Casino Royale is Ian Fleming’s first novel and introduced James Bond to the world. It also introduced Bond’s his tastes and vices in a vivid writing style that led to the accusation of “sex, sadism and snobbery”.

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. Buy Casino Royale (James Bond 007) 01 by Fleming, Ian, Judd, Alan (ISBN: 853) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. BEST WESTERN PLUS Casino Royale Direct Number: 702-737-3500 BEST WESTERN PLUS Casino Royale - 3411 Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89109 Ideally located directly on the Las Vegas Strip, each of 152 newly remodeled guest rooms at the BEST WESTERN PLUS Casino Royale offer a tranquil retreat from the non-stop excitement of Vegas. Casino Royale is the first book in the James Bond series. I've seen the movie - the new and the old version - many times, but this is the first time I've actually read the book. James Bond is a much more complex character than the way he is portrayed in the movies.

Author: Ian Fleming
Publication date: 13th April 1953
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Cover artist: Kenneth Lewis

Set during the Cold War, M sends agent 007 on a mission to beat the head of a French trade union at baccarat. The head of the union, Le Chiffre, had lost a significant amount of funds provided by his Russian paymasters through an unauthorised personal investment. His plan was to win it back at the gambling tables of Royale-les-Eaux.

The operation was designed to discredit Le Chiffre, believing he would be killed as a traitor by the Russians and wipe their carefully built up French network.

The book is one of the most polished of the books and the scenes in the casino are vividly painted. Although the plot is on the whole straightforward, almost mundane, it has enough of a spark of originality and daring to pull the reader into the story and finishes with a bitter twist in its tail. The book is peppered with information about Bond’s habits and vices, such as his preference for his drink to be “shaken, not stirred” (not the simple Vodka Martini of the films, but a concoction of his own design) and custom made cigarettes with three gold bands on the filter.

However, Fleming seems to get out of his depth as a writer when Bond is talking to the head of French intelligence about the philosophy of good and evil, which comes across as childishly naïve and seems completely out of place in the novel.

Overall, Casino Royale remains one of the best of the series. It has a freshness and readability that make it hard to put down, vivid descriptions of the card game and should grace the bookshelf of any serious fan of James Bond.

Fleming saw the big screen possibilities for 007 from the beginning and an option on the film and television rights were sold separately. In 1954 came Bond’s screen debut in the CBS television film of Casino Royale, with Bond played as an American agent. The title was later produced as a comedy starring David Niven after the official series of films, produced by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, had raised public interest in Bond. It has little, if anything, to do with the plot of the novel.

First editions of all the books are highly sought after by collectors and as a result prices are high. However, old copies of the paperbacks are good value and the covers are better that the rather sterile covers of some more recent editions.

What we say

Casino Royale introduces many of the elements we have come to expect from James Bond; brand names, high living, cars, sex, food, drink, violence and exotic locations.

The book is rather oddly constructed though, almost like two interlinked novellas. The first deals with Bond’s mission to bankrupt Le Chiffre at the casino tables of Royale-les-Eaux, the second is a love story as he recovers from being tortured by Le Chiffre. In the last few pages the stories dramatically collide.

Locations

The entire story is set in and around the fictional town of Royale-les-Eaux. Described by Fleming as being “just north of Dieppe” and lying “near the mouth of the Somme before the flat coastline soars up from the beaches of southern Picardy to the Brittany cliffs which run on to Le Havre”.

We have a few clues as to where we can find Royale-les-Eaux and it is not until On Her Majesty’s Secret Service that we learn a few more details, although these are slightly contradictory.

Casino Royale is available in a variety of formats from Amazon UK and Amazon.com

Have I missed anything? If so get in contact and let me know.

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 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.

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.

Casino Royale Book Cover

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).

Casino Royale Book Pdf

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.

Casino Royale Book Age

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

Casino Royale Book Review

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?

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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