The Impossible Virgin

by Peter O'Donnell

Paperback, 1973

Status

Available

Call number

Fic Adventure Modesty

Publication

Macmillan (1973), Paperback, 272 pages

Description

Accompanied as always, by her ever-faithful henchman Willie Garvin, Modesty's skills and resilience are tested to the full against Brunel. Having been outwitted and brought the most shattering reverse she has ever suffered, it takes all her expertise in combat to overcome and outwit the enemy. How she fights back and learns the secret of The Impossible Virgin brings this classic saga of Modesty Blaise to an astonishing climax.

Media reviews

Flavorwire

10 of the Greatest Cold War Spy Novels “In 1953, O’Donnell created his comic-strip character Modesty Blaise as a female version of Bond; the strip was sexy and violent in a way unknown to stateside comics pages. A street urchin who grew into a powerful organized-crime leader, Modesty (and her

platonic tough-guy sidekick Willy Garvin) is now reformed, sort of, and working for the British Secret Service. The novel Modesty Blaise (1965) was O’Donnell’s novelization of his (mostly ignored) screenplay for Joseph Losey’s 1966 film of the same name. The warm critical and popular response to Modesty in novel form led to a long-running series. Alone among such fun Bond-era spies as The Avengers and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Modesty enjoys an enviable body of quality prose fiction. Modesty rarely engaged in Cold War themes, but in The Impossible Virgin she does.”

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User reviews

LibraryThing member veracite

Another one of my old favorites that's a good and comforting read. Modesty is ace, better than Bond.

25 February 2012
O'Donnell has all the prejudices you'd expect of an old white guy. Africa is a mysterious and unchanging continent, except for the bit where politics are all smushed together and full

of the imperial commie threat. Good people are often a little bit British and bad people are often a little bit swarthy, although this is not without exceptions.

But what I will always love about his greatest character, Modesty Blaise, is her independence, the sex positivity, her combination of goodness and ruthless practicality, her splendid intelligence and competence, and her warmth. She is a great hero, an engaging adventurer and funny.

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