Casino Royale - The Novel

Shaken, once again you leave me stirred (OK, if you can get away with "On the Leiter side," I can get away with this bad pun).  For the second time you've written a fabulous review/response that makes me wish I was reading the novels for the first time.  Interesting--when I first read CR I'd already had a few Bonds under my belt and I found it a complete bore.  It took a second reading much later (accomplished in one day) before I could really appreciate it.

What I really admire about your post, Shaken, is your identification of how important friendship is to Bond.  The films touch on it, but only in the novels can you really understand how Bond values loyalty, honesty, and decency: I think it's those qualities that he sees in the UK (and, to a lesser degree, in the US and in the NATO countries), and allows us to understand why he hates the Soviet Union so much.

To answer your question, Fleming did have a series in mind.  His original idea was to make Bond completely devoid of a personality (he even said that he chose the name James Bond because it was the most boring one he could find): he wanted the plots and situations to be more memorable than the main character.  It didn't work--you've already seen that Bond is a flesh-and-blood character in Thunderball, and he only grows and develops in the novels Fleming wrote after CR.

Keep the great posts coming, Shaken. . .and why not take part in the fan fic novel?  You've got what it takes!

Last edited by Hardyboy (23rd Jul 2002 06:52)

I'm glad to see you enjoyed it. I really recommend FRWL or OHMSS. IMO, they were the best books and films here are my thoughts on Casino Royale:

Casino Royale is the first book in the epic James Bond saga, and certainly one of the best. As well as some wonderful tense scenes, and a superbly defined and more realistic James Bond, the plot is really clever, but also astoundingly simple.

by the end of it we already feel like we have known him for years. Bond is a gourmet and drink-lover, whose vices also include smoking and women, with whom he is happy to make love. Bond is probably in his late thirties, but in excellent physical condition. He can be a cold-blooded killer, but prefers not to be. In this sense, and others, Bond is more realistic than in some later books. Also, he has a condescending attitude towards women, and he does consider leaving the service. The Bond of Casino Royale is the most believable, but in many ways the cruellest, ending the book with the words ‘the bitch is dead’.
8/10

this 1st time i read it was as a lad, out of order with the others, and it just seemd like an awkward poorly structured 1st attempt

with the news that the longawaited film is presenting this as a type of secret origin, I had to reread the series in sequence
turns out it is just that, maybe a bit more like the pilot in a TV series, but hes definitely a newbie, never had to work with a woman before and doesnt know what to do, makes a big mistake, nearly gets castrated and when he recovers makes his big mission statement, pledging himself to always fight SMERSH
(also in Goldfinger he does say at one point hes had this job for 6 years now, meaning Casino Royale would have happened soon after his promotion)

odd thing is he doesnt actually kill anybody in episode 1, though he twice refers to the men hes killed in the past earning him the promotion

and the whole arc of the storys about his balls, just like we knew all along: 007s secret superpower is his prowess with the ladies
even as hes recovering in the hospital hes plotting to seduce Vesper, not cuz he likes her so much but to test out his damaged equipment
even wackier, the reason he got into that jam with Le Chiffre and the carpetbeater at all was because he was thinking with his nads whenever he was alone with vesper
as he says at the start, hes never had to work with a lady before and he totally blows his cool
at the end he still hasnt clued in shes with the enemy til he reads her suicide note

I think this begins a very long character arc that runs through all the books up and culminates in OHMSS, but is not even referred to in the films
>a secret agent cant enjoy normal human relationships<
it comes up many times in flemings books, particularly in Moonraker with all the material on Leola Ponsonby at the beginning being wedded to The Service, the double standard that men in the Service are expected to have affairs but for women the same behaviourd be a security risk, and the final surprise that bond doesnt get the girl this time cuz shes already engaged: his 2nd time working with a female agent, and shes chosen a normal healthy realworld relationship over a life as a spy

I learned elsewhere in this forum that for the soundtrack of the film theyre not going to use the classic Monty Norman theme til the end (like with The Imperial March in Revenge of the Sith?) but will be basing the bulk of it round a variant of OHMSS: this makes sense to me, with the similar tragic ending and the emphasis on a spys relationship issues

other notable thang is 007s crisis of faith in the hospital: Bond spends a chapter telling Mathis he no longer believes in good guys and bad guys, that hes not cut out for this line of work
it reads almost like a parody of what the Repugs now call "moral relativism", as if fleming himself cant quite see the wussy leftist logic hes trying to put in bonds head
but notably this weakness of resolve to do his job and save the world comes when hes still worrying his nads arent going to heal!

anyway, I also read Dr No a few weeks later and now see some scenes and characters in that film arent from that book, but are from this here one they didnt have the rights to: Sean Connery first appears in a casino scene, he examines minute hairs he left in his hotel room, and then Leiter is assigned to work with him

Last edited by caractacus potts (2nd Oct 2006 21:04)

Casino Royale was about the fifth James Bond book I read. Nonetheless, it was an amazing experience.

The fact that the plot was very simple made the story so much better. Fleming could put much more attention into the characters and description without having to use a complicated storyline.

A very different type of book to From Russia With Love for example, where the plot is complex and weaving.

CR as a book is one of the greatest explorations and establishments of characacters I've ever read.

I hope CR the film can emphasise or replicate the excellent entrance to the series. And establish James Bond as the character he was at the start of the series,

In other words, I hope Fleming's job of explaining and describing James Bond as a human can be shown as well through the new film as they were through Fleming's opening book.

I'm new to the books. Only on LALD and I am reading them in order, so that's new Anyway, loving the JB in the books. Strangly enough, pictured DC as Bond in CR, and picturing PB in LALD All good in the end.

I'm now reeding LALD
but I was absolutely pleased with the ones I've read so far: FRWL, TMWTGG, YOLT... and most of all with CR...