Octopussy and The Living Daylights
Encyclopedia
Octopussy and The Living Daylights (sometimes published as Octopussy) is the fourteenth and final James Bond
book written by Ian Fleming
in the Bond series. The book is a collection of short stories published posthumously in the United Kingdom
by Jonathan Cape
on 23 June 1966.
The book originally contained just two stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights", with subsequent editions also carrying firstly "The Property of a Lady and then "007 in New York". Three of the four stories were first published in different publications, with "Octopussy" not having been previously released. "The Living Daylights" had first appeared in The Sunday Times
on 4 February 1962; "The Property of a Lady" was published in November 1963 in a Sotheby's
publication, The Ivory Hammer whilst "007 in New York" first appeared in the New York Herald Tribune
in October 1963.
The two original stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights" were both adapted for publication in comic strip
format in the Daily Express
in 1966 – 1967. Elements from the stories have also been used in the Eon Productions
Bond films. The first, Octopussy
, starring Roger Moore
as James Bond, was released in 1983 as the thirteenth film in the series and provided the back story for the film Octopussy's
family, while "The Property of a Lady" was more closely adapted for an auction sequence in the film. The Living Daylights
, released in 1987, was the fifteenth Bond film produced by Eon and starred Timothy Dalton
in his first appearance as Bond.
operative James Bond
, code name 007, is assigned to apprehend a hero of the Second World War
implicated in a murder involving a cache of Nazi
gold. Bond appears briefly in this story, which is told mostly in flashback
and from the point of view of Major Dexter Smythe, the villain. Bond chooses not to take Smythe into custody immediately, but Smythe's guilt drives him to commit suicide by allowing a scorpion fish to sting him and his 'pet' octopus
to attack him, bringing on a heart attack
.
. Bond's duty is to prevent a top KGB
assassin
codenamed "Trigger" from killing 272 by eliminating the sniper. Bond waits for three nights for the agent to come over no man's land
and notices a female orchestra arriving and leaving for practice each night; a beautiful, blonde cellist catches his eye while he waits. When he sees the agent start making his way over the broken ground, he sees the Russian sniper take up position and realises it is the cellist: a split second decision sees Bond deciding instead to shoot the butt of her rifle, preventing her from making the kill. The mission, while successful, is also considered a failure due to Bond's last-second decision, and it ends with Bond hoping that M
fires him for it.
at Sotheby's
in her name. The Russians have sent the Resident Director of the KGB in London
to attend the auction and underbid for the item in order to push the price to the necessary value to pay for her services as a double agent. Bond attends the auction in hopes of spotting this man; after doing so the man is expelled from London as persona non grata
.
and his favourite recipe for scrambled eggs
, during a quick mission to the titular city to warn a female MI6
employee that her new boyfriend is a KGB
agent. It is notable for including a rare humorous conclusion and for its mention of Solange, a young lady of Bond's intimate acquaintance who works in a shop, Abercrombie's
, "appropriately employed in their Indoor Games Department".
, noted that in "The Living Daylights" Bond's thoughts on killing are examined once again, showing that although 007 did not like doing it, he considered that he must as part of his duty to complete an assignment. Once the mission is completed, with Bond deliberately not killing the assassin, there is an attitude of complacency with Bond shrugging off his colleague's complaints about the incident. Academic Jeremy Black
sees the colleague, the officious Captain Spender, as the antithesis of Bond and an echo of Colonel Schreiber, the head of security at SHAPE, (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
), who appeared in "From a View to a Kill".
In the act of not killing the assassin, the theme of disobedience in raised in "The Living Daylights", with Bond calling what he has to do as "murder" and subsequently dismisses his actions by saying "with any luck it will cost me my Double-0 number". Raymond Benson considered that "Octopussy" was a morality tale, with greed bringing repercussions years later to the main protagonist, Dexter Smythe.
(now Ian Fleming Publications) and it was decided by the company that two short stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights", would be published in 1966.
"Octopussy"
The story "Octopussy" was written in early 1962 at Fleming's Goldeneye estate
in Jamaica. The story is told in the manner of "Quantum of Solace", with Bond as catalyst for story told in flashback, rather than as a main character for action. The topics chosen for Fleming were familiar ground for him to cover, with hidden gold, tropical fish and the wartime exploits of commandos all coming from elements of his past. Also from the past, or from his acquaintance, were other references used in the story and Miscellaneous Objectives Bureau was a fictional version of Fleming's 30 AU unit. One of Fleming's neighbours in Jamaica, and later his lover, was Blanche Blackwell, mother of Chris Blackwell
of Island Records
. Fleming had already used Blackwell as the model for Pussy Galore in his novel Goldfinger and, rather ungallantly, had also named the guano-collecting ship in Dr. No as Blanche. Blackwell had gave Fleming a coracle
called Octopussy, the name of which Fleming used for the story.
"The Living Daylights"
Fleming originally titled "The Living Daylights" as "Trigger Finger", although when it first appeared, in the The Sunday Times
colour supplement of 4 February 1962, it was under the title of "Berlin Escape". It was also published in June 1962 issue of the American magazine Argosy
under the same name. For the The Sunday Times, Fleming had commissioned Graham Sutherland
to undertake the artwork to accompany the piece, at a cost of 100 guineas
, although the artwork wasn't used in the published edition.
As background research to the story, Fleming corresponded with Captain E.K. Le Mesurier, secretary of the National Rifle Association
at Bisley
for information and to correct some of the more specialist areas of knowledge required for sniper
shooting. Part of the background to the plot, of using the noise of the orchestra to cover the crossing over no man's land was inspired by Pat Reid's escape from Colditz
prisoner of war camp, with two escapers having to run across a courtyard under the cover of the noise from an orchestra. The conductor of the Colditz orchestra was Douglas Bader
, who played golf with Fleming on a number of occasions. The assassin, Tigger, was partly based on Amaryllis Fleming, Ian's half-sister, a concert cellist with blonde hair and Fleming managed to get a passing reference to her in the story, saying: "Of course Suggia had managed to look elegant, as did that girl Amaryllis somebody."
"Property of a Lady"
"Property of a Lady" was commissioned by Sotheby's
for use in their annual journal, The Ivory Hammer and was published in November 1963 and later in Playboy
. The story was written in early 1963 and Fleming was so unhappy with the final piece he refused payment from Sotheby's for something he considered so lacklustre.
"007 in New York"
In 1959 Fleming was trip commissioned by The Sunday Times for a series of articles based on world cities, material for which later became the Thrilling Cities
book; whilst travelling through New York for material, Fleming wrote "007 in New York" from Bond's point of view. "007 in New York" was original titled "Reflections in a Carey Cadillac" and it contains a recipe for scrambled eggs which came from May Maxwell, the housekeeper to friend Ivar Bryce who gave her name to Bond's own housekeeper, May. The story was first published in the New York Herald Tribune
in October 1963 as "Agent 007 in New York", but was subsequently renamed as "007 in New York" for the 1964 US editions of Thrilling Cities.
and cost 10s.6d. The hardback edition of the book contained only the two stories mentioned in the title, although when the paperbacks editions were published, "The Property of a Lady" was also included. Once again artist Richard Chopping
provided the cover art, although his fee rose once again, to 350 guineas
. The book was published in US by New American Library
with illustrations from Paul Bacon
.
wrote in The Spectator
that "I am not surprised that Fleming preferred to write novels. James Bond, unlike Sherlock Holmes, does not fit snugly into the short story length: there is something grandiose and intercontinental about his adventures that require elbow room and such examples of the form as we have tend to be eccentric or muted. These are no exception." The critic for The Times Literary Supplement
wrote that the book was "slight and predictable, and usual sex and violence yield to a plausible use of ballistics and marine biology". Writing in The Listener, Anthony Burgess
thought that "in their fascinated poring on things...remind us that the stuff of the anti-novel needn't necessarily spring from a thought-out aesthetic", going on to note that "it is the mastery of the world that gives Fleming his peculiar literary niche". On a personal note, Burgess added "I admired all the Bond books and I'm sorry there'll be no more. A sad farewell to Fleming".
Two of the short stories were adapted for publication in comic strip
format, which were published daily in the Daily Express
newspaper and syndicated worldwide. "The Living Daylights" ran from 12 September to 12 November 1966, adapted by Jim Lawrence and illustrated by Yaroslav Horak
; the same pair also worked on "Octopussy", which ran from 14 November 1966 to 27 May 1967. The story lines for the strips were altered from the original Fleming version to ensure that they contained a glamorous reason for being Bond involved and to include Bond in action. The strips were reprinted by Titan Books
in 1988 and then again in The James Bond Omnibus Vol. 2, published in 2011.
Octopussy (1983)
In 1983 Eon Productions
loosely adapted elements of two of the stories, "Octopussy" and "The Property of a Lady" for the thirteenth
film in their Bond series, starring Roger Moore
as Bond. "Octopussy" provided the title of the film and the background for the character Octopussy
, the daughter of a character Bond had allowed to commit suicide, rather than face the shame of arrest and imprisonment. The film also used the plot device of auctioning of a Fabergé egg
at Sotheby's from "The Property of a Lady" and, as with the story, the auction item was described as being the same "property of a lady".
The Living Daylights (1987)
In 1987 Eon used the plot of "The Living Daylights", almost unchanged, for a section of their 1987 film of the same name
. The film starred Timothy Dalton
in his first role as Bond, whilst the character of Trigger became that of cello player Kara Milovy
.
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
book written by Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
in the Bond series. The book is a collection of short stories published posthumously in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
on 23 June 1966.
The book originally contained just two stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights", with subsequent editions also carrying firstly "The Property of a Lady and then "007 in New York". Three of the four stories were first published in different publications, with "Octopussy" not having been previously released. "The Living Daylights" had first appeared in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
on 4 February 1962; "The Property of a Lady" was published in November 1963 in a Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
publication, The Ivory Hammer whilst "007 in New York" first appeared in the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
in October 1963.
The two original stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights" were both adapted for publication in comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
format in the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
in 1966 – 1967. Elements from the stories have also been used in the Eon Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
Bond films. The first, Octopussy
Octopussy
Octopussy is the thirteenth entry in the James Bond series, and the sixth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's title is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights...
, starring Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
as James Bond, was released in 1983 as the thirteenth film in the series and provided the back story for the film Octopussy's
Octopussy (character)
Octopussy is a fictional character in the James Bond film of the same name. She is played by the Swedish actress Maud Adams.-Biography:...
family, while "The Property of a Lady" was more closely adapted for an auction sequence in the film. The Living Daylights
The Living Daylights
The Living Daylights is the fifteenth entry in the James Bond series and the first to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent 007. The film's title is taken from Ian Fleming's short story, "The Living Daylights"...
, released in 1987, was the fifteenth Bond film produced by Eon and starred Timothy Dalton
Timothy Dalton
Timothy Peter Dalton ) is a Welsh actor of film and television. He is known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill , as well as Rhett Butler in the television miniseries Scarlett , an original sequel to Gone with the Wind...
in his first appearance as Bond.
"Octopussy"
Secret ServiceSecret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
operative James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
, code name 007, is assigned to apprehend a hero of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
implicated in a murder involving a cache of Nazi
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
gold. Bond appears briefly in this story, which is told mostly in flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
and from the point of view of Major Dexter Smythe, the villain. Bond chooses not to take Smythe into custody immediately, but Smythe's guilt drives him to commit suicide by allowing a scorpion fish to sting him and his 'pet' octopus
Octopus
The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
to attack him, bringing on a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
.
"The Living Daylights"
An unusually morose James Bond is assigned sniper duty to help British agent "272" escape from East BerlinEast Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
. Bond's duty is to prevent a top KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
codenamed "Trigger" from killing 272 by eliminating the sniper. Bond waits for three nights for the agent to come over no man's land
No man's land
No man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms...
and notices a female orchestra arriving and leaving for practice each night; a beautiful, blonde cellist catches his eye while he waits. When he sees the agent start making his way over the broken ground, he sees the Russian sniper take up position and realises it is the cellist: a split second decision sees Bond deciding instead to shoot the butt of her rifle, preventing her from making the kill. The mission, while successful, is also considered a failure due to Bond's last-second decision, and it ends with Bond hoping that M
M (James Bond)
M is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, as well as the films in the Bond franchise. The head of MI6 and Bond's superior, M has been portrayed by three actors in the official Bond film series: Bernard Lee, Robert Brown and since 1995 by Judi Dench. Background =Ian Fleming...
fires him for it.
"The Property of a Lady"
James Bond investigates a Secret Service employee, Maria Freudenstein, who is a double agent about to be paid by her Russian keepers by auctioning a clock crafted by Peter Carl FabergéPeter Carl Fabergé
Peter Karl Fabergé also known as Karl Gustavovich Fabergé in Russia was a Russian jeweller of Baltic German-Danish and French origin, best known for the famous Fabergé eggs, made in the style of genuine Easter eggs, but using precious metals and gemstones rather than more mundane materials.-Early...
at Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
in her name. The Russians have sent the Resident Director of the KGB in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to attend the auction and underbid for the item in order to push the price to the necessary value to pay for her services as a double agent. Bond attends the auction in hopes of spotting this man; after doing so the man is expelled from London as persona non grata
Persona non grata
Persona non grata , literally meaning "an unwelcome person", is a legal term used in diplomacy that indicates a proscription against a person entering the country...
.
"007 in New York"
A brief tale in which Bond muses about New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and his favourite recipe for scrambled eggs
Scrambled eggs
Scrambled eggs is a dish made from beaten whites and yolks of eggs . Beaten eggs are put into a hot pot or pan and stirred frequently, forming curds as they coagulate.-Sample preparation:...
, during a quick mission to the titular city to warn a female MI6
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
employee that her new boyfriend is a KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
agent. It is notable for including a rare humorous conclusion and for its mention of Solange, a young lady of Bond's intimate acquaintance who works in a shop, Abercrombie's
Abercrombie & Fitch
Abercrombie & Fitch is an American retailer that focuses on casual wear for consumers aged 18 to 22. It has over 300 locations in the United States, and is expanding internationally....
, "appropriately employed in their Indoor Games Department".
Characters and themes
Author of the "continuation" Bond stories, Raymond BensonRaymond Benson
Raymond Benson is an American author best known for being the official author of the adult James Bond novels from 1997 to 2003. Benson was born in Midland, Texas and graduated from Permian High School in Odessa in 1973...
, noted that in "The Living Daylights" Bond's thoughts on killing are examined once again, showing that although 007 did not like doing it, he considered that he must as part of his duty to complete an assignment. Once the mission is completed, with Bond deliberately not killing the assassin, there is an attitude of complacency with Bond shrugging off his colleague's complaints about the incident. Academic Jeremy Black
Jeremy Black (historian)
Jeremy Black MBE is a British historian and a Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute...
sees the colleague, the officious Captain Spender, as the antithesis of Bond and an echo of Colonel Schreiber, the head of security at SHAPE, (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe is the central command of NATO military forces. It is located at Casteau, north of the Belgian city of Mons...
), who appeared in "From a View to a Kill".
In the act of not killing the assassin, the theme of disobedience in raised in "The Living Daylights", with Bond calling what he has to do as "murder" and subsequently dismisses his actions by saying "with any luck it will cost me my Double-0 number". Raymond Benson considered that "Octopussy" was a morality tale, with greed bringing repercussions years later to the main protagonist, Dexter Smythe.
Background
On the morning of 12 August 1964, Fleming died of a heart attack; eight months later, The Man with the Golden Gun was published. The rights to Fleming's works were held by Glidrose PublicationsIan Fleming Publications
Ian Fleming Publications is the production company formerly known as both Glidrose Productions Limited and Glidrose Publications Limited, named after its founders John Gliddon and Norman Rose...
(now Ian Fleming Publications) and it was decided by the company that two short stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights", would be published in 1966.
"Octopussy"
The story "Octopussy" was written in early 1962 at Fleming's Goldeneye estate
Goldeneye (estate)
Goldeneye was the name given by Ian Fleming to his estate in Oracabessa, Jamaica. He purchased the land next door to Golden Clouds estate and built his house on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a private beach. The original house was a modest structure consisting of three bedrooms and a swimming...
in Jamaica. The story is told in the manner of "Quantum of Solace", with Bond as catalyst for story told in flashback, rather than as a main character for action. The topics chosen for Fleming were familiar ground for him to cover, with hidden gold, tropical fish and the wartime exploits of commandos all coming from elements of his past. Also from the past, or from his acquaintance, were other references used in the story and Miscellaneous Objectives Bureau was a fictional version of Fleming's 30 AU unit. One of Fleming's neighbours in Jamaica, and later his lover, was Blanche Blackwell, mother of Chris Blackwell
Chris Blackwell
Christopher Percy Gordon "Chris" Blackwell is a British record producer and businessman, who was the founder of Island Records, acknowledged as the most successful and groundbreaking independent record company in history. Blackwell has been a music industry mogul for over fifty years...
of Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
. Fleming had already used Blackwell as the model for Pussy Galore in his novel Goldfinger and, rather ungallantly, had also named the guano-collecting ship in Dr. No as Blanche. Blackwell had gave Fleming a coracle
Coracle
The coracle is a small, lightweight boat of the sort traditionally used in Wales but also in parts of Western and South Western England, Ireland , and Scotland ; the word is also used of similar boats found in India, Vietnam, Iraq and Tibet...
called Octopussy, the name of which Fleming used for the story.
"The Living Daylights"
Fleming originally titled "The Living Daylights" as "Trigger Finger", although when it first appeared, in the The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
colour supplement of 4 February 1962, it was under the title of "Berlin Escape". It was also published in June 1962 issue of the American magazine Argosy
Argosy (magazine)
Argosy was an American pulp magazine, published by Frank Munsey. It is generally considered to be the first American pulp magazine. The magazine began as a general information periodical entitled The Golden Argosy, targeted at the boys adventure market.-Launch of Argosy:In late September 1882,...
under the same name. For the The Sunday Times, Fleming had commissioned Graham Sutherland
Graham Sutherland
Graham Vivien Sutherland OM was an English artist.-Early life:He was born in Streatham, attending Homefield Preparatory School, Sutton. He was then educated at Epsom College, Surrey before going up to Goldsmiths, University of London...
to undertake the artwork to accompany the piece, at a cost of 100 guineas
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
, although the artwork wasn't used in the published edition.
As background research to the story, Fleming corresponded with Captain E.K. Le Mesurier, secretary of the National Rifle Association
National Rifle Association of the United Kingdom
The National Rifle Association of the United Kingdom is the governing body of full bore rifle and pistol shooting sports in the United Kingdom.- History :...
at Bisley
Bisley, Surrey
Bisley is a large village in Surrey, England, which is notable for rifle shooting. Bisley's immediate neighbours are West End, Chobham and Knaphill.- History :...
for information and to correct some of the more specialist areas of knowledge required for sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
shooting. Part of the background to the plot, of using the noise of the orchestra to cover the crossing over no man's land was inspired by Pat Reid's escape from Colditz
Oflag IV-C
Oflag IV-C, often referred to as Colditz Castle because of its location, was one of the most famous German Army prisoner-of-war camps for officers in World War II; Oflag is a shortening of Offizierslager, meaning "officers camp"...
prisoner of war camp, with two escapers having to run across a courtyard under the cover of the noise from an orchestra. The conductor of the Colditz orchestra was Douglas Bader
Douglas Bader
Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, FRAeS, DL was a Royal Air Force fighter ace during the Second World War. He was credited with 20 aerial victories, four shared victories, six probables, one shared probable and 11 enemy aircraft damaged.Bader joined the...
, who played golf with Fleming on a number of occasions. The assassin, Tigger, was partly based on Amaryllis Fleming, Ian's half-sister, a concert cellist with blonde hair and Fleming managed to get a passing reference to her in the story, saying: "Of course Suggia had managed to look elegant, as did that girl Amaryllis somebody."
"Property of a Lady"
"Property of a Lady" was commissioned by Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
for use in their annual journal, The Ivory Hammer and was published in November 1963 and later in Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
. The story was written in early 1963 and Fleming was so unhappy with the final piece he refused payment from Sotheby's for something he considered so lacklustre.
"007 in New York"
In 1959 Fleming was trip commissioned by The Sunday Times for a series of articles based on world cities, material for which later became the Thrilling Cities
Thrilling Cities
Thrilling Cities is the title of a collection of non-fiction travel articles by James Bond creator Ian Fleming. The book was published in Great Britain in 1963, followed by an American edition in 1964....
book; whilst travelling through New York for material, Fleming wrote "007 in New York" from Bond's point of view. "007 in New York" was original titled "Reflections in a Carey Cadillac" and it contains a recipe for scrambled eggs which came from May Maxwell, the housekeeper to friend Ivar Bryce who gave her name to Bond's own housekeeper, May. The story was first published in the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
in October 1963 as "Agent 007 in New York", but was subsequently renamed as "007 in New York" for the 1964 US editions of Thrilling Cities.
Release and reception
Octopussy and The Living Daylights was published in Britain on 23 June 1966 by Jonathan CapeJonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
and cost 10s.6d. The hardback edition of the book contained only the two stories mentioned in the title, although when the paperbacks editions were published, "The Property of a Lady" was also included. Once again artist Richard Chopping
Richard Chopping
Richard Wasey Chopping was a British illustrator and author best known for painting the dust jackets of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels starting with From Russia, with Love .-Early life:...
provided the cover art, although his fee rose once again, to 350 guineas
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
. The book was published in US by New American Library
New American Library
New American Library is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948; it produced affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works, as well as popular, pulp, and "hard-boiled" fiction. Non-fiction, original, and hardcopy issues were also produced.Victor Weybright and Kurt...
with illustrations from Paul Bacon
Paul Bacon (designer)
Paul Bacon , is an American book and album cover designer and jazz musician. He is known for introducing the "Big Book Look" in book jacket design, and has designed about 6,500 jackets and more than 200 jazz record covers....
.
Reviews
Philip LarkinPhilip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century...
wrote in The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
that "I am not surprised that Fleming preferred to write novels. James Bond, unlike Sherlock Holmes, does not fit snugly into the short story length: there is something grandiose and intercontinental about his adventures that require elbow room and such examples of the form as we have tend to be eccentric or muted. These are no exception." The critic for The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
wrote that the book was "slight and predictable, and usual sex and violence yield to a plausible use of ballistics and marine biology". Writing in The Listener, Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
thought that "in their fascinated poring on things...remind us that the stuff of the anti-novel needn't necessarily spring from a thought-out aesthetic", going on to note that "it is the mastery of the world that gives Fleming his peculiar literary niche". On a personal note, Burgess added "I admired all the Bond books and I'm sorry there'll be no more. A sad farewell to Fleming".
Adaptations
Comic strip adaptation (1966-1967)Two of the short stories were adapted for publication in comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
format, which were published daily in the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
newspaper and syndicated worldwide. "The Living Daylights" ran from 12 September to 12 November 1966, adapted by Jim Lawrence and illustrated by Yaroslav Horak
Yaroslav Horak
Yaroslav Horak is a Russian born, Australian based illustrator and comics artist, best known for his work on the newspaper comic strip, James Bond.-Biography:...
; the same pair also worked on "Octopussy", which ran from 14 November 1966 to 27 May 1967. The story lines for the strips were altered from the original Fleming version to ensure that they contained a glamorous reason for being Bond involved and to include Bond in action. The strips were reprinted by Titan Books
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
in 1988 and then again in The James Bond Omnibus Vol. 2, published in 2011.
Octopussy (1983)
In 1983 Eon Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
loosely adapted elements of two of the stories, "Octopussy" and "The Property of a Lady" for the thirteenth
Octopussy
Octopussy is the thirteenth entry in the James Bond series, and the sixth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's title is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights...
film in their Bond series, starring Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
as Bond. "Octopussy" provided the title of the film and the background for the character Octopussy
Octopussy (character)
Octopussy is a fictional character in the James Bond film of the same name. She is played by the Swedish actress Maud Adams.-Biography:...
, the daughter of a character Bond had allowed to commit suicide, rather than face the shame of arrest and imprisonment. The film also used the plot device of auctioning of a Fabergé egg
Fabergé egg
A Fabergé egg is any one of the thousands of jeweled eggs made by the House of Fabergé from 1885 to 1917. Most were miniature eggs that were popular gifts at Eastertide...
at Sotheby's from "The Property of a Lady" and, as with the story, the auction item was described as being the same "property of a lady".
The Living Daylights (1987)
In 1987 Eon used the plot of "The Living Daylights", almost unchanged, for a section of their 1987 film of the same name
The Living Daylights
The Living Daylights is the fifteenth entry in the James Bond series and the first to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent 007. The film's title is taken from Ian Fleming's short story, "The Living Daylights"...
. The film starred Timothy Dalton
Timothy Dalton
Timothy Peter Dalton ) is a Welsh actor of film and television. He is known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill , as well as Rhett Butler in the television miniseries Scarlett , an original sequel to Gone with the Wind...
in his first role as Bond, whilst the character of Trigger became that of cello player Kara Milovy
Kara Milovy
Kara Milovy, played by Maryam d'Abo, is a fictional character in the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights.-Film biography:Bond has been informed that General Georgi Koskov is willing to defect from the Russians. As Koskov runs across the road to meet Bond, 007 spots a sniper, whom he...
.
External links
- Ian Fleming Bibliography of James Bond 1st Editions
See also
- James Bond novels
- Differences between James Bond novels and filmsDifferences between James Bond novels and filmsThe James Bond novels, written by English author, journalist and World War II intelligence officer Ian Fleming, and the later James Bond films, often differ in tone and detail, a trend which increased with each new movie production. The James Bond novels, written mainly in the 1950s and early...