From Russia, with Love

Book Details

50% complete

Author(s):

Ian Fleming

First Pub:

1957

Genre(s):

Mystery; Thriller

First Read:

2017

Times Read:

1 time

Rating:

Chapters:

See 31

Author’s Note

Part One - The Plan

1 - Roseland

2 - The Slaughterer

3 - Post-graduate Studies

4 - The Moguls of Death

5 - Konspiratsia

6 - Death Warrant

7 - The Wizard of Ice

8 - The Beautiful Lure

9 - A Labour of Love

10 - The Fuse Burns

Part Two - The Execution

11 - The Soft Life

12 - A Piece of Cake

13 - 'BEA Takes You There...'

14 - Darko Kerim

15 - Background to a Spy

16 - The Tunnel of Rats

17 - Killing Time

18 - Strong Sensations

19 - The Mouth of Marilyn Monroe

20 - Black on Pink

21 - Orient Express

22 - Out of Turkey

23 - Out of Greece

24 - Out of Danger

25 - A Tie With a Windsor Knot

26 - The Killing Bottle

27 - Ten Pints of Blood

28 - La Tricoteuse

Internal ID:

1982

Series:

<- Diamonds Are Forever - Doctor No ->

James Bond*

#5 of 14

James Bond*

A series a spy thrillers written by Ian Fleming in the mid-20th Century that went on to become a somewhat successful movie franchise.

View this series in the book list

1) Casino Royale
2) Live and Let Die
3) Moonraker
4) Diamonds Are Forever
5) From Russia, with Love
6) Doctor No
7) Goldfinger
8) For Your Eyes Only
9) Thunderball
10) The Spy Who Loved Me
11) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
12) You Only Live Twice
13) The Man with the Golden Gun
14) Octopussy and The Living Daylights

First Sentence:

The naked man who lay splayed out on his face beside the swimming pool might have been dead.

Last Sentence:

May contain spoilers

Bond pivoted slowly on his heel and crashed headlong to the wine-red floor.

Comments:

No comments on file

Synopsis not on file
Extract (may contain spoilers)

The blubbery arms of the soft life had Bond round the neck and they were slowly strangling him. He was a man of war and when, for a long period, there was no war, his spirit went into a decline.

In his particular line of business, peace had reigned for nearly a year. And peace was killing him.

At 7.30 on the morning of Thursday, August 12th, Bond awoke in his comfortable flat in the plane–tree’d square off the King’s Road and was disgusted to find that he was thoroughly bored with the prospect of the day ahead. Just as, in at least one religion, accidie is the first of the cardinal sins, so boredom, and particularly the incredible circumstance of waking up bored, was the only vice Bond utterly condemned.

Bond reached out and gave two rings on the bell to show May, his treasured Scottish housekeeper, that he was ready for breakfast. Then he abruptly flung the single sheet off his naked body and swung his feet to the floor.

There was only one way to deal with boredom - kick oneself out of it. Bond went down on his hands and did twenty slow press-ups, lingering over each one so that his muscles had no rest. When his arms could stand the pain no longer, he rolled over on his back and, with his hands at his sides, did the straight leg-lift until his stomach muscles screamed. He got to his feet and, after touching his toes twenty times, went over to arm and chest exercises combined with deep breathing until he was dizzy. Panting with the exertion, he went into the big white-tiled bathroom and stood in the glass shower cabinet under very hot and then cold hissing water for five minutes.

At last, after shaving and putting on a sleeveless dark blue Sea Island cotton shirt and navy blue tropical worsted trousers, he slipped his bare feet into black leather sandals and went through the bedroom into the long big-windowed sitting-room with the satisfaction of having sweated his boredom, at any rate for the time being, out of his body.

May, an elderly Scotswoman with iron grey hair and a handsome closed face, came in with the tray and put it on the table in the bay window together with The Times, the only paper Bond ever read.

Bond wished her good morning and sat down to breakfast.

Added: 19-May-2017

Last Updated: 19-Nov-2019

Publications

01-Jan-2016

ePub Books

e-Book

Date Issued:

Cir 01-Jan-2016

Format:

e-Book

Pages*:

321

Read:

Once

Internal ID:

1843

Publisher:

ePub Books

ISBN:

Unknown

Country:

United States

Language:

English

From epubbooks.com:

SMERSH, the Soviet counterintelligence agency, plans to commit a grand act of terrorism in the intelligence field. For this, it targets British secret service agent 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. His death is planned to precipitate a major sex scandal, which will run through the world press for months and leave his and his service’s reputation in tatters. Bond’s killer is to be SMERSH executioner Red Grant, a psychopath whose homicidal urges coincide with the full moon. Kronsteen, SMERSH’s chess-playing master planner, and Colonel Rosa Klebb, head of Operations and Executions, devise the operation. They persuade an attractive young cipher clerk, Corporal Tatiana Romanova, to falsely defect from her post in Istanbul, claiming to have fallen in love with Bond after seeing his file photograph.

Cover:

Notes and Comments:

Author(s)

Ian Fleming
Birth: 28 May 1908 Mayfair, London, England, UK
Death: 12 Aug 1964 Canterbury, Kent, England, UK

Notes:

From the e-Book of Octopussy and the Living Daylights:

IAN FLEMING was born in London on May 28, 1908. He was educated at Eton College and later spent a formative period studying languages in Europe. His first job was with Reuters News Agency where a Moscow posting gave him firsthand experience with what would become his literary bête noire—the Soviet Union. During World War II he served as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence and played a key role in Allied espionage operations.

After the war he worked as foreign manager of the Sunday Times, a job that allowed him to spend two months each year in Jamaica. Here, in 1952, at his home “Goldeneye,” he wrote a book called Casino Royale—and James Bond was born. The first print run sold out within a month. For the next twelve years Fleming produced a novel a year featuring Special Agent 007, the most famous spy of the century. His travels, interests, and wartime experience lent authority to everything he wrote. Raymond Chandler described him as “the most forceful and driving writer of thrillers in England.” Sales soared when President Kennedy named the fifth title, From Russia With Love, one of his favorite books. The Bond novels have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide, boosted by the hugely successful film franchise that began in 1962 with the release of Dr No.

He married Anne Rothermere in 1952. His story about a magical car, written in 1961 for their only son, Caspar, went on to become the well-loved novel and film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Fleming died of heart failure on August 12, 1964, at the age of fifty-six.

Awards

No awards found

I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.