Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Fleming’s original creation was a brutal, gritty, hardened killer. An alcoholic womanizer addicted to pain killers and a chain smoker and kind of an unstable manic depressive. Most of the suaveness came from the transition to the movies. And I actually thought there was a LOT of class and sophistication to the Craig-Bond...it was just a darker and more mysterious kind. I thought he had a real Steve McQueen quiet-loner-tough-guy kind of screen presence.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Fleming’s original creation was a brutal, gritty, hardened killer. An alcoholic womanizer addicted to pain killers and a chain smoker and kind of an unstable manic depressive. “
I would say that you are wrong. I’m no expert, but I spent an entire summer studying all of Ian Fleming’s work which at that time was kept at Indiana University’s Lilly Library (I’m not sure if it still is). The novel “The Spy Who Loved Me” is particulary interesting since it was written from the viewpoint of the woman.
Bond smoked too much, drank too much, and liked his ladies. It was because of the job he did. Alcohol and cigarettes numbed his senses. Women were for pleasure, silly but necessary. Pills? No, he wasn’t into that.