Books - Casino Royale

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	Books - Casino Royale

Casino Royale is the first James Bond novel by author Ian Fleming. It would eventually pave the way for 11 other novels by Fleming himself in addition to 2 short story anthologies, followed by many additional Bond novels by other authors. Since being published in 1953 by Jonathan Cape, Casino Royale has been adapted three times; a 1954 CBS television episode of Climax!, a 1967 film spoof of the same name, and the twenty-first official film in the EON Productions Bond franchise scheduled for release in 2006.

Once the new film is completed, Casino Royale will become the only Ian Fleming work to be adapted on three occasions.

The novel

Casino Royale was first released on April 13, 1953 in a United Kingdom hardcover edition by publishers Jonathan Cape. The first paperback edition of Casino Royale in the United States was retitled by publisher American Popular Library in 1955 (this followed a hardcover edition with the original title). Fleming's suggestions for a new title, The Double-O Agent and The Deadly Gamble, were disregarded in favor of You Asked For It. The novel was subtitled "" and made reference to secret agent 007 as "Jimmy Bond" on the back cover as per the 1954 TV version. In 1960 the original title Casino Royale replaced You Asked For It for all further paperback editions in the United States.

When the book came to the UK in paperback form in 1955, readers were given their first glimpse of an image of secret agent James Bond on the book jacket. The image of Bond was based on a photograph of American actor Richard Conte, who would become known for roles in films such as Ocean's Eleven (1960) and The Godfather (1972).

Plot summary

Monsieur Le Chiffre, "the cipher", is an agent for the Soviet assassination bureau SMERSH, running a baccarat game at a French casino to raise needed operational funds—namely, to recover SMERSH's money that he lost in a failed attempt to establish a chain of brothels.

Expert baccarat player James Bond (British secret agent 007), is assigned the job of beating Le Chiffre, in the hope that the agent's gambling debts will provoke SMERSH's killing him. After several nights of intensive play, he manages to beat Le Chiffre, but only with extra money provided by Felix Leiter, who is in attendance as a covert observer.

Bond has been provided with an assistant sent out from MI6, the beautiful but emotionally turbulent Vesper Lynd, who becomes his lover. But she is holding a terrible secret—she is actually a Russian double agent and under orders to see that Bond does not escape Le Chiffre. With her unwilling connivance, Bond is captured and tortured by Le Chiffre, but Le Chiffre is assassinated by SMERSH. Vesper commits suicide and her body is discovered by Bond, who reports to his superiors, tersely: "The bitch is dead now."

Story inspirations

Ian Fleming claimed that Casino Royale was inspired by certain incidents that took place during his career at the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. The first, and the basis for the novel, was a trip to Lisbon that Fleming and the Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Godfrey, took during World War II en route to the United States. While there they went to the Estoril Casino in Estoril, which, due to the neutral status of Portugal had a number of spies of warring regimes present. Fleming claimed that while there he was cleaned out by a "chief German agent" at a table playing Chemin de Fer; however, Admiral Godfrey tells a different story, that Fleming only played Portuguese businessmen and that afterwards Fleming had fantasized about them being German agents and the excitement of cleaning them out.

The failed assassination attempt on Bond while at Royale-les-Eaux is also claimed by Fleming to be inspired by a real event. The inspriation comes from a failed assassination on Franz von Papen who was a Vice-Chancellor and Ambassador under Adolf Hitler. Both von Papen and Bond survive their assassination attempts, carried out by Bulgarians, due to a tree that protected them both from a bomb blast.

Trivia

Jonathan Cape, the publishers of the first British edition, would publish the first hardcover editions of every Bond novel (with the exception of novelizations) until No Deals, Mr. Bond
in 1987.
The physical characteristics of the character Le Chiffre is based on the English occultist, Aleister Crowley. Fleming had met Crowley during his time in Naval Intelligence during WWII.
After a run at the Roulette tables, Bond meets up with Felix Leiter who then offers to buy Bond a drink. At the bar Bond orders his famous "dry martini" (see Shaken, not stirred).

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