Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Paperback 703: Honey in the Flesh / G. G. Fickling (Pyramid G411)

Paperback 703: Pyramid G411 (PBO, 1959)

Title: Honey in the Flesh
Author: G. G. Fickling
Cover artist: Harry Schaare

Yours for: Must keep, if only for back cover

PyrG411

Best things about this cover:
  • I'm finding her cleavage both sexy and distracting. It's great if you don't think too much, but there's something proportionally and positionally off about her (mostly not visible) left breast. Like it's high and up and in. I actually love her dress and wish I could see more of it. And of course the gun is the perfect accessory.
  • Hurray for female private eyes, of whom there were (pre-1980s) far, far too few.
  • "The bodies beautiful" must be referencing some concept that had currency once that I don't know about. I feel like I've heard of "the body beautiful set" before, but that may be from some other, cheesier paperback that I own. That's a very romance-language construction (noun adjective). English doesn't normally ... do that.

PyrG411bc
[Click to see full size]

Best things about this back cover:
  • Straight-up Hall-of-Fame back cover concept. You know how dull these things can be. But this? Visually arresting and also kind of hilarious (I mean the "Age" and "Physical Description" parts, not the dead parents part). 
  • Not the best insurance application "photo" I've ever seen. Or maybe it is, as I don't think I've ever seen one.
  • God bless a book with a clear cover artist credit. 
  • Honey West and Mark Storm, your News 5 Weather Team.

Page 123~
"I've read about guys like you."
"Oh?"
"They get their kicks by squeezing two things at the same time."
"I don't follow you, Honey."
"The second squeeze is on the trigger."
"What trigger?"
"The one you've got buried in my ribs."
"What?"
Eventually, Godot shows up.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

4 comments:

Dave M said...

SAY "WHAT" AGAIN. I DOUBLE-DARE YOU!

Karl said...

LOLs, Dave M!

I actually remember seeing the "Honey West" TV series, starring Anne (Forbidden Planet; "We were just trying to get some healthy stimulation from hugging and kissing") Francis. It only ran for one season, but I guess it was memorable to my 10-year-old sensibilities.

If i owned that paperback, I'd be tempted to ink in Anne Francis's beauty mark.

Stoutcat said...

"Taffy colored hair..." Hmmm, which flavor, I wonder.

Patrick Murtha said...

English does the noun-postpositive adjective construction occasionally with particular adjectives; for example, "balloons galore," "cupcakes aplenty," and "the lion rampant." ("Rampant" is originally French; "galore" sounds French, but is actually Irish Gaelic.) There are certain specific common postpositive adjective phrases, too, such as "proof positive" and "time immemorial."

"The body beautiful" has been around for a long while. I remember that in the fashion show sequence of George Cukor's 1939 film "The Women," the mistress of ceremonies refers to "the female form divine."