8 replies to this topic

[Daddy Bond]

Has anyone attempted to create a chronological list of the Bond books? Not chronological as in when they were written, but chronological as in the order of fictional events in Bond's life.

In other words, if someone wanted to read the Bond books in order of the supposed events of his "life", in what order would someone read the books?

[jwheels]

I actually have four different "timelines"

1.
Casino Royale
Live and Let Die
Moonraker
Diamonds are Forever
From Russia with Love
Doctor No
Quantum of Solace
From a View to a Kill
Goldfinger
For Your Eyes Only
The Hildebrand Rarity
Risico
Thunderball
007 in New York
Octopussy
The Living Daylights
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Property of a Lady
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
You Only Live Twice
The Man with the Golden Gun
Colonel Sun
James Bond: The Spy Who Loved Me
James Bond and Moonraker
Licence Renewed
For Special Services
Icebreaker
Role of Honour
Nobody Lives Forever
No Deals, Mr. Bond
Scorpious
Licence to Kill
Win, Lose or Die
Brokenclaw
The Man from Barbarossa
Death is Forever
Never Send Flowers
Seafire
Cold Fall
GoldenEye
Blast from the Past
Zero Minus Ten
Tomorrow Never Dies
Midsummer Night's Doom
Live at Five
The Facts of Death
The World is not Enough
High Time to Kill
Doubleshot
Never Dream of Dying
The Man with the Red Tattoo
Die Another Day

2.
SilverFin
Blood Fever
Double or Die
Hurricane Gold
A Hard Man To Kill
By Royal Command
Casino Royale
Live and Let Die
Moonraker
Diamonds are Forever
From Russia with Love
Doctor No
Quantum of Solace
From a View to a Kill
Goldfinger
For Your Eyes Only
The Hildebrand Rarity
Risico
Thunderball
007 in New York
Octopussy
The Living Daylights
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Property of a Lady
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
You Only Live Twice
The Man with the Golden Gun
Devil May Care

3.
Casino Royale
Live and Let Die
Moonraker
Diamonds are Forever
From Russia with Love
Doctor No
Quantum of Solace
From a View to a Kill
Goldfinger
For Your Eyes Only
The Hildebrand Rarity
Risico
Thunderball
007 in New York
Octopussy
The Living Daylights
The Spy Who Loved Me
The Property of a Lady
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
You Only Live Twice
The Man with the Golden Gun
The Authorized Biography of 007
The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel
The Moneypenny Diaries: Secret Servent
The Moneypenny Diaries: Final Fling

4.
Carte Blanche

[Daddy Bond]

Very interesting! Thank you!

Anyone else have another take???

[Dustin]

John Griswold in his ANNOTATIONS AND CHRONOLOGIES attempted to give a detailed and comprehensive chronology of the events in Bond's life, with numerous references to the text and indications taken thereof. It's much too vast to spread out here, but the results of his findings are as follows:

CR: May-end to mid-July 1951
LALD: January through mid-February 1952
MR: end of May 1953
DAF: mid-July through mid-August 1954
DN: February to slightly after mid-March 1956
GF: late-April through early June 1957
RISICO: October 1957
QUANTUM OF SOLACE: February 1958
THE HILDEBRAND RARITY: April 1958
FROM A VIEW TO A KILL: May 1958
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: September to October 1958
TB: May to early June 1959
OCTOPUSSY: July 1960
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS: towards the end of September and beginning of OCTOBER 1960
THE PROPERTY OF A LADY: June 1961
OHMSS: September 1961 to January 1, 1962
007 IN NEW YORK: end of September 1961
TSWLM: October 1961 (Portion with the presence of James Bond)
YOLT: end of August 1962 to April 1963
TMWTGG: November 1963 to the end of February 1964

Interesting here is the theory of TSWLM taking place during OHMSS. In his book Griswold explains numerous difficulties and inconsistencies in Fleming's own timeline. The conclusions he drew were in his opinion the most likely and logically sound ones.

[Daddy Bond]

Thanks guys. I've only read a couple of the Bond books, and was hoping to read through them, and was thinking of tackling them in general chronological order (although I realize they were not written in that ordre).

[Krilencu]

Someone needs to update this

[AMC Hornet]

Indeed - there's no mention of his being interviewed by John Pearson in Bermuda in 1973.

[glidrose]

More likely 1971 or 1972. The UK edition was published on 15 October 1973.

[Krilencu]

I meant the inclusion of Solo, Trigger Mortis, etc

 

BTW, is there a timeline available somewhere, of the order in which the books should be read