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livesinthetub's review against another edition
3.0
book #13 of 2020: Enter the Saint by Leslie Charteris. inspired by my recent undying fascination with the 1997 movie, The Saint (bcs Val Kilmer and also a tight, multi-dimensional, and often hilarious script), while genre fiction is not my typical bent, this was a rollicking good, often stunning or hilarious page turner that I think is pretty ok for kids, too. 3/5 (not based on enjoyment, but on literary merit of amount of interesting and useful information supplied - since this was neither literary fiction, nor non-fiction...)
if you have issues with how I rate books:
- I don’t care
- do you even read?
if you have issues with how I rate books:
- I don’t care
- do you even read?
tbr_the_unconquered's review against another edition
3.0
There used to be this time when romantic ideals ruled the roost in terms of fantastic fiction.I mean characters like Robin Hood, Arsene Lupin, The Phantom and the person in question : Simon Templar. They all had this rather nasty habit of swindling the rich and arrogant buggers of the society and giving those away to the poor. They all come up with rather ingenious heists and leave the bad guys penniless by the time they are done.
The stories here all follow this thread and it is quite fun to read. There is no real sense of danger or fear in them even when intentions of the antagonists are nothing short of murderous. The authors daughter writes in the foreword that she could hear her father chuckling to himself as he tapped away these stories at his typewriter. It is not hard to imagine him doing so for he would have had oodles of fun writing these : car chases, damsels in distress, ugly villains and an ultra cool hero with nerves of steel. What more do we need ? It was more akin to watching a good old cartoon show and I could practically imagine the speech bubbles with words like 'bam' and 'ka pow' during the fight scenes.
While all of it was fun, I prefer a more refined thief. Mr.Daniel Ocean, this means you !
The stories here all follow this thread and it is quite fun to read. There is no real sense of danger or fear in them even when intentions of the antagonists are nothing short of murderous. The authors daughter writes in the foreword that she could hear her father chuckling to himself as he tapped away these stories at his typewriter. It is not hard to imagine him doing so for he would have had oodles of fun writing these : car chases, damsels in distress, ugly villains and an ultra cool hero with nerves of steel. What more do we need ? It was more akin to watching a good old cartoon show and I could practically imagine the speech bubbles with words like 'bam' and 'ka pow' during the fight scenes.
While all of it was fun, I prefer a more refined thief. Mr.Daniel Ocean, this means you !
keary's review against another edition
4.0
Fun and easy read. Very 'of its time' but still fun. I'll probably read some more of The Saint.
livesinthetub's review against another edition
3.0
book #13 of 2020: Enter the Saint by Leslie Charteris. inspired by my recent undying fascination with the 1997 movie, The Saint (bcs Val Kilmer and also a tight, multi-dimensional, and often hilarious script), while genre fiction is not my typical bent, this was a rollicking good, often stunning or hilarious page turner that I think is pretty ok for kids, too. 3/5 (not based on enjoyment, but on literary merit of amount of interesting and useful information supplied - since this was neither literary fiction, nor non-fiction...)
if you have issues with how I rate books:
- I don‰ЫЄt care
- do you even read?
if you have issues with how I rate books:
- I don‰ЫЄt care
- do you even read?
smcleish's review
5.0
Originally published on my blog here in September 1999.
Though not the first appearance of Simon Templar (that comes in [b:Meet the Tiger|1807014|The Saint Meets the Tiger|Leslie Charteris|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1329005206s/1807014.jpg|1806303], published two years earlier with a different publisher), Enter the Saint is the first novel in which he plays the leading role. After this, Leslie Charteris never felt the need to create another hero.
Like so many volumes in the Saint saga (as Charteris called it) Enter the Saint consists of three loosely linked stories about Simon Templar. Leslie Charteris happened to like writing the novelette length, stories containing about a dozen short chapters. This is an ideal book to see the early Saint, before Charteris fell in love with the States and Americanised him, and before a certain world-weariness set in. The Simon Templar of the early thirties enjoys life, and gets an immense kick out of the action he experiences as 'the Robin Hood of modern crime'. To the readers of thirties England, he must have seemed immensely different to the established heroes of other writers - to us, he probably recalls the bantering James Bond of the films (rather than the grimmer figure created by [a:Ian Fleming|2565|Ian Fleming|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1335760584p2/2565.jpg]). It is not surprising that he was phenomenally successful.
Though not the first appearance of Simon Templar (that comes in [b:Meet the Tiger|1807014|The Saint Meets the Tiger|Leslie Charteris|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1329005206s/1807014.jpg|1806303], published two years earlier with a different publisher), Enter the Saint is the first novel in which he plays the leading role. After this, Leslie Charteris never felt the need to create another hero.
Like so many volumes in the Saint saga (as Charteris called it) Enter the Saint consists of three loosely linked stories about Simon Templar. Leslie Charteris happened to like writing the novelette length, stories containing about a dozen short chapters. This is an ideal book to see the early Saint, before Charteris fell in love with the States and Americanised him, and before a certain world-weariness set in. The Simon Templar of the early thirties enjoys life, and gets an immense kick out of the action he experiences as 'the Robin Hood of modern crime'. To the readers of thirties England, he must have seemed immensely different to the established heroes of other writers - to us, he probably recalls the bantering James Bond of the films (rather than the grimmer figure created by [a:Ian Fleming|2565|Ian Fleming|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1335760584p2/2565.jpg]). It is not surprising that he was phenomenally successful.
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