The Big Sleep

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"His thin, claw-like hands were folded loosely on the rug, purple-nailed. A few locks of dry white hair clung to his scalp, like wild flowers fighting for life on a bare rock." Published in 1939, when Raymond Chandler was 50, this is the first of the Philip Marlowe novels. Its bursts of sex, violence, and explosively direct prose changed detective fiction forever. "She was trouble. She was tall and rangy and strong-looking. Her hair was black and wiry and parted in the middle. She had a good mouth and a good chin. There was a sulky droop to her lips and the lower lip was full."

Book Description

When a dying millionaire hires Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.

"Chandler [writes] like a slumming angel and invest[s] the sun-blinded streets of Los Angelos with a romantic presence."
--Ross Macdonald

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"Chandler [writes] like a slumming angel and invest[s] the sun-blinded streets of Los Angelos with a romantic presence."
   ROSS MACDONALD

"Raymond Chandler is a master."
   THE NEW YORK TIMES

"[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered."
   THE NEW YORKER

"Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious."
   ROBERT B. PARKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye."
   LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner.... An original.... A great artist."
   THE BOSTON BOOK REVIEW

"Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century.... Age does not wither Chandler's prose.... He wrote like an angel."
   LITERARY REVIEW

"[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision."
   JOYCE CAROL OATES, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

"Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence."
   ROSS MACDONALD

"Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since."
   PAUL AUSTER

"[Chandler]'s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that's like ours, but isn't."
   CAROLYN SEE

"A serious rereading of the Marlowe novels and stories yields more surprises than a rereading of Hemingway."
   RICHARD RUSSO, AUTHOR OF EMPIRE FALLS

Customer Reviews:

The Big Sleep - A must read.......2007-09-25

Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep is a first person narrative about private detective Philip Marlowe. The novel is considered a classic crime detective fiction story. Chandler perfectly builds the setting of the underworld of Los Angeles in the 1930s with memorable character, dialogue, and an interesting plot.

Chandler builds this world with a sparse-style that is of the same mold as Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver. His writing is tight and crisp, which keeps the speed of the plot moving fluidly, and rapidly.

The story begins when Marlowe is called on by a crippled millionaire, General Sternwood, to investigate Arthur Gwynn Geiger; the General wants to know more about the man with a blackmail attempt against one of his two 20-something year old daughters, Carmen Sternwood.

Seems simple enough? Well, lets just say the plot is complicated. Geiger turns out to be running a pornography racket, ends up murdered in his house with a naked and drugged Carmen sitting next to him. The next morning the Sternwood's chauffeur turns up murdered.

The pornography racket leads to Joe Brody, a two-bit hustler, who tries selling naked photographs of Carmen that were taking minutes before Geiger was murdered. But before Brody can get even more involved in the story, he gets murdered.

If that isn't plenty, the plot gets further complicated when you toss in a casino owning gangster, a hit man, a few missing people, and another hustler with a lead to Silver Wig. Marlowe eventually solves the blackmail situation, but soon gets on the chase for a missing ex-husband, which leads to a wild grand finale - A murder mystery. The plot is so involved that Chandler forgets to mention who killed the chauffeur!

Today, most readers would not even wince at the storyline. But, Chandler's novel must have been considered controversial to audiences when it was printed in 1939, especially because the story included themes such as pornography, homosexuality, and inter-racial relationships; even the 1946 film version starring Humphrey Bogart had to change some of the plot to make it suitable for the audience.

But what makes the novel such a great read is the character Philip Marlowe, the wisecracking, heavy drinking, and chain-smoking private eye. The character, like the plot, is also complex. Marlowe acts tough throughout, but also has a heart. Instead of calling the cops on Carmen, which he could do for a number of reasons in the story, he just wants her to seek help; and he doesn't even take advantage of her when she's lying naked in his bed. He just throws her out. He also plays chess and likes poetry.

Marlowe's quotes are also memorable. When the General asked him how he liked his brandy, Marlowe responds "In a glass." But my favorite line was: "You know what he'll do when he comes back? Beat my teeth out, then kick me in the stomach for mumbling." Wisecracks like these are constant throughout, which makes the story a fun read.

If you appreciate them, you will also appreciate Chandler's metaphors with lines like "Dead men are heavier than broken hearts." I recommend The Big Sleep; it's a classic. A definite must read.

Your classic tough guy PI .......2007-08-15

A fantastic detective story centered around tough guy P.I. Philip Marlowe. Many people have complained Chandler leaves a lot of loose ends - which may be true - but over all its a compelling read that you won't be able to put down.

Essential .......2007-08-04

What a great read. I am a major fan of noir fiction and after reading "The Postman Always Rings Twice", I craved another novel to fulfill my addiction and this one popped up. Chandler was way ahead of his time (it was published in 1939) and as cliche as it sounds, I simply could not put this book down. This is a classic that should be read and savoured by any fan of noir fiction.

Classic detective novel.......2007-07-18

Good vintage/ classic detective novel. I haven't read any of Chandler's books before, so I started with this one, his first.

I never read the classic detective novels because I knew that they took place in the forties and I thought that they would be really dated and old fashioned.

Yet again, I was wrong. I don't know why I thought that it would be more innocent than it was. People are people and they murdered and gambled and drank and slept around just as well, if not better, than we do now. If you are a fan of mystery and detective novels you should give this a try.

As Hard Boiled as a Three-Minute Egg.......2007-07-14

Disclaimer: I began reading THE BIG SLEEP knowing that Humphrey Bogart plays the story's narrator, detective Philip Marlowe, in the screen adaptation. However, I haven't seen the movie, nor read a single Chandler novel until this book.

Nevertheless, I forgot Bogart about as quickly as a smile vanishes when an unasked-for bucket full of cold water is thrown at it. After all, what kind of hard-boiled macho knows interior design, alludes to Marcel Proust, or can resist the desperate advances of a naked woman?

For example, here's how Marlowe describes Eddie Mars's place: "It was wainscoted in walnut and had a frieze of faded damask above the paneling." Damask? Get outta here. Marlowe does this repeatedly, and by the mid-way point, I concluded that Marlowe is about as hard boiled as a three-minute egg.

Regarding Chandler's style, it could be argued that he overuses the simile, because this device sometimes calls attention to itself. For example, "The plants filled the place, a forest of them, with nasty meaty leaves and stalks like the newly washed fingers of dead men" is the third of four such similes in a single long paragraph in chapter 2.

Nevertheless, this book moves so rapidly, you'd better be wearing a seatbelt. A bigger mystery seems to loom behind every solved one leading to a surprising conclusion.

Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

The cliches were invented right here
Great Stories, Great Edition, Great Book
Great stories by a great author
A Vicious Circle
Good, good, GOOD editorial choice here!

Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1883011078

Amazon.com

If you're looking for the perfect gift for yourself or some other lover of mysteries, this beautifully-made volume from the Library of America series will definitely prove that you care enough to send the very best. And if you haven't picked up The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, or The High Window recently, you'll be amazed at how well they stand up to the test of time. (A second handsome volume, Later Novels & Other Writings -- including The Long Goodbye -- is also available.)

Customer Reviews:

The cliches were invented right here.......2005-08-19

There are Hammett fans and Chandler fans. I am for Hammett, but Chandler's work remains compelling. The plots are nonsense but the metaphors are the purest gold. The opening scenes of THE BIG SLEEP and FAREWELL, MY LOVELY are delicious every time.

Great Stories, Great Edition, Great Book.......2004-01-30

Just my personal opinion, but I think Raymond Chandler is one of the most underrated American authors. Anyone who hasn't read "The Long Goodbye" must be punishing themselves for sins in a past life. "The Big Sleep" and "The High Window" are also excellent novels--good mysteries.

But what really makes Chandler's stories hold up so well is the language: "The Dancers is the kind of club that will dissolution you about what a lot of extra golf money can do for the personality" or "What does it matter, if you're breathing wind and air or oil and water--when you're sleeping the big sleep."

While the plots are wonderful period pieces of a young Los Angeles, the characters are richly drawn. Ever wonder where all those tv detectives came from? Right here.

Chandler's short stories are also supurb. My vote for the single best detective short story of all time is Red Wind--there is so much that happens in such a short story. No one should ever die without reading it....."Trouble is my Business" is also excellent....

Is this a complete collection of his short stories? No--There are a few I would have added, even though several of them were "canibalized" (Chandler's phrase) into later novels. The plot of "Bay City Blues" was built into "Lady in the Lake," but I think that story still holds up on its own. An earlier review also mentioned that "The Pencil" is missing. I can't understand why it was left out. "Killer in the Rain" also became "The Big Sleep," but it still has charm. "No Crime in the Mountains" is not included, but that's not much of a loss.

Not all of the stories in this book work--but that's going to be true with any collection. What is convenient with Library of America is the bindings are wonderful, the print font easy to read, the books lie flat, and will last forever. The list prices are a little steep--but not if you consider the amount of literature you're getting for the cost. I've bought this book three times, and have loaned it out--only for it to never return. But that's why I buy books.

One final note--The previous review mentioned that in this edition Johnny Dahlmas was replaced by Phillip Marlowe in "Red Wind." I was certain it was Johnny, and used Amazon's "Look Inside" to confirm--it is. Chandler had a few detectives, that eventually evolved into Marlowe, and each was a little different. I have a very soft spot in my heart for Dahlmas (I'm probably spelling his name wrong, so the soft spot may be in my head), so if the editor x-ed him out, I'd be furious....

Buy this book.

Great stories by a great author.......2002-07-19

Chandler is perhaps the greatest writer of detective fiction and a great author period. To ignore these books is to ignore much of what is great about American literature.

Two of his three best novels are included here (The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely).

The stories and great fun, if also rather flawed. My biggest complaint is that are presented here in their republished form, rather than with the original names of the protagonists. (For example, the hero of "Red Wind" is Philip Marlowe here, rather than John Dalmas.) That a fairly minor quibble. Especially good are "Goldfish" and "Red Wind."

The binding is very nice, as are all Library of America editions. My edition has held up quite well after heavy use.

A Vicious Circle.......2002-03-01

"Nothing made it my business except curiosity. But strictly speaking, I hadn't had any business in a month."(21) For Phillip Marlowe, the irresistibly aloof private detective who stars in Chandler's impressive detective novel, Farewell, My Lovely, crime is not something he seems able or willing to avoid. Hitting the streets of Los Angeles in the midst of the American gambling craze of the 1930's, Marlowe finds himself an inextricable player in a search for knowledge of past and present crimes and criminals.
Though he appears, on the surface, to be little more than a nosy, bumbling "private dick," his successful unraveling of a closely interwoven crowd of crooks proves, as one suspect cop observes, that Marlowe "played...smart....You must got something we wasn't told about." (228) Keeping his cards in his hand for most of the noel, Chandler shows that both he and Marlowe are "smart," leading the reader on a circuitous trail that shakes out only in the novel's final pages.
The story begins with a happenstance encounter between Marlowe and an ex-con called "Moose" Malloy. Marlowe cannot resist pursuing the suspicious-looking hulk of a man and soon finds himself both running after and from a variety of shady characters. In the course of his private investigations, Marlowe survives several near brushes with death, getting "sapped" by thugs near the novel's start, pumped full of opium in a suspicious hospital-like place, and stealthily boarding a closely guarded gambling boat to confront an infamous mobster in the middle of the night. In the end, Marlowe succeeds at untangling the web of murders and crimes that keep him running throughout the novel, but not before giving the reader the run-around as well. Chandler's smart, articulate prose lends itself well to the captivating story and intriguing characters that combine to make this a must-read for fans of detective fiction.

Good, good, GOOD editorial choice here!.......2001-12-02

Earlier anthologies of Raymond Chandler's works mostly center upon what have come to be known as his 'big four' or earliest novels -- The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady In The Lake -- or upon his later, and admittedly (with the possible exception of The Little Sister) 'inferior' works. Chandler's earlier short stories ( many of which he "cannibalized," to use his word, for the material in his subsequent novels) are normally treated as a separate genre altogether.

This particular collection, rightly, combines Chandler's first three novels with the best of his earlier short stories, recognizing the thematic unity in those works. (Good as it is, "The Lady In The Lake" demands to be treated separately from Chandler's earlier efforts.)

Chances are, if you're reading this, you've read most, if not all, of Chandler's Phillip Marlowe novels. You may as well have read many, if not all, of the short stories presented here. But have you read these novels, and these short stories, TOGETHER in this context? Likely not. But you deserve to.

In the short stories, for example, there are protagonists named John Evans, Ted Carmody and Tony Resick (the last two of which, interestingly, inhabit locations which were most likely Los Angeles' Hotel Mayfair, with which Chandler had more than a nodding familiarity). And when, in Chandler's writings, did they meld themselves into what would be his penultimate creation, Phillip Marlowe?

And at which point did Chandler begin to write, as fellow writer Ross McDonald termed it, "like a slumming angel . . ."? The answers to both questions may well lie here, in this collection.

Book Description

Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, who he's divorced and re-married and who ends up dead. and now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazy gangster are after Marlowe.

Download Description

Marlowe befriends a down-on-his-luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, who he's divorced and re-married and who ends up dead. Now Lennox is on the lam and the cops -- and a crazy gangster -- are after Marlowe.

"Raymond Chandler is a master."
   THE NEW YORK TIMES

"[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered."
   THE NEW YORKER

"Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious."
   ROBERT B. PARKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye."
   LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner.... An original.... A great artist."
   THE BOSTON BOOK REVIEW

"Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century.... Age does not wither Chandler's prose.... He wrote like an angel."
   LITERARY REVIEW

"Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence."
   ROSS MACDONALD

"Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since."
   PAUL AUSTER

"[Chandler]'s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that's like ours, but isn't. "
   CAROLYN SEE

"A serious rereading of the Marlowe novels and stories yields more surprises than a rereading of Hemingway."
   RICHARD RUSSO, AUTHOR OF EMPIRE FALLS

Customer Reviews:

This is the one.......2007-10-01

This is the one, the master's masterpiece. The story is heart-wrenching in its sad inevitability; the characters are unforgettable, the style honed to perfection. It also represents the perfect realization of the vision for noir fiction which Chandler articulated in "The Simple Art of Murder." Marlowe is as noble as it gets in a decidedly ignoble world and few of the other characters deserve to be on stage with him. The setting is palpable. You taste the smog and feel it against your skin, just as you taste the gimlets at Victor's. This is the writer's guidebook and the greatest pain comes from the fact that Chandler makes it look so easy. This is exhibit A for the art of writing. It's not using strange words. It's using everyday words in new ways. Here he does it on nearly every page.

Marlowe's pursuit of the truth is what makes this book great.......2007-09-30

Detective Philip Marlowe, looking into the death of casual drinking buddy Terry Dexter, finds that what few answers emerge merely raise more questions. It's like peeling back the layers of an onion. Dexter flees to Mexico after his wife is brutally murdered, and there kills himself under cloudy circumstances. His death too neatly disposes of the potentially scandalous murder, his wife having been the wild daughter of a secretive, Hearst-like newspaper magnate. And too many people benefit. Marlowe doesn't buy it, and when arrested on suspicion of having aided Dexter's escape, refuses to talk.

By coincidence he is then drawn into the sad marriage of a wealthy, alcoholic writer and his to-die-for wife, who happen to be neighbors and friends of Dexter's in-laws. What happens there leads him back, again and again, to the Dexter case.

When I first read this, I thought it the best detective novel ever. Rereading it years later, I'm less sure.

Lately I find detective-novel conventions tiring. The loner detective. All that hardboiledness. The hard-to-explain intergrity. The pursuit of cases with no client and no paycheck. "Because they are there" may work for mountain-climbing, but not for unsolved mysteries. Mid-century novels like this one are dated by all those fedoras and martinis, although I suppose the willing readers convert those into retro-chic charm.

What I find most implausible, though, is this: Everyone sitting still for a private eye's persistent questioning. Suspects may think they can better allay suspicion by talking than by clamming up, either because there's scant evidence or because they have powerful allies. The innocent witnesses, meanwhile, invariably hold back the truth, which conveniently allows a plot to continue that otherwise would end. The private eye always reaps great benefits from finding some hole in the story's fabric. No matter how tiny it is, enough unravels for him to move his case ahead, but never (until the end) enough to finish it.

But, really, would you talk to a private eye about a murder? Especially one to which you might be tied? That tough guys either talk to Marlowe at all, or rough him up (how quaint all those fists seem) but don't kill him, leaving him alive to snoop another day, is equally problematic. And if you were innocent, wouldn't you occasionally tell it all, having decided to talk to a private eye at all?

"The Long Goodbye", I hate to say it, drags. One drawing room scene follows another, more than usual because the plot is so complex. Marlowe talks to people in bars, diners, and offices as well as drawing rooms, parlors and porches. There's precious little action.

So, that's what's wrong with it. What's right with it?

Much. Chandler and Dashiell Hammett invented the 20th century American private eye. When Chandler wrote this, the genre was hardly 20 years old. Novels like this created archetypes that were not yet stereotypes, and can't be blamed for a half century of subsequent overuse.

I find merits in it, but different ones from back in the day, when I couldn't stop turning the pages.

Chandler's leisurely writing job contains less action, but yields great character development, set in the ennui of wealthy suburbia - at the novel's writing around 1950, still a new phenomenon. He finds in the boozy cocktail parties, unhappy marriages and wandering spouses deeper evidence of its rot.

The more we learn about the enigmatic Terry Dexter, the less we understand him. Ditto the writer Roger Wade and his wife Eileen. Marlowe's lonely integrity is what holds the plot together: no one else cares about all the parts, and anyone whose interest were material might have been put off when one part was declared solved. Chandler does pull off the delicate job of maintaining Marlowe's involvement and interest in a non-case case in which he has no interest and continually mulls dropping while frequently being warned off it by the usual criminal or rich bullies.

Keeping at the truth - through all those layers of the onion - are what make this book great, in addition to Marlowe's ultimately believable pursuit of it. Chandler keeps you guessing until the last page. The end's ambivalence and murk fit well with the LA smog just then beginning to become a Southern California fixture.

A world unto hiimself.......2007-09-17

We all sometimes wish we could permanently step into the world of a book and live there. The world presented here would be one of my top choices. It's not the happiest, the safest, but it's got style, class, hot dames, and action. The way he describes Los Angeles back then makes me nostalgic for an LA that was long gone before I was even born. This is a fantastic read on so many levels. One of the best writers of the last 100 years.

THE Private Eye.......2007-09-17

"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid? The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness."
-- Raymond Chandler from `The Simple Art of Murder' (an essay)

Philip Marlowe is cult pulp fiction at its best. His characters are intertwined and Marlowe deals with all of `em with his cool temperament and a style that can be created only by Raymond Chandler.

Raymond's stories may not be as complex and extraordinary as those of established genius detectives like Sherlock Holmes or Poirot. But his tales have emotions and noir elements that are instantly attractive and captivating.

The friend who is dead, the rich woman's known escapades, the drunk author, the rich reclusive father-in-law to the dead friend, the various characters that hit Marlowe and us in a well-crafted detective fiction is beautiful and worthy or re-reading just to relive the moments described so wonderfully.

This was the first Chandler fiction I read and have now collected a few others as well. These are a prized collection from an author who has class, style and worldly wit.

Familiar Noirish Murder Mystery.......2007-08-29

Raymond Chandler's characters in THE LONG GOODBYE (1953) have become archetypes that now inhabit countless Noir movies. These include the dogged private investigator with a hard-to-explain integrity, the tough cop on the edge of the law, the spoiled manipulative rich girl, the suave and distant crime boss, and the ruthless tycoon. I don't know if these were mystery archetypes when Chandler created them in TLG. But now, they fit into cinematic boxes and serve as familiar types in a downbeat story, where the hero's idiosyncratic integrity survives in the face of brutality, deception, and murder.

As a result, a fair way to judge Chandler is to consider his craftsmanship, not just his overly familiar characters. This, in my opinion, is superior in TLG, since there is not a vague personality or needless scene in its 350+ pages. This is tight and disciplined work. Chandler definitely knew what he was doing.

Nonetheless, TLG struck me as sheer entertainment. Perhaps Chandler realized this and wanted something, shall we say, more profound. This might explain why Marlowe calls another character a "moral defeatist" in the last chapter. Implicitly, this explains Marlowe's perseverance in TLG as he searches for the truth about Terry Lennox, his occasional drinking buddy. Looking back on the book, it's credible to view Marlowe as fighting back against such weakness, which was certainly a profound position in the year's following World War II. Further, this makes him more than a relentless and humorless wise guy, which is how everyone but Terry reacts to him. Poor Marlowe really needs a friend.

Incidentally, an element in TLG that I enjoyed immensely was Chandler's insider comments on the publishing scene and writing. These came to me as complete and delightful surprises. Perhaps the popularity of Noir movies has robbed the equivalent element of surprise from his characters.

Later Novels and Other Writings: The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback /Double Indemnity / Selected Essays and Letters (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

Outstanding in so many ways
Writing at its best - and it happens to be in detective noir
The best of Raymond Chandler
Classic American, cynical detective stories.
Priceless Solely for The Simple Art of Murder

Later Novels and Other Writings: The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback /Double Indemnity / Selected Essays and Letters (Library of America)
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1883011086

Amazon.com

Raymond Chandler is arguably the best American pulp novelist. His prose is so acutely visual, his characters so raw and intense that it is small wonder that all but one of his books have been made into movies. And his hero Philip Marlowe has graduated into American legend. Together with its companion volume (Stories and Early Novels), Later Novels and Other Writings forms the most complete Chandler collection in print. In addition to his later novels, this collection contains selected essays and letters, biographical information, and textual as well as explanatory notes. As an added bonus, the editor has included Chandler's screenplay to Double Indemnity, the classic Billy Wilder film adapted from James M. Cain's novel. You're able to compare the script to the finished movie and have the rare opportunity to see how one major crime novelist altered and interpreted another.

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding in so many ways.......2007-02-24

First, let me say that there's a separate volume of Chandler's early novels. As much as I liked this volume, I actually enjoyed the earlier novels just a little bit more and suggest starting there. I started reading one story and wound up going through all of them in both volumes in the space of a few months. I also wound up reading and enjoying all the Dashiell Hammett stories, but I give Chandler a slight edge.

I won't try to list all the ways these novels are great and entertaining, but here's one thought that hasn't been mentioned in other reviews. Chandler is excellent at presenting a hero-character who has to worry about money and making a living. Indeed, Chandler makes this issue integral to the character's persona and to the plot line. Yes, the books are escapist in so many ways. Yet, in this respect at least, they are far more realistic than almost all of the fiction, and much of the non-fiction, these days.

Writing at its best - and it happens to be in detective noir.......2006-06-20

C-L-A-S-S-I=C HIGH/low notes. These stories are like a deck cards, all aces...... but there are way too few left. I finished "Little Sisters" (GREAT), "Farewell, My Lovely"- is recommended in the other half (earlier edition). The hook is Marlow. In times where many take the easy/cheap way out, I ride hard with Marlow. Marlow does it with style, humor, wit, grit, and nothing less than an all american: get the job done. But in a way that is the opposite his nemesis: the monopolies of power & money. Of course they admire and hate him. But it just doesn't get any better than Chandler. Need an excuse? Then read it for the wrting alone. The best!

The best of Raymond Chandler.......2005-12-05

This book, contaning Chandlers later works, is perhaps the best collection of Chandler you can find. Sure, does not contain the better-known novels - The Big Sleep and Farewell my Lovely - but it does contain The Long Goodbye, which is not only Chandler's finest, but a great novel by any measure.

Chandler lived a tough, hard-drinking life, and these later works came out of his mind with difficulty. But the quality of The Lady in the Lake and The Long Goodbye (The Little Sister is less memorable) make this collection essential.

In addition, the book contains some essays and letters, including Chandler's writing on the mystery genre, which will interest any budding suspense author.

In short, read this book! Read The Long Goodbye, then read it again. This is not just a great mystery, but it is also great literature.

Classic American, cynical detective stories........2005-05-12

Chandler is arguably the best detective story writer out there. If you expand this genre to all mystery writers, he would still be one of the best.

Detective stories aren't as common as they once were, but if you look at the offspring of the Pulp magazine once so popular, television, they are still as popular as ever. Chandler was one author who defined what a detective story was. This book contains four novels:The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, and Playback. These are wonderfully entertaining stories that contain the archetypical hard-bitten detective, Philip Marlowe. After reading these stories you will forever see Marlowe in every detective story you see or read, from Magnum to the latest TV cop. How can you not love an author who sums up Modern American Capitalism with lines like these? "We make the finest packages in the world, Mr. Marlowe. The stuff inside is mostly junk." Or an author who in the early 50's, (50 years before the current 'Queers Dress Up' shows) so presciently wrote, "The queer is the artistic arbiter of our age, chum." Or his comment on a speech by a politician, "He did not bore us with any facts."
These books are not just riveting, fun reading, but full of thoughtful quotes like the above.

Chandler also is must-reading for his understanding of criminality, venality, human nature, Southern California, Movies, American culture and American relationship dynamics. I hate to use the word "classic" to describe stories that are just so plain fun to read, but I find it hard not to.

This volume also contains a screenplay, Double Indemnity, and a few essays and letters. The essays "The Simple Art of Murder", and "Writers in Hollywood" should be required reading for anyone interested in 20th century culture, movies, and literature. Just a few tidbits more. Chandler on English Mystery Writers - "The English may not always be the best writers in the world, but they are incomparably the best dull writers." Chandler on boredom - "There are no dull subjects, only dull minds." Chandler on critics - "The average critic never recognizes an achievement when it happens. He explains it after it has become respectable."

My only criticism is that the plots are contrived and sometimes complicated. But such criticism is like complaining that the Mona Lisa would be a fine painting if only it were of a different size.

Chandler is simply wonderful, funny, cynical, and yes, - respectable.

Priceless Solely for The Simple Art of Murder.......2005-01-18

While Hammett may very well have carried the modern hard-boiled mystery forward into the light, Chandler defined it. Of the two, I think I prefer Chandler most. Chandler better than anyone else set the standard for the genre, and laid down the rules to which all the great mystery writers of today rigorously adhere. Here, in brief, is the mystery writer's credo:

'But down these mean streets must a man go who himself is neither tarnished nor afraid.'

As Chandler remarked in his classic essay, The Simple Art of Murder, Hammett rightly deserves the title of Founder of the modern mystery because he succeeded in giving murder back to the kind of people who commit it. So what kind of person goes up against the kind of people who committ murder? Chandler responds with Exhibit A: Philip Marlowe.

Chandler's Marlowe resonates in my favorite mystery romps, the Spenser series, and the archetype also finds its way into more than a few 'Good Cop' dramas.

I enjoy the escapades of Philip Marlowe simply because the wry cynicism, coupled with the tough moral fibre to get to the bottom of any affair and see justice (or at least some sort of closure) served, makes for truly fascinating escapist reading. Each of the books in this collection, as in the collection preceding it, amply deliver on this score.

If you happen to acquire this masterpiece, never let it go. These are classic books, and will never become dated. I personally prefer The Long Goodbye to The Big Sleep, and found the former a longer and more satisfying read. In every story of both collections, there is to be found a depraved tapestry of gilded greater Los Angeles society, quite literally ripped from the headline news of the day. Most mystery fans will love the idea of an honest man in a thoroughly dishonest world, on a righteous quest for justice.

Once you get this triumph of American literature in your hands, mix your favorite drink, disappear to a quiet place with a comfortable chair (with good lighting), and enjoy the Great Master at work. If only more writers could write like this, then I would not need cable TV...

Average customer rating:

WATCH OUT-THIS AIN'T DOROTHY FROM KANSAS
Luxurious language in a languid tale of sibling death
...a ballet dancer with a wooden leg
a darker, more introspective, less likeable Chandler
Not bad, but...

The Little Sister
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 039475767X
Release Date: 1988-08-12

Book Description

A movie starlet with a gangster boyfriend and a pair of siblings with a shared secret lure Marlowe into the less than glamorous and more than a little dangerous world of Hollywood fame. Chandler's first foray into the industry that dominates the company town that is Los Angeles.

Download Description

A movie starlet with a gangster boyfriend -- and a pair of siblings with a shared secret -- lure Marlowe into the less than glamorous and more than a little dangerous world of Hollywood fame. This was Chandler's first foray into the industry that dominates the company town that is Los Angeles.