CommanderBond.net

According to Amazon.UK, Penguin will be reprinting most of the Bond novels as Modern Classics in June.

Anyone know what the covers will be like? Hopefully, they will be wonderfully retro, like their Maigret series in the same range.

Nice find, Coop. We also annouced this (and which titles) in a main page story HERE. As soon as we see some cover art we'll do a followup. Yes, it would be great to see them go retro like they did with the US books.

Here is a sample of the Maigret cover designs:

Maigret

Pretty eye-catching and wonderfully retro. With the films going all futuristic, it'd be nice if the books took readers back to a Fifties world of casinos, jazz clubs, Blades, old Bentleys and martinis.

I've got various copies of all the Fleming books, so will I be buying these? Yeah, course I will. Hopefully they will include critical introductions and notes like a lot of the Modern Classics.

Bah! Just seen two of the covers and they are pretty dull.

Thunderball has a close-up of Connery in black and white

Dr No has a colour photo of Ursula Andress.

I guess they'll catch the eye of passing Bond film fans in bookshops, but they are not a patch on the US covers. I had hoped that as these books had been raised to modern classic status they would finally escape from under the shadow of the films. Sadly it is not to be

Go here http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/packages/u...odern_jun04.pdf

to see them. You need Adobe Acrobat.

Looks like they will be 'vanilla' editions, with no introductions or footnotes that could place them in a historical context. Disappointing. I might consider saving my 10 x £7.99 after all.

Hmmm.... they're not bad, though, those covers. Not particularly original, and, no, certainly not a patch on the US covers, but, still, not bad.

Wonder if they'll put Moore on the covers of "Live and Let Die" and "Moonraker", and Lazenby on the cover of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"? And what will they do for "Casino Royale"? (Not a pic of Peter Sellers or Woody Allen, surely? )

I wouldn't put it past them to lump all the books in with the Connery era. That's probably what I'd do if I were in charge. (Heck, I'm just grateful they haven't plastered Brosnan's mug on all of them.)

Thanks for the scoop, Coop.

Just did a main page story HERE.

Not wild about the covers myself. I'll pass on this set.

Nice find!

Um, the covers definitely are different, Thunderball has quite the odd one with a face close-up.

Interesting that it's film coverage getting put on these Fleming novels.

What wretched covers! Ursula Andress wrapped in a bedsheet for Dr. No and a picture of Sean Connery that looks like he is stoned for From Russia with Love is the best they can do? Will they dig out other old photographs of Bond actors not owned by MGM/UA or Eon for other covers? Perhaps George Lazenby or Diana Rigg on the cover of On Her Majesty's Secret Service? Geoffrey Holder on the cover of Live and Let Die? Christopher Lee as Dracula on the cover of The Man with the Golden Gun? Wretched, wretched, wretched.

You would think that Penguin Modern Classics would have attempted to get the rights to Richie Fahey's covers from the Penguin US editions. Fahey's covers have to be the best cover art ever to appear on a US edition of a Bond novel. They illustrate the themes of the Fleming novel while at the same time reminding one of 1950s pulp novels. Fahey's covers are pure magic.

Oh, these photos aren't owned by the Bond people? Interesting.

I agree with you, Triton, that "Fahey's covers are pure magic."

Agreed, Triton. The Fahey covers are the best. I love my Fahey set. Not only are these photo covers not-so-great, but it isn't even a complete set (only 10 titles). So...it's an easy one to resist.

Exactly, for the very first time I think, when comparing the Penguin releases of the Bond novels, I find the US covers to be far superior than the UK ones, and it's usually the UK ones that I love more. Fahey however, really outdoes himself and pushes the limits of style and artowrk for each one. Fantastic work.

I find it odd that Penguin is republishing all these novels, given that it brought all the Flemings out only recently (last year, I believe, or maybe it was the year before) and issued Penguin Classics omnibus editions of "Casino Royale"/"Live and Let Die"/"Moonraker" and "From Russia With Love"/"Dr No"/"Goldfinger". I'd hoped for a Penguin Classics omnibus paperback of "Thunderball"/"On Her Majesty's Secret Service"/"You Only Live Twice", but I guess it's not on the cards.

This baffles me as well, Loomis.

I did like the photo cover of the first omnibus edition--I got this one because I liked it so much.

I guess Penguin feels the books won't sell without pics connecting them to the films. Why be original and come up with something fresh and good when you can whack a photo of Connery on the cover and sell X more copies? (Mind you, to be fair, the recent UK reissues of all the Flemings didn't connect them to the movies.)