Goldfinger (novel) Sarin, which had been discovered by the Nazis. Goldfinger has an obsession with gold to the extent that academic Elizabeth Ladenson says that he is "a walking tautology". Ladenson lists both his family name and his first name as being related to gold ("Auric" is an adjective pertaining to gold); his clothes, hair, car and cat are all gold coloured, or a variant thereof; his Korean servants are referred to by Bond as being "yellow", or yellow-faced"; and he paints his women (normally prostitutes) gold before sex. Elizabeth Ladenson thought the character of Pussy Galore to be "perhaps the most
Goldfinger (novel) use of his name, Goldfinger threatened to sue over the use of the name, before the matter was settled out of court. Fleming had based the actual character on American gold tycoon Charles W. Engelhard, Jr. Fleming also used a number of his own experiences within the book, and the round of golf played with Goldfinger was based upon a tournament in 1957 at the Berkshire Golf Club in which Fleming partnered the Open winner Peter Thomson. Upon its release, "Goldfinger" went to the top of the best-seller lists; the novel was broadly well received by the critics, being favourably