinematic counterparts to the vast sub-culture which has sprung up around them; from the women to the glittering gadgets, to 007 clubs and 007 fashions. A comparison of the fictional adventures of James Bond with the facts of international espionage reveals strange parallels, while the mountain of critical comment, praise and abuse, also reviewed, testifies to the potency of the Bond myth in present-day society.

In fact it looks as though, with The Bond Affair, which will provide a mine of information for his addicts and detractors alike, the Italians will have had the very last, and the definitive, word on James Bond.