Octopussy and other risky businesses

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Octopussy and Other Risky Businesses (Original title: Octopussy and The Living Daylights ) is a short story volume from Ian Fleming's James Bond series, which was published posthumously in 1966. The German translation first appeared in 1968.

Summary

Octopussy

Original title: Octopussy ; Another German title: The silent witness

007 is supposed to track down a war veteran in order to solve a long-ago murder of an old friend and a father figure Bonds in the Wilder Kaiser in Kitzbühel in the post-war period. His search leads him to Jamaica , where the veteran lives and works for a marine researcher. Bond confronts the man with his past. It comes to light that the veteran committed the murder out of sheer greed for money. Bond gives the man a week to sort things out. As a result, the veteran decides to face his fate and go through the process despite his age and poor health. This does not happen, however, because shortly afterwards he is attacked during his research work by an octopus, which he called "Octopussy", and drowns in the process.

The setting is Jamaica. The story is largely told in flashbacks that take the reader to the Germany end of World War II.

The breath of death

Original title: The Living Daylights ; Another German title: Duel with double use

James Bond is supposed to prevent a murder of a Secret Service agent planned by the KGB in Berlin by killing the notorious sniper “Trigger”. Bond makes the cold-blooded killing of someone he has never seen, and so he tries to distract himself as best he can in the days that remain before the act. He gets drunk, swallows, as in other episodes, amphetamines and travels through the western sector of Berlin. His eye also falls on an attractive cellist who is busy on the scene.

When it turns out that this cellist is the said sniper, Bond decides, against his instructions, not to kill her. Instead, he shoots her in the arm, at least preventing the agent from being killed. His conscientious and pedantic employee at the action complained to the Secret Service about Bond. The book ends with the question of whether Bond will lose his license to kill. A circumstance that he doesn't seem to regret after years of work.

The place of action is Berlin , right on the sector border (before the Wall was built ) at the corner of Wilhelm and Zimmerstrasse, in Kreuzberg .

Globus - to be auctioned with the highest bidder

Original title: The Property of a Lady ; Another German title: The advantages of a woman

A KGB agent smuggled into the Secret Service is to be rewarded for her work by the KGB by receiving the proceeds from an auction of a valuable globe from Peter Carl Fabergé in London . Bond's job is to find a high-ranking KGB agent among the numerous bidders at the auction.

The setting is London.

007 in New York

Original title: 007 in New York

007 is tasked with protecting a female MI6 agent from her partner, a double agent for the KGB.

However, in addition to the descriptions of New York and the examination of Bond's culinary preferences, such as detailed instructions for the preparation of scrambled eggs, this action seems almost irrelevant.

The setting is New York.

Overall view

In all of these stories, Bond appears bitter and more cynical than in the novels. He reflects, particularly in Breath of Death / The Living Daylights , his role as a tool for MI6.

expenditure

The first issue contained only the previously unpublished short story Octopussy and the Living Daylights , which had already been published on February 4, 1962 in the British Sunday Times . The later added auction house episode Globus - to be auctioned with the highest bidder (also: The advantages of a woman ) appeared for the first time in November 1963 in The Ivory Hammer of the auction house Sotheby’s and also in Playboy . The story 007 in New York , which was also added later to the volume, first appeared in October 1963 as Agent 007 in New York in the New York Herald Tribune and was included in Fleming's book Thrilling Cities in 1964 (first edition: 1963).

In German there were different editions in different combinations of the short stories. The 10th edition by Scherz-Verlag from 1988 with the title Octopussy and other risky deals contained the following episodes:

  1. "For you personally"
  2. Risky business
  3. A minimum of consolation
  4. Octopussy

The first three stories are originally from the short story book 007 James Bond intervenes ( For Your Eyes Only ).

Earlier editions appeared under the title Risky Business .

Film adaptations

The two short stories Octopussy and The Breath of Death served as models for the films of the same name. However, only a few elements of the novel were taken for the film adaptation of Octopussy and inserted into a much more complex framework. For example, the daughter of the aforementioned war veteran plays the main female role. She is called Octopussy because of an octopus tattoo. As in Globus - to be auctioned with the highest bidder , the auction of a Fabergé egg takes place, during which Bond has to watch the bidders carefully.

The breath of death remains much closer to the text . As in the book, Bond receives the assignment to kill a KGB sniper. This episode is shown briefly at the beginning of the film and also influences the rest of the storyline.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ian Fleming: Octopussy and Other Risky Businesses . 10th edition. Scherz Verlag, Bern, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-502-55914-7 , pp. 4-5 .