At the B&N Reads blog
Ross Johnson tagged seven of the greatest rivalries in fiction, including:
Bond v Blofeld (The James Bond series, by Ian Fleming)
In Ian Fleming’s original Bond novel series, 007 had already fought a procession of formidable and notorious bad guys, including Dr. Julius No and Auric Goldfinger, but they’d all been one-offs, generally vanquished prior to the last page of whatever book had spawned them. It wasn’t until the ninth book in the series, Thunderball, that Fleming introduced both the terrorist organization SPECTRE and its leader, the evil genius Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Over two further novels, the battle between the two becomes increasingly violent and personal. The character has also appeared in the movies, played by such heavyweights as Donald Pleasance, Telly Savalas, Max von Sydow, and, most recently, Christoph Waltz.
Fighting Since: 1961
Greatest Battle: The climactic dual at the conclusion of You Only Live Twice involves a sword and a wooden staff in the “Garden of Death.” One of the men is left dead, the other with no memory.
Read about
another entry on the list.
Learn about
Joel Cunningham's top five James Bond titles. Blofeld appears on
Eoin Colfer's top ten list villains in fiction,
John Mullan's list of ten of the best secret societies in literature, and
Marcus Sedgwick's top 10 list of tales from cold climes.
Thunderball is among
Alexandra Silverman's fourteen best wrathful stories.
--Marshal Zeringue
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