Ian Fleming has some poetry in his veins! I would never have guessed that. much of the prose in this spy thriller is basic and almost ostentatiously declarative. prose from and for a man's man, I suppose. but every so often, we have lines like:

n  In his mind he fingered the necklace of the days to come.

The moonlight shone through the half-closed shutters and lapped at the secret shadows in the snow of her body...

Bond awoke in his own room at dawn and for a time he lay and stroked his memories.n

so Bond is the man, a man's man. he's not a nice man, nor an empathetic one, but he get's the job done. Don Draper Bond? Walter White Bond? if the shoe fits. but he's more than a compelling anti-hero. he's a broken vessel, one who has convinced himself that he's whole. poor Bond. he just needs love. and until he finds it, he's going to convince himself that that's exactly what he doesn't need.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I was really surprised at how much this book is about how Bond relates to women. it is practically a romance novel for anti-romantic men, one that also includes a lot of gambling and enjoyment of the finer things in life. by the end of the novel, Bond - who has been experiencing some existential angst and is questioning whether or not he wants to continue with his chosen profession - decides to stick with his job as a secret agent because he has had his heart broken.

so here's what we know:

- Bond is an old school sort, and has strong chauvinistic tendencies in his professional work. he is unsurprisingly a gender essentialist. I'm not sure if I'd call him a misogynist.

- he's a caveman in his outlook on romance. he wants to have rough, rapey ("rapey" not actual rape) sex with a woman who wants to be ravished.

- at one point in his life, a relationship ended badly for him. maybe more than one relationship. love died but the relationship lingered on, the results of which have made him tell himself repeatedly throughout the novel that romance is not for him. he just wants to hit it and quit it. or so he says.

- he sees himself as a cold, brutal sort. the key part of that phrase for me is he sees himself as. there's a lot in this book that implies that Bond is creating the man he wants to be, that he's purposely hardening himself to the world - and specifically to women - but he's not quite there yet.

- Bond meets one Vesper Lynd and is immediately attracted to her. his feelings towards her are an interesting stew of irritation at having to deal with a colleague who is a woman, basic sexual attraction, and admiration for her cool composure combined with an equally cool supportiveness towards Bond.

- Bond is captured, tortured, freed. during his lengthy convalescence he experiences a lot of existential doubt about "heroes" and "villains" and how the two roles are interchangeable. a colleague mocks him when he brings this up. Vesper visits him and treats him with kindness and empathy, and no mockery. he slowly falls for her. it was a genuinely moving thing to read.

- Bond and Vesper go off on a romantic vacation together. Bond is a walking hard-on when he thinks about what's to come:

n  She was thoughtful and full of consideration without being slavish and without compromising her arrogant spirit. And now he knew that she was profoundly, excitingly sensual, but that the conquest of her body, because of the central privacy in her, would each time have the sweet tang of rape. Loving her physically would each time be a thrilling voyage without the anticlimax of arrival. She would surrender herself avidly, he thought, and greedily enjoy all the intimacies of the bed without ever allowing herself to be possessed.n

- on the first night of their romantic getaway, Bond and Vesper finally hit it. it is just as amazing as he imagined it would be. Bond and Vesper are in love.

- something weird and ambiguous comes between them and Bond becomes increasingly confused and depressed. he doesn't understand how and why the love of his life has become so strange and distant. he remains a gentleman throughout but assumes this affair will end like his past relationships... with a feeling of emptiness.

- Vesper and Bond have a wonderful last night together full of drinks, lovemaking, and tears. she writes him a letter that describes how she is a double agent who has fallen in love with him. she kills herself.

- Bond goes into a state of shock. then Bond goes into Efficient Agent Mode. Bond decides that he will remain a secret agent so he can destroy SMERSH (the agency that drove Vesper to kill herself). Bond cannot (or will not) process Vesper's complicated back story and the effect she has had on him, so he destroys the memory of his love for her. or at least he attempts to...

Bond may be fooling himself but he hasn't fooled me. Vesper is a defining person in Bond's life, no matter how much he may want to discard his memory of her. the last sentence of the book is reserved for her, as is the actual last word... bitch. and so Bond degrades his memory of Vesper and compartmentalizes her away, and is one big step closer to becoming that cold, brutal man he's always envisioned himself to be. I guess that's what losing the love of your life can do to a person.

this was an absorbing, surprising introduction into the world of 007. I'm not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn't this.

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming was a truly marvelous classic.

I can totally understand why this book is considered one of the classic and first spy novels. It felt exactly like what I would expect a James Bond book to be - full of thrills, surprise twists and turns, double agents, alcohol, gambling and pretty women.

My favourite part of this book is that it wasn't exactly like a James Bond film - this James Bond made errors along the way and wasn't the perfect spy. He was headstrong and did what he thought was best (even if it wasn't the best plan). It made Bond feel like a real person.

I also really enjoyed the writing style. Mr. Fleming's writing felt elegant and perfectly placed for a spy thriller. I was enchanted along the ride and loved the word choice. It felt more royal, like the English Secret Service should be. On top of that, the heroes, heroine and villain all feel like actual people instead of characters. It was the way and tone of Ian Fleming's words that made it feel so real instead of just written words.

That being said, it was a lovely read. I would highly recommend these books to those who love thrillers and want to see the history of the genre. I found the book really intriguing. I might not continue reading the series but I did really like it book. It was a nice change from my normal read.

Three out of five stars.

First things first, Bond as depicted here is an awful, awful man and I would never want my daughters anywhere within 100 miles of him.


Barry Nelson as James Bond in the 1954 television adaptation of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale

That said, that was kind of the point? I don’t think Fleming in his wildest imaginings could have envisioned the future of the “007” phenomenon, so I viewed this book as a stand-alone presenting us with a heightened reality version of a cynical world of espionage and counterintelligence in post-War Europe. Bond is a not-terribly-competent but all the same supremely arrogant MI6 thug with a reputation as a good gambler but his mission to a casino in the north of France goes terribly awry. It’s bizarre how large swathes of this book just feature him seated at a card table, getting worked over after capture, or recovering in hospital in the company of the lovely Vesper Lynd.


Linda Christian as the original 'Bond Girl' Vesper Lynd in the '54 TV adaptation.

In other words, don’t come to this book looking for epic parkour battles, gadgets, or lewd double entendres.


This geezer's trick cane pistol is about as close to a high tech gadget as you'll encounter in this one. No comment on where it gets applied to Bond's anatomy.

I could expostulate more on what I imagine might have been Fleming’s personal issues or fantasies he was trying to work through in the text but I’ll leave the dime store pop psychology to others.
Recommended, as a time capsule to a much less enlightened age.

Overlooking some classic of-the-era sexism, this was a good Bond book. Easy to see why this became the phenomenon it did,

It was interesting to read James Bond's debut in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale. Representing all the tension of the Cold War, the entire first half of this book focuses on a sort of duel at the Baccarat tables. Fleming suggests that the Cold War will not be fought out on battlefields, but through the cool collective wit of spies like James Bond. Not sure I was impressed by the story, but it was amusing to see Bond fashioned as a superhero at the Baccarat tables before his other 'spy' skills are emphasized. So it was entertaining.

This book was much, much better than the movie. But then again, so was my last migraine.

I'm glad I read the book, I think, but I probably won't bother to read the rest of the series, because James Bond, much like Daniel 'Trout Pout' Craig, is an unrelenting pain in the arse...

It was a good thing that Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman decided to bring Ian Fleming's books to the screen. If that hadn't happened,James Bond would be totally forgotten by now.

The movies reinvented the character,they spiced up everything. The entertainment and the escapism was taken to a whole new level.

I had watched all the movies when I finally decided to check out Ian Fleming's books. The first one I read was Live and Let Die. It disappointed but I somehow struggled through it. Fleming's Bond didn't appeal to me at all.

But I tried again and Casino Royale was even worse.Gambling is something I've never been into anyway and there was plenty of it in this book. It was dull,it was dry and it felt very dated.I didn't get even a semblance of enjoyment.

One line deserves mention.In Bond's view,"women were for recreation".

The movie with Daniel Craig is better than the book,though to me it didn't feel like a James Bond movie.Cubby Broccoli's guiding hand was missing.

Even the spoof movie Casino Royale,which was a bit of a mess and featured mutiple Bonds was more entertaining than Ian Fleming's first entry in the Bond series.

The contrast can't be greater. I love the Bond movies (excluding the ones with Daniel Criag).
I hate the Fleming books.

“I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad.”

Casino Royale is a 1953 novel that is the first book in the series about British secret agent, James Bond. I decided to read it because it is on Boxall’s 1001 Books to Read List. This was my first James Bond book and (2006) film, of which, I feel, both had pros but, the film won me over with a spectacular opening chase scene that wasn’t part of the book.


James Bond is assigned to play in a high-stakes card game at a casino in France to bankrupt a Russian operative called Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre is a money manager for SMERSH (Russian bad guys) and uses their cash to bankroll his way into this game. Le Chiffre is that arrogant that he thinks no one could beat him at this game so he isn’t risking anything by playing with this money. The British and allies hope that SMERSH will assassinate Le Chiffre when he loses their money to Bond. Bond’s cover for the mission is to be a rich playboy at the casino with his companion, Vesper Lynd, who is really a personal assistant to a department head in the British secret service.

Casino Royale is all about the flash. Fancy cars, fancy weapons, fancy clothes, fancy drinks, fancy hotel, and fancy dressed women. I was expecting flash skills from Bond; however, more than once he is duped by the bad guys and is nearly killed over obvious situations he should have dodged. His mistakes do allow for a fast-paced car chase and a mildly graphic torture scene.

I listened to the audio book narrated by Simon Vance. Great audio and at just over four hours, it was a quick read. If you’re like me and can’t make sense of any French words, the audio is a pleasant way to experience the book instead of stumbling over the frequent terms/names.

As I mentioned the opening scene in the 2006 film adaption of the book, I will add that it was one of the most exciting and best choreographed chases through a high-rise construction site that I’ve seen. It was what made the film better than the book in my opinion. The film changed the ending from that of the book. I liked the film’s interpretation best; and that they gave Vesper a more worthwhile function, though she isn't allowed to demonstrate any skill except for wearing lush evening wear.

The misogyny is abundant in this novel, but typical of the time. And I can see how it is part of James Bond’s aloof demeanor. With him, it is all about the uncurrent of tension – sexual tension, impossible danger, exaggerated odds - that produces a glorified story that (male) readers will want to devour.

Maybe I missed the plot here but not much happens aside from card playing. I mean James Bond is a pop icon! But it seems all he does is show up in his suave suits with women, drink fancy cocktails, and look arrogant. He gets himself into a tough situation and is only saved by chance. Perhaps, I speak to soon, and he hadn’t hit his stride in this first book. Nevertheless, the plot is rather simple; in fact, I’ve already outlined most of it for you above. Again, the film added more intrigue to the ending that made up for the short comings of the book.

I know no other reason this book would be on Boxall’s 1001 Books to Read List than it must have transformed the typical (dark, drab) spy novel into a flashy, fantasy spy novel. “Because when you are imaging, you might as well imagine something worth while.”

So. So. Bad. Also - incredibly, over-the-top offensive. Bond wants the somewhat-withholding Vesper because he knows that making love to her will always "have the sweet tang of rape"??

W.T.F.?

Misogynist zingers aside, it's at least 70 pages too long. When it wasn't repulsive and offensive, it was really boring. I'm not saying it didn't have its fun moments, but they were surprisingly few and far between.

Raymond Chandler is quoted on the back as saying, "Bond is what every man would like to be and what every woman would like to have between her sheets." What I find sad is that Bond does represent a certain ideal manhood - brutal, misogynist, macho, emotionally distant, disrespectful towards and distrustful of women. Disturbing, to say the least.

I want my morning back.

Some interesting facts that we learn in this book:

James Bond smokes 70 cigarettes per day.

James Bond loves his car.

James Bond likes to sleep naked.

This is the first Bond novel (1953) and it's a doozy. We have SMERSH, gambling, kidnapping, torture, intrigue, double-crossing, and cackling villains.

Bond is set up with millions of British pounds and told to go to France and out-gamble the evil Le Chiffre, a holocaust survivor with no "Christian name" and, supposedly, no memory of his life before age 37. His main problem is that he's a criminal in debt to some dangerous people, and needs to gamble at Casino Royale or he'll be murdered.

The long descriptions of gambling and cards in this book are boring. One chapter is basically Bond explaining how to gamble.

Bond is told that he's going to be paired with another agent and he's shocked and appalled to find out that his partner is female. Of course the woman, Vesper Lynd, is amazingly good-looking and Bond alternates throughout the book with his warring feelings of contempt for her and wanting to f*ck her.

No matter how charming Bond comes off in the films, the written Bond is a whole different animal. Hearing his inner monologue is enough to make you want to tear your eyes out. He doesn't consider women to be human, or people. He also makes horrible stereotypes about everyone in the book who is not a white British man. He also gets really turned on at the thought of rape, although he never rapes anyone in this book. It's very disturbing to read about.

Also, to all the women who think James Bond is really hot - you may think that about the movie character but I seriously doubt you would feel the same about the book character. Constantly described as cold, harsh, brutal, cruel, ruthless, and hard (over and over and over) by Fleming, Bond is hardly someone you'd want to have a relationship with - or even a one-night-stand. He describes women in this book as: beasts, wretches, fools, idiots, and bitches. A LOT. He tends to go off on long, sexist/racist rants in his head. Also, his idea of sex is always described as: ravishment, ravaging, 'bending her to his will,' or a way to 'coldly...put his body to the test.'

When Vesper gets kidnapped at one point, he is furious with her and curses her out. He makes the cold, logical decision that her life doesn't matter (since she is an agent) and plans accordingly - her death is acceptable. When both she and Bond are kidnapped and in the back of a car being driven to god-knows-where to be raped or tortured, Bond is TURNED ON by how sexy she looks with bound and with her legs exposed. ON HIS WAY TO BE TORTURED, this is what he's thinking - about a woman who is helpless and probably about to be gang-raped. I mean, this is a sick, sick man here.

I think it's fair to mention that Bond's genitals are brutally tortured for an hour by Le Chiffre. After this ordeal, Bond spends a lot of time in the hospital recovering. I liked that Fleming wasn't trying to make him some super-human who recovers immediately. Of course, Bond eventually decides that taking Vesper to bed will be the perfect test to make sure his equipment is still functioning properly.

I understand that these books are classics and that James Bond is an icon. I really do. And I understand why people love the books - adventure, torture, being a spy who is rich, beds tons of women, and travels to exotic places. It's not that I don't understand the appeal of this pulp fiction. Wholly unrealistic, it's a fantasy. Real, actual spywork (I'd imagine) is NOTHING like the government giving you millions of pounds to gamble away, pairing you up with a sexy female agent that they are fine with you having sex with, and setting you up in a resort-like location where your every whim is catered to. Because that's your 'cover.' *rolls eyes

I don't blame anyone for loving, enjoying, and gobbling up these books. However, as a woman in 2014 I just can't ignore the screaming, in-your-face racism and sexism that permeates every page of this novel.

Fleming is a good author - there are some gems in here, some great lines and some deep philosophical pondering on Bond's part (this surprised me, he's usually very shallow). Also, no one can write a long villain speech like Fleming can. Le Chiffre's long speech to Bond about how he's going to torture him and there's no hope is wonderful and can be perfectly imagined playing out on the big screen. Classic.

Tl;dr - Exciting spy novel drenched in misogyny and racism.

I'll include some of the more inflammatory passages here. Don't read them if you're easily upset.

And then there was this pest of a girl. He sighed. Women were for recreation. On a job, they got in the way and fogged things up with sex and hurt feelings and all the emotional baggage they carried around. One had to look out for them and take care of them.
"Bitch," said Bond, and then remembering the Muntzes, he said "bitch" again more loudly and walked out of the room.

When gambling:
Bond saw luck as a woman, to be softly wooed or brutally ravaged, never pandered to or pursued.

When Vesper gets kidnapped:
This was just what he had been afraid of. These blithering women who thought they could do a man's work. Why the hell couldn't they stay at home and mind their pots and pans and stick to their frocks and gossip and leave the men's work to the men? And now for this to happen to him, just when the job had come off so beautifully: for Vesper to fall for an old trick like that and get herself snatched and probably held to ransom like some bloody heroine in a strip cartoon. The silly bitch. Bond boiled at the thought of the fix he was in.
Note: She gets kidnapped and he's annoyed because it throws a wrench in his plans. How dare she inconvenience him like this?!?!? Doesn't she know how annoying it is?

Here's the part where he's being tortured and thinks about her being gang-raped:
Through the red mist of pain, Bond thought of Vesper. He could imagine how she was being used by the two gunmen. They would be making the most of her before she was sent for by Le Chiffre. He thought of the fat wet lips of the Corsican and the slow cruelty of the thin man. Poor wretch to have been dragged into this. Poor little beast.

When Vesper's bound in the car with her skirt over her head and Bond's also kidnapped, next to her:
...his eroticism had been hotly aroused by the sight of her indecent nakedness.

The appeal of raping the woman you "love":
And he knew that she was profoundly, excitingly sensual, but that the conquest of her body, because of the central privacy in her, would each time have the tang of rape. Loving her physically would each be a thrilling voyage without the anticlimax or arrival.
Bond often talks in this book about getting the "arrogant, private, cold" Vesper to bend to his will in bed. Not only is he talking about spicy rape condiment to make sex more appealing (always like the first time, when they fight you a bit, I guess he's saying) but in an earlier passage he says he wanted her cold and arrogant body. He wanted to see tears and desire in her remote blue eyes and to take the ropes of her black hair in his hands and bend her long body back under his. Tears? Really? Crying during sex is just such a turn-on. <-- sarcasm

Even though Bond wants to take a chance on Vesper (he considers retiring from the Service and toys with the idea of marrying her) she turns out to be a double agent. Her lover is a captive and they'll kill him if she doesn't obey. She ends up nobly killing herself in order to 'save' Bond, to which he responds with deep hatred for her and referring to her as a 'bitch' again. Charming.

UPDATE: In the name of research, I re-watched the 2006 Casino Royale movie. I must say I find it vastly superior to the book. It embraces all the same plot points and basic ideas, but manages to make both Bond and Vesper Lynd into much better people than they are in the book. Bond actually seems as if he cares about Vesper, he seems to be more charming and less of a psychopathic a**hole. Also, Eva Green as Vesper brings some much needed cheekiness and teasing to the role. This creates a sexual tension between her and Bond that was stronger than that of the book. In the book she bounces between helpless/teary/servile and sullen/withdrawn/sulky. Neither of these attitudes is as charming as her pretty, sassy, and smart character in the film. The gambling is not as boring as it is in the book, and you don't have to endure Bond's snide comments about anyone who's not white. Not to mention the beautiful, amazing, talented, gorgeous, brilliant, superb Dame Judi Dench is in the film as M. :)

If you know me at all, you'd know that me saying that the film is better than the book is absolute blasphemy. This is only the second time I've ever thought this in my life. So you know it's serious. :)

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. Yes, he travels to exotic places to kill people and he has more than his share of liaisons with beautiful women....but the books include his thoughts on his job, his fear and apprehension during missions, and his considerations of retirement, settling down, forming a more lasting relationship with a woman, etc. The complexity of the character just doesn't come through in the movies. The movies are pretty much just action-packed fight scenes separated by drinking martinis and having sex.

In Casino Royale, Bond infiltrates a high stakes baccarat game in order to bankrupt and ultimately ruin a Russian operative, Le Chiffre. With some help from an American CIA agent, Felix Leiter, and another British Agent, the beautiful Vesper Lynd, Bond manages to win a record amount of money at the baccarat table. But Le Chiffre is determined not to be ruined. He kidnaps Bond and Vesper Lynd, setting in motion events that might be the end of Bond.

This book contains one of the most gruesome torture scenes I have ever experienced in a book. The movie starring Daniel Craig depicted the basics of the torture, but left out much of the psychological brutality of the entire scene. I thought the movie version was traumatic....but the book's description is so much more gruesome. It's an important scene that's integral to the plot of the book. It's not overdone and there is absolutely no detailed description of the event or in the injuries to Bond. The horror comes in the matter of fact manner in which Le Chiffre explains what he is doing and why, and the description of how he goes about it. The coldness, the violence, the unfeeling nature of a very evil man.....and the brutality yet simplistic nature of his attack on Bond. In the movie, a knotted rope is used for the attack. But in the book it's a simple household tool, a carpet beater. Le Chiffre comments that it is easy to cause extreme pain and suffering to a man with the simplest of tools if one knows just how to do it. The entire scene sent chills down my spine. It is definitely not for the feint of heart.

The book has 3 distinct sections -- the baccarat game at the casino, the kidnapping and torture, and the aftermath. I didn't much care for the first section of the book. I have absolutely no interest in gambling and there is a lot of explanation about the game, the odds, what cards they are playing, etc. Plus Fleming uses a lot of French, German and Russian words and phrases sprinkled throughout. While that does help create atmosphere, after awhile it just gets old, especially when it's gourmet food, wines, liquors and other details I felt weren't all that important. For me, it was just a bit overdone. After the baccarat game, the action revved up considerably and the story became much more interesting for me. The ending is a bit abrupt, but it makes sense that it ends the way it does.

After reading this first Bond book, I have a better understanding of the character and why he is the way he is. I want to read through the entire Bond series this year as part of my goal to read more books that I've always wanted to read, but never actually took the time. I'm glad I finally read Casino Royale. The book is so much more detailed than the movie.

I listened to the audiobook version of Casino Royale from Audible. I'm glad I chose to listen to the audiobook as as I don't speak French, German or Russian and would have completely flubbed my way through a lot of wine, food, character and place names throughout the entire novel. At just over 5 hours long, it was a relatively quick listen. Dan Stevens narrates. Stevens reads at a nice even pace, and did an excellent job with all different accents and voices of characters. I have hearing loss but was easily able to understand and enjoy this audiobook.

Daniel Craig is my Bond. I've never seen Brosnan's or Connery's or Dalton's Bond, or anyone else's. As such, Casino Royale was the first Bond movie I ever saw, and I friggin LOVED it from start to finish. Being as how I've seen the movie numerous times, I was initially leery of reading the original novel -- I hate reading the book AFTER I've seen the adaptation, because I never get the full enjoyment out of it that way. Happily though, it seems the film people stuck very close to the source material in their adaptation, aside from the ending. Here I was, expecting that high-adrenaline ending with the heartbreaking loss of Vesper, and Bond going out to hunt down his next target, when it ended with Vesper committing suicide rather than the climactic fall of an ancient Venetian waterfront building. Le sigh.

I do appreciate the way they updated the film, since the novel was written in the 1950s. I imagine it may have been a bit scandalous back then, the amount of graphic sex and violence mentioned in these pages, but then again perhaps not? I wish I could ask my grandfather if he'd ever read Fleming's novels and see what he thought of them back then. And thankfully the film portrayed Bond as more of a charmer and ladies' man than the asshole who completely views women as objects in the book. He's extremely cold and methodical here, where in the movie he is much more warm-blooded.

I also LOVED Simon Vance's narration. Will be looking up more of his voice work in the future! If you can't tell, I recommend the audio xD And I didn't realize how short this was going to be! Time to go find something else to listen to! And I'm TOTES watching this movie again when I get home tonight.