While ‘No Time to Die’ Waits, ‘Casino Royale’ Lives
While the arrival of the 25th James Bond movie, No Time to Die, delayed until November, we look back to the tale behind the debut of the very first 007 novel, Casino Royale…
It’s 1953. The UK publisher Jonathan Cape publishes Ian Fleming’s first novel, Casino Royale, introducing the world to literature’s most famous spy — James Bond, 007.
The son of a Parliamentary Minister and the grandson of a Scottish financier, Fleming grew up in a wealthy London family. Educated in prestigious military schools and at Eton College, Fleming worked as a journalist and junior editor for Reuters, stationed in Moscow.
Prior to World War II, Fleming returned to London to work as a stockbroker. But, with the global conflict looming, Read Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence, recruited Fleming to serve as his personal assistant. During his intelligence carer, Fleming would rise to the rank of Commander, planning operations for an elite team of British commandos, 30 Assault Unit.
Though his desk-bound duties laid the foundation for his espionage fiction, they kept Fleming out of the field. When he turned to writing after the war, he poured that frustration into his fictional alter ego — making sure Bond was always in on the action. Searching for a moniker that seemed British without sounding too dramatic, Fleming chose his MI6 hero’s name from the author of the book, Bond’s Birds of the West Indies.
While not the first spy novel, Casino Royale would elevate espionage writing into the elite levels of popular culture. Arthur Conan Doyle, William Le Queux and Joseph Conrad were only some of the accomplished authors who took a shot at spy fiction in decades previous . But, Fleming was the first to combine a style and sexiness with the dangerous world of espionage.
Casino Royale sends Bond to France on an assignment to confront master gambler, Le Chiffre. The Soviet agent embezzled Soviet money to start a failed chain of brothels, and he needs to win a high-stakes baccarat game to repay his Russian bosses. If Bond can defeat Le Chiffre on the tables, his superiors in London hope Smert’ Shpionam (SMERSH, the KGB’s revenge division — literally “Death to Spies”) will kill Le Chiffre.
Aided by the beautiful Vesper Lynd (secretly a Soviet agent herself), Bond beats the villain at cards. But, Le Chiffre captures 007, torturing and almost castrating him before a SMERSH assassin finally kills Le Chiffre. Bond recovers with Lynd and plans to quit Her Majesty’s Secret Service and live happily ever after. That’s a big change for the all-business literary Bond as he has no time for women when introduced.
When Lynd thinks SMERSH has targeted her for assassination, the double agent commits suicide — leaving Bond a heartfelt love note to explain her betrayal. His romantic illusions shattered, Bond returns to duty with MI6. His short report into London is also one of the great closing lines of any novel: “The bitch is dead now.”
After the book’s successful launch in the UK, The American Popular Library retitled Casino Royale as You Asked For It in the U.S. The novel (and Fleming’s sequels) were not successful in American until John F. Kennedy included From Russia with Love (Fleming’s sixth novel) on his list of favorite books.
The book inspired two movies (a comedy in 1967 and 2006’s reboot with Daniel Craig) and a bleak television production in 1954.
Fleming would go on to pen 12 Bond novels and nine short stories overall, in addition to the children’s classic, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. After witnessing the early stages of Bond’s emergence into movies, he would die of a heart attack in 1964 at the age of 56.
Last year marked Fleming’s 100th birthday and was celebrated with a series of special events throughout the UK
All photos taken at London’s Bond in Motion exhibit, thanks to EON Productions.
