Casino Royale
  • Publication Date: June 1, 2020
  • ISBN: 9781554814091 / 155481409X
  • 330 pages; 5½" x 8½"

Availability: Canada Only

Casino Royale

  • Publication Date: June 1, 2020
  • ISBN: 9781554814091 / 155481409X
  • 330 pages; 5½" x 8½"

Casino Royale (1953), Ian Fleming’s first novel, introduced James Bond and other recurring characters of the Bond series of novels and short stories. Complex, even conflicted, this Bond belongs to the post-war world of rationing, trauma, and a growing sense of uncertainty due to social and technological change and the rising tensions of the Cold War. This is the first edition of Casino Royale to include footnotes that provide a larger context for the novel as well as translate its French passages.

The edition also includes appendices that provide a number of other works by Fleming and other literary and historical materials that help to situate the spy thriller.

Comments

“Love him or hate him, James Bond remains relevant to some of the biggest debates of the times. This fine edition takes us to the source: the first Bond novel. Jason Haslam and Julia Wright provide the critical and historical tools to understand how Ian Fleming created what they call ‘rich registers’ of culture. From parsing his attention to grated boiled egg for what it suggests about post-war rationing to tracing his conversion of global politics and real-world documents of espionage into sensate narrative to placing his novel within a wider range of his own writings and several literary genres, the editors tease out layers and point to connections with depth, precision, and wit.” — Christine Bold, University of Guelph

“Some seven decades on, the figure of James Bond is as firmly embedded in popular culture as Sherlock Holmes or Dracula. This critical edition gives us the material we need to think through the many iterations of Bond, and the complexly nuanced world in which he moves in the novels. Immaculately researched and full of the kind of contextual detail needed for both those new to Bond and old friends to make sense of the nodes of masculinity, empire and sexuality that swirl around the ultimate spy, this is the edition for which we have been waiting.” — Stacy Gillis, Newcastle University

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Ian Fleming: His Life and Times
A Note on the Text

Casino Royale

Appendix A: Other Works by Ian Fleming

  • 1. From “Foreign News,” The Kemsley Manual of Journalism (1950)
  • 2. “Mudscape with Figures,” Spectator (5 August 1955)
  • 3. From The Diamond Smugglers (1957)
  • 4. “If I Were Prime Minister,” Spectator (9 October 1959)
  • 5. “For Your Eyes Only” (1960)
  • 6. “Quantum of Solace” (1960)
  • 7. “Gary Powers and the Big Lie,” Sunday Times (11 March 1962)
  • 8. “How to Write a Thriller,” Show (August 1962)

Appendix B: Tales of International Intrigue before Bond

  • 1. From Erskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands (1903, c. 1913)
  • 2. Baroness Orczy, “The Fate of the ‘Artemis,’” Royal Magazine (November 1904)
  • 3. From W. Somerset Maugham, Ashenden, or the British Agent (1928)
  • 4. From Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (1930, 1931)

Appendix C: Secret Intelligence: Some Historical Documents

  • 1. D.C. Stapleton to Orme Sargent, Top Secret Letter (23 December 1947)
  • 2. Orme Sargent, Top Secret Memo (19 October 1948)
  • 3. House of Commons, “Foreign Service (Missing Officials),” Hansard (11 June 1951)
  • 4. From Stanley Moss, “Christine the Brave: Bullets and Bluff with the Maquis,” Picture Post (27 September 1952)

Works Cited and Select Bibliography

Jason Haslam is Professor of English at Dalhousie University. Julia M. Wright, FRSC is Professor of English and University Research Professor at Dalhousie University.