In the novel that introduced James Bond to the world, Ian Fleming’s agent 007 is dispatched to a French casino in Royale-les-Eaux. Bankrupt a ruthless Russian agent who’s been on a bad luck streak at the baccarat table.
Casino Royale is the first novel by the British author Ian Fleming.Published in 1953, it is the first James Bond book, and it paved the way for a further eleven novels and two short story collections by Fleming, followed by numerous continuation Bond novels by other authors. The story concerns the British secret agent James Bond, gambling at the casino in Royale-les-Eaux to bankrupt Le. About this Item: Pan Books Limited, London, England, Great Britain, UK, 1965. Condition: VERY GOOD Minus. Raymond Hawkey (illustrator). 22nd Edition By Publisher. 60c printed to the front; with 5-1/4' x 4-1/2' B&W photo of Ian Fleming smoking a cigerette on bakcover; With Casino Royale, Ian Fleming introduced Commander James Bond, the archetypal secret agent OO7. Read Casino Royale online, free from your Pc, Tablet, Mobile. Casino Royale (James Bond #1) is a Thriller Novels by Ian Fleming. Had been book-keeper for one of. Casino Royale is a novel that is very much 'of its time', specifically the late 1950's, and must viewed from that perspective. Criticising it for outdated cultural or social attitudes, or for simply being old fashioned would be the equivalent of criticising Dickens, Austen, the Brontes or Christie for the same supposed failing.
James Bond’s first ever drink in the books is an Americano, an Italian cocktail made with Campari, Cinzano and soda water. He orders this at the bar of the Hermitage Hotel, where Mathis introduces him to Vesper Lynd.
Then, after nearly narrowly escaping a pair of Bulgarian assassins, Bond unwinds in his room with a whisky on the rocks to accompany his lunch of foie gras and cold rock lobster.
After a session at the roulette tables, Felix Leiter introduces himself to Bond and offers to buy him a drink in the bar of the casino. It is here that Bond invents the cocktail he later names the Vesper.
Best known after appearing in the 2006 film, the Vesper is made from three measures of Gordon’s gin, a measure of vodka and half a measure of Kina Lillet. Bond asks the barman to shake the drink until ice-cold then serve it in a deep Champagne goblet with a large slice of lemon peel.
Before facing Le Chiffre, Bond and Vesper dine together in the restaurant of Hotel Splendide. They share a carafe of vodka and order caviar as a starter. When Bond asks for a bottle of Taittinger ’45 to accompany the same meal, the sommelier instead suggests the 1943 Taittinger Brut Blanc de Blanc.
Vesper follows the caviar with veal kidneys and souffléed potatoes then wild strawberries with cream. Bond has underdone tournedos of beef with sauce Béarnaise then an artichoke heart and half an avocado pear with French dressing for dessert.
As his baccarat game against Le Chiffre comes to a head, Bond finds a half bottle of Veuve Clicquot has magically appeared beside him (Fleming simply refers to it as Clicquot). He fills his glass and downs it “in two long draughts”. After wiping out Le Chiffre, Bond shares another bottle of unspecified Champagne with Felix.
Bond then celebrates the success of his mission with Vesper at the Roi Galant nightclub. They share a bottle of Veuve Cliquot accompanies by Bond’s favourite dish, scrambled eggs and bacon. Once the bottle is finished, Bond orders another bottle of Champagne.
After recovering from his torture by Le Chiffre, Bond and Vesper spend a few days at a small hotel while Bond recovers his strength. The first night they order homemade liver pate, broiled lobsters with melted butter and wild strawberries with thick cream.
To accompany the meal they order two bottles of Champagne. After the meal Bond sips a brandy while Vesper drinks coffee. During their last night together, Bond and Vesper drink Champagne at dinner.
Read more about James Bond’s food and drink.
Casino Royale was written by Ian Fleming and published in 1953. It was the first James Bond novel and led eventually to a massive franchise including dozens of books, films and games.
Warning: Major spoilers are blacked out like this [blackout]secret[/blackout]. To view them, just select/highlight them.
Casino Royale: Logline
In 1950s France, a British spy tries to bankrupt a corrupt Soviet agent at the card table. When the plan succeeds at terrible cost, he must decide between love and duty.
Casino Royale: Plot Summary
Casino Royale Book Wiki
Casino Royale opens with James Bond gambling at the Royale-Les-Eaux casino in France. Amongst the gamblers is Le Chiffre, who is a Soviet agent.
The story then flashes back to a briefing by M, the head of the British Secret Service. Le Chiffre controls a trade union for the Soviets but has stolen union money and invested it disastrously. Now his financial position is desperate and his only hope is to stake all his remaining capital on a big win at the casino. M plans to stop this and bankrupt le Chiffre, destroying Soviet influence in the trade union.
Casino Royale Book Pdf
Bond is M’s chosen man to execute the plan, as he is one of the Service’s best gamblers,
Vesper Lynd is sent from headquarters to improve Bond’s cover. A French agent, Rene Mathis, and Felix Leiter of the CIA are also in position. Mathis warns Bond that the Soviets have blown his cover and he can expect resistance.
Two assassins make a botched attack on Bond, but only succeed in killing themselves by accident.
Bond and Le Chiffre confront each over the card table. Le Chiffre’s henchmen attempt to forcibly remove Bond from the game but are foiled.
Bond appears to have failed in his mission when Le Chiffre cleans him out of funds. However, Le Chiffre keeps playing, Leiter provides Bond with more funds, his luck turns and Le Chiffre is finally bankrupted.
Desperate to recover the money Bond has won from him, Le Chiffre kidnaps Vesper. Bond gives chase…
…but[blackout] is captured. Le Chiffre tortures Bond in an attempt to make him divulge the location of the money.[/blackout]
A Soviet [blackout]assassin bursts in and kills Le Chiffre and his men. The assassin does not kill Bond, saying that he has no orders to do so. Instead he carves the Russian for “spy” into Bond’s hand.[/blackout]
Bond [blackout]spends months in hospital recovering from the torture and thinks of resigning from the Secret Service. Mathis talks Bond out of his half-hearted doubts, and fully recovered, Bond is granted leave.[/blackout]
Bond and Vesper [blackout]go on holiday together and become lovers. Bond proposes to Vesper several times, but she starts to act strangely. He is confused and angry with her. After one last night together, Vesper commits suicide. Bond learns from her suicide note that she had been blackmailed into becoming a Soviet double-agent and felt that there was no way out for her.[/blackout]
Bond’s [blackout]grief at Vesper’s death is soon replaced with anger, shame at the sophistry of his doubts about the ethics of his Secret Service work and determination to oppose the Soviets.[/blackout]
Casino Royale: Alternative Cover
An unusual cover for me, not my usual minimalist style, but the playing card reminded me of Vesper and I liked the way the ‘Y’ in ‘Royale’ looks a bit like a cocktail glass.
Casino Royale: Analysis
Casino Royalehas what can only be described as an unusual plot structure (technically it is a Hybrid, see Spy Novel Plots).
It has three immense set pieces. The rest of the plot merely serves to move the characters between the highlights as functionally as possible, as the author later acknowledged:
There are three strong incidents in the book which carry it along and they are all based on fact. I extracted them from my wartime memories of the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty, dolled them up, attached a hero, a villain and a heroine, and there was the book.
The heart of the book is the first of the major set pieces, Bond and Le Chiffre’s confrontation over the card table. There is a detailed description of the card game Baccarat and Bond’s battle to beat Le Chiffre at it. This is by far the best section of the novel.
The second set piece confrontation is Le Chiffre’s [blackout]torture of Bond as he attempts to make him divulge the location of the money[/blackout]. Bond does not escape through his own actions but [blackout]is rescued after Le Chiffre’s Soviet employers arrive and murder everyone except Bond.[/blackout] At this point, the main plot is effectively concluded, with a quarter of the book still to go.
Bond’s affair with Vesper takes up the last quarter of the book. This doomed romance seems like a different novel to the rest of the story. It is humanising in its own way, although Bond exhibits the chauvinism and patronising attitudes of his time (as with The Riddle of the Sands,The Thirty-Nine Steps,and The Great Impersonation, ‘allowances’ must be made for the attitudes of a bygone time).
The final twist, and Bond’s bitter response to it, sets his character up for the rest of the franchise.
This structure accounts for the unevenness of the novel, with the three set pieces highly effective and the intervening chapters serviceable at best. Much of it appears in essence to be padding, with Fleming indulging in various digressions such as the farcical and irrelevant botched assassination and lengthy descriptions of meals.
Also, the book just isn’t very well written. Fleming’s writing style is often described as “journalistic”, and the long descriptive passages are certainly that, but the prose is laboured, and the dialogue ridiculous at times.
Fleming’s writing does improve dramatically in the later books, becoming adequate in From Russia With Love onwards. Fleming was a big believer in writing fast and not looking back, and it shows in his novels. With some exceptions, the plots make little sense taken as a whole, relying on the set-piece action scenes to sweep the reader along.
Casino Royale: My Verdict
A curious book. Poorly written, oddly structured, but with some great scenes. It would be a shame for any spy-thriller fan to miss out on it. The electrifying set-piece scenes more than make up for its faults.
Casino Royale: The Movies
There have been three adaptations of Casino Royale, one television version and two movies.
1954: Television
The television version, was made by US broadcaster CBS only a year after the novel was first published and before Ian Fleming or Bond were famous. It makes Bond (played by Barry Nelson) into an American agent and changes the other characters (Lynda Christian, pictured above, plays ‘Valerie Mathis’, the Vesper role). Nelson was miscast, the screenplay was unexceptional and it was swiftly forgotten.
The main legacy of this first version of Casino Royale was that CBS, who thought the Bond character could support a television series, asked Ian Fleming for more story outlines. Although these outlines were never filmed, they eventually became the short stories released as For Your Eyes Only. The other result was that the film rights for Casino Royale were not sold to Harry Saltzman and EON productions, and so Casino Royale was not filmed as part of the main sequence of Sean Connery/Roger Moore Bond movies.
1967: The Comedy Version
After the Sean Connery films ignited the James Bond phenomena, attempts were made to get Casino Royale filmed as part of the franchise. These fell through and eventually, in 1967, Casino Royale was remade outside the main sequence. Feeling that a serious film could not compete with Sean Connery’s Bond, the producers of the 1967 version of Casino Royale decided to make it as a comedy. It is generally regarded as a dismal failure.
2006: The Reboot
Decades later, after several mergers and deals, EON finally gained the rights to Casino Royale and decided to use it for the reboot of James Bond. The 2006 Casino Royale stared Daniel Craig as James Bond and Eva Green as Vesper Lynd. It was one of the most successful Bond films ever, both critically and commercially, and Daniel Craig and Eva Green were both praised for their acting. Two of the core scenes of the novel occur during the second half of the movie: the confrontation over the card table and the torture scene. The ending is thematically similar to the book but much more action-packed and visual.
Interestingly, the parts of the film that really work are the ones inspired by the novel. The first half, which is an origin story for Bond unrelated to the novel, is much more formulaic. The chase in the airport in particular could have been taken from a Roger Moore Bond movie.
That the three highlights of the novel still work half a century later in a different medium shows how powerful they are.
Want to read or watch it?
Casino Royale Novel Pdf
Here’s the trailer for the 2006 film:
The novel of Casino Royale is available on US Amazon here, and UK Amazon here.
The 2006 film is available on US Amazon here, and UK Amazon here.
A Kill in the Morning
If you like James Bond then you’ll love my novel A Kill in the Morning, which SFF World described as “an action-packed romp that Ian Fleming would be proud of.”
You can read the opening here: The first two chapters of A Kill in the Morning.
If you’d like to buy A Kill in the Morning then:
- In the UK: A Kill in the Morning on Amazon UK, although the novel is also available in bookshops.
- In the USA: A Kill in the Morning on Amazon USA.
Agree? Disagree?
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