four famous classics : The big sleep, Farewell, my lovely, The high window, The lady in the lake
Raymond Chandler: Raymond Chandler Omnibus (1964, Random House Inc (T))
625 pages
English language
Published March 16, 1964 by Random House Inc (T).
The Big Sleep (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Angeles. The story is noted for its complexity, with characters double-crossing one another and secrets being exposed throughout the narrative. The title is a euphemism for death; it refers to a rumination about "sleeping the big sleep" in the final pages of the book. In 1999, the book was voted 96th of Le Monde's "100 Books of the Century". In 2005, it was included in Time magazine's "List of the 100 Best Novels".
This racist hackneyed pile of trash will be the last Chandler book I read.
I can understand how a terrible human being could write this in the 1940s. What I can't understand is what an editor was thinking in 1991 (when my copy was reprinted).
There's no remarkable plot.
No great characters.
Nothing redeeming about it, and certainly nothing worth putting up with it.
Probably a better book than I rate it, just not my thing - my attention span is too short for such a complex detective story. Likely iconic book in the genre.
A classic, of course. I found the slang to be most entertaining, but I was surprised that when Marlow was talking to some "dame", a few of his expressions were opaque to me. Was he flirting, just being a wise-ass, or something else? It may be that nobody knows the answer - did people really talk this way? There is some homophobia and the usual noir misogyny, and like 19th century anti-semitism, it indicates that these ideas were so much a part of social thought that it didn't cross anybody's mind how repulsive they would become in time. On the other hand, some Republican presidential candidates and their followers still hold to them.
I am not so sure about the characters or plot, though they are entertaining- but I LOVE Raymond Chandler's similies and language, even when they are outlandish. Phrases like "He had a cat's smile. But I like cats." And her tongue flicking around like a lizard... and his vivid descriptions of Moose Malloy. And of course I love the chain- smoking alcoholic beaten depressed Humphrey Bogart Phillip Marlowe.
Loved it.
