Casino Royale by Ian Fleming was the first James Bond novel. It eventually paved the way for 11 other novels by Fleming himself in addition to two short story anthologies, followed by many ‘continuation’ Bond novels by other authors.

Since first being published on April 13, 1953 by Jonathan Cape, Casino Royale has been adapted for the screen three times; a 1954 CBS television episode of Climax! starring Barry Nelson as “Jimmy Bond”, a 1967 film spoof of the same name starring David Niven as 007, and the twenty-first official film in the EON Productions Bond franchise starring Daniel Craig as Bond.

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 favour of You Asked For It. The novel was subtitled “Casino Royale” and made reference to secret agent 007 as “Jimmy Bond” on the back cover. 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.

Plot summary (Wikipedia): 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 Russian agent’s gambling debts will provoke SMERSH into killing him. After hours of intensive play, Bond manages to beat Le Chiffre, but only with extra money provided by Felix Leiter of the CIA, who is in attendance as a covert observer.

Bond has been provided with an assistant, 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, 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.

After Bond’s recovery, during which he expresses an intention to resign from the Service, he spends his convalescence with Lynd, but becomes suspicious of her after repeated sightings of a man with an eyepatch who terrifies her. Believing the man to be another agent of SMERSH sent to kill her (and Bond) for her disobedience, Vesper commits suicide and leaves a note for Bond explaining her actions. Her betrayal inspires Bond to remain in the Service and he 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: Fleming only played Portuguese businessmen and that afterwards Fleming had fantasised 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 inspiration 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 protects them both from a bomb blast.

See also:

• Bond novels: Ian Fleming