Since publication Casino Royale has appeared as a comic strip in The Daily Express, and been adapted for the screen three times: a 1954 episode of the CBS television series Climax! with Barry Nelson as an American Bond, a 1967 film version with David Niven playing 'Sir James Bond', and a 2006 film in the Eon Productions film series starring Daniel Craig as James Bond. The book was given broadly positive reviews by critics at the time and sold out in less than a month after its UK release on 13 April 1953, although US sales upon release a year later were much slower. Within the spy storyline, Casino Royale deals with themes of Britain's position in the world, particularly the relationship with the US in light of the defections to the Soviet Union of the British agents Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. He was initially unsure whether the work was suitable for publication, but was assured by his friend, the novelist William Plomer, that the novel had promise. Fleming wrote the draft in early 1952 at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica while awaiting his marriage. Fleming used his wartime experiences as a member of the Naval Intelligence Division, and the people he met during his work, to provide plot elements the character of Bond also reflected many of Fleming's personal tastes.

Bond is supported in his endeavours by Vesper Lynd, a member of his own service, as well as Felix Leiter of the CIA and René Mathis of the French Deuxième Bureau. Sent to a French casino in Royale-les-Eaux, Bond aims to eliminate the threat of the deadly Le Chiffre by bankrupting the ruthless.

The story concerns the British secret agent James Bond, gambling at the casino in Royale-les-Eaux to try and bankrupt Le Chiffre, the treasurer of a French union and a member of the Russian secret service. Ian Fleming's literary debut of British Secret Service agent 007 is stylishly adapted to the sequential art medium by Van Jensen and Denis Calero in the official James Bond: Casino Royal graphic novel.

Casino royale novel