Wikipedia:Peer review/The Spy Who Loved Me (novel)/archive1

The Spy Who Loved Me (novel)

The Spy Who Loved Me is an anomaly among the Bond novels. It's the only one written in a first-person narrative - and it's not even Bond's narrative, nor does he appear until two-thirds of the book is done. It wasn't well-received by the critics or public, for whom there was not enough Bond in the book, but it still have some points of interest. This has had a bit of a polish recently, adding in some new sources and bringing it up to what, is hoped, is FAC level, which will be the next stop after PR. Cheers - SchroCat (talk) 11:34, 9 January 2024 (UTC)

From TR

Not a lot from me. The article is beautifully written, and seems comprehensive, balanced and well sourced.

• Lead

• "Due to the reactions" – not in BrE, please: better to say "owing to" or preferably "because of."
• "...and only gave permission..." – this is rather a tangle: I'd rejig it a bit on the lines of "when he sold the film rights to Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli they were permitted to use the title but none of the plot of the book"
• "appeared in the Daily Express newspaper" – here and later – lower case "the"?

• Background and writing history

• "in a relationship with Hugh Gaitskell, the Leader of the Labour Party" – might be as well to say the British Labour Party.

• Style

• "The absence of the spy element to The Spy Who Loved Me" – element to? Strange preposition. One might expect "in" or "from"
• "Benson feels that the sweep in The Spy Who Loved Me was still present, despite the manuscript supposedly being written by Viv" – two points here. First the great and good Sir Ernest Gowers taught us that "feeling" is a wishy-washy word when cerebration or critical judgement is concerned. Secondly there's a gerundive issue: "the manuscript" should be "the manuscript's", but that's horribly cumbersome and the sentence would, I suggest, be better if recast as "although the manuscript is ostensibly written by Viv..."

• Themes

• "connecting Bond to the mediaeval legend" – for my own part I prefer your spelling, but "medieval" is much commoner and might be preferable for Wikipedia.

• Critical reception

• "dismissive of Bond, who they describe as" – two things here. "Who" should be "whom" and the singular "they" is painful. You could dodge both by recasting as "dismissive of Bond, describing him as..."
• "to find Michel threatened by the two thugs" – we're suddenly on surname terms after calling her Viv throughout.
• "... the narrator to be rescued from both death and worse – than by a he-man like James Bond" – I can't parse this: is the "than" correct?

• Adaptations

• "the rights for the use of the name were only granted on the basis that only the title was used" – you could lose the first "only"

That's my lot. I haven't read the book (and probably never shall) but after reading your text I don't think I need to. Clearly of FA standard, in my view, and an instructive and enjoyable read. Tim riley talk 14:27, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

• Many thanks Tim, mostly sorted, but I'll have it all completed before running at FAC. Cheers - SchroCat (talk) 15:07, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Guineas

Oops sorry – I've been rambling on about guineas in a couple of ESs and briefly on the article Talk page when I should have been here. Apologies for my cluelessness. Do you want me to revert all that and move it here? Sorry and regards DBaK (talk) 23:15, 20 January 2024 (UTC)