Thursday 7 June 2012

Classic Reading - Casino Royale

I'm trying to read more classics, so this is where you'll find them!

Casino Royale
Ian Fleming
7 / 10

From the blurb: In the first of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, 007 declares war on Le Chiffre, French communist and paymaster of the Soviet murder organization SMERSH.

The battle begins with a fifty-million-franc game of baccarat, gains momentum during Bond's fiery love affair with a sensuous lady spy, and reaches a chilling climax with fiendish torture at the hands of a master sadist. For incredible suspense, unexpected thrills, and extraordinary danger, nothing can beat James Bond in his inaugural adventure.

'Skyfall', the newest Bond film, has an announced release date of October 2012. It's really exciting, and in the meantime I thought I'd try to read the original books.

If I'm being honest, I was feeling a bit let down. This is a classic, a massive franchise... and really dull. Until I got to about halfway through, when the gambling starts in earnest and the action starts to heat up. There's a terrifying torture scene that gives me chills to think of even now I've put the book down. And the fast-paced scenes, especially the fist fights, are so well written. There's even a crisis of conscience that serves to give Bond unexpected depth and make the reader question the nature of good and evil.

However, this book hasn't aged very well. There are long winded explanations of a simple game, and the book is an awful example of raging sexism. Vesper's as useless and emotional as Bond expects her to be, which is disappointing. There's also a lot of technology and it took me a while to work out that a "cable" is a telegram type thing. I did really enjoy Bond's explanation of his dressing gown.

I'm glad I read this as I did enjoy it, and I definitely want to read the next in the series. But if I'm being honest, I definitely preferred the film adaptation.

Teaser Quote: These blithering women who thought they could do a man's work. Why couldn't they stay at home and mind their pots and pans and stick to their frocks and gossip and leave men's work to me?

'Live and Let Die' is the next book in the James Bond series.

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