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Jotting down some notes/thoughts on each chapter as I go along. Don't know how long I'll keep up this format for, but for now, here it is.
1. The Secret Agent
Bond is introduced as Fleming's blunt instrument all right—cold and observational. Immediately we are put into Bond's mind, but it isn't warm and emotional there, it's dispassionate, calculating, problem-solving. We are shown ordinary life through the eyes of the secret agent. The casino becomes the potential for a robbery, and Bond mentally works through exactly how it might be carried off.
It's interesting that Le Chiffre is introduced immediately as well (in the second paragraph, which is about as immediately as one can introduce the story's principle antagonist after debuting the series' protagonist in the first paragraph).
Fleming tells the story in a straightforward fashion and with a hardboiled aesthetic, but there are details that tell of both Fleming's and Bond's eye for the finer things. It isn't just the sheets that are harsh against Bond's skin; it's the "French" sheets.
2. Dossier for M
Le Chiffre's backstory is provided to us in official documentation form, adding to the authenticity of Bond and the Secret Service, which Fleming was all about. Promptly we see M characterized as he gruffly and snarkily barks at Head of S for "showing off." Bond is further characterized within the documentation as well: "We therefore recommend that the finest gambler available to the Service should be given the necessary funds and endeavour to outgamble this man." What a badass first mission to be introduced with. The fate of the secure world is at stake, Bond, we need you to outgamble this madman. With pleasure, sir. This is one of the things that uniquely defines Bond. His taste for the high life is part of his unique skillset. He is not just a secret agent, but the finest gambler in the Service. Furthermore, this says that he doesn't just know how to accomplish the mission. He knows how to WIN. That's Bond.
Le Chiffre's background here is full of "benign bizarre" from the get-go. Shades of Hugo Drax here as well. Obviously something Fleming's mind turned to.
The "Conclusion" here—"Every effort should be made to improve our knowledge of this very powerful organization and destroy its operatives"—sums up Bond's one-man crusade against SMERSH throughout the first 5 novels (Moonraker standalone notwithstanding).
3. Number 007
Succinct storytelling. Fleming moves things along. There's some interesting shuffling of time sequencing here to drive the narrative forward. Tanner and Moneypenny are introduced briskly upfront. The sending of another person to work with Bond—the introduction of the Bond girl—seems almost like an afterthought of Fleming's with M stopping Bond before he goes. As if to say, how am I going to work some sex into this thing? Need a girl in there somewhere... Wonder how much of this he had planned from the get-go. He did after all bang out the first draft while on his honeymoon.
In light of what we know of the ending, Bond's final thought there (hoping they don't send a stupid man) sounds tragically trivial.
4. 'L'Ennemi Ecoute'
Introducing an element of danger and intrigue with Bond's cover immediately blown. Mathis seems a good ally (can only picture Giannini in the part). I like that Bond and Leiter are introduced for the first time in CR. Bond is a real cold bastard about women here. Keep coming back to the notion that Fleming wrote this on his bloody honeymoon.
5. The Girl From Headquarters
Opens with Fleming's beautiful descriptive writing establishing the scenery. Bond's hobby of cars briefly mentioned. He takes pleasure where he can. Bond warms toward Vesper upon meeting her. He's stimulated by her, but checks himself and realizes she will be easy to work with professionally.
"As a woman, he wanted to sleep with her..." Tsk, tsk, sloppy phrasing by Fleming here. How did no one catch this?
6. Two Men in Straw Hats
Bond feels himself start to vomit at the sight of blood splattered everywhere. A very human reaction. Not quite so cold-blooded after all. Love that last line about Bond reminding himself to tip the waiter doubly for this particular meal. Great Bondian thought to end the chapter on.
The bombers: inspiration for Mollaka in the film?
Bond shaken, needing a whiskey: inspiration for post-stairwell fight?
Mathis is gung-ho now, ready for the mission. The bombing attempt appears to have kickstarted his particular engine.
I don't tend to like representations of Bond and women on the covers, as they date and don't look like the images in my head. These ones, which are the copies I mostly found when I was buying the books in my teens, are still my favourites. So simple and bold!
I hadn't thought about it that way, but now that you mention it, you're right!
Bond's thoughts on the casino, luck, and his own part in the game of gambling. "He liked being an actor and a spectator and from his chair to take part in other men's dramas and decisions, until it came to his own turn to say that vital 'yes' or 'no'..." Sounds a bit like us, fellow readers, investing ourselves in the stories of James Bond for awhile, until it's time to take action in our own lives, no? "But he was honest enough to admit that he had never yet been made to suffer by cards or by women." Give it time, James. Still this tells us where he's coming from pre-CR. He's obviously been with women, but never one who left him hurt.
Official introduction of Felix Leiter. "Bond—James Bond." Straight from the books. And of course, the recipe for the classic Vesper Martini. Quite a bit of Bond history on one page.
8. Pink Lights and Champagne
Vesper on her velvet dress: "...if you hear me scream tonight, I shall have sat on a cane chair." A bit of humorously dark foreshadowing here or pure coincidence?
Vesper: "Is it very shameless to be so certain and so expensive?"
Bond: "It's a virtue..."
Bond portrays the height of class in ordering their meal, even if he is mostly just saying things like "I'll have the artichoke heart" in French. But that's the trick: Fleming chooses just the right phrases to make it sound like pure class.
9. The Game Is Baccarat
Bond becomes all business over dinner, not wanting to get mixed up with Vesper romantically. He's very matter-of-fact. "If it wasn't for the job, we wouldn't be here...Let's consider what has to be done."
"It's very satisfactory to be a corpse who changes places with his murderers." Great line from Bond. They should use that in one of the films some day.
10. The High Table
Leiter has lucky numbers. Bond does not.
Leiter's humor begins to show: "You'll find it quite a painless sensation being given plenty of money for nothing."
Card playing. Not the most engaging of Fleming's writing, nonetheless he fills the passages with his trademark metaphors, referring to the Greek's hands as two scuttling pink crabs (predatory creatures) and the baize itself as a "grass-green...battlefield [that] would soak up the blood of its victims and refresh itself." All parts of Fleming's world (namely Jamaica, life underwater, and wartime) even if they seem out of place in a casino.
11. Moment of Truth
Further grotesque descriptions of Le Chiffre. Among other things, he's compared to a Minotaur here.
Bond offers a little kind and sage advice to Mrs. Du Pont (of the Goldfinger Du Ponts). Rather human side of Bond here, perhaps.
Highly unflattering descriptions of the two thugs with Le Chiffre. Humorously, Fleming has Bond consider that naked one would be "an obscene object." Fleming sure loves to rag on and demonize physical imperfections. For one of them, Bond supposes "he would kill without interest or concern for what he killed, and that he would prefer strangling." Apathy, bloodlessness, a lack of passion characteristic traits in Fleming's depictions of villainy.
The metaphors grow deadlier as Bond drifts into deeper waters. The baize is now "as livid as the grass on a fresh tomb." The ace of spades appears as a black widow spider. The 5 of hearts is "a difficult fingerprint in dried blood." Especially like that last one.
12. The Deadly Tube
Felix and the US cavalry to the rescue! Awesome moment, very well played with Bond discovering the note right there at the table in his moment of defeat. Especially after he's had the thought that Leiter walked away out of shame for his loss.
Great idea with the cane-gun and very well executed. Only Fleming could add real life-and-death danger to a card game like this. The tension mounts wonderfully.
Bond's armpits are wet with fear after the close call with the cane-gun. Further depiction of Bond as human, fearful, fallible. He knows the stakes, he reacts to them in a human way. Makes him relatable, easy to identify with.
The baize a "green sea." Le Chiffre an octopus under a rock watching Bond from across the table. Fleming continues his Jamaican/aquatic imagery. It strikes me now that all these descriptions are actually appropriate for Bond as well, as Fleming gives Bond his own fondness for Jamaica (as stated in Bond's chosen cover).
Just some lovely writing in here as Bond waits for Le Chiffre's decision. The double queens kissing the cloth, as mentioned by Thunderfinger.
Mystery drink arrives. Bond drinks it down without knowing who it came from. Pretty careless oversight of Bond here. Shouldn't knowing where your drinks came from be rule number one on a mission? Especially when two assassination attempts have already been made on your life? I'd be surprised if this wasn't the inspiration for the film's "dirty" Martini though.
Perfect touch with Bond slipping the hundred mille plaque to the chef de partie. Perfectly worked into the film, too. And at least Leiter offers Bond an extra set of eyes against any last "throw" of Le Chiffre's, versus just disappearing in the film.
Bond to Leiter: "I hope we can get on a job again one day." Oh you can be assured of that...
Ferocious sexual fantasy: wanting to see tears in Vesper's eyes and pull her head back by her hair. A tad violent perhaps? Especially with Bond's eyes narrowing and him hungrily glaring at himself in the mirror over the thought. Bond's views toward women so far have been fairly belittling, though he does concede upon meeting Vesper that his earlier thoughts about being assigned a woman had been hypocritical. With Bond and his thoughts on/attitude toward women it at times becomes difficult to separate character from creator, knowing Fleming lived a similar "love" em and leave em lifestyle. What do folks think of the brutality in Bond's fantasy? Or am I reading too much into tears in her eyes and hair-pulling?
14. 'La Vie En Rose?'
I like this opening detail about Bond considering whether to borrow some money to throw at a table and ultimately considering this brash, deciding it would be "a kick in the teeth to the luck which had been given him." Though he previously had said he had no lucky numbers, we occasionally see Bond having brief, fanciful thoughts about life, fate, luck, the universe. This is another great part of what makes him human (even if this perhaps isn't the greatest example). Fleming allows Bond to be fleetingly philosophical in a somewhat capricious way from time to time. (And at other times, philosophical in a much deeper way.)
Lovely description of the dining hall. Fleming uses just the right turns of phrase.
First instance of Bond having scrambled eggs for dinner. Might as well count them.
Bond rising from the table as Vesper leaves. Another nice characterizing detail lifted for the film—an English gentleman through and through.
15. Black Hare and Grey Hound
Heading into the car chase, it strikes me that Fleming's earlier mention of Bond's Bentley and his hobby of motoring perhaps was all to set up this chase sequence. It works toward that end, anyway.
Not to dump on Fleming for misogyny or anything, but this paragraph here about women staying at home and sticking to their pots and pans and gossip, culminating in the phrase "the silly bitch," feels out of place in the heat of the chase. Overly detailed as it is. As you read you can just picture Fleming angrily slamming each typewriter key with smoke pouring out around the cigarette clenched between his teeth, a big fat vein pulsing on his forehead for the idiocy of every woman in the world. Am I being unfair? Too harsh? Maybe. But then, so was this paragraph. The writer intruding upon the story for a moment, I'd say.
The next paragraph feels much more like the Bond we were introduced to in the first chapter. Thinking of the mission and how all the pieces fit in. Even counting the girl expendable and thinking if she gets shot in the process that's too damned bad. "Shoot her, she means nothing to me."
Dumping tire spikes out the boot of the car via lever. So Tomorrow Never Dies has a little more Fleming than we all thought! ;)
Felix Leiter, who gets introduced here, is named after two of Fleming s friends: Ivar Felix Bryce and the American Tommy Leiter.
Bond is taking out his anger at Vesper being kidnapped by cursing female agents in general. Viewed in light of the novel's ending, the passage can be read ironically since Vesper was in fact the opposite of incompetent, having arranged what Bond assumed was accidental. Bond himself is the fool in this situation.
True, there is irony in this and that's a good way of reading the passage. Still, the hyperbole here, the overly detailed thought process Bond goes through, for me feels unintentionally humorous due to its extremity and rings false for the character given how he's been set up so far. It's a flash of anger, yes, but one that kind of goes on a bit before we get to the more calculating Bond we've been introduced to thus far.
Yes, those were some of the first ones I got and they still remain my favourites.
That's my plan as well.
Edition I read: 2006 Penguin with the film tie-in cover (I collect film covers)
Where I read it: I got through a significant chunk while giving blood. It was a good distraction.
James Bond
He's good-looking, and Fleming has the skill to get that across without making me think 'ugh, an impossibly handsome hero, how nauseating'.
We’re always right there in the moment with Bond: seeing what he sees, feeling what he feels, thinking what he thinks. He’s hyper-aware of everything going on in his own body and mind, as well as the world around him; he needs to be.
He’s cold and efficient, but he’s human, delighting in his car and in good food to make up for the lack of close relationships in his life and fully aware that’s what he’s doing. Perhaps because he spends so much time on his own, he's developed some interesting philosophies, which he shares with Mathis or Vesper or simply runs through in his own mind for the reader's benefit.
Obviously he is also a great big sexist. Or do I hold that opinion because, as a woman, I consist entirely of 'sex, hurt feelings and emotional baggage'?
I will always forgive Bond, though. We learn later that he lost his mum early and went from boarding-school into the military; how is he supposed to know anything about women, poor old chap? And he learns a hard lesson here after dismissing half the human race so disdainfully.
I’m touched, too, by how easily he flips from being cold and distant with Vesper to going all needy, and by that ‘poor little beast’ during the kidnapping even as he’s telling himself she’s not important and he’s going to let her die if necessary. Ultimately, in love as in his job, he's a fallible human who makes mistakes and isn't always sure exactly what's going on.
The villain
Le Chiffre sets the pattern for all the baddies who will follow him. Unusual history. Striking name. Physically gross. Sexually deviant. He’s the original and one of the scariest. After all, Bond doesn’t beat him in the end, but is saved by luck.
The girl
You know as soon as Bond rolls his eyes at being given a woman to work with that he will end up sleeping with Vesper, and I bet people knew it reading the first edition.
Again, a pattern is being set for Bond’s future relationships. We see what he finds attractive in a woman, and why he doesn’t want to get too close (but does regardless).
Vesper isn’t just a cipher (do you see what I did there? Thank you) - it’s clear that she has a life back in London and didn’t just pop into existence to be the love interest. Quite how complicated that life is won’t be apparent for a while, but there are hints right from her first scene.
Other cast
Having Mathis and Leiter around can feel like adding too many characters to a fairly straightforward narrative; the plot could manage perfectly well with only one of them, or even neither. They are both charming and fun in their different ways, though, and they will have their moments in later books. Fleming obviously had an eye on series potential from the start.
The plot
On the face of it, this is a very simple story in which Good, with skill and a little luck, defeats Evil at the card table (an interesting novelty). There are a few setbacks to raise the tension, but Good inevitably triumphs.
You expect the win in the casino to be the end. Then you expect Bond to rescue the girl and propose to her, or at least hop into bed. Instead, there are several chapters of human relationships in all their complex messiness and a tragic ending. I'd never read anything like it circa 1993; the effect forty years earlier must have been sensational.
The location
Apart from a flashback to London, the action takes place entirely in and around Royale. This is one of the reasons CR is among my favourite Fleming novels.
I’ve had plenty of holidays in France, many on the coast, as a child and as an adult. Since my teens, Casino Royale has crossed my mind on every occasion. I know this fictional place, its sights and smells and people; it’s an amalgam of all the French towns I’ve visited. It’s real.
(I have been in a French casino only once: with my dad, who had decided it was somewhere that might sell him a pack of cigarettes at midnight. It was terribly seedy-looking and I was thrilled to bits.)
Food & drink
I have always loved the descriptions of Bond’s meals. A big part of that, I suspect, is my original reading of the novels at boarding-school, with its horrible, horrible school dinners. (Look how much detail JK Rowling lavishes on food in the Harry Potter books. She knows what kids want.)
Funny how Gordon’s was a posh gin then. Today it’s the baseline below which lies supermarket own brand.
“The trouble always is,” he explained to Vesper, “not how to get enough caviar, but how to get enough toast with it.”
This may be my favourite line in all of Bond. It’s pure, delightful snobbery; I quote it whenever I am offered caviar, which may be why I don’t get offered caviar very often.
The writing
Fleming has an instinct for the well-crafted phrase – ’the loitering drum-beat of the two-inch exhaust’ is positively Homeric – but falls down occasionally on grammar. I’m looking at ‘As a woman, he wanted to sleep with her…’ which – pedant alert – implies Bond is a woman.
He has an original way of thinking and writing that makes the book stand out from other thrillers. Both the first and the final lines are absolute killers which have always stuck with me.
(I would have liked to have made this longer, but I’m about to go away and I was short on time. I always take a Bond novel on holiday, and I’m looking forward to reading LALD on this one. Catch you all soon!)
While reading that page I thought: If only Fleming knew while typing this all out just what he was starting...
Probably one of the most badass ways to read James Bond. ;)
Good insights there. "Hyper-aware" is a good way of describing Bond.
Great thoughts on what has shaped Bond's harsh attitude toward women, and also on where we see his cracks as a fallible human being and how he perhaps begins to change. Though that last line of the novel does ring with inner resolve and finality. As we move through the novels, one of the things I'll be keeping my eye on is Bond's relationships with women and how his attitudes toward them change (or do not).
As he's hauled into Le Chiffre's car, Bond is emotionally drained. "He had had to take too much in the past 24 hours and now this last stroke by the enemy seemed almost too final." This idea of Bond being thoroughly beaten (physically or mentally) by each novel's end. He sacrifices himself fully for the mission, willingly or not.
After the thug's brutality (the blow over the heart, the rabbit-punch), "Bond hoped he might get a chance of killing him." An emotional, in-the-moment response perhaps, and the man is described as being thoroughly evil; still, this hoping for the chance to kill someone combined with Bond's official license to do so blurs things somewhat, morally.
Bond fights an impulse to blame London and instead blames himself and his own hubris, guzzling champagne, thinking the battle won.
Awesome moment as Bond takes action, hands bound, knowing the best he can do is attempt as much damage as possible at the two gunmen and exchange a quick word with Vesper. He fails, but at least he tries. Having only his legs. Only Bond.
17. 'My Dear Boy'
Grim setting for the torture. An ambiguous room somewhere between a living room and a dining room. Small stained carpet. Bizarre throne chair in carved oak, denoting a position of power. Of course, the cane chair. The setting alone does as much to instill unease within the reader as anything.
The touch of the coffee bizarrely makes this all feel rather domestic. And then you have the incongruous touch of Le Chiffre seating himself on the throne.
Before it begins, Le Chiffre looks Bond "almost caressingly" in the eyes. Of course Fleming intended subtle homosexual undertones in this scene. It's a sadomasochistic setup with one man bound naked to a chair and the other sweet talking him and beating his genitals with a large instrument. The film captured the tone perfectly I thought, with just the right subtle gestures. (And of course Skyfall took the idea a step further and played it much more overtly to comedic effect.)
That line from Le Chiffre—"I shall take up a useful and profitable career and live to a ripe and peaceful old age in the bosom of the family I shall doubtless create"—stands out as one more barb or threat to Bond's manhood and what can be taken from him.
Fleming addresses the sexual dynamic a bit more explicitly with Bond reflecting that torture can enter "a sort of sexual twilight where pain turned to pleasure and where hatred and fear of the tortures turned to a masochistic infatuation."
Le Chiffre's plan with the check (purportedly winning the money back from Bond in one final gentlemen's game) sounds awfully tenuous.
Bond thinks of Vesper in his pain.
I suppose what I'm most impressed by in reading this is how well they adapted it to the screen. I particularly like Le Chiffre's film line, "Then I think I shall feed you what you seem not to value." Rather evocative of Faulkner's Light in August there.
Fleming created an exquisite torture sequence here. The dynamic between villain and Bond is marvelously played.
18. A Craglike Face
Brief chapter told well from Bond's limited POV. The swift killing of Le Chiffre and the thoughtfulness in carving the label of "Spy" into Bond's hand further define SMERSH as a force to be reckoned with.
19. The White Tent
Bond survives physical torture where a normal man would not. Speaks further to Bond's resolve, his fortitude, his strength of will.
Bond notes that the doctor is a good man. This appears to be a part of Fleming's world: this idea of good men vs. evil men. What defines Fleming's good men? Having good sense, giving wise orders, being in control...
20. The Nature of Evil
An interesting chapter wherein Bond grows morosely philosophical and admits to Mathis he's decided to resign. Also, his first two kills are elaborated upon.
It's startling at first to hear Bond label Le Chiffre the hero, until one realizes that what has really been shaken within Bond is his devotion to his country and high moral causes, his views of political factions and allegiances and what's deemed right and wrong in the world, this country vs. that country, sides and how easily they change over time. It's a kind of gloomy, existential worrying about whether what he's fighting for today won't be what his country fights against in the next century. And he isn't entirely wrong in his thinking.
Bond (really, Fleming) loses me a bit, however, when he goes off on the need for an Evil Book about how to be bad, and Mathis confuses things even further by sarcastically interpreting all this as how they should all pursue thoroughly evil lives. I think the plot is lost a little bit in all this. It has always seemed that way to me each time I've read this chapter.
21. Vesper
Vesper breaks down crying in front of Bond. Bond comforts her, despite being the one bandaged up and bed-bound. This is a type of scene returned to throughout future novels: Bond comforting or otherwise "dealing with" the emotionally distraught woman.
I don't intend them to be long essays like my Bond film reviews, not only because I don't think the books transfer to that kind of writing, but because I'll lack the knowledge of the books to really add in depth impressions.
It was indeed well-done, but the movie ultimately erred in adding too much humor to the scene--in Fleming we understand how grave the situation has become when Bond can barely even talk because of the pain and trauma. In the film Bond is alert enough to humorously taunt LeChiffre, which suggests his spirits haven't been broken--when they should be. The film is an excellent work on its own, but I find it a disappointment as an adaptation, because it waters down every major set-piece of the novel: poker instead of baccarat, a torture scene with too much humor, Vesper's death turned into an action sequence, and a positive ending (Bond gets his man) instead of the book's harsh, bleak conclusion.
The idea of a Bible of Evil is Fleming at his most intellectually playful, but also plays into the idea that LeChiffre's existence was necessary--because there is no book of evil, we must learn about evil from the actions of wicked men like LeChiffre, who therefore serves a useful purpose. Mathis is having none of this and sarcastically twists Bond's ideas to suggest we can better learn about evil by trying to be more evil in our everyday lives (why let supervillains have all the fun?).
Perhaps the Bond novels are an attempt to make up for the absence of a Bible of Evil by giving us a rogues gallery of truly evil individuals.
I wouldn't say I agree with the above point. There's probably more humor and wit in the film than in the book, but I don't think it ever truly ruins the experience. I don't view Bond's verbal row with Le Chiffre during his torture as comedy at all. He's stalling for time, trying to think of a way to get out of it, or protect Vesper, and like a Spider-Man or other hero, he makes light of things to avoid thinking about the despair coming his way. That look he gives when his attempts fail and he hears Vesper's shrill screams echoing from the other chamber tells us all we need to know: Bond thinks he's about to die or face the most painful torture ever, and it's at that moment that he stops the acting. If not for White bursting in, it would've been an unbearable and life-altering next few minutes for him. The scene in the book and in the film both sell me that Bond is absolutely screwed, and only the luck of timing can get him out of it.
I can more understand the anger about how Vesper's death was handled, as I know that Dan would've really sold a powerful scene where Bond finds the girl dead in bed, and reads her note to himself as the camera pans in for a close-up. That being said, the Venice scene we got doesn't disappoint me either, and in two major ways it's an improvement for me on the whole scene. For one, in the film Bond actually finds out about Vesper's betrayal in a far more shocking moment, and is able to chase after her while she's still alive to give her a piece of his mind. His anger and blind rage at this moment sells his later turn of feeling towards her at QoS's end, and in that second makes us angry and on the chase for Vesper too; we are involved in the story, not subtracted from it. Secondly, I think Vesper's actual death, drowning in front of Bond, is far more traumatic and startling than in the book, where we don't even witness her death. The movie puts us right there with Bond, in a place where neither of us are going to be able to save her. Eva plays is horrifically, like we're watching a snuff film of a dying woman, and that image is imprinted with me forever.
Maybe the action went overboard at points, but to have the better reveal of the Vesper ruse and to see her die makes it all the more powerful. It again puts Bond in another helpless situation, trying to breathe life into her before giving up. All his emotions are sold in that close-up on Dan, and no words are needed. It gives us a better look into Bond's inner feelings on the matter than the book ever does, I feel. "The bitch is dead," is a great line, but unlike the movie, we never really get to see Bond visibly lying about his feelings for Vesper to his superiors like we do in QoS. The movies portray his conflicted feelings for her far better, as well as the journey he goes on to forgive her. The ending of QoS with that necklace lying in the snow following Bond's meeting with the man that helped string his woman along feels ripped right from the CR follow up Fleming never gave us.
All these factors are also why I wouldn't agree that the film is a happy ending, by any stretch. Bond gets White, sure, but we still know the stakes that've been set and all that Bond has gone through. He's put through the emotional and physical ringer like no other Bond film outside OHMSS (which it surpasses physically and approaches emotionally), so the film finishes with all this in mind. The money is gone, the woman betrayed him and killed herself in front of his eyes, and now he's picking up the pieces to get it all sorted, both for the mission and himself. Not my idea of cheery. ;)
An interesting glimpse into Bond's routine with women: "the conventional parabola—sentiment, the touch of the hand, the kiss, the passionate kiss, the feel of the body, the climax in the bed, then more bed, then less bed, then the boredom, the tears, and the final bitterness...the final angry farewell on some doorstep in the rain." Of course, "with Vesper there could be none of this." Bond is happy to be with Vesper—even sticks up for her in his report—yet Fleming rather poetically describes the matter as, perhaps, escaping Bond's better judgment: "Whether Bond liked it or not, the branch had already escaped his knife and was ready to burst into flower."
Vesper's anxiety begins to bloom. She dismisses it as nerves. "This road is full of ghosts."
Which brings me to a question I've often had about this latter section of Casino Royale. Why do they remain in the area, where so much immediate trauma has been done to them and where anyone remotely connected with Le Chiffre would be sure to find them? I don't believe Fleming addresses this directly. The best explanation I've come up with for myself is that Bond is still healing and not up for travel. Anyone have a better one?
23. Tide of Passion
Lovely opening here—showing not telling the distance between Bond and Vesper, the words not spoken, the secret she bears. The beginning of lovemaking, the breaking apart, Vesper looking forlornly into the distance, removed from it all.
The mark of SMERSH on Bond's right hand—a symbol of the evil they can't escape. It's there with them still.
Even after his talk with Mathis, Bond still dwells on the possibility of resignation on the beach.
And then this very bothersome line: "the sweet tang of rape." Actually, the library edition I'm reading (perhaps intentionally) has dropped the word "sweet," which, while I never agree with literary censorship, I'll concede does make the line more palatable. For as much as I admire the writing of Fleming in so many ways, he did have his "missteps" and this is one of the grandest of them all. TSWLM, I recall, contains another along similar lines. A reminder to future writers I suppose that what you put down in ink stands for all time and forever contributes to future generations' views of you as a historical figure (should you be so lucky to be regarded as such in the first place). Lovecraft's writing of course is tainted with horrific racist notions (some of King's early work too to a much lesser degree). But I won't go off on this tangent now. A bothersome line I'm hard-pressed to deal with in any other way than to shrug and concede, "yes, it is, unfortunately, there."
24. 'Fruit Défendu'
Bond has made up his mind to retire. He returns inside to a picture of orderly his and hers domesticity and is touched. It's a deeply bittersweet moment, harshly underlined by his innocent noticing of Vesper's Nembutal sleeping pills (already her mind is on the possibility of suicide, even as he dreams of a future with her).
After Vesper's melancholy talk about people being islands, never really knowing each other, she alleviates the mood with a laugh, saying her island feels close to Bond's tonight. To which Bond replies, "Let's join up and make a peninsula." First of the groan-inducing entendres?
Beautiful description of the moonlight through the shutters lapping at "the secret shadows in the snow of her body."
After a night of lovemaking, Bond goes for a dawn swim and lets himself sink to the bottom. An interesting moment in and of itself, and one could read into the scene the representation of water as a metaphor for sex and Bond being alone here and wishing Vesper were with him, but what I find even more curious is the coincidental mirroring of Craig's reverse-gender Dr. No moment in CR:
"Under the water he imagined the tranquil scene and wished that Vesper could just then come through the pines and be astonished to see him suddenly erupt from the empty seascape. When after a full moment he came to the surface in a froth of spray, he was disappointed."
25. 'Black-Patch
Things deteriorate quickly between Bond and Vesper, but as Fleming notes, this is true to how life can be. Tides changing suddenly and with little explanation.
I love that even though Bond finds 'Black-Patch' an innocent figure, he still takes down the license plate. Never takes any chances.
26. 'Sleep Well, My Darling'
A final night of lovemaking. Vesper takes in her final moments of life: "She examined every line of his face as if she were seeing him for the first time." As you say, @Birdleson: this is a thoroughly "dark and melancholy tale." Once you know the ending (really, even if you don't) everything after the torture scene (no picnic, in and of itself) is a slow and grim march toward the inevitable, ever so poignantly punctuated by Bond's thoughts on resignation and his vision of a happy future with Vesper.
27. The Bleeding Heart
Bond snaps back to reality: "How soon Mathis had been proven right, and how soon his own little sophistries had been exploded in his face!"
Fleming deftly sets up the next chapter in the life of James Bond: "Here was a target for him, right to hand. He would take on SMERSH and hunt it down...he would attack the arm that held the whip and the gun...go after the threat behind the spies, the threat that made them spy."
And what an abrupt yet perfect line to end on. As Camille of QoS might say, there's something terribly efficient about Fleming in this final chapter. The last page sets things up perfectly for the rest of the series. A real cliffhanger ending. Stay tuned, readers, it says. James Bond will return.
But if Bond is still able to crack jokes, this reduces the impact of the torture. In the book, we understand he's passed into exhaustion and true helplessness because he can no longer even speak properly. Bond never reaches this extremity in the film, so the torture scene is weakened.
I can't agree. The book has a two-part punch: Bond discovers Vesper is dead, and then discovers she was a traitor, which twists the knife. And then Bond realizes he has only been playing "Red Indians," so another twist. The film jumbles this: first we learn Vesper is a traitor and that Bond wants to kill her, and then the house collapses and he wants to save her. Instead of a deepening sense of tragedy, we get a yo-yo effect.
Perhaps, but I prefer the shock of Bond being wakened and rushing to find her body under the sheet. A great image, followed by the letter whose revelations will destroy Bond's love and turn his view of himself and his work upside down.
I don't think convey much more than grief and distress. It's not equivalent to the roller coaster of Bond's feelings as he reads the letter.
There's no reason for CR to show Bond's conflicted feelings at the end, because at the end of CR his feelings for Vesper are dead. The "bitch is dead" is not just a memorable line but a shocking one, because after almost becoming human thanks to Vesper's love, Bond has turned back into the cold "machine" Mathis wanted him to be. It's a terrifying last line, bleak and tragic. Ending a movie on it would have taken courage, because it would have been a comfortless ending.
Compared to the book's ending, it's happy. At the end of CR Bond is humiliated and bereft. The enemy is no closer in sight and Vesper has done an immense amount of damage to the Service, which he can do nothing about. All he can do is phone his office and rage. But in the film? Vesper turns out to be a "good" traitor and posthumously gives Bond the information to get the bad guys. Bond gets his man and gets to look cool with his monster-size gun and recite his catchphrase to the accompaniment of the Bond theme. It's almost an inverse image of the impotence and rage of Fleming's ending.
I also wouldn't agree that the betrayal turns him cold. It might've made him stall on settling down for a while and his ego is hurt for being duped, but he's still the man that runs in front of bullets for any injured girl he finds, and he is of course able to find the greatest love of his life again years later, the opposite of what a colder man would do. He just had to repress himself for a while and pull his heart a bit under his sleeve.
Convenience must surely have been a part of it. While Bond recovers from the worst of it, Vesper spends her days being shown around by contacts in the area. Under normal circumstances, that would seem a natural thing, but given the severity of the torture and the long arm of SMERSH you would think protocol would tell Bond otherwise. Maybe we're meant to believe Bond truly is confident the danger is well passed. He certainly seems to think so each time Vesper's "nerves" act up.
One of the points that I find interesting about Fleming's first novel as compared with the Bond character that we are most familiar with (that is, the one in the movies) is the discrepancies between what we have come to expect and the character as he is presented here. The world of MovieBond is an inherently glamorous one, the casinos most definitely included. Here, the first image we are given of a casino in the wee hours of the morning is largely distasteful. We are told that Fleming's Bond has never worked with a woman before, and that he probably won't like it. This is quite at odds with the Bond we've come to expect, who will be bedding at least two women per adventure, and either working with one as a trusted ally or stealing his adversary's mistress just to shake the poor felon up. I'm not stating a preference for one Bond over another here, just pointing out the differences between them. Did Fleming's view of the character change as the years went on and the novels piled up -- or was he just setting the readers up for a surprise?