[In Octopussy] Commander James Bond, British Secret Service Agent 007, shows himself to be the dove some of us had long suspected. Dispatched by his frosty-eyed chief, "M," to Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin to kill a Soviet sniper. Bond disobeys for sentimental reasons….

Without further question, Bond now joins the knightly company of story-book heroes. All of them are athletic, daring and handsomely virile, but their chief mark of distinction is that their patron saint is George and they chivalrously spend much of their time saving pretty girls from dragons of one kind or another. That, in essence, is what Bond does in his last adventure, at Checkpoint Charlie.

Probably there should never have been any doubts about Bond being a true-blue hero…. Nevertheless, Fleming, presumably deliberately, caused many readers to confuse Bond with the currently more prevalent anti-hero. Fleming did this by two devices. He supplied Bond with...