Octopussy and the Living Daylights is a collection of James Bond short stories, by Ian Fleming, published posthumously in the United Kingdom and the United States by Glidrose Productions, in 1966, as a postscript to his James Bond canon.
Publication overview
Before his death, Ian Fleming reportedly had intended to compile a second book of short stories in the same vein as For Your Eyes Only. After his death, Glidrose Productions followed this plan.
Initially, the book contained only two short stories: (i) The final James Bond short story to be published, "Octopussy" (with agent 007 in a minor role), which was first serialized in the March and April 1966 issues of Playboy magazine, some two years after Ian Fleming's death; and (ii) "The Living Daylights", considered by critics to be the best James Bond short story, which was first published in the 1962 magazine supplement to The Times newspaper (the story also appeared under the title "Berlin Escape", in the June 1962 issue of Argosy magazine).
The first paperback edition of the collection was published in 1967, it was expanded with a third short story, "Property of a Lady" which Fleming wrote, in 1963, for inclusion in The Ivory Hammer , the annual publication of Sotheby's auction house. In the second edition, the collection's title was shortened to Octopussy; most paperback reprints of the 1970s and 1980s used the abbreviated title. The third edition of the collection appeared in 2002, expanded with a fourth short story, "007 in New York", which Fleming had included in American editions of his 1964 travelogue, Thrilling Cities, but which was not published in Britain until the late 1990s; editions published since the mid-1990s have the collection's full title.
It is not known for certain whether any of these stories were ever actually earmarked by Ian Fleming for his never-completed collection, though it is likely "The Living Daylights", at the very least, would have been a strong contender since it (unlike the others) had already been widely published by 1964.
"Octopussy" provided the title of the eponymous 1983 film, and the background for the movie character Octopussy, the daughter of the villain in the short story; the film also used most of the plot of "Property of a Lady". In 1987, "The Living Daylights" was closely adapted for part of Timothy Dalton's eponymous first James Bond film of the same title. According to some sources, The Property of a Lady was to have been the title of Dalton's third James Bond film to be released in 1991, but it went unfilmed; little of the original short story would have been available for use, given its having been used in the Octopussy film. As for "007 in New York", some afficionados feel that, though unfilmed, the story's spirit is in the New York City segment of the 1973 film, Live and Let Die.
Plot overviews
"Octopussy"
Bond is assigned to apprehend a hero of the Second World War implicated in a murder involving a cache of Nazi gold; 007 appears briefly in this story, which is told mostly in flashback.
"The Living Daylights"
An unusually morose James Bond is assigned sniper duty to help a defector escape East Berlin. Bond's duty is to prevent a top Russian assassin codenamed "Trigger" from killing the defector, the assignment becomes difficult when he discovers that Trigger is a beautiful woman.
"Property of a Lady"
Bond investigates a Secret Service employee who is a double agent about to be paid by her Russian keepers with a Fabergé egg she is selling at auction at Sotheby's. The double agent's fate is revealed in Fleming's novel, The Man with the Golden Gun, though as it happened most readers did not get to see this story, in which she first appeared, until several years after the novel came out.
"007 in New York"
An inconsequential tale in which Bond muses about New York City, and his favorite recipe for scrambled eggs, during a quick mission to the Big Apple to warn a female MI6 employee that her new boyfriend is a KGB agent.
- At the start of You Only Live Twice, Bond complains about the meaningless assignments he had undertaken since the death of his wife at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It has been suggested that the stories in this collection may well have taken place during this dark period of Bond's career.
Comic strip adaptations
Two of Fleming's short stories were adapted as daily comic strips which were published in the British Daily Express newspaper and syndicated worldwide.
Both comic strips were reprinted by Titan Books in the early 1990s, and again in 2004. To date, "Property of a Lady" and "007 in New York" have not been adapted as comic strips. Along with "Quantum of Solace" from For Your Eyes Only, these remain the only Ian Fleming Bond stories not yet adapted in this form.
See also
Last updated: 05-17-2005 04:23:42
