DR. NO

" You are right Mr. Bond. This is just what I am, a maniac. All the greatest men are maniacs. "
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Following Bond's near-death in From Russia With Love, M orders Bond to trade in his low-caliber Beretta pistol for something with more stopping power and a larger cartridge, a Walther PPK, before sending him to investigate the mysterious disappearance of an MI6 station chief in Jamaica.

Expecting to stick his head in the sand and continue recovering from his last mission's wounds, Double-0 finds himself in someone's crosshairs—or to be more exact, spider bite. The fate of the missing agent seems just as grim, and Bond's sleuthing leads him into a sadistic web of a reclusive man known only as 
Dr. No. 

Though this is the first James Bond movie (1962), starring Sean Connery and Ursula Andress as Honeychile Rider, Ian Fleming's sixth novel hits top gear and is rich with a new host of exotic and interesting heroes, friends, villains—and a dragon. [JG]

Sean Connery teaching Ursula Andress how to hand-stand on the set of Dr. No in 1962. Book 6 // Movie 1

FAVORITE QUOTES

4. "There was a moment's silence. The sleet tore at the windows. M swiveled his chair and watched the streaming panes. Bond took the opportunity to glance at his watch. Ten O'clock. His eyes slid to the gun and holster on the desk. He thought of his fifteen years of marriage to the ugly bit of metal. He remembered the times its angle ward had saved his life—and the times when its threat alone had been enough. He thought of the days when he had dismantled the gun and oiled it and packed the bullets carefully into the cartridges out on to the bedspread in some hotel somewhere round the world. Then the last swipe of a dry rag and the gun into the little holster and a pause in front of the mirror to see that nothing showed. And then out to the door and on his way to the rendezvous that was to end with either darkness or light. How many times had it saved his life? How many death sentences had it signed? Bond felt unreasonably sad. How could one have such ties with an inanimate object, an ugly one at that, and, he had to admit it, with a weapon that was not in the same class the ones chosen by the armourer? But he had the ties and M. was going to cut them."

3. "The shadows crept from behind the house and marched across the lawn and enveloped him. The Undertaker's Wind blows at night from the center of the island, clattered softly in the tops of the palm trees. The frogs began to tinkle among the shrubs. The fireflies, the 'blink-a-blinks,' as Quarrel called them, came out and began flashing their sexual morse. For a moment, the melancholy of the tropical dusk caught at Bond's heart. He picked up the bottle and looked at it. He had drunk a quarter of it. he poured another big slug into his glass and added some ice. What was he drinking for? Because of the thirty miles of black sea he had to cross tonight? Because he was going into the unknown? Because of Doctor No? Quarrel came up from the beach. 'Time, Cap'n.'"

2. "It was eight-thirty. Bond unpacked his few things and changed into sandals and shorts. Soon there was the delicious smell of coffee and frying bacon. They ate their breakfast whilel Bond fixed his training routine—up at seven. Swim a quarter of a mile, breakfast, an hour's sunbathing, run a mile, swim again, lunch, sleep, sunbathing, swim a mile, hot bath and massage, dinner and asleep by nine." 

1. "Bond looked across into the flushed, golden face. The eyes were bright and soft in the candlelight, but with the same imperious glint they had held when he had first seen her on the beach and she had thought he had come to steal her shells. The full red lips were open with excitement and impatience. With him, she had no inhibitions. They were two loving animals. It was natural. She had no shame. She could ask him anything and would expect him to answer. It was as if they were already in bed together, lovers." 

Ian Fleming with my favorite Bond girl, Ursula Andress, on the set of Dr. No in 1962.

​ABOUT THE AUTHOR​

Ian Fleming (1908 - 1964) served as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence during World War II, a key player in English and Allied espionage efforts. His travels, interests, and wartime experiences birthed his first novel, Casino Royale, which he penned from "Goldeneye," his home in Jamaica in '52. The first printing sold out in the first month. Fleming went on to write twelve James Bond novels in twelve years, with sales skyrocketing four years later, after President Kennedy named Fleming's fifth, From Russia With Love, one of his favorite books of all time. Since then, sixty-five years later, over one hundred million copies of Bond's adventures have been sold. ​
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"'Honey, get into the bath before I spank you.' She smiled. Without saying anything she stepped down into the bath and lay at half-length. She looked up. The fair hair on her body glittered up through the water like golden souvenirs. She said provocatively, 'You've got to wash me. I don't know what to do. You've got to show me.'"

— Ian Fleming, Dr. No

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