The James Bond Bedside Companion

by Raymond Benson

  In one moment, Bond becomes nostalgic and reflects on his early years. As his plane is flying over Switzerland, he is reminded of a time when, as a teenager, he had climbed mountains with some companions:

  And now? Bond smiled wryly at his reflection in the Perspex as the plane swung out of the mountains and over the grosgrained terazza of Lombardy. If that young James Bond came up to him in the street and talked to him, would he recognize the clean, eager youth that had been him at seventeen? And what would that youth think of him, the secret agent, the older James Bond? Would he recognize himself beneath the surface of this man who was tarnished with years of treachery and ruthlessness and fear—this man with the cold arrogant eyes and the scar down his cheek and the flat bulge beneath his left armpit? If the youth did not recognize him what would his judgment be? What would he think of Bond's present assignment? What would he think of the dashing secret agent who was off across the world in a new and most romantic role—to pimp for England?

  (FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, Chapter 13)

  With each successive novel, Fleming develops a more complex major character.

  Tatiana Romanova is an appealing heroine. She is intriguing, intelligent, and is certainly the sexiest female in the books thus far. Often compared to Greta Garbo by her friends, Tania has "fine dark brown silken hair" (she admits she copies a hair style once used by Garbo).

  Her deep blue eyes are set wide apart, with unusually long lashes. She has the ever-present Fleming-female "wide mouth" (apparently the author thought this an erotic feature on women), and soft, pale skin with an "ivory sheen at the cheekbones." Her arms and breasts are "faultless" and "only a purist would disapprove of her behind."

  Besides being beautiful, Tania is a firm believer in her country—she is very patriotic and would do anything to serve Mother Russia. At the time she is assigned to seduce James Bond, she is serving as a Corporal of State Security. She is well-mannered and would never do anything that isn't kultumy. Except, perhaps, seduce a handsome enemy spy. Tania is brave (or she would not be able to begin accomplishing the task given her by Colonel Klebb), yet she is also shy and girlish. The image of her lying naked and peeking out with a giggle from under a sheet in Bond's bed, is a mixture of every man's fantasy of the little girl and the seductress—and she knows it!

  It is disappointing that Fleming does not relate what becomes of Tania after the novel's end. The life of the previous heroine, Tiffany Case, is neatly summed up in Chapters 11 and 12 (she has gone to America to marry a serviceman). But in this book, and the following one, Tania's post-Bond life is not mentioned. It must be assumed that, as Bond predicts, she is taken into the bowels of the Western government and thoroughly interrogated and probed for Soviet information, and then, most likely, relocated in Canada.

  Bond's ally in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, is Darko Kerim Bey, one of Fleming's most colorful characters. Patterned after a real-life Turkish friend of the author, Kerim embodies the richness that one finds in figures like Quarrel and Colombo. Kerim has a "wonderfully warm dry handclasp." He is taller than Bond, and has smiling blue eyes in a large, smooth, brown face with a broken nose. He is "vaguely gypsy-like" in his fierce pride and in his curling black hair and crooked nose. Bond thinks he looks like a "vagabond soldier of fortune," an effect which is heightened by a gold ring worn in his right earlobe.

  Kerim is a wild, romantic fellow. He takes great pride in relating to Bond his adventures and experiences growing up and becoming the head of Station T. He is friend to the gypsies, and once took a gypsy woman home in order to "tame her." He accomplished this task by chaining her to the floor under his dining table and throwing scraps of food to her. This may seem barbaric, but Kerim insists that when his mother found the girl and ordered Kerim to release her, the girl refused to go! (Another example of Fleming at his most chauvinistic.)

  At one point in the story, Kerim states a philosophy which could be applied to Fleming himself. He tells Bond:

  "I am greedy for life. I do too much of everything all the time. Suddenly one day my heart will fail. The Iron Crab will get me as it got my father. But I am not afraid of The Crab. At least I shall have died from an honourable disease. Perhaps they will put on my tombstone 'This Man Died from Living Too Much."

  (FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, Chapter 15)

  Rosa Klebb, although she doesn't appear in many chapters, is an excellent villainess. For once, the major adversary is female—a new Fleming twist. And she, like most of her male counterparts, is hideous in appearance. Klebb is in her late forties—a short, squatty woman with thick legs. Kronsteen thinks that in her uniform she looks like a "badly packed sandbag." He compares her to the tricoteuses of the French Revolution—the women who sat and knitted as the guillotine claimed its victims. Klebb has pale, "thick chicken's skin," and she conveys coldness, cruelty, sadism, and strength: Klebb is a very tough number. And in the end, she wins. The woman also has Lesbian tendencies, and attempts to seduce Tania in her office in one of the novel's more revolting sequences.

  Red Grant is also a very menacing character, sharing the role of villain with Klebb. It is he who is slated to do the dirty work of killing Bond, but botches it up. What Grant lacks in brains he makes up for in strength and viciousness. He is a handsome Englishman (ac tually half German) with golden hair—a "Golden Boy." He is also mad as a hatter; in his teens, when exposed to the full moon, he would go on "killing excursions." He began killing animals, and, as he grew older, advanced to murdering people. He is Fleming's first seriously frightening psychotic. The author does add a bit of humor to the character by having Grant, as Captain Nash, call Bond "old man" throughout his escapade.

  A new side of M is revealed in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE. One learns of M's disapproval of Bond's "womanizing." But even M realizes that Bond is a handsome man and is attractive to women. He doesn't for a moment disbelieve Tania's story of being in love with Bond, though Bond is incredulous. M "smiles at the mixture of expressions on Bond's face." When Bond says that her story sounds crazy, M replies:

  "Now wait a moment," M.'s voice was testy. "Just don't be in too much of a hurry simply because something's turned up you've never come across before. Suppose you happened to be a film star instead of being in this particular trade. You'd get daft letters from girls all over the world stuffed with Heaven knows what sort of rot about not being able to live without you and so on. Here's a silly girl doing a secretary's job in Moscow. Probably the whole department is staffed by women, like our Records. Not a man in the room to look at, and here she is, faced with your, er, dashing features on a file that's constantly coming up for review. And she gets what I believe they call a "crush" on these pictures just as secretaries all over the world get crushes on these dreadful faces in the magazines." M. waved his pipe sideways to indicate his ignorance of these grisly female habits. "The Lord knows I don't know much about these things, but you must admit they happen."

  (FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, Chapter 12)

  M, with his Victorian ways, is quite amusing here. Even he admits that Bond is a man with whom women must reckon.

  Other characters worth mentioning include the chess master Kronsteen, the evil "Wizard of Ice" who plans the entire konspiratsia against Bond; General G., the head of SMERSH, who briefly represents the supreme command behind this Soviet murder organization; Vavra, the gypsy friend of Kerim who helps defend Bond and the Turk against an attack on their lives; and even René Mathis, Bond's friend from CASINO ROYALE, who makes a brief appearance at the novel's end. All of these characters add to the varied personalities, exotic locales, and dramatic action that make FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE a vivid adventure.

  HIGHLIGHTS AND OTHER INGREDIENTS

  A major highlight, as mentioned before, is the assassination planning in the first third of the novel. Not only does it build suspense, but it reveals the inner workings of SMERSH. The gypsy camp sequence is full of texture and detail, and again serves Fleming's urge to create local color. The girl fight, which received hostile cri
ticism when the novel was first published, is tense and explosive—probably the most violent scene in the book. The chapter is appropriately entitled "Strong Sensations," as the author graphically describes the sweat and smell of the writhing female bodies.

  The Orient Express chapters are exciting, not only because the story is approaching its climax, but because of the colorful history of the famous train itself. When he sees the sign for the Orient Express at the train depot, Bond admits to himself that it must be "one of the most romantic signs in the world."

  The fight with Red Grant on the train is gripping.

  Thanks to some stupid mistakes due to Grant's overconfidence, Bond is able to trick the killer and escape from what has seemed a hopeless situation. The fact that Grant is stabbed in the groin may perhaps be a little sadistic, but it certainly serves as a tremendous catharsis to the build-up of tension.

  Bond's encounter with Rosa Klebb provides a final thrill. It is amusing at first, as Bond and Klebb pleasantly greet each other as if one of them were accidentally in the wrong room. But Bond eventually drops all pretense and says cheerfully, "It's no use! You are Rosa Klebb. And you are Head of Otdyel II of SMERSH. You are a torturer and a murderer. You wanted to kill me and the Romanov girl. I am very glad to meet you at last." But the laugh is soon stifled as Klebb attacks Bond with poisoned knitting needles. And Klebb gets the last laugh.

  It is in this book that Fleming provides Bond with the first of the "spy gadgets" that will appear from time to time in the novels, and used to an absurd extreme in the films. In FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, the Armourer provides Bond with an attaché case with secret compartments for money, ammunition, and a silencer for his Beretta. The case also contains two throwing knives hidden in the lining. In his fight against Grant, one of these knives saves his life. The gadget, in the context of the novel, is believable and acceptable.

  If one were to be overly critical, FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE could not represent the Bond series as a whole because of the surprise ending in which Bond doesn't win. But because of its extremely successful blend of full characterizations with a highly original, fascinating, and suspenseful plot, FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE remains a high point in the James Bond series.

  DOCTOR NO (1958)

  Many fans consider DOCTOR NO the best James Bond novel. After experimenting with the structure of FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, Fleming returns to the standard formula in the new novel. In terms of sheer excitement and thrills, DOCTOR NO ranks very high. It also has a simple, direct plot; a very appealing heroine; and the best villain since Hugo Drax. It isn't surprising that DOCTOR NO was also chosen to be the first James Bond film. The book's only fault is the implausibility of some of its situations. In fact, DOCTOR NO has elements bordering on the fantastic, which could label it the first James Bond science fiction story.

  The story concerns James Bond's investigation of the disappearance of Commander John Strangways and his secretary from Station C in Jamaica. Strangways was working on a case involving the Audubon Society and its trouble with the maintenance and operation of a bird sanctuary on the island of Crab Key. The man who owns the island, Dr. Julius No, promised to maintain the sanctuary when he purchased the land years ago. Recently, however, Audubon wardens paid a visit to the island, and only one man came back alive. Badly burned, the warden kept mumbling something about a "dragon." After arriving in Jamaica, Bond and his friend Quarrel unravel clues which suggest that Strangways was murdered. After an attempt is made on Bond's life by Dr. No's underlings in Kingston, 007 and Quarrel take a boat to Crab Key in the dead of night. There, they meet an innocent, beautiful "nature girl," Honeychile Rider. Eventually, the dragon appears, and it is revealed to be a tanklike vehicle painted to resemble a creature. It claims Quarrel as a victim with its built-in flame thrower, and Bond and the girl are taken prisoner. They are brought to Dr. No's establishment, an elaborate headquarters run by slave labor. Over an elegant meal, Dr. No reveals his secret plan to use a specially developed radio beam which can deflect the course of any United States test missiles launched from nearby Turks Island. Bond undergoes several horrors in a specially-prepared obstacle course, which empties into an enclosed inlet containing a maneating squid. Bond miraculously survives the ordeal and escapes to find Dr. No overseeing the loading of bird guano (his cover business) onto a tanker. Bond overpowers a crane operator and uses the machine to bury Dr. No under a pile of guano. Bond then locates Honey and they escape to safety.

  STYLE AND THEMES

  Having "killed" Bond in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, Fleming had to resurrect him in the opening chapters of DOCTOR NO. But the story begins in Fleming's usual way: the first chapter deals with events before Bond enters the picture (the murder of Strangways), and is followed by Bond's meeting with M in the next chapter. The chapters all follow a logical cause-and-effect sequence, and the Fleming Sweep takes the reader through them at the usual brisk pace. The chapters are longer than usual, however, though fewer in number. More information and action is packed into each chapter of DOCTOR NO than Fleming has attempted in previous books. The novel is structurally flawless.

  The book can also be called Fleming's most imaginative. Each sequence seems to go one step beyond what is expected. For example, Bond's trek through the obstacle course builds to a peak with the addition of one bizarre impediment after another. First, Bond is met by an electric shock when he attempts to break the wire grille covering the ventilation tunnel which leads to the gauntlet. Next, he must climb a sheer vertical shaft. Bond encounters heat next, as he must crawl across steaming metal. The next obstacle is a cage full of tarantulas, through which Bond cuts his way with a knife and homemade spear. At the end of the course, Bond plummets into a large inlet where he battles a giant squid. The sequence goes even further, and the reader is asked to believe that Bond is not only able to walk after his ordeal, but can then also pilot a crane in order to bury Dr. No in—of all things—guano! Fleming's imagination may have run a little too rampant here.

  The major theme of DOCTOR NO is an examination of the meaning of power. Bond, throughout the novels, has many conversations on this subject with the villains. Dr. No believes that power can only be secured by privacy. He quotes Clausewitz's first principle of obtaining power: to operate from a secure base. From there, he says, "one proceeds to freedom of action." Bond argues with the villain, saying that power is really an illusion. Dr. No scoffs at Bond's "play on words," saying that all concepts are illusions—concepts such as beauty, art, money, death, and, he adds, probably life. Dr. No has secured a private base of operations on Crab Key Island from which he can cause havoc with U.S. test missiles. He has also provided himself with protection of a mythical nature—a "dragon" that roams the island in search of trespassers. Because his domain is so private, he evokes a fear of the unknown in all of the Jamaicans. Dr. No capitalizes on this fear, using it as the base of his power. And it works very well—that is, until Bond comes along. Bond isn't superstitious and can see through Dr. No's scarecrow tactics. He proves to Dr. No, by the novel's end, that the power of which the madman boasts is truly an illusion.

  The theme of friendship is quite strong in DOCTOR NO. Quarrel, the Cayman Islander from LIVE AND LET DIE, is back as Bond's ally. When Quarrel insists that Bond take out a life insurance policy on him before they set sail to Crab Key, the Englishman doesn't hesitate to help him. The affection Bond has for Quarrel is summed up in the last chapter, as he sadly reflects on Quarrel's death:

  Bond thought of the burned twist down in the swamp that had been Quarrel. He remembered the soft ways of the big body, the innocence in the grey, horizon-seeking eyes, the simple lusts and desires, the reverence for superstitions and instincts, the childish faults, the loyalty and even love that Quarrel had given him—the warmth, there was only one word for it, of the man.

  (DOCTOR NO, Chapter 20)

  Bond is genuinely hurt by Quarrel's death, and the loss is felt by the agent throughout the final chapter of the book.

  CHARACTERS />
  For the first time, hostility flares between Bond and M. M, rather angry with Bond for allowing Rosa Klebb to get the best of him in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, orders Bond to turn in the reliable Beretta .25 in exchange for new guns provided by the Armourer. To top that, M sends Bond on what the Admiral calls a "holiday" assignment in the sun. Bond resents it:

  He's got it in for me over the last job. Feels I let him down. Won't trust me with anything tough. Wants to see. Oh well!

  He said: "Sounds rather like the soft life, sir. I've had almost too much of that lately. But if it's got to be done . . . If you say so, sir."

  "Yes," said M. "I say so."

  (DOCTOR NO, Chapter 2)

  As the conversation continues, Bond's anger builds. After receiving the details of the assignment, Bond rises to leave the office and makes a move to retrieve the Beretta. M stops him and snidely orders Bond to leave the Beretta and to make sure he holds onto his new guns.

  Bond looked across into M's eyes. For the first time in his life he hated the man. He knew perfectly well why M was being tough and mean. It was deferred punishment for having nearly got killed on his last job. Plus getting away from this filthy weather into the sunshine. M couldn't bear his men to have an easy time. In a way Bond felt sure he was being sent on this cushy assignment to humiliate him. The old bastard.

  (DOCTOR NO, Chapter 3)

  But, of course, the holiday in the sun doesn't turn out as such, and Bond suffers some of the worst tortures and dangers he's ever faced. At the end of the novel, Bond sends a nasty cable to M:

  Bond had enciphered a short signal to M via the Colonial Office which he had cooly concluded with: "REGRET MUST AGAIN REQUEST SICK LEAVE STOP SURGEONS REPORT FOLLOWS STOP KINDLY INFORM ARMOURER SMITH AND WESSON INEFFECTIVE AGAINST FLAME-THROWER END IT."