The James Bond Bedside Companion (44 page)

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE is full of rises and falls in the action, which keep this sprawling narrative consistently interesting. There are only two sections that are unnecessarily detailed, interrupting the Fleming Sweep. This happens once when Bond visits the College of Arms and is forced to listen to the eccentric Griffon Or attempt to link Bond with Sir Thomas Bond of Bond Street. The second instance is at M's house, called Quarterdeck, where the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries reads a lengthy report concerning biological warfare. The journalistic aspects of both these sections are impressive, as are all Fleming's descriptions of technical data, but here they simply bog down the story.

Kingsley Amis, as well as other critics, complained that the structure of this work is flawed because the two separate plotlines seem unrelated. Actually, the two plots do come together at the novel's end—Bond's new bride, Tracy, is murdered by Bond's archenemy, Blofeld. The circle is complete. And this is where the main theme of the novel is centered. The title, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, implies that Bond is totally under the jurisdiction of his government; everything he does is, and always will be, in the line of duty. Does this also mean that his professional calling will affect his personal life, and if so, can he escape this? Apparently not, for Bond's personal and professional lives unfortunately come together at the end of the story, with tragic consequences. Therefore, Bond's marriage and subsequent life as a widower fall sadly under the same "powers that be" which control his professional life. Bond will always be, as long as he lives, "on her majesty's secret service."

The gambling theme is ever present as well. The main action begins when Bond covers for Tracy at the chemin de fer table at Casino Royale in the opening chapters. Tracy, at this point in the story, is unhappy, foolish, and suicidal. She recklessly gambles and loses a good deal of money at the table; she then admits to not having the money to pay the debt. Bond, ever the gentleman, pays the debt in order to meet her. This is a gamble on Bond's part. This act of nobility is what begins the chain of events which leads Bond down two different paths through the girl Tracy—one path toward Blofeld, and the other toward marriage. Bond makes other risky gambles, especially once he has entered the Swiss Alps headquarters of SPECTRE. There, Bond is impersonating Sir Hilary Bray, and must be extremely careful not to let his cover slip. The entire deceit of masquerading as an emissary from the College of Arms is a tremendous risk; the cover, one must admit, is pretty flimsy. Bond takes additional chances such as stealing a plastic strip of ski binding and using it to deactivate the electronic lock on his door at Piz Gloria, and confiding in Ruby to gain an ally.

CHARACTERS

O
N HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE contains major revelations about James Bond. At the beginning of the novel, Bond is unhappy. He has drafted a letter of resignation to M, which he plans to rewrite and dictate to his secretary in a couple of days. Bond is fed up with boredom, a malady Ian Fleming himself always hated. M has kept Bond in pursuit of Blofeld since the close of Operation Thunderball two years before. His adventure in Canada the previous year in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME apparently was related to the search for Blofeld as well. But once Blofeld's scent is finally uncovered, Bond regains his old energy and drive. Even then, it is quite apparent that Bond is ready for a change in his life. And that change comes about in the form of Tracy.

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE presents a James Bond in love. Ever since the death of Vesper Lynd in CASINO ROYALE, Bond has visited the resort in northern France, Royale-les-Eaux, annually:

He had come a long way since then, dodged many bullets and much death and loved many girls, but there had been a drama and a poignancy about that particular adventure that every year drew him back to Royale and its casino and to the small granite cross in the little churchyard that simply said "Vesper Lynd. RAP."

(
OHMSS
, Chapter 2)

 
(It is interesting to note that ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE marks the ten-year anniversary of the James Bond novels—it is only fitting that Fleming should bring up memories of that first book.) It is apparent in the above passage that Bond is longing for an addition to his life, or he wouldn't return to the little gravestone every year. And it is no accident that Bond meets the woman he will marry in the same location as he met Vesper Lynd. Royale will always hold a special place in the life of James Bond.

Bond is attracted to Tracy first by the way she drives her car—she passes him on the highway toward Royale. Bond loves fast cars, especially if they're driven by beautiful women. Next, Bond is intrigued by her looks, and by what the concierge at the hotel tells him. The woman driving the Lancia, it seems, is a "lady who lives life to the full." Finally, at the gambling table, Bond is impressed by the sheer guts of the woman. She gambles for big stakes and loses with no money to back her up. It is then, in speaking with Tracy, that Bond discovers she is a "bird with a wing, perhaps two wings, down." She tells him that she would always be able to pass Bond in a fast car because
he
wants to live. Apparently,
she
doesn't. To pay her debt to Bond, Tracy promptly takes him to her bedroom and the affair begins. Tracy's neurotic, suicidal tendencies only urge Bond to discover more about her. He spies on her the next day, following her to the beach. There, the couple is abducted by two men from the Union Corse, which happens to be run by Tracy's father, Marc-Ange Draco. Draco "kidnapped" Bond in order to bribe the Englishman into marrying Tracy because he believes it would make Tracy happy.

Here, the love story is interrupted and the Blofeld story takes over until almost two-thirds into the book, when Bond miraculously runs into Tracy after his harrowing escape from Piz Gloria. Tracy is a new woman now; it is two months since Bond has seen her. Psychiatric treatment has been a success, and she is now happy and full of energy. Tracy helps Bond flee to safety and one thing leads to another. Over breakfast the next day, Bond comes to some surprising realizations:

Bond suddenly thought, Hell! I'll never find another girl like this one. She's got everything I've ever looked for in a woman. She's beautiful, in bed and out. She's adventurous, brave, resourceful. She's exciting always. She seems to love me. She'd let me goon with my life. She's a lone girl, not cluttered up
with friends, relations, belongings. Above all, she needs me. It'll be someone for me to look after. I'm fed up with all these untidy, casual affairs that leave me with a bad conscience. I wouldn't mind having children. I've got no social background into which she would or wouldn't fit. We're two of a pair, really. Why not make it for always?

Bond found his voice saying those words that he had never said in his life before, never expected to say.

"Tracy. I love you. Will you marry me?"

She turned very pale. She looked at him wonderingly. Her lips trembled. "You mean that?"

"Yes, I mean it. With all my heart."

(OHMSS, Chapter 19)

This is quite a burst of emotion from the cold and ruthless individual who appeared ten years previously in CASINO ROYALE!

Bond has second thoughts while sleeping on the plane en route to London. He has a nightmare involving an elegant party at some kind of "grand townhouse." He and Tracy are dressed to a T—she loaded with jewels, he in tails. Tracy is chattering gaily and Bond wishes he were playing a game of bridge at Blades. Commander and Mrs. James Bond are announced as they enter the party, and a hush falls over the crowd. Bond awakes, sweating. He asks himself what he has done, but then realizes that he has just been having a nightmare. His marriage wouldn't be like that, he tells himself.

Bond even begins to enjoy the actual planning of the wedding:

. . . he was surprised to find that all this nest-building gave him a curious pleasure, a feeling that he had at last come to rest and that life would now be fuller, have more meaning, for having someone to share it with. Togetherness! What a curiously valid cliché it was!

(OHMSS, Chapter 26)

There is one moment when Bond realizes that he must come to grips with the fact that someone actually cares about him now; someone who cares if he is hurt, or is entering a dangerous situation. Bond now has someone else in his life to think about. When Tracy first sees Bond after the wrap-up of the Piz Gloria operation, she cries over his cuts and bruises. She chastises him because he "seems to think it doesn't matter to anyone."

Bond reached out and pressed her hand on the wheel. He hated "scenes." But it was true what she said. He hadn't thought of her, only of the job. It never crossed his mind that anybody really cared about him. A shake of the head from his friends when he went, a few careful lines in the
obituary columns of The Times, a momentary pang in a few girls' hearts. But now, in three days' time, he would no longer be alone. He would be a half of two people. There wouldn't only be May and Mary Goodnight who would tut-tut over him when he came back from some job as a hospital case. Now, if he got himself killed, there would be Tracy who would at any rate partially die with him.

(
OHMSS
, Chapter 26)

The wedding is a small affair, but Bond is extremely happy with it. As Tracy drives the Lancia away from the reception, Bond relaxes in the seat next to her as if a tremendous load has been taken from him. He tells her that all he wants is "to look after her." And when Tracy asks if she should try and lose the approaching red Maserati on their tail, he replies, "No. Let him go. We have all the time in the world." Unfortunately, these words are the last that Tracy will hear, for their dreams are shattered by the evil Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The bullets, probably meant for Bond, strike the driver of the Lancia, who happens to be Tracy. The Lancia crashes, and Bond comes to in the arms of a policeman. Bond puts up his defensive wall when he realizes what has happened; he refuses to admit she is dead:

He pressed her against him. He looked up at the young man and smiled his reassurance.

"It's all right," he said in a clear voice as if explaining something to a child. "It's quite all right. She's having a rest. We'll be going on soon. There's no hurry. You see"—Bond's head sank down against hers and he whispered into her hair—"you see, we've got all the time in the world."

(
OHMSS
, Chapter 27)

All of the cynical and melancholic trappings with which Fleming has endowed his hero have never equalled the power of this sad ending to a chapter in the life of James Bond.

La Comtesse Teresa di Vicenzo, otherwise known as Tracy, is not one of Fleming's most successful heroines. She is harder to define as a character than Honeychile Rider, Domino Vitali, Tatiana Romanova, or Vivienne Michel. Perhaps it is this enigmatic quality that Bond falls in love with. At the beginning of the story she is quite neurotic. It seems any other woman acting this way would turn James Bond off; but not Tracy. Her dangerous but confident driving impresses him. Tracy has a "beautiful golden face" with blue eyes and "shocking" pink lips. Her golden hair reaches her shoulders. She possesses an "ice-cold will" and knows exactly what she wants. Tracy grew up in wealthy surroundings, since her father, a Corsican, is the head of the French Mafia. Her mother, Marc-Ange tells Bond, was English but extremely wild. Tracy inherited these wild qualities, and a volatile temperament. She has been married once before to Count Guilio di Vicenzo, but he left her with a daughter who died of spinal meningitis soon after. Since her daughter's death, Tracy has been in a deep depression. She is ready to end it all when James Bond suddenly walks into her life. After seeking psychiatric help, Tracy changes and becomes a happier, carefree individual. She is, in Bond's words, "brave and resourceful"—she certainly deserves the credit for helping Bond escape the clutches of Blofeld's men after the ski chase from Piz Gloria. Her skillful driving saves them both more than once in this sequence. Aside from all of this, not much more can be ascertained from what Fleming provides the reader about the woman James Bond marries. Instead, we see only how she affects Bond himself, which is perhaps more important anyway.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld returns in OHMSS as a major villain. He has changed his appearance considerably since THUNDERBALL: his weight is now down from 280 pounds to about 168 pounds; he has "longish, carefully tended" silvery white hair; and the right nostril of his aquiline nose has been eaten away by what looks like tertiary syphilis. Blofeld has also changed the color of his eyes by wearing dark-green tinted contact lenses. But the brain has not changed. The villain is still capable of inventing an ingenious plot to destroy England, and even Bond is mystified by Blofeld's actions until late in the story. Apparently, Blofeld is seeking revenge on England for the destruction of SPECTRE's last plan. And although it is never actually stated whether the men surrounding Blofeld at Piz Gloria are members of SPECTRE, it is certainly suggested. The same cell-group structure of three men still exists, and the punishments for failure are very SPECTRE-like. For instance, one guard, who "interfered" with one of the beautiful allergy patients, took a ride early one morning down the bobsled chute—sans bobsled!