Goldfinger (novel) Goldfinger (novel) Goldfinger is the seventh novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 23 March 1959. "Goldfinger" originally bore the title "The Richest Man in the World" and was written in January and February 1958. The story centres on the investigation by MI6 operative James Bond into the gold smuggling activities of Auric Goldfinger, who is also suspected by MI6 of being connected to SMERSH, the Soviet counter-intelligence organisation. As well as establishing the background to the smuggling operation, Bond uncovers a much larger plot, with Goldfinger planning to steal the
Goldfinger (novel) villain to date" and Fleming gives him a number of character flaws that are brought out across the novel. Psychologically Goldfinger is warped, possibly because of an inferiority complex brought on by his shortness, in contrast to a number of Fleming's other oversized villains and physically he is odd, with a lack of proportion to his body. As with a number of other villains in the Bond novels, there is an echo of World War II, with Goldfinger employing members of the German Luftwaffe, some Japanese and Koreans. For Operation Grand Slam, Goldfinger used the poison GB, now known as