For Your Eyes Only is a collection of short stories by Ian Fleming, and the eighth book to feature the fictional British Secret Service agent Commander James Bond. It was first published by Jonathan Cape on 11 April 1960. It marked a change of approach for Fleming, who had previously only written Bond stories as full-length novels.
The collection comprises five short stories: "From a View to a Kill", "For Your Eyes Only", "Quantum of Solace", "Risico" and "The Hildebrand Rarity". Three of the stories were adaptations of plots for a television series that was never filmed; Fleming had written the fifth previously but not published it. He undertook some minor experiments with the format, including one story written as an homage to W. Somerset Maugham, an author he greatly admired.
Reviews for the book were mixed, although several critics thought the short-story format suited Bond. Elements from the stories have been used in several Bond films, including the title of the 1981 film, For Your Eyes Only, starring Roger Moore as Bond. The film also used some elements and characters from the short stories "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico". "From a View to a Kill" also gave part of its title (but no characters or plot elements) to the 1985 film, A View to a Kill and plot elements from "The Hildebrand Rarity" were used in the 1989 film, Licence to Kill. "Quantum of Solace" was used as the title for the twenty-second Bond film in 2008.
Plots "From a View to a Kill" The Secret Service agent James Bond investigates the murder of a motorcycle dispatch-rider and the theft of his top-secret documents by a motorcycle-riding assassin. The rider was en route from the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, then located in Versailles, to his base, Station F, in Saint-Germain in France. As Bond is already in Paris, his superior, M, sends him to assist in the investigation in any way he can. Bond disguises himself as a dispatch-rider and follows the same journey to Station F as the previous rider; as expected, the assassin attempts to kill him. Bond is ready for him and kills the assassin. He then uncovers the assassin's underground base of operations.
"For Your Eyes Only" The Havelocks, a British couple living in Jamaica, refuse to sell their estate to Herr von Hammerstein, a former Gestapo officer who is the chief of counter-intelligence for the Cuban secret service. They are murdered by two Cuban hit-men at the direction of their leader, Major Gonzales; all three work for Hammerstein. The Havelocks are close friends of M, who served as the best man during their wedding. M gives Bond a voluntary assignment, unconnected to sanctioned Secret Service duties, to travel to Vermont via Canada, find Hammerstein at his rented estate at Echo Lake and assassinate him as a warning to future criminals who might think to target British citizens. When Bond arrives on the scene, he finds the Havelocks' daughter, Judy, who intends to carry out her own mission of revenge with a bow and arrow. Judy kills Hammerstein by shooting him in the back with an arrow from away at the exact moment that he dives into a lake. A shoot-out then occurs between Bond and Gonzales and the two Cuban gunmen. Bond kills all of them and returns to Canada with Judy, who has been slightly wounded during the gunfight.
"Quantum of Solace"
After completing a mission in the Bahamas, Bond is in Nassau and attends a dinner party at Government House. When the other guests have left, Bond remarks that if he ever marries, he imagines it would be nice to marry an air hostess. The Governor then tells Bond the story of a relationship between the civil servant Philip Masters and the air hostess Rhoda Llewellyn. After meeting aboard a flight to London, the couple married, and went to live in Bermuda, but after a time Rhoda began a long open affair with the eldest son of a rich Bermudian family. As a result, Masters's work deteriorated, and he suffered a nervous breakdown. After recovering, he was given a break from Bermuda by the governor and sent on an assignment to Washington. Upon his return Masters was determined to end his marriage and he divided their home into two sections, half to each of them and refused to have anything to do with his wife in private—although they continued to appear as a couple in public. He eventually returned to the UK alone, leaving Rhoda with unpaid debts and stranded in Bermuda—a cruel act which he would have been incapable of carrying out just a few months earlier. The governor explains his point to Bond: when the "Quantum of Solace" drops to zero, humanity and consideration of one human for another is gone and the relationship is finished. Despite the success of Masters's plan to take revenge on his unfaithful wife, he never recovered emotionally. After a time, Rhoda married a rich Canadian. The governor then reveals that the dinner companions whom Bond found dull were Rhoda and her rich Canadian husband.
"Risico" Bond is sent by M to investigate a drug-smuggling operation based in Italy that is sending narcotics to England. M instructs Bond to get in touch with a CIA informant, Kristatos, who in turn tells Bond that a man named Enrico Colombo is behind the racket. When Bond sets out to find more information on Colombo, he is captured and brought aboard Colombo's ship, Colombina. Colombo informs Bond that Kristatos is actually the one in charge of the drug smuggling operation, and that Kristatos is backed by the Russians. Colombo agrees to help Bond by providing information "as long as none of it comes back to Italy"; Bond agrees to help Colombo eliminate Kristatos. Bond, Colombo and his men sail Colombina to Santa Maria when Kristatos's men are loading another shipment of drugs. They attack Kristatos's ship and adjacent warehouse and discover Kristatos lurking near the warehouse, preparing to detonate a bomb. Kristatos tries to escape, but is killed by Bond.
"The Hildebrand Rarity"
Bond is on an assignment in the Seychelles; through Fidele Barbey, his influential and well-connected local contact, he meets an uncouth American millionaire, Milton Krest, who challenges the two to aid him in the search for a rare fish, the Hildebrand Rarity. Bond, Barbey, Krest and his English wife Elizabeth set off aboard Krest's boat Wavekrest in search of the fish. During the journey, Bond learns that Krest verbally and physically abuses everyone around him, especially his wife—whom he punishes with the use of a stingray tail he dubs "The Corrector". Krest finds the Hildebrand Rarity and kills it—along with many other fish—by pouring poison into the water. Wavekrest sets sail for port. Along the way Krest gets very drunk, insults Bond and Barbey and tells his wife he will beat her again with the stingray tail. Later that night, Bond hears Krest choking; investigating, Bond finds that Krest has been murdered—apparently by having the rare fish stuffed down his throat. So as not to be entangled in a murder investigation, Bond throws Krest overboard and cleans up the scene of the crime, making it look as though Krest fell overboard after one of the ropes holding his hammock broke: Bond suspects both Barbey and Mrs Krest, but is unsure which is responsible. When Mrs Krest invites Bond to sail with her to Mombasa—his next destination—aboard the Wavekrest, he accepts her invitation with reservations.
Background and writing history In mid-1958 CBS television commissioned the author Ian Fleming to write episodes of a television show based on his Bond character. This deal came about after the success of the 1954 television adaptation of Casino Royale as an episode of the CBS television series Climax!. Fleming agreed to the deal and began to write outlines for the series, but CBS later dropped the idea.
By January 1959 Fleming had published six novels in the preceding six years. A seventh book, Goldfinger, was being edited and prepared for production; it was released at the end of March 1959. Once Fleming completed Goldfinger he thought he had exhausted his inspiration for plots. He told the writer William Plomer—his friend who proof-read all the Bond books—that the novel was to be "the last full length folio on Bond ... Though I may be able to think up some episodes for him in the future, I shall never be able to give him 70,000 words again".
Fleming travelled to his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica in January 1959, where he adapted three of the CBS television plots into short stories and added a fifth he had written in the summer of 1958. Fleming's biographer Andrew Lycett noted that at the time he was writing both the television scripts and the short story collection, "Ian's mood of weariness and self-doubt was beginning to affect his writing".
"From a View to a Kill" was initially intended to be the backstory for Hugo Drax, the villain of the novel Moonraker. The story would have taken place during the Second World War, and featured Drax as the motorcycle assassin who crashes his bike and is taken to an American field hospital. Later, the hospital is bombed, leaving Drax with amnesia and a disfigured face. The story was one that Fleming had drawn up for the television series. The original name for the story was "The Rough with the Smooth", which was also the original title of the book, before For Your Eyes Only was chosen for publication. "From A View to a Kill" was serialised in the Daily Express in September 1959 under the title "Murder Before Breakfast".
For "For Your Eyes Only" Fleming contacted the Bond enthusiast and gun expert Geoffrey Boothroyd for research about bows and arrows, which Fleming felt would be better in the natural setting. Boothroyd had previously advised Fleming on the type of gun Bond should be carrying. Early names for "For Your Eyes Only" were "Death Leaves an Echo" and "Man's Work". While it was still a possible television episode, it was to be called "Rough Justice", which was to be episode three of the series.
"Quantum of Solace" was based on a story told to Fleming by his neighbour and lover Blanche Blackwell about a real-life police inspector, whom Fleming turned into the story's civil servant, Philip Masters. As thanks for the story, Fleming bought Blackwell a Cartier watch. Fleming wrote the story in the style of W. Somerset Maugham as an homage to a writer he greatly admired. An earlier title that was considered for "Quantum of Solace" was "Love Lies Bleeding". The story was first published in Modern Woman's Magazine in November 1959 under the title "A Choice of Love and Hate".
The original manuscript copy for "Risico" is titled "Risiko". The story was first published in the Daily Express in April 1960 under the name "The Double-Take". This was adapted from another idea from the planned television series.
In April 1958 Fleming flew to the Seychelles via Bombay to report for The Sunday Times on a treasure hunt; although the hunt was not as exciting as he hoped, Fleming used many of the details of the island for "The Hildebrand Rarity". Fleming combined the backdrop of the Seychelles with his and Blackwell's earlier experience in Pedro Keys, two islands off Jamaica, where they watched two scientists do something similar with poison to obtain samples. For the villain of the story, an abusive American millionaire, Fleming used the name Milton Krest: Milton was the code name of a Greek sea captain who ferried British soldiers and agents through German patrols and who received the Distinguished Service Order and an MBE, while Krest was the name of tonic and ginger beer Fleming drank in Seychelles. "The Hildebrand Rarity" was first published in Playboy in March 1960. It became the first magazine to publish a Bond short story; it began a long association between the publication and Bond. The story was also published in Today magazine in March 1960.