The Modes of Bond

By Jacob O.

Ian Fleming's Casino Royale is the first James Bond novel. That should be enough information to assume that it is stylistically sound (and also to guess most of the plot). "Sound" is the best description for it. In every aspect, it is solid and hard to criticize, though it all adds up to an uninspired style. The novel follows Bond as he completes his mission to out-gamble, bankrupt, and humiliate a Soviet agent, Le Chiffre, in a French casino attended by the rich and cunning or otherwise the rich and bored.

To start with the few obvious flaws, there are two huge chunks of exposition, each several pages long. One is right at the beginning of the novel, making up the entire second chapter. It gives the background for Bond's mission in the guise of an internal report in the British Secret Service and is, perhaps, forgivable. The second occurs shortly before the big climax (actually the first of two climaxes) wherein Bond beats Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat. Explaining what baccarat is appears to take half an hour.

Beyond that, Fleming's command of the narrative modes is hard to complain about. The dialogue is realistic, changes in sophistication where appropriate, and has even aged well over the last sixty-three years. His descriptions are detailed enough to provide an image but still leave plenty to the reader's imagination. The action is unobtrusively simple and thus immediate, although it only gets exciting during the baccarat scene and the later torture scene (the second climax).

The novel is written in third-person limited, so the reader has a window into Bond's thoughts. Those can get creepy or disturbing, especially when he thinks about women.

Overall, the novel's style is exciting and engaging, though the content may leave a sour taste in a reader's mouth.

Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming, Thomas & Mercer, 1953, 178 pages