Goldfinger
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For other uses, see Goldfinger (disambiguation).
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| First edition cover - published by Jonathan Cape. Note gold coins. | |
| Author | Ian Fleming |
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| Cover Artist | Richard Chopping (Jonathan Cape ed.) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | James Bond |
| Genre(s) | Spy novel |
| Publisher | Glidrose Productions |
| Released | 23 March 1959 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | Dr. No |
| Followed by | For Your Eyes Only |
Goldfinger is the seventh novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. First published by Jonathan Cape on March 23, 1959.
In 1964 it was adapted as the third film in the EON Productions James Bond series and was the third to star Sean Connery as British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond. See Goldfinger (film) for discussion of the film.
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[edit] Plot summary
The novel begins in a similar fashion to Moonraker with an acquaintance of Bond (Junius Du Pont from Casino Royale) meeting him in Miami and requesting that he observe a Canasta game between him and the eponymous villain of the novel, Auric Goldfinger. Du Pont suspects Goldfinger of cheating and offers to pay Bond to confirm his suspicions. It turns out that Goldfinger is indeed cheating and Bond forces him to admit his guilt and pay back Du Pont due compensation.
After Bond returns to London he inquires into the background of Goldfinger to find that he's the world's top gold smuggler, the richest man in England, and after further investigation Bond learns Goldfinger is a communist criminal working as the treasurer for the Soviet assassination agency SMERSH.
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. Bond manages to trace Goldfinger to a warehouse in Geneva where the gold is being melted into chairs to be smuggled into India. Bond is then captured and tortured for information until he blacks out.
He then wakes up in New York and is taken to Goldfinger's warehouse where he is told he will be working for Goldfinger.
Bond learns that Goldfinger intends to finance SMERSH's schemes by stealing fifteen billion USD worth of gold bullion from the American bullion depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, an operation codenamed "Operation Grand Slam". Bond, along with Felix Leiter work to prevent the villain from executing his plan, which involves killing the soldiers of Fort Knox with water-borne nerve agent (GB, also called sarin) and then using a stolen U.S. tactical atomic bomb missile warhead to break into Fort Knox's impregnable vault.
In the novel, Pussy Galore is the lesbian leader of an all-female criminal organisation from New York City called the Cement Mixers. They had previously been circus acrobats and cat-burglars. Her group, as well as various other mobs including the Mafia and the Spangled Mob from Diamonds Are Forever, have been employed to aid Goldfinger in the planning and execution of "Operation Grand Slam". Martial arts expert Oddjob appears with a lethal metal-rimmed bowler hat, but it is Oddjob who is sucked to his death through the window of the airplane.
In terms of gadgets, this Fleming novel is closest to the Bond films technological underpinnings. The secret agent is issued a battleship grey Aston Martin DB Mark III with some accessories (though not the set of the film), as well as a homing device similar to that seen in the movie; however, Q is not in the book.
[edit] Characters in Goldfinger
- James Bond - British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond 007, is the protagonist of the story. He is sent to investigate a gold smuggling operation, and after doing so learns of Auric Goldfinger's plan to steal fifteen billion dollars worth of gold bullion from Fort Knox, Kentucky. Bond previously had a run in with Goldfinger in Miami, where Bond humiliated Goldfinger for his cheating in a game of Canasta.
- M - M orders Bond to investigate a gold smuggling operation from England to India. He is frequently helped by his secretary Miss Moneypenny and his Chief of Staff Bill Tanner.
- Auric Goldfinger - The richest man in England, Goldfinger is the treasurer for the Soviet counter-intelligence agency SMERSH. He intends to finance SMERSH's schemes by stealing fifteen billion dollars worth of gold bullion from the American bullion depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, an operation codenamed "Operation Grand Slam."
- Pussy Galore - The head of an all lesbian gang known as "The Cement Mixers." The gang is enlisted by Goldfinger to aid in "Operation Grand Slam."
- Oddjob - An expert in unarmed combat and with a bow, he is Auric Goldfinger's henchman as well as personal guard, driver, and manservant. Oddjob wears a metal derby hat which is also used as a weapon.
- Felix Leiter - A long time agent of the CIA, Leiter was maimed by a shark in the previous adventure Live and Let Die. He is now working for Pinkertons Detective Agency.
- Jill Masterton - Jill is Auric Goldfinger's secretary. She helps him in Miami cheat Mr. Dupont in a game of Canasta. When she betrays Goldfinger by helping Bond, Goldfinger retaliates by painting her entire body with gold paint suffocating her. Tilly Masterton is her sister. (Note, this is a fictious method of murder. Humans can not be killed merely by covering the entire body with paint. [1])
- Tilly Masterton - Jill's sister, she tries to get revenge on Goldfinger, but is prevented from doing so by James Bond.
[edit] Subtexts and motifs
- Goldfinger's first name, Auric, is a reference to the Latin word for gold (aurium). [The chemical symbol for gold is Au].
- In the novel Goldfinger has a yellow-jacketed pornographic book and gold-painted prostitutes, a yellow-painted car, a blonde secretary, and even a ginger-colored cat (which is eaten by Oddjob for dinner after Bond uses it in a ruse). He employs Korean servants who are repeatedly referred to as "yellow-faced." The film keeps the color of auto and secretary’s hair, but not the other insensitive material, and adds other gold motifs (see film discussion). A bit of Goldfinger's homage to gold ("I love its color, its brilliance, its divine heaviness.") is one of few dialogue lines from the novel to be kept relatively intact in the film.
- In the novel, Goldfinger appears even to eat and drink gold. At his house, Goldfinger and Bond dine on cheese soufflé, and curry (which in pre-1970 Britain referred to a dish colored yellow with turmeric; see British section in curry), and they drink Piesporter Goldtröpfchen wine (named for town and vineyard, but like all white wines, gold in color).
- Illiberalisms and stereotypes of the novel's time (none of which survive to the film): Du Pont remarks casually that the hotel of which he is part owner (the fictional Floridiana) has a restriction against Jews. Koreans are negatively characterized as a group in the novel, as are homosexuals. Although Pussy Galore has many skills, Goldfinger includes her group of female criminals primarily because he needs a group of women to impersonate Red Cross nurses for the covert attack on poison-stricken Fort Knox.
- Cat references in the novel: Pussy's acrobatic circus group is called Pussy Galore and the Abrocats. They become cat burglars, headed by Pussy, who dislikes men because she was abused by an uncle. Goldfinger's yellow cat is framed by Bond for ruining Goldfinger's surveillance film, and Goldfinger gives it to Oddjob to eat. "Curiosity killed the cat" remarks Goldfinger. Oddjob demonstartes his lethal derby for Bond while holding this cat with the other arm.
- Amazon (cat)women in the 50's: Bond's encounter with Pussy Galore and the Abrocats is in the tradition of a 1950's science fiction sub-genre in which groups of isolated women (often on other planets) "have no use for men" until a real man in the form of an adventurer teaches them the error of their ways. For examples see Cat-Women of the Moon (1953), Queen of Outer Space (1957), and Missile to the Moon (1958).
[edit] Trivia
- The villain's name was borrowed from Fleming's neighbor, architect Ernő Goldfinger, and his character bears some resemblance. Erno Goldfinger consulted his lawyers when the book was published, prompting Fleming to suggest renaming the character "Goldprick", but eventually settled out of court in return for his costs, six copies of the book, and an agreement that the characters' first name Auric would always be used.
- Goldfinger is typically a German-Jewish name, and the protagonists of the novel Goldfinger know this, but neither Bond nor Du Pont think Goldfinger is Jewish. Instead Bond pegs the red-haired blue-eyed man as a Balt, and indeed Goldfinger proves to be an expatriate Latvian.
- Ian Fleming himself liked the color of gold enough to own a gold-plated typewriter, on which he wrote some Bond novels. In the mid-1990s this machine was purchased by the 5th official Bond actor, Pierce Brosnan, in Jamaica.[2]
- Goldfinger plans to poison all of the Fort Knox water supply with 3 pints of GB/sarin. This far underestimates the potency of nerve agents (as does even the film).
- In the novel the Astin Martin DB III merely has switchable tail-lights, reinforced bumpers for ramming (Bond simply backs up into and rams Tilly), a receiver for the homing device, and hidden compartments for a large pistol and other contraband. Bond simply draws it from the motor "pool" where he has a choice between it and a Jag. There is no Q branch as such. The smaller homer tracking device is missing in the novel (the other one uses a vacuum tube).
- In the novel, Bond does not learn of Jill's death by gold painting until after his golf match with Goldfinger. Jill has been painted, then cleaned, but dies later in a hospital anyway, apparently of clogged pores. She tells her sister Tilly what happened before she dies. (N.B see above: clogged pores cannot kill a human being [3]).
- Dialog left out of movie: Bond to Goldfinger, while being tortured by Oddjob and about to be sawn in half: (politely) "Then you can go and --- yourself." Goldfinger to Bond, with good humor: "Even I am not capable of that, Mr. Bond."
[edit] Publication history
- March 23, 1959, Jonathan Cape, hardcover, first British edition.
- Cover by Richard Chopping.
- 24,000 total regular first edition copies were printed.
- August 1959, Macmillan, hardcover, first American edition.
- June 1960, Signet Books, paperback, first American edition.
- 1961, Pan Books, paperback, first British edition.
- 1978, Triad/Panther, paperback, British, ISBN 0-586-04519-8.
- 1982, Triad/Granada, paperback, British, ISBN 0-586-04519-8.
- February 1989, Coronet Books, paperback, British, ISBN 0-340-42568-7. Introduction by Anthony Burgess.
- April 4, 2002, Viking/Penguin, hardcover, British, ISBN 0-670-91036-8.
- August 2002, Penguin Books, paperback, American, ISBN 0-14-200204-6.
- October 26, 2006, Penguin Books, paperback, British. Introduction by Ben Schott
[edit] Comic strip adaptation
Fleming's original novel was adapted as a daily comic strip which was published in the British Daily Express newspaper and syndicated around the world. The adaptation ran from October 3, 1960 to April 1, 1961. The adaptation was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky. It was reprinted by Titan Books in 2004.
