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Ian Fleming

Live and Let Die (James Bond (Original Series)) Paperback – October 16, 2012

by Ian Fleming (Author)

2,914 ratings

Book 2 of 14: James Bond (Original Series)

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James Bond is not a superstitious man, but it’s hard not to feel unnerved in the presence of Mr. Big. A ruthless Harlem gangster who uses voodoo to control his criminal empire, he’s also one of SMERSH’s top American operatives. Mr. Big has been smuggling British pirate treasure to New York from a remote Jamaican island―and funneling the proceeds to Moscow. With help from Solitaire, Mr. Big’s beautiful and enigmatic Creole fortune-teller, and his old friend Felix Leiter, 007 must locate the crime lord’s hideout, sabotage his operation, and reclaim the pirate hoard for England.

From the jazz joints of Harlem to the shark-infested waters of the Florida Everglades, Live and Let Die sends Bond headlong into the exotic.

The text in this edition has been restored by the Fleming family company Ian Fleming Publications, to reflect the work as it was originally published.

Print length

239 pages
Language

English
Publication date

October 16, 2012
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

1612185444
ISBN-13

978-1612185446
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Editorial Reviews

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“The narrative moves at a headlong pace, there is sheer terror enough for a month of comic books, and a climax that is truly exciting. Don’t read it unless your nerves are in pretty good shape.” ―The Springfield Republican

“This is an ingenious affair, full of recondite knowledge and horrific spills and thrills.” ―The Times

“Continually exciting.” ―The Daily Telegraph

“Tense; ice-cold, sophisticated.” ―The Evening Standard

“A snorter. From first word to last, the reader is compelled to surrender to a superb storyteller.” ―Time & Tide

“Speed…tremendous zest…communicated excitement. Brrh! How wincingly well Mr. Fleming writes.” ―The Sunday Times

“Don’t blame me if you get a stroke.” ―The Observer

“Mr. Ian Fleming is without doubt the most interesting recent recruit among thriller writers. The second adventure of his Secret Service agent fully maintains the promise of his first book…containing passages which for sheer excitement have not been surpassed by any modern writer in this kind.” ―Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

Ian Fleming was born in London on May 28, 1908. He was educated at Eton College and later spent a formative period studying languages in Europe. His first job was with Reuters News Agency where a Moscow posting gave him firsthand experience with what would become his literary bête noire―the Soviet Union. During World War II he served as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence and played a key role in Allied espionage operations.

After the war he worked as foreign manager of the Sunday Times, a job that allowed him to spend two months each year in Jamaica. Here, in 1952, at his home “Goldeneye,” he wrote a book called Casino Royale―and James Bond was born. The first print run sold out within a month. For the next twelve years Fleming produced a novel a year featuring Special Agent 007, the most famous spy of the century. His travels, interests, and wartime experience lent authority to everything he wrote. Raymond Chandler described him as “the most forceful and driving writer of thrillers in England.” Sales soared when President Kennedy named the fifth title, From Russia With Love, one of his favorite books. The Bond novels have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide, boosted by the hugely successful film franchise that began in 1962 with the release of Dr. No.

He married Anne Rothermere in 1952. His story about a magical car, written in 1961 for their only son Caspar, went on to become the well-loved novel and film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Fleming died of heart failure on August 12, 1964, at the age of fifty-six.

Learn more about Ian Fleming at www.ianfleming.com.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thomas & Mercer; James Bond edition (October 16, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 239 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1612185444
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1612185446
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #219,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,277 in Espionage Thrillers (Books)
- #28,324 in Mysteries (Books)

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Ian Fleming

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Ian Fleming was a British author and journalist. His first novel, Casino Royale (1953), introduced spy hero, James Bond, agent 007, to the world. It was the first of fourteen James Bond books which have gone on to sell over 60 million copies worldwide and be translated into 20 languages. Beginning with the movie adaptation of Dr No in 1961, the series also sparked the longest-running film franchise in history. Both Fleming and his fictional counterpart have become synonymous with style, glamour and thrilling adventures, as well as universally recognised phrases such as “My name’s Bond, James Bond” and “shaken and not stirred”.

Fleming was born in London in 1908. In the 1930s he worked at Reuters news agency before joining Naval Intelligence as an officer during the Second World War. His talent for writing fast and engaging prose, along with his knowledge of espionage and his fertile imagination led to the creation of James Bond, arguably one of the most-famous fictional characters of all time. He also wrote children’s classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Fleming was married to Ann Rothermere with whom he had a son, Caspar. He died in 1964.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

2,914 global ratings

5 star		62%
4 star		22%
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2 star		3%
1 star		1%

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Josh

Beware _ This 1955 Story is blatantly, casually racist.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 26, 2023

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It's a classic Bond story that is so causality racist... It was written in 1955 and the way people spoke and wrote about the races is drastically different than how e we would speak about them now. It's that and everything you would expect from a James Bond story.

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Providential

Great book, although tarnished

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 29, 2020

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First off - any critics who can't see past the dated racial terminology in this book are missing an (admittedly cumbersome) attempt at a progressive breakthrough. Yes, this book uses outdated terms like "negro" and worse. However, it also establishes "Mr. Big" as the world's first truly credible black criminal mastermind, someone able to outsmart both British and American secret services. This book is not to be missed.

Fleming states at length that "Mr. Big" is an absolute equal to his white counterparts. He has the best education, he has the best networking, he even makes use of the latest technology. Many racists of the era would have said it would be impossible for a black man to achieve these feats. Fleming was trying to present an unflinching look at the real feelings a British agent and 1950s Americans would have had toward black people, while at the same time demonstrating that this state of affairs was certainly temporary. England's obsession with voodoo mysticism is also front and center - although anyone trying to jump to a conclusion too hastily again needs to reference the fact that Mr. Big is using his voodoo connections as much for manipulation as anything.

The book also shows Fleming's obsession with America, and therefore Bond's obsession too. Bond already carried a Colt firearm in his glove compartment, and clearly viewed America as a cultural hub. Now he's in America, learning American lingo, and finding a seat at the hippest black clubs in Harlem. It's a largely American story, ranging from Harlem to Florida, with a tropical island section at the end - beginning Bond's stereotypical association with villainous islands. This book is a cornerstone of Fleming's work, and Bond's career, and is thoroughly engaging in its own right.

Live and Let Die isn't always the white-knuckled thriller that Casino Royale was, but it's a solid book. I enjoyed myself, and the look back at 50's America is fascinating.

10 people found this helpful

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Thomas

Bond gets his ass kicked a lot.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 20, 2022

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Of course better than the movie and I think Fleming was a racist. The old fashioned kind that didn't think that they were but they totally were. By all accounts Bond in this book isn't that great of an agent but just lucky about getting not dead. I like that in James Bond, it gives him a feel of Philip Marlowe.

One person found this helpful

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Shakedown Cruise With 007

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 4, 2008

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While the first James Bond novel , 1953's "Casino Royale", introduced the character of 007, it was left to this, the second Bond novel published in 1954, to establish what constituted a James Bond Adventure.

"Casino Royale" kept Bond penned up in a single locale playing cards, not physically hurting anyone. "Live And Let Die" gives us a more peripatetic and lethal hero, journeying from London to Harlem to Florida and finally Jamaica leaving a trail of death behind. He's still a one-woman man, but this time it's a different woman: Solitaire, psychic consort of SMERSH's African-American ally Mr. Big.

The result is a terrific read. If not the hard-edged, rather refined psychodrama that was "Casino Royale", "Live And Let Die" is the first Bond novel that makes you want to read another Bond novel. A lot of people rate it higher than "Casino Royale". I don't, but understand the enthusiasm.

It's one thing to watch Bond kill a lot of people in a ruthless and effective manner. But even his breakfasts get your attention the way Fleming writes them, Bond noshing on paw-paw and guava jelly as he stares out across the "green flanks" of the hilly Jamaican coastlands to Mr. Big's island haven, in preparation for his final assault. Or staring blankly as an adversary gets chomped on by a shark, hearing "one terrible snuffling grunt as if a great pig was getting its mouth full."

This is Fleming the detail maven, the master of setting vivid scenes and then sending you off on what is called by his aficionados "the Fleming sweep". The best in this book carries you with Bond as he snorkles under a moonlit bay, evading octopus and barracuda as Fleming puts you so tight against his narrative you feel yourself wanting for air.

"Live And Let Die" suffers from a storyline that doesn't actually need Bond. Mr. Big's big scheme, involving recovered pirate treasure, hardly appears illegal, let alone warranting a British spy's help in upsetting it. The fact Big belongs to SMERSH, the Soviet assassin force that did Bond wrong in "Casino Royale", is a strained tangent, as is the presence of Solitaire, a pale substitute for "Royale's" haunting Vesper Lynd.

For the record, I don't think Fleming shows himself a racist with his handling of the novel's black characters; in the ways he writes of jazz, Harlem, and Jamaica's predominately black culture, he was refreshingly open-minded about things other middle-aged Brits of the period would have scoffed at or ignored.

What I enjoy most in this novel are things like the Jamaica section (Fleming's home, and it shows) and the welcome return of Felix Leiter, affecting company as the story centers on his friendship with Bond. We even get the debut of Bond's sense of humor, as when Mr. Big tells a strapped-down-and-bloodied Bond he will die at six o'clock, give or take a few minutes.

"Let's give those minutes," replies Bond. "I enjoy my life."

You will, too, reading this introduction to 007 on the go.

4 people found this helpful

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Da Lowrider

I like it a lot

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 6, 2022

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Amazon often writes me and says they won't post a particular review as it doesn't fall within their guidelines. They offer zero clue what the perceived problem was. They will not communicate further and refuse a valid review. I simply waste time writing reviews for Amazon. Amazon behaves like a dictatorship asking for free speech then repressing it.

That being said, your product is just peachy. It works as advertised. I will likely buy it again.
I will recommend it to all my associates. There you Amazon, I hope this falls within your criteria for the reviews you beg me to write for you for free.

One person found this helpful

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Tim

A Book of Its Time

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 21, 2018

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It’s funny when you reread a book, especially one that you read years (decades ago), even more when it was written in the 1950’s, become part of popular culture and see it with modern eyes.

In 1954 James Bond was a character in a book by Ian Fleming, there had been no movies, Bond was just a fictional character whose first outing in Casino Royale had warranted a follow up, Live and Let Die. My memories of reading this were that it was a good fun read, that it was quite a lot like the film – a film that would not be made for another 20 years, Sean Connery had not even shaken his Martini, let alone Roger Moore.

To me the book seemed that it was fin read and nothing seemed to stick in my head about it – I probably read it about 1980, society, culture has changed a lot since then, even more so since the book being published in 1954 and reading it now was a metaphorical kick to the gut.

The Watts Riots, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King – the whole civil rights movement was in it’s earliest of days, and the events that would make history were waiting to happen.

So, it is hardly surprising that the terminology used throughout the book is enough to jolt the reader, indeed it might have been out of place in 1980, but by today’s standard it is certainly politically incorrect. The term ‘Negro’ is the most common use of description for any person with black skin, and even the other ‘N’ word slips in once or twice. There is a stereotypical feel to some of the lesser characters – although they may well have been depictions of the times, and Harlem is shown as a stronghold of diverse nationals of different race and origin, mostly no-white, who stand out like a sore thumb when they dare enter this place. All the hoodlums are known by street names, and there are gangs everywhere.

Funnily enough, I read this while watching the second series of Marvel’s Luke Cage, and it was quite interesting to see that although there were major changes in the way Harlem is depicted there was a lot that remained familiar as well.

The story should be well known to anyone who has seen the movie. Bond is sent to New York to help the CIA investigate the sudden appearance of gold entering the market – gold that comes from many different countries, but all from a similar period. Has someone found Blackbeard’s treasure? The main culprit seems to be one Mr Big, a powerful crime lord based in Harlem, big in every sense of the world. Is he just a crime boss or is he working for the Russians?

Using voodoo as a method of control Mr Big dominates the gangs of Harlem, running the gold from Jamaica to Harlem, but can it be proved, and can he be stopped. Not only is he ruthless, powerful, he also has the assistance of the beautiful Solitaire, who may just be able to read the future.

Featuring characters returning from Casino Royale, that will become part of Bond lore. It shows the ‘goog’ guys on the back foot, who only just manage to survive by the skin of their teeth and fortuitous timing. It is brutal in places, a rollicking good adventure showing just why Bond would grow to be so much bigger than the written page.

Perhaps though, it must also be consider a historical document a snap shot of a time, portrayed in popular fiction, showing how things have changed, from not just the story but in the way the story is told, down to the diction and attitude.

In a time when a book like Little House on the Prairie can be withdrawn from the American syllabus because of it’s racist attitudes and author’s prejudices, it should be remembered that these are reflections of the times and should be used to teach rather than to be redacted. Are we months away from popular books being re-edited with offensive terms being removed in favour of more modern politically correct terms, rather than making the reader wince and realise this is the way things once were.

If this is the case, Live and Let Die would be a lesser book no longer part of the time from whence it came, but as much a bastardised piece of work as the titular character and we would be a step away from the Firemen coming to burn the freedom of speech at Fahrenheit 451.

15 people found this helpful

Mark Speed

More classic Bond

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 13, 2022

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This is the second Bond novel, which takes our protagonist to Florida and the Caribbean. The hard-pressed British reader will have devoured the descriptions of the landscapes and the people. As with the 'real' Bond stories, it's a more intricate plot than the movie version. Again, the descriptions of voodoo rituals and beliefs would have seemed exotic to a Brit.

It's an interesting time capsule for a variety of reasons. The descriptions of how a Brit would stand out a mile in the New York of the time are fascinating, as are the observations of life in Harlem. And yet even ten years after this, New York and America had changed - the clothes Bond was given to blend in would have made him stand out. Inevitably, some readers will feel offended by some of the language, but you have to judge such works in their historical context. Bond and Leiter like the company of black people, and Leiter is a veritable mine of information on black music of the time.

We see Fleming developing Bond's character - his (possibly rather outrageous at the time) love life, his friendship with Felix Leiter, his 60-a-day smoking habit (no health warnings about smoking back then), and his cunning fieldcraft and athleticism. What makes this so different from most modern thrillers is that Bond does suffer consequences, as do the people around him. And you can't just blow up a boat a hundred yards a way without expecting to be caught in the effects of an explosion, as most writers would have you believe. Fleming was writing from the experience of sending real operatives to their deaths, and his fiction was being read by a generation who knew what real combat was like. An enjoyable read, and not full of unnecessary padding like some of the doorstops published today.

Jake

Love the originals, although don't compare them with the films

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 12, 2021

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Reading again after many years I am very happy to be brought back to the roots of the modern phenomenon but I recommend reading this and all the Bond novels for their own sake and not as film comparisons. The writing in the 1950s and 1960s is very different to the expectations of the film makers and cinema audiences of later years and whilst some films bear a resemblance to the books (some don't), at best they all contain additional embellishments (and some wild ones at that) and some are all but completely different story lines resembling the book in little but title only. It's important to realise the era in which these books were written, three books (including this one) before the first satellite (sputnik 1957) and nine before the the first communication satellite (Telstar 1962) so non of the space age technology of the films existed at the time.

I'm late for work!

Not my favorite

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 7, 2019

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As a massive fan of the films, I thought I would branch into reading the books. I thoroughly enjoyed Casino Royale both as a book and a film. I found both excited me to an equal level. With Live and Let Die, my personal opinion is that the film scores higher than the book. I am qualified to be able to provide a linguistic critique of Ian Fleming and I know that not everyone will agree with this but I feel it could be a consequence of watching the films first. I am glad to say it has not put me off reading on and tackling Moonraker which is back to the standard of the Casino Royale book.

2 people found this helpful

Alex James

A fast-paced intriguing novel.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 21, 2015

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The 2nd James Bond novel in the renowned spy series, Live and Let Die is set in New York’s Harlem and the shark-infested seas of the West Indies. Bond must investigate a voodoo cult organised by soviet SMERSH operative Mr. Big; a man whose soviet training, freakish size, and manipulation skills make him the first “villain”; and a worthy adversary for what can be seen as Bond’s first real mission. To confront SMERSH has been a long-awaited opportunity for him.

Bond has whisked away clairvoyant card-reader Solitaire, an attractive and talented woman who Mr. Big sees as his personal property. Solitaire is a damsel in distress, and her knowledge of Mr. Big’s crime machine puts them both in danger and forces Bond to accept that there is more to Mr Big’s control. The most exciting and compelling scenes were when Bond and Solitaire were on the train, with fearful anticipation for Mr. Big’s assassins to get at them.

The detail behind Mr. Big’s operations makes for intriguing background reading, with fear, superstition, secret communication, and black magic curses. Though he is resolute and is no stranger to pain, there were a few moments where Bond was fooled and frustrated. I liked this, for it kept consistent with prequel Casino Royale, where he had yet to be properly tested. I liked that there were more action scenes against enemies, which were often imaginative and sometimes ended in dark humour.

Criticism is that even though we’re introduced to an impressive villain, Live and Let Die develops through Bond’s inability to predict Mr. Big’s next moves. From there, I was fast-tracked to the opening of Bond’s final solo mission (which was actually his original mission before he decided to scope Mr. Big’s operations). The final solo mission was lengthy, with some parts over-descriptive, and a lot of back-and-forth preparation between Bond and his contacts in Jamaica. The descriptive writing style did well to cover scenes of underwater peril, yet it made the lead up to the conclusion tiresome. I would have liked to see more of a struggle between Bond and Mr. Big, and to perhaps link Solitaire’s talents into the action. In the end, Bond’s preparation and calculation, rather than sharp instincts or observation or heroics, saved the day.

Live and Let Die is a fast-paced intriguing novel that sees Bond challenging enemies directly. The setting and the scale of the voodoo cult was terrifying and adrenalin-filled. The locations were rich with detail, and the reader sees the first of the ingenious Bond villian. Though terminology and items are out-of-date, it’s difficult not to feel nostalgic for Bond’s personal tastes and global adventures.

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Live and Let Die (James Bond (Original Series)) Paperback – October 16, 2012

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