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The Big Sleep (A Philip Marlowe Novel) Paperback – July 12, 1988
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One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and 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 seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.” —The New York Times Book Review
- Print length231 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVintage Crime/Black Lizard
- Publication dateJuly 12, 1988
- Dimensions5.15 x 0.59 x 7.98 inches
- ISBN-100394758285
- ISBN-13978-0394758282
- Lexile measure660L
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more
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Review
“[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.” —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 is a star of the first magnitude.” —Erle Stanley Gardner
“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
From the Inside Flap
"Chandler [writes] like a slumming angel and invest[s] the sun-blinded streets of Los Angelos with a romantic presence."
--Ross Macdonald
From the Back Cover
"Chandler [writes] like a slumming angel and invest[s] the sun-blinded streets of Los Angelos with a romantic presence."
--Ross Macdonald
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.
The main hallway of the Sternwood place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn't have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling with the knots on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him. He didn't seem to be really trying.
There were French doors at the back of the hall, beyond them a wide sweep of emerald grass to a white garage, in front of which a slim dark young chauffeur in shiny black leggings was dusting a maroon Packard convertible. Beyond the garage were some decorative trees trimmed as carefully as poodle dogs. Beyond them a large greenhouse with a domed roof. Then more trees and beyond everything the solid, uneven, comfortable line of the foothills.
On the east side of the hall a free staircase, tile-paved, rose to a gallery with a wrought-iron railing and another piece of stained-glass romance. Large hard chairs with rounded red plush seats were backed into the vacant spaces of the wall round about. They didn't look as if anybody had ever sat in them. In the middle of the west wall there was a big empty fireplace with a brass screen in four hinged panels, and over the fireplace a marble mantel with cupids at the corners. Above the mantel there was a large oil portrait, and above the portrait two bullet-torn or moth-eaten cavalry pennants crossed in a glass frame. The portrait was a stiffly posed job of an officer in full regimentals of about the time of the Mexican war. The officer had a neat black imperial, black mustachios, hot hard coal-black eyes, and the general look of a man it would pay to get along with. I thought this might be General Sternwood's grandfather. It could hardly be the General himself, even though I had heard he was pretty far gone in years to have a couple of daughters still in the dangerous twenties.
I was still staring at the hot black eyes when a door opened far back under the stairs. It wasn't the butler coming back. It was a girl.
She was twenty or so, small and delicately put together, but she looked durable. She wore pale blue slacks and they looked well on her. She walked as if she were floating. Her hair was a fine tawny wave cut much shorter than the current fashion of pageboy tresses curled in at the bottom. Her eyes were slate-gray, and had almost no expression when they looked at me. She came over near me and smiled with her mouth and she had little sharp predatory teeth, as white as fresh orange pith and as shiny as porcelain. They glistened between her thin too taut lips. Her face lacked color and didn't look too healthy.
"Tall, aren't you?" she said.
"I didn't mean to be."
Her eyes rounded. She was puzzled. She was thinking. I could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her.
"Handsome too," she said. "And I bet you know it."
I grunted.
"What's your name?"
"Reilly," I said. "Doghouse Reilly."
"That's a funny name." She bit her lip and turned her head a little and looked at me along her eyes. Then she lowered her lashes until they almost cuddled her cheeks and slowly raised them again, like a theater curtain. I was to get to know that trick. That was supposed to make me roll over on my back with all four paws in the air.
"Are you a prizefighter?" she asked, when I didn't.
"Not exactly. I'm a sleuth."
"A--a--" She tossed her head angrily, and the rich color of it glistened in the rather dim light of the big hall. "You're making fun of me."
"Uh-uh."
"What?"
"Get on with you," I said. "You heard me."
"You didn't say anything. You're just a big tease." She put a thumb up and bit it. It was a curiously shaped thumb, thin and narrow like an extra finger, with no curve in the first joint. She bit it and sucked it slowly, turning it around in her mouth like a baby with a comforter.
"You're awfully tall," she said. Then she giggled with secret merriment. Then she turned her body slowly and lithely, without lifting her feet. Her hands dropped limp at her sides. She tilted herself towards me on her toes. She fell straight back into my arms. I had to catch her or let her crack her head on the tessellated floor. I caught her under her arms and she went rubber-legged on me instantly. I had to hold her close to hold her up. When her bead was against my chest she screwed it around and giggled at me.
"You're cute," she giggled. "I'm cute too."
I didn't say anything. So the butler chose that convenient moment to come back through the French doors and see me holding her.
It didn't seem to bother him. He was a tall, thin, silver man, sixty or close to it or a little past it. He had blue eyes as remote as eyes could be. His skin was smooth and bright and he moved like a man with very sound muscles. He walked slowly across the floor towards us and the girl jerked away from me. She flashed across the room to the foot of the stairs and went up them like a deer. She was gone before I could draw a long breath and let it out.
The butler said tonelessly: "The General will see you now, Mr. Marlowe."
I pushed my lower jaw up off my chest and nodded at him. "Who was that?"
"Miss Carmen Sternwood, sir."
"You ought to wean her. She looks old enough."
He looked at me with grave politeness and repeated what he had said.
TWO
We went out at the French doors and along a smooth red-flagged path that skirted the far side of the lawn from the garage. The boyish-looking chauffeur had a big black and chromium sedan out now and was dusting that. The path took us along to the side of the greenhouse and the butler opened a door for me and stood aside. It opened into a sort of vestibule that was about as warm as a slow oven. He came in after me, shut the outer door, opened an inner door and we went through that. Then it was really hot. The air was thick, wet, steamy and larded with the cloying smell of tropical orchids in bloom. The glass walls and roof were heavily misted and big drops of moisture splashed down on the plants. The light had an unreal greenish color, like light filtered through an aquarium tank. The plants filled the place, a forest of them, with nasty meaty leaves and stalks like the newly washed fingers of dead men. They smelled as overpowering as boiling alcohol under a blanket.
The butler did his best to get me through without being smacked in the face by the sodden leaves, and after a while we came to a clearing in the middle of the jungle, under the domed roof. Here, in a space of hexagonal flags, an old red Turkish rug was laid down and on the rug was a wheel chair, and in the wheel chair an old and obviously dying man watched us come with black eyes from which all fire had died long ago, but which still had the coal-black directness of the eyes in the portrait that hung above the mantel in the hall. The rest of his face was a leaden mask, with the bloodless lips and the sharp nose and the sunken temples and the outward-turning earlobes of approaching dissolution. His long narrow body was wrapped--in that heat--in a traveling rug and a faded red bathrobe. His thin clawlike 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.
The butler stood in front of him and said: "This is Mr. Marlowe, General."
The old man didn't move or speak, or even nod. He just looked at me lifelessly. The butler pushed a damp wicker chair against the backs of my legs and I sat down. He took my hat with a deft scoop.
Then the old man dragged his voice up from the bottom of a well and said: "Brandy, Norris. How do you like your brandy, sir?"
"Any way at all," I said.
The butler went away among the abominable plants. The General spoke again, slowly, using his strength as carefully as an out-of-work show-girl uses her last good pair of stockings.
"I used to like mine with champagne. The champagne as cold as Valley Forge and about a third of a glass of brandy beneath it. You may take your coat off, sir. It's too hot in here for a man with blood in his veins."
I stood up and peeled off my coat and got a handkerchief out and mopped my face and neck and the backs of my wrists. St. Louis in August had nothing on that place. I sat down again and I felt automatically for a cigarette and then stopped. The old man caught the gesture and smiled faintly.
"You may smoke, sir. I like the smell of tobacco."
I lit the cigarette and blew a lungful at him and he sniffed at it like a terrier at a rathole. The faint smile pulled at the shadowed corners of his mouth.
"A nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy," he said dryly. "You are looking at a very dull survival of a rather gaudy life, a cripple paralyzed in both legs and with only half of his lower belly. There's very little that I can eat and my sleep is so close to waking that it is hardly worth the name. I seem to exist largely on heat, like a newborn spider, and the orchids are an excuse for the heat. Do you like orchids?"
"Not particularly," I said.
The General half-closed his eyes. "They are nasty things. Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men. And their perfume has the rotten sweetness of a prostitute."
I stared at him with my mouth open. The soft wet heat was like a pall around us. The old man nodded, as if his neck was afraid of the weight of his head. Then the butler came pushing back through the jungle with a teawagon, mixed me a brandy and soda, swathed the copper ice bucket with a damp napkin, and went away softly among the orchids. A door opened and shut behind the jungle.
I sipped the drink. The old man licked his lips watching me, over and over again, drawing one lip slowly across the other with a funeral absorption, like an undertaker dry-washing his hands.
"Tell me about yourself, Mr. Marlowe. I suppose I have a right to ask?"
"Sure, but there's very little to tell. I'm thirty-three years old, went to college once and can still speak English if there's any demand for it. There isn't much in my trade. I worked for Mr. Wilde, the District Attorney, as an investigator once. His chief investigator, a man named Bernie Ohls, called me and told me you wanted to see me. I'm unmarried because I don't like policemen's wives."
"And a little bit of a cynic," the old man smiled. "You didn't like working for Wilde?"
"I was fired. For insubordination. I test very high on insubordination, General."
"I always did myself, sir. I'm glad to hear it. What do you know about my family?"
"I'm told you are a widower and have two young daughters, both pretty and both wild. One of them has been married three times, the last time to an ex-bootlegger who went in the trade by the name of Rusty Regan. That's all I heard, General."
"Did any of it strike you as peculiar?"
"The Rusty Regan part, maybe. But I always got along with bootleggers myself."
He smiled his faint economical smile. "It seems I do too. I'm very fond of Rusty. A big curly-headed Irishman from Clonmel, with sad eyes and a smile as wide as Wilshire Boulevard. The first time I saw him I thought he might be what you are probably thinking he was, an adventurer who happened to get himself wrapped up in some velvet."
"You must have liked him," I said. "You learned to talk the language."
He put his thin bloodless hands under the edge of the rug. I put my cigarette stub out and finished my drink.
"He was the breath of life to me--while he lasted. He spent hours with me, sweating like a pig, drinking brandy by the quart and telling me stories of the Irish revolution. He had been an officer in the I.R.A. He wasn't even legally in the United States. It was a ridiculous marriage of course, and it probably didn't last a month, as a marriage. I'm telling you the family secrets, Mr. Marlowe."
"They're still secrets," I said. "What happened to him?"
The old man looked at me woodenly. "He went away, a month ago. Abruptly, without a word to anyone. Without saying good-bye to me. That hurt a little, but he had been raised in a rough school. I'll hear from him one of these days. Meantime I am being blackmailed again."
Product details
- Publisher : Vintage Crime/Black Lizard; Reprint edition (July 12, 1988)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 231 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0394758285
- ISBN-13 : 978-0394758282
- Lexile measure : 660L
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.15 x 0.59 x 7.98 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #11,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #49 in Hard-Boiled Mystery
- #80 in Historical Mystery
- #82 in Science Fiction Crime & Mystery
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was a British-American novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at age forty-four, Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some several times. In the year before he died, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. He died on March 26, 1959, in La Jolla, California.
Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is considered by many to be a founder, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers, of the hard-boiled school of detective fiction. His protagonist, Philip Marlowe, along with Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective," both having been played on screen by Humphrey Bogart, whom many considered to be the quintessential Marlowe.
Some of Chandler's novels are considered important literary works, and three are often considered masterpieces: Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Little Sister (1949), and The Long Goodbye (1953). The Long Goodbye was praised in an anthology of American crime stories as "arguably the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key, published more than twenty years earlier, to qualify as a serious and significant mainstream novel that just happened to possess elements of mystery".
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book readable and engaging. They describe it as a classic mystery novel with elegant prose and well-developed characters. The dialogue is sharp and descriptive, keeping readers hooked. Readers appreciate the unique and distinctive 1940s setting. Overall, customers consider the book a solid mystery classic that fans of the genre should read.
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Customers enjoy the book's plot and find it engaging. They describe it as a great read with a believable storyline. Readers appreciate the short length and find the book entertaining.
"...Also, while Bogart was very entertaining, he's fairly different from what you'd picture reading the book...." Read more
"...There's much more I could mention, pro and con, the well developed slowly evolving plot, the relationships and attitudes among the women and men,..." Read more
"...said, I enjoyed some aspects of it: the literary flourishes, the narrative tension, the obsession with other people’s thumbs." Read more
"...All in all, it's simply a fantastic book! I think even those who don't like mysteries would enjoy it because of its prose alone...." Read more
Customers enjoy the mystery novel. They find it a classic of detective fiction, with an intricate plot and great characters. Many consider it a must-read for mystery fans. However, some readers feel it's an old-fashioned mystery that reads like something out of print.
"...That said, I enjoyed some aspects of it: the literary flourishes, the narrative tension, the obsession with other people’s thumbs." Read more
"This book is great! Reading it felt like watching a classic film noir masterpiece...." Read more
"...Quite a visual novel, a film noir with pages." Read more
"Wonderfully convoluted, keeps you guessing until the end. Marlowe is as hardboiled and cynical as you can imagine. Not art but fun...." Read more
Customers praise the writing style. They find it elegant and well-done, with a fascinating language and clear opening lines. The book moves quickly with minimal use of adjectives, making it easy to read and engaging. Readers praise the author's skillful use of language that paints vivid pictures.
"...This is a very easy book to recommend to anyone who is either curious about trying Chandler's work or a fan who hasn't gotten around to this..." Read more
"...The similes and metaphors are well spaced through-out from beginning to end. Appearing a bit more frequently during times of tension or mystery...." Read more
"...The slanguage is fascinating. If you've never read anything like this before, you're sure to learn a whole bunch of new slang...." Read more
"The book reads like a black and white mystery film from the fifties. Quite a visual novel, a film noir with pages." Read more
Customers enjoy the well-developed characters and intricate plot. They find the character of Phil Marlowe engaging, and the book rich in atmosphere and character development. The author develops a plot with many twists and turns among multiple interesting characters. However, some readers need to pay attention to keep the characters straight.
"...Nonetheless, the writing is so sharp, and the character of Phil Marlowe so engaging, that I found I didn't mind at all!..." Read more
"...Rich in atmosphere and character, The Big Sleep is an unforgettable introduction to Chandler's work...." Read more
"...in the tough-guy vernacular of the time (the 1940s), and the characters were engaging...." Read more
"...it was a fun mystery story with lots of unexpected turns and wild characters...." Read more
Customers appreciate the dialogue and prose of the book. They find the writing descriptive and poetic, with a way with words that keeps them enthralled. Readers also mention the characters are memorable, with a clever and witty sleuth.
"...are obviously not developed as thoroughly, but most get enough nuance in how they speak and carry themselves that you don't feel that they're..." Read more
"...about Raymond Chandler's writing: sentence variation and a wry sense of self humor...." Read more
"...I liked to savor his words. Raymond Chandler is a descriptive genius. Now there comes a problem too...." Read more
"...It wasn't a game for knights." If that isn't some great noir writing, I don't know what is!..." Read more
Customers appreciate the classic content. They find the genre unique and distinct of its time. The book has a 1940s look and feels like watching a classic film noir masterpiece.
"This is a classic…Don’t waste time reading my review, read this book instead…you will thank me later for doing so." Read more
"...I still give it 3-stars for the overall prose, descriptions of 1940s Los Angeles, and the fact it is a considered a classic novel -- only with a..." Read more
"A classic when it was written, and still a classic!..." Read more
"...I really enjoyed reading this one. It's a classic." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's sturdiness. They mention it has a 1940s look, reads quickly without breaks, and is in excellent condition. The characters are described as tough, with smart dialogue and well-developed characters. While some customers mention the cover has been ripped, most find the book looks brand new and arrived before expected.
"...steady paced reader could finish this book in less than 7 hours, without any breaks...." Read more
"...I felt it held up the test of time...." Read more
"...Hardboiled. High drama. Plot heavy. Tough guys and troubled dames...." Read more
"...Marlowe here is tough. He's nobody's patsy. And he's not the bumbling joker so many PIs in the fifties became. So many great lines here...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book. Some find it well-paced and a quick read, while others feel the plot stalls and lacks momentum.
"...I found it a true page turner and completed it in one day...." Read more
"...I’d call it a private d story but the AI is too st*pid to know what that means. Sigh. Worthy read." Read more
"...I have to admit that his craft was interesting because he normally balanced it with interesting dialog with a lot of sarcasm. &#..." Read more
"...but the writing has crisp dialogue and the descriptions by the incorruptible Marlow make it a classic." Read more
Reviews with images
A classic, modern enough for the 21st century
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2009A dying millionaire hires Private Detective Philip Marlowe to take care of a situation involving his youngest of two daughters. It seems that she has either been losing a bit too much in an illegal casino or is the victim of blackmail. Either way, Marlowe's job is to make the trouble go away. But this doesn't even scratch the surface of what's waiting for him as he begins to investigate. Before long, the same daughter is present at the scene of a murder, a pornography ring is part of the puzzle, as well as the usual collection of cutthroats and tough guys. Meanwhile, the older daughter's husband, a former gun-runner, has run off and absolutely everyone assumes Marlowe was hired to find him.
The Big Sleep, written in 1939, introduced Philip Marlowe to the world and has been entertaining readers ever since. When writing the snappy patter associated with this type of detective fiction, it's a tricky balancing act to make it funny and colorful without degenerating into a self-parody. Chandler not only accomplishes this, he makes it look easy. The dialog and narration deliver plenty of chuckles and offer many a well turned phrase, but are also polished to silky smooth perfection. The plot is a bit convoluted, but this is a detective story after all. The story has to have layers for the hero to keep peeling back and the main thing is that they're all interesting enough to keep the reader wanting to see what happens next.
While I don't think anyone would call this novel one of the great character studies in American literature, it's still safe to say that this is not a cast of two dimensional cardboard cutouts either. Marlowe, in particular, is both well developed and likeable. Lesser characters are obviously not developed as thoroughly, but most get enough nuance in how they speak and carry themselves that you don't feel that they're generic in any way.
For those who have seen the movie, I should caution that the book is quite different in many ways. A lot of the original story goes into territory that was strictly off limits in the Hollywood of that era. Also, while Bogart was very entertaining, he's fairly different from what you'd picture reading the book. A young James Garner would probably be closer to the character I picture while reading the novel (I know that Garner would have been too young to be in the movie, that's not the point). The main thing to remember is that however much you might have liked the film, reading the book will be a different experience and you'll need to accept that going in.
The Big Sleep is my first experience reading Raymond Chandler. I found it a true page turner and completed it in one day. I'll definitely buy more of his work and consider this one of the best books I've read in some time. This is a very easy book to recommend to anyone who is either curious about trying Chandler's work or a fan who hasn't gotten around to this installment just yet.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2024But poor execution of the ebook format. Maybe I am wrong and Okay really was spelled Okey in the original and the many other obvious mistakes in spelling and minor words being replaced by the wrong words were also in the original text, but I don’t think so. At times it looked like it was transcribed by someone with limited English skills. There is no title page or introduction showing when the book was written. Still very readable, I just think Amazon should do better.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2015Wow, didn't realize there were so many paper editions and evidently even a dramatized digital version. For clarity, and looking inside my copy, this review is for a paper First Vintage/Black Lizard Edition, August 1992. I couldn't find a matching cover to the couple dozen choices under the paperback versions, so I chose to post my review here.
I did read a few 1 and 2 star reviews after I'd finished the book, and I can understand someone not caring for a particular style, but had a hard time, without concrete examples, imagining what was boring or outdated (other than a few terms: "buzzer pinned to the flap" - "slaty eyes" - "a six mover"). Nothing more than I find reading British books (I'm in Texas), and the Kindle app usually can get me a definition for the cultural variances pretty easily. And that might be a good reason to opt for a digital version, though I personally would want to avoid any "dramatized" versions the reviews bring up. I feel I probably read the author's original intent in my edition.
The descriptive atmosphere was sparing but, I thought, extremely effectively used. "Seaward a few gulls wheeled and swooped over something in the surf and far out a white yacht looked as if it was hanging in the sky." - "A nasty building. A building in which the smell of stale cigar butts would be the cleanest odor."
Which brings me to two other things I really liked about Raymond Chandler's writing: sentence variation and a wry sense of self humor.
I had been under the mistaken impression that Chandler mostly or even only used short sentences. In fact his has quite a variety, including the use of complex compound sentences followed by short fragments. The effect is stimulating and powerful:
"I came out at a service station glaring with wasted light, where a bored attendant in a white cap and a dark blue windbreaker sat hunched on a stool, inside the steamed glass, reading a paper. I started in, then kept going. I was as wet as I could get already. And on a night like that you can grow a beard waiting for a taxi. And taxi drivers remember."
The humor, I felt, was subtle. Enjoyed it tremendously.
There's much more I could mention, pro and con, the well developed slowly evolving plot, the relationships and attitudes among the women and men, and lack of hispanics, blacks, or other ethnic groups (descriptive of the times) - but I'll end with Raymond's figurative use of language.
I think the first contemporary author I became acutely aware of in their use of metaphors and similes was James Patterson in Zoo. In my review of Zoo, I mentioned how well they worked, most of the time, but occasionally seemed to veer off as not fitting the tone of the passage.
I don't feel this is the case at all in The Big Sleep. The similes and metaphors are well spaced through-out from beginning to end. Appearing a bit more frequently during times of tension or mystery. And never, to my reading, out of place or jarring from the story:
"Another man sat at the corner of the desk in a blue leather chair, a cold-eyed hatchet-faced man, as lean as a rake and as hard as the manager of a loan office." - "I pushed a flat tin of cigarettes at him. His small neat fingers speared one like a trout taking the fly." - "Her very blue eyes flashed so sharply that I could almost see the sweep of their glance, like the sweep of sword."
For me, this is top flight quality writing that entertains.
About as pure a 5 Star as I can give.
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic, modern enough for the 21st centuryWow, didn't realize there were so many paper editions and evidently even a dramatized digital version. For clarity, and looking inside my copy, this review is for a paper First Vintage/Black Lizard Edition, August 1992. I couldn't find a matching cover to the couple dozen choices under the paperback versions, so I chose to post my review here.
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2015
I did read a few 1 and 2 star reviews after I'd finished the book, and I can understand someone not caring for a particular style, but had a hard time, without concrete examples, imagining what was boring or outdated (other than a few terms: "buzzer pinned to the flap" - "slaty eyes" - "a six mover"). Nothing more than I find reading British books (I'm in Texas), and the Kindle app usually can get me a definition for the cultural variances pretty easily. And that might be a good reason to opt for a digital version, though I personally would want to avoid any "dramatized" versions the reviews bring up. I feel I probably read the author's original intent in my edition.
The descriptive atmosphere was sparing but, I thought, extremely effectively used. "Seaward a few gulls wheeled and swooped over something in the surf and far out a white yacht looked as if it was hanging in the sky." - "A nasty building. A building in which the smell of stale cigar butts would be the cleanest odor."
Which brings me to two other things I really liked about Raymond Chandler's writing: sentence variation and a wry sense of self humor.
I had been under the mistaken impression that Chandler mostly or even only used short sentences. In fact his has quite a variety, including the use of complex compound sentences followed by short fragments. The effect is stimulating and powerful:
"I came out at a service station glaring with wasted light, where a bored attendant in a white cap and a dark blue windbreaker sat hunched on a stool, inside the steamed glass, reading a paper. I started in, then kept going. I was as wet as I could get already. And on a night like that you can grow a beard waiting for a taxi. And taxi drivers remember."
The humor, I felt, was subtle. Enjoyed it tremendously.
There's much more I could mention, pro and con, the well developed slowly evolving plot, the relationships and attitudes among the women and men, and lack of hispanics, blacks, or other ethnic groups (descriptive of the times) - but I'll end with Raymond's figurative use of language.
I think the first contemporary author I became acutely aware of in their use of metaphors and similes was James Patterson in Zoo. In my review of Zoo, I mentioned how well they worked, most of the time, but occasionally seemed to veer off as not fitting the tone of the passage.
I don't feel this is the case at all in The Big Sleep. The similes and metaphors are well spaced through-out from beginning to end. Appearing a bit more frequently during times of tension or mystery. And never, to my reading, out of place or jarring from the story:
"Another man sat at the corner of the desk in a blue leather chair, a cold-eyed hatchet-faced man, as lean as a rake and as hard as the manager of a loan office." - "I pushed a flat tin of cigarettes at him. His small neat fingers speared one like a trout taking the fly." - "Her very blue eyes flashed so sharply that I could almost see the sweep of their glance, like the sweep of sword."
For me, this is top flight quality writing that entertains.
About as pure a 5 Star as I can give.
Images in this review - Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2024I decided to read The Big Sleep because one of the books I’m writing is a thriller. Generally speaking, this book is not for me. Hardboiled. High drama. Plot heavy. Tough guys and troubled dames. That said, I enjoyed some aspects of it: the literary flourishes, the narrative tension, the obsession with other people’s thumbs.
Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on January 26, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Murder-Mystery
Well written and deserves to be ranked with the best crime novels of all time. A riveting and suspenseful story about the strange daughters of a man that cannot grasp how badly his spoiled daughters can behave and sink into the lowest depths of american graft and gambling. Phil Marlowe is the main character and only through his efforts can this family be rescued from total destruction. Watch out for the surprising and stunning conclusion!
- Mario ManusReviewed in Germany on June 27, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what i expected
The product looks perfect
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Awen APS, SLReviewed in Spain on February 25, 2018
5.0 out of 5 stars Todo un clásico
No hay mucho que objetar, tiene todo lo que esperas de un clásico. Lo recomiendo para cualquier persona que le gusta la novela negra.
- EmilyReviewed in Australia on December 15, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic
A classic in its genre, easy read can be finished in a sitting.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Italy on October 25, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Great book, most of all because of the great dialogues and characters.
Even if it was written more than 80 years ago, it's still actual.