The Complete Collection of
Sherlock Holmes Novels
Sherlock Holmes is one of those fictional detectives that you are either hooked on or are indifferent to (I alternate over cycles of about seven years
-- must be some comet or something like that -- the comet must have come round again in 1998 to revive the Holmes interest, hence this web page). By using that deliberately provocative phrase 'one of those fictional...', my point is either that you believe in his reality or you don't, somewhat similar to one's consciousness of King Arthur or Horatio Hornblower. But then if you BELIEVE in him, there is not enough original material in the Watson memoirs by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who unlike many recipients of this honor actually deserved a knighthood -- he was really an admirable person, although he got taken in by fake fairy pictures) to assuage your hunger. Now that the Doyle estate, which fanatically prevented copyright infringements for years, has gone belly up (or down), the 'pastiches' or pseudo-Holmes new stories are all over the place. I happen to like that a lot, since I'm no purist over the Canon: just as I was able to accept Jeremy Brett as the ultimate media portrayer of the person as opposed to Basil Rathbone. (Those Granada Holmes's with Brett are absolutely the best 'pure' SH's ever done -- no out-of-period stuff, like SH in Washington during World War II. Unfortunately he died with just 19 left of the 'canon' to be done. Nobody yet has done all of them. But as Brett said once in an interview, even Doyle needed 'help' with some of the stories -- paraphrasing Tyrone Guthrie's comment that Shakespeare needed some 'help' with Troilus and Cressida.)
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James Bond novels
1.Casino Royale
Casino Royale by Lan Fleming is the first James Bond novel.
PLOT:
Monsieur Le Chiffre ("the cypher"), the treasurer of a Soviet-backed trade union in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, is running a baccarat game in the casino at Royale-les-Eaux, France, in order to recover union money he lost in a failed chain of brothels.
Expert baccarat player James Bond (British secret agent 007) is assigned to defeat Le Chiffre, in the hope that his gambling debts will provoke Soviet espionage agency SMERSH to kill him. Bond is provided an assistant, the beautiful but emotionally unstable Vesper Lynd, who becomes his lover. After hours of intense play Le Chiffre bankrupts Bond, but CIA agent Felix Leiter provides him with enough money to continue playing and leave Le Chiffre broke. Soon after, Le Chiffre abducts Vesper and uses her to lure Bond into a near-fatal car chase, which results in Bond's capture. Le Chiffre tortures Bond. However, when it becomes clear to Le Chiffre that Bond will not tell him where the money is, he threatens to castrate him. Seconds later a SMERSH agent assassinates Le Chiffre for his betrayal, shooting him through the head with a pistol. Unintentionally, the SMERSH assassin (whose organisation becomes the hero's bitter nemesis in later adventures) saves the captive Bond, saying: "I have no orders to kill you" — yet cuts the Cyrillic letter "Ш" (шпион, shpion, spy) in the back of Bond's left hand, "for future reference."
Bond spends three weeks in hospital recovering from his torture at the hands of Le Chiffre, expressing intent to resign from the secret service, and spends his convalescence with Vesper Lynd. After his recuperation he becomes suspicious of her because of the combination of apparent dishonesty and her terror of a man with an eye patch called Gettler. Believing that Gettler is a SMERSH assassin sent to kill her and Bond for her disobedience, Vesper commits suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills, leaving Bond an explanatory note where it is revealed that she is a Soviet double agent who was ordered to ensure Bond did not escape Le Chiffre. Her betrayal inspires him to remain in service; he tersely reports to HQ: "The bitch is dead now."
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2.Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series.PLOT:
James Bond is sent to New York City to investigate "Mr. Big", an underworld voodoo leader who is suspected by M of selling 17th century gold coins to finance Soviet spy operations in America. These gold coins have been turning up in Harlem and Florida and are suspected of being part of a treasure that was buried in Jamaica by the Welsh pirate Sir Henry Morgan. Although Bond is at first reluctant to take on the mission, his attitude quickly changes upon learning that Mr. Big is an agent of SMERSH and that this mission offers him a chance of retaliation for previously being tortured by SMERSH operative Le Chiffre and having a Russian (Cyrilic) letter carved into the back of his hand by a SMERSH assassin in Casino Royale.
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3.Moonraker
Moonraker is the third novel by British author Ian Fleming featuring the fictional British Secret Service agent Commander James Bond.
PLOT:
M asks James Bond to investigate the multi-millionaire businessman Sir Hugo Drax, who is winning a lot of money playing bridge at M's favorite club, Blades. M suspects Drax of cheating, but although claiming indifference, he is concerned why a multi-millionaire and national hero, such as Sir Hugo, would cheat at a card game. Bond confirms Drax's deception and manages to "cheat the cheater" — aided by a cocktail of powdered Benzedrine mixed with non-vintage champagne and a deck of stacked cards — winning £15,000 and infuriating the out-smarted Drax.
Drax is the product of a mysterious background, unknown even to himself (allegedly). As a supposed British soldier in WWII, he was badly injured, and stricken with amnesia, in the explosion of a bomb planted by a German saboteur at his field headquarters. After extensive rehabilitation in an army hospital, however, he would eventually return home to become a major aerospace industrialist.
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4.Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series.
PLOT:
The plot proper takes place just over two months from the end of Moonraker, which ended with James Bond taking a short holiday in France to recover from injuries received on that assignment. When Diamonds Are Forever begins, M, acting on information received from Special Branch, tasks Bond to infiltrate a smuggling ring, which is running diamonds from African mines to the United States. Bond's job is to travel down the "pipeline" as far as he can and find out who is behind it all.
Using the identity of Peter Franks, a country house burglar who decided to become a diamond smuggler, he meets a mysterious "go-between" named Tiffany Case, with whom he eventually falls in love. Bond discovers that the smuggling ring is operated by a ruthless American gang called "The Spangled Mob", which is run by the brothers Jack and Seraffimo Spang.
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5.From Russia, with Love
From Russia, with Love is the fifth James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming.
PLOT:
From Russia, with Love differs from Fleming's previous Bond novels in that the first third of the novel revolves around SMERSH executioner Red Grant, as well as the organization, SMERSH itself. (Bond himself is not mentioned by name until the end of Chapter 5, and does not actually make an appearance until Part 2 of the novel commences with Chapter 11.)
The novel is a series of elaborate plots and counterplots between the British and the Russian intelligence agencies. It begins with SMERSH, the Soviet counterintelligence agency, seeking to redeem itself from a series of failures that have raised the ire of the Soviet government. SMERSH plans to commit a grand act of terrorism in the intelligence field. For this, SMERSH has targeted British secret service agent, Commander James Bond. Due in part to his role in the defeat of Le Chiffre, Mr. Big, and Hugo Drax, Bond has been listed as an enemy of the Soviet state and a "death warrant" has been issued for him. He is to be not just killed, but "killed with ignominy", his death precipitating a major sex scandal which will run through the world press for months and leave his reputation and that of his entire service in tatters.
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6.Dr. No
Dr. No (also Dr No and Doctor No) is Ian Fleming's sixth James Bond novel .
From Russia, with Love ended in a cliffhanger in which Bond was poisoned by SMERSH agent Rosa Klebb and collapsed. In Dr. No, M learns from the firm's neurologist that the poison was tetrodotoxin, which paralyses the muscles of the victim while they stay fully conscious until eventually they die from asphyxiation. Bond is given first aid treatment by his friend Rene Mathis, while a doctor is urgently summoned (Klebb, we learn, is captured and has died). The Doctor had spent time in South America and had dealt with various poisons. He diagnoses curare poisoning and treats Bond accordingly, but his chances of survival are extremely slim. Nonetheless, Bond survives.
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7.Goldfinger
Goldfinger is the seventh novel
PLOT:
In a similar fashion to Moonraker, an acquaintance of Bond's, Junius Du Pont (from Casino Royale), meets him at a Miami airport and requesting that he observe a two-handed Canasta game between himself and the eponymous villain of the novel, Auric Goldfinger. Du Pont suspects Goldfinger of cheating, and offers to pay Bond to confirm his suspicions. Bond discovers that Goldfinger's "secretary," Jill Masterton had been using binoculars to spy on Du Pont's hand from her hotel room, and radio the cards to Goldfinger. Bond forces him to admit his guilt, pay back what he has unfairly won from Du Pont. Additionally, Bond tells him to reserve a train car for Bond and Masterton to New York, where she returns to Goldfinger's employ.
After Bond returns to London, he inquires into the background of Goldfinger, to find that he is the richest man in England, the world's top gold smuggler, and treasurer for the Soviet assassination agency SMERSH.
Bond is sent to collect information from Goldfinger, and manages to join him for what turns into a high-stakes game of golf. Goldfinger cheats by switching golf balls, but Bond beats him at his own game and wins. Bond is then sent on a mission to find Goldfinger's supply of gold that he has been smuggling, and bring it back to England.
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8.For Your Eyes Only
For Your Eyes Only is a collection of James Bond short stories by Ian Fleming.
PLOT:
The collection contains five short stories "From a View to a Kill", "For Your Eyes Only", "Quantum of Solace", "Risico", and "The Hildebrand Rarity".
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9.Thunderball
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Thunderball is the ninth novel by Ian Fleming.
PLOT:
Thunderball begins with a meeting between M and Bond, during which he tells agent 007 that his latest physical assessment is poor, because of excessive drinking and smoking (sixty cigarettes daily). M sends Bond on a two week vacation to the Shrublands health clinic in the country to reduce the bad habits and improve his health. At the clinic, Bond encounters Count Lippe, a member of the Red Lightning Tong criminal organisation from Macau. When Bond learns this, Lippe tries to kill him by tampering with a spinal traction machine, in the effort that Bond will not connect him to SPECTRE. Bond, however, is saved by nurse Patricia Fearing, and he later retaliates against Lippe by trapping him in a steam bath, resulting in second-degree burns and a week's stay in hospital.
Upon returning to London, Bond is a new man, following a new diet and smoking less. The new Bond is ready for action when the SIS receives a communiqué from SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion) telling them of having hijacked a Villiers Vindicator (V bomber) and so possess its two nuclear bombs, and will destroy two major cities unless a £100,000,000 ransom is paid to them.
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10.The Spy Who Loved Me
The Spy Who Loved Me is the tenth novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series .
PLOT:
The central character and narrator of The Spy Who Loved Me is Vivienne "Viv" Michel, a young Canadian woman who ends up running a cheap motel in the Adirondack Mountains to pay for a trip through America. The novel is broken up into three parts: 'Me', 'Them', and 'Him'.
The first section of the book deals with Viv's past love affairs, the first being with Derek Mallaby, who took her virginity in a field after being kicked out of a cinema for indecent exposure. Their physical relationship ended that night and Viv was subsequently dumped later when Mallaby sent her a letter from the University of Oxford saying he was forcibly engaged to someone else by his parents. Viv details her second love affair with her German boss, Kurt Rainer, who would eventually get Viv pregnant. After she learned of her pregnancy and informed Rainer, he dumped her and paid for her to go to Switzerland to have an abortion.
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11.On Her Majesty's Secret Service
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the eleventh novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series .
PLOT:
For more than a year, James Bond, British secret agent 007, has been trailing the private criminal organization SPECTRE and its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in 'Operation Bedlam'. This pursuit is partially described in The Spy Who Loved Me, where Bond explains to Vivienne Michel the aftermath of 'Operation Thunderball' and the escape of Blofeld. By the time of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond is convinced SPECTRE no longer exists. Frustrated by his inability to find Blofeld and M's insistence that he continue the search, Bond composes a letter of resignation for M. Meanwhile, Bond encounters a suicidal, beautiful young woman named Teresa di Vicenzo and interrupts her attempted drowning. He and the woman are then captured by professional henchmen.
They are taken to Marc-Ange Draco, head of the Unione Corse, the biggest European crime syndicate. Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo ('Tracy' to her friends) is the daughter and only child of Draco. Draco believes the only way to save his daughter is for Bond to marry her. To facilitate this, he offers Bond a great dowry; Bond refuses the offer, but agrees to continue romancing Tracy while her mental health improves.
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12.You Only Live Twice
