The Essential James Bond | Jonathan Cape
The Essential James Bond. The last of the omnibus editions published by Jonathan Cape.
21. Omnibus editions
Author : Ian FlemingPublisher : Jonathan Cape
Format : Hardback
Series : Cape hardbacks
Edition : 1st
Year : 1994 (first published with this artwork)
Country published : UK
Artwork designer : John Caple
General Notes
According to the blurb on the dust jacket the series of omnibus editions are to mark James Bonds 40th birthday (Fleming started writing Casino Royale in 1952). This may be rather a tenuous reason but they are are as you would expect high quality books a deserve there place in any collection of Cape hardback books. The number of copies printed is unknown but was probably fairly small, not all collectors know they exist and they do not often seem to come on the market. Perhaps the only bad thing to say about them is that even in the 1990s Cape still printed their dust jackets with red ink that quickly fades in the sun, this particularly effects the Quintet and Essential volumes as the book titles were printed on the spine in red and on some copies vanish totally.Editions and pricing variants found with this artwork
The Essential James Bond is the last of the Omnibus editions published by Jonathan Cape. It contains Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, You Only Live Twice, The Man With the Golden Gun, Octopussy and The Living Daylights. Its a shame that they did not cheat a bit on the name and regard The Living Daylights as a separate title in order to name this volume "A James Bond Sextet" to fit in with the Quarter and Quintet titles.