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Philip Marlowe #1-2, 6
The Big Sleep and Other Novels
Raymond Chandler created the fast talking, trouble seeking Californian private eye Philip Marlowe for his first great novel 'The Big Sleep' in 1939.
Marlowe's entanglement with the Sternwood family - and an attendant cast of colourful underworld figures - is the background to a story reflecting all the tarnished glitter of the great American Dream.
The detective's iconic image burns just as brightly in 'Farewell My Lovely', on the trail of a missing nightclub crooner. And the inimitable Marlowe is able to prove that trouble really is his business in Raymond Chandler's brilliant epitaph, 'The Long Goodbye'.
Marlowe's entanglement with the Sternwood family - and an attendant cast of colourful underworld figures - is the background to a story reflecting all the tarnished glitter of the great American Dream.
The detective's iconic image burns just as brightly in 'Farewell My Lovely', on the trail of a missing nightclub crooner. And the inimitable Marlowe is able to prove that trouble really is his business in Raymond Chandler's brilliant epitaph, 'The Long Goodbye'.
672 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1939
223 people are currently reading
2104 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Chandler
449 books5,610 followersRaymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became 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 more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective". Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe.
The Big Sleep placed second on the Crime Writers Association poll of the 100 best crime novels; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1953) also made the list. The latter novel 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". Chandler was also a perceptive critic of detective fiction; his "The Simple Art of Murder" is the canonical essay in the field. In it he wrote: "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—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."
Parker wrote that, with Marlowe, "Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious—an innocent who knows better, a Romantic who is tough enough to sustain Romanticism in a world that has seen the eternal footman hold its coat and snicker. Living at the end of the Far West, where the American dream ran out of room, no hero has ever been more congruent with his landscape. Chandler had the right hero in the right place, and engaged him in the consideration of good and evil at precisely the time when our central certainty of good no longer held."
Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective". Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe.
The Big Sleep placed second on the Crime Writers Association poll of the 100 best crime novels; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1953) also made the list. The latter novel 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". Chandler was also a perceptive critic of detective fiction; his "The Simple Art of Murder" is the canonical essay in the field. In it he wrote: "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—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."
Parker wrote that, with Marlowe, "Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious—an innocent who knows better, a Romantic who is tough enough to sustain Romanticism in a world that has seen the eternal footman hold its coat and snicker. Living at the end of the Far West, where the American dream ran out of room, no hero has ever been more congruent with his landscape. Chandler had the right hero in the right place, and engaged him in the consideration of good and evil at precisely the time when our central certainty of good no longer held."
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December 4, 2018"Ever hear of anybody named Paul Marston?'
His head came up slowly. His eyes focused, but with effort. I could see him fighting for control. He won the fight - for the moment. His face became expressionless.
"Never did," he said carefully, speaking very slowly. "Who's he?"
Collection containing The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye.
The joy of this collection is seeing the change in Chandler's style, from needing to have the door thrown open by someone with a gun in their hand to keep up the tension in The Big Sleep to the elegiac tone of The Long Goodbye.
After a while every sentence seems to be wearing an old trench coat and a battered fedora. Great stuff. I'm not sure that these stories ever makes complete sense - there's that famous story about the film version of one of Chandler's stories, but the atmosphere is enough to carry the eyes onwards.
March 4, 2021
Let me paint you a picture to best describe this book (no spoilers): -
Imagine walking into a dimly lit jazz bar with the sweet chimes of saxophones welcoming you. Wise-guys are dressed in trench coats and fedoras sipping on their whiskies and flirting with the ladies that tickle their fancy. A waft of cigarette smoke permeates the room, you knock into some guy and exchange ugly words. All of a sudden, menacing glares follow you and every man catches your suspicion.
The women are stunning but do their smiles hide something more dangerous? Be careful not to miss the glint of the knife being lifted for you whether you're on the streets or beneath the sheets. You sit down at the back of the room where you can see everyone before you.
Their silhouettes are casting against the walls and dancing with the passing flicker of car headlights outside.
You take the moment in with a deep breath exhaled.
You are prepared for anything.
Imagine walking into a dimly lit jazz bar with the sweet chimes of saxophones welcoming you. Wise-guys are dressed in trench coats and fedoras sipping on their whiskies and flirting with the ladies that tickle their fancy. A waft of cigarette smoke permeates the room, you knock into some guy and exchange ugly words. All of a sudden, menacing glares follow you and every man catches your suspicion.
The women are stunning but do their smiles hide something more dangerous? Be careful not to miss the glint of the knife being lifted for you whether you're on the streets or beneath the sheets. You sit down at the back of the room where you can see everyone before you.
Their silhouettes are casting against the walls and dancing with the passing flicker of car headlights outside.
You take the moment in with a deep breath exhaled.
You are prepared for anything.
September 16, 2023
Ak by horelo, toto je prvá vec, ktorú schmatnem. Druhá by boli červené lodičky a až by vyšiel čas, tak na seba ešte hodím nejaké pyžamo.
October 20, 2021
You know that the world around you is not perfect. You know that you are not perfect. And you are a grown-up and know that your heroes are not perfect either, and neither should your fictional heroes be. And yet, you know that your heroes should stand for something, and that something should be bigger that themselves. Or merely the matter in hand.
Philip Marlowe does not stand the test of time the way his creator, Raymond Chandler’s writing does. Chandler is a magician of the metaphor, the poet laureate of sleaze street. And is a writer who knows what he is doing – he is expanding the pond that he is swimming in. He is a genius, he is perhaps everlasting.
Philip Marlowe, by contrast, is merely a man. He drinks coffee and plays chess against himself, or plays international championship matches from the books (would any case of his be more puzzling that a particular move that Capablanca played against Tal in a tournament?). He works out of a ‘reasonably shabby’ office in Hollywood Boulevard near North Ivar Avenue (Sixth floor? Seventh?). He is not rich, nor famous. He is not intimidated by money, nor power, nor authority. He makes friends with great difficulty, and breaks friendships with greater difficulty. Violence is okay for him. Lies are okay. Death, okay. He has not aged well, you can see subtle undertones of sexism and racism in the tone in the later Marlowe stories – but surely that’s Chandler losing his grip on his life.
We find him first in ‘The Big Sleep’, a labyrinth of twists and turns. He is 33, and a lot older in his mind. He is not a good man, but a noble one. He follows it up with a wild-goose chase in ‘The Lady in the Lake’ one of the cleanest whodunits written, almost a perfect hardboiled mystery novel. In the bitter ‘Farewell, My Lovely’, which this reviewer found most difficult to read, he takes up a case which nobody else will touch, and in the poignant ‘The Long Goodbye’, he takes on the system and the police and the world for a friend who has a death wish.
Raymond Chandler, the writer, never paid much attention to building Marlowe up as a specific character. Chandler was, as is often accepted, more intent on playing with the format of the pulp novel, writing great scenes, and describing the Los Angeles he knew to the world. Which is basically the shade underneath the glamor of Hollywood.
How did Marlowe become important, then? Did Humphrey Bogart matter? Hollywood necessitates a leading man, and nobody but Bogart could have played Marlowe. Bogart, in his rough-hewn, iconoclastic way, cared. As does Marlowe. And not just about himself. The greater world and the greater truths are important for him. Marlowe is everyman, and he hints at the good in every man.
Philip Marlowe is, in my humble opinion, the greatest fictional private investigator of all time.
..........................................................
First published in The New Indian Express, in September 2017, here
Philip Marlowe does not stand the test of time the way his creator, Raymond Chandler’s writing does. Chandler is a magician of the metaphor, the poet laureate of sleaze street. And is a writer who knows what he is doing – he is expanding the pond that he is swimming in. He is a genius, he is perhaps everlasting.
Philip Marlowe, by contrast, is merely a man. He drinks coffee and plays chess against himself, or plays international championship matches from the books (would any case of his be more puzzling that a particular move that Capablanca played against Tal in a tournament?). He works out of a ‘reasonably shabby’ office in Hollywood Boulevard near North Ivar Avenue (Sixth floor? Seventh?). He is not rich, nor famous. He is not intimidated by money, nor power, nor authority. He makes friends with great difficulty, and breaks friendships with greater difficulty. Violence is okay for him. Lies are okay. Death, okay. He has not aged well, you can see subtle undertones of sexism and racism in the tone in the later Marlowe stories – but surely that’s Chandler losing his grip on his life.
We find him first in ‘The Big Sleep’, a labyrinth of twists and turns. He is 33, and a lot older in his mind. He is not a good man, but a noble one. He follows it up with a wild-goose chase in ‘The Lady in the Lake’ one of the cleanest whodunits written, almost a perfect hardboiled mystery novel. In the bitter ‘Farewell, My Lovely’, which this reviewer found most difficult to read, he takes up a case which nobody else will touch, and in the poignant ‘The Long Goodbye’, he takes on the system and the police and the world for a friend who has a death wish.
Raymond Chandler, the writer, never paid much attention to building Marlowe up as a specific character. Chandler was, as is often accepted, more intent on playing with the format of the pulp novel, writing great scenes, and describing the Los Angeles he knew to the world. Which is basically the shade underneath the glamor of Hollywood.
How did Marlowe become important, then? Did Humphrey Bogart matter? Hollywood necessitates a leading man, and nobody but Bogart could have played Marlowe. Bogart, in his rough-hewn, iconoclastic way, cared. As does Marlowe. And not just about himself. The greater world and the greater truths are important for him. Marlowe is everyman, and he hints at the good in every man.
Philip Marlowe is, in my humble opinion, the greatest fictional private investigator of all time.
..........................................................
First published in The New Indian Express, in September 2017, here
December 16, 2019
My full review of The Big Sleep is available on Keeping Up With The Penguins.
Everyone comes to The Big Sleep for Chandler’s descriptions of Los Angeles, and he was certainly an evocative place writer, but I personally loved his characterisations most of all. I got a lot of smirks out of descriptions like: “He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn’t owe too much money” = brilliant! That said, Chandler was far from perfect when it came to plotting. The Big Sleep is complex, criss-crossing, and full of holes, like a hand-knitted jumper from a kindly arthritic grandma. Bear with it!
Everyone comes to The Big Sleep for Chandler’s descriptions of Los Angeles, and he was certainly an evocative place writer, but I personally loved his characterisations most of all. I got a lot of smirks out of descriptions like: “He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn’t owe too much money” = brilliant! That said, Chandler was far from perfect when it came to plotting. The Big Sleep is complex, criss-crossing, and full of holes, like a hand-knitted jumper from a kindly arthritic grandma. Bear with it!
May 13, 2025
It took me some time to get used to the world of Philip Marlowe: a world made of corrupt police officers, gangsters and platinum blonde ladies...But then I started loving the atmosphere of L.A. in the 40s and this detective so cynical and romantic at the same time, so clever and lonely, with a drink always by his side in spite of prohibitionism and a chess game to play in the solitude of his bachelor's apartment.
Chandler's style is beautiful and his mysteries are so well plotted and full of twists that get you wonder till the last page.
Among the three novels of this collection "The long goodbye" is the best and it's due to it if I decided to give 5 stars to this reading experience.
"Farewell, my lovely" not so much, maybe because I got bored of the gangster's stuff.
I can't wait to read the other novels featuring Marlowe.
Chandler's style is beautiful and his mysteries are so well plotted and full of twists that get you wonder till the last page.
Among the three novels of this collection "The long goodbye" is the best and it's due to it if I decided to give 5 stars to this reading experience.
"Farewell, my lovely" not so much, maybe because I got bored of the gangster's stuff.
I can't wait to read the other novels featuring Marlowe.
April 9, 2015
I've been a fan of Philip Marlow for years, but this has been more down to films and the ever-expanding world of the gumshoe parody character that seems to have pervaded every area of TV, film and The Simpsons.
And yet i have never actually read any of Chandler's books.
Weirdly I was led here by The Black-Eyed Blonde, written by Benjamin Black at the behest of the Chandler estate, after listening to Black talk about Chandler's life and work on a Guardian Books podcast.
While looking forward to The Black-Eyed Blonde, I did realise I couldn't read that without actually dabbling in Lake Chandler. How could I judge if Black had done a good job (whether I enjoyed it or not), if I didn't know how the original stood up?
I will at some point stop over-thinking this shit, but until then let's start at the start, eh?
The Big Sleep is Chandler's first Philip Marlow novel, introducing to the world the dog-eared sleuth who is probably better known for being played by Bogart.
The character himself is simply wonderful. No super hero, and no great womaniser, he just wants to get the job done and earn his fee. But he wants to do the job well. He may play a smidge fast and loose with the LA police department, but he's not one for stiffing the clients.
As for the story, to be honest it's the least important part of the whole piece. There's a missing guy, and in trying to find him Marlow racks up the body count, sorts out various thefts and blackmail plots and turfs naked women out of his flat.
What makes The Big Sleep so good and so readable is Chandler's writing.
Granted it's been parodied so much the phrasing, syntax and vocabulary is at once familiar and recognisable, but that in a way actually helps the submergence into LA's seedier side.
But what has never come across in the parodies is just how poetic Chandler's writing is, how in brevity he can describe so much.
In mere sentences he can describe people, places and events in such detail you are right there alongside Marlow, dodging bullets and diving in to ditches as you go.
Then there's the sheer readability of the damn thing.
It's a page turner in the very real sense (well, page tapper as I was reading on a Kobo), with every closing chapter leaving you yearning for the next. In fact, I can't remember the last time I was enjoying a book so much I was actually yearning for the next time I was in Marlow's company.
Hopefully it won't be too long before I return to this three-in-one book and get to work on Farewell My Lovely
And yet i have never actually read any of Chandler's books.
Weirdly I was led here by The Black-Eyed Blonde, written by Benjamin Black at the behest of the Chandler estate, after listening to Black talk about Chandler's life and work on a Guardian Books podcast.
While looking forward to The Black-Eyed Blonde, I did realise I couldn't read that without actually dabbling in Lake Chandler. How could I judge if Black had done a good job (whether I enjoyed it or not), if I didn't know how the original stood up?
I will at some point stop over-thinking this shit, but until then let's start at the start, eh?
The Big Sleep is Chandler's first Philip Marlow novel, introducing to the world the dog-eared sleuth who is probably better known for being played by Bogart.
The character himself is simply wonderful. No super hero, and no great womaniser, he just wants to get the job done and earn his fee. But he wants to do the job well. He may play a smidge fast and loose with the LA police department, but he's not one for stiffing the clients.
As for the story, to be honest it's the least important part of the whole piece. There's a missing guy, and in trying to find him Marlow racks up the body count, sorts out various thefts and blackmail plots and turfs naked women out of his flat.
What makes The Big Sleep so good and so readable is Chandler's writing.
Granted it's been parodied so much the phrasing, syntax and vocabulary is at once familiar and recognisable, but that in a way actually helps the submergence into LA's seedier side.
But what has never come across in the parodies is just how poetic Chandler's writing is, how in brevity he can describe so much.
In mere sentences he can describe people, places and events in such detail you are right there alongside Marlow, dodging bullets and diving in to ditches as you go.
Then there's the sheer readability of the damn thing.
It's a page turner in the very real sense (well, page tapper as I was reading on a Kobo), with every closing chapter leaving you yearning for the next. In fact, I can't remember the last time I was enjoying a book so much I was actually yearning for the next time I was in Marlow's company.
Hopefully it won't be too long before I return to this three-in-one book and get to work on Farewell My Lovely
January 18, 2013
One of the great prose stylists in English, or one of the most distinct, and still, after all the imitators, the first and the best laconic private detective. The three novels here move from 'The Big Sleep" with its twisted sisters, via "Farewell my Lovely" with that famous line; " A blonde to make a Bishop kick a hole in a stained- glass window" and the unforgettable Moose Malloy: "He was a big man, but not more than six feet five inches tall and not wider than a beer truck" who almost steals the lime light; to "The Long Goodbye" where Chandler almost managed to ditch plot.
Endlessly re readable, though if you're after plot driven detective stories with tidy endings, Chandler and Marlowe are not for you.
Endlessly re readable, though if you're after plot driven detective stories with tidy endings, Chandler and Marlowe are not for you.
August 22, 2008
Varied in quality, with a steady improvement from earliest to latest of the three novels presented in this volume. Reading several Chandler novels in a shortish space of time reveals the technique he uses to disguise what is going on in his plots, weakening the reader's experience.
Marlowe is revealed as a more interesting character as Chandler's skill as a writer improves, but the inevitable comparison between Chandler and Hammett favours the latter simply because Hammett created a wider range of mood and character in his novels.
The Long Goodbye stands as not only the best in this volume but the best of Chandler's novels and should be the one chosen by those who only have time for one encounter with Philip Marlowe.
Marlowe is revealed as a more interesting character as Chandler's skill as a writer improves, but the inevitable comparison between Chandler and Hammett favours the latter simply because Hammett created a wider range of mood and character in his novels.
The Long Goodbye stands as not only the best in this volume but the best of Chandler's novels and should be the one chosen by those who only have time for one encounter with Philip Marlowe.
March 10, 2021
This was a big, heavy book. Since it was a hardback, and contained three complete novels, that was to be expected. It was also a big, heavy book in the reading matter. Phillip Marlowe was a man of his time. I loved his wit, self-deprecation, and descriptions of characters and surroundings. What the book suffered from was the way of life during the time these stories were written. All the cops were either complete caricatures or there was so much corruption, brutality and every other vice in all departments, no civilian was safe, let alone the PIs. Marlowe was beaten up frequently, hauled in for threats, jailed without due process or all of it. Everyone drank and smoked to such a degree, they all should have expired from lung cancer, emphysema, COPD or cirrhosis of the liver. And then there were all the racial slurs and depictions. It took me far longer than I would ever have thought to wade my way through The Big Sleep, which I didn't like at all. I couldn't figure out why Marlowe was getting involved with these dreadful people, and yet he kept going back for more, and it wasn't because they were paying him exorbitantly, either. Farewell My Lovely started out at a much faster and more interesting pace, although I had to get into a mindset that sent me leapfrogging over the racial slurs, etc., which were most prevalent in that story. It became more confusing toward the end, and, as I realized was the norm for Chandler, the denouement was several pages in length, which nowadays would cause readers to throw the book across the room or delete it from their Kindles. The Lady in the Lake had a similarly long ending. I saw it coming, and could have actually done with it arriving a good 5 pages earlier. How Marlowe deduced everything he did is still beyond me two days later. I decided to study some of these hardboiled earlier detectives, and must say I prefer Hammett's Sam Spade. Hammett gets to the point a lot faster, although both these writers do have a way with words that transcends the years and keeps readers returning to their books.
October 20, 2020
Quite memorable. Highly recommended.
August 17, 2022
Definitely a modern classic. Enjoyed this thoroughly.
July 23, 2017
With Chandler, at this stage, it seems impossible (for me) not to evaluate his novels by referencing the films that were made from them. The collection includes The Big Sleep (published in 1939 and filmed under that title by Howard Hawks in 1945/46), Farewell, My Lovely (published in 1940 and filmed as Murder, My Sweet by Edward Dmytryk in 1944), and The Long Goodbye (published in 1953 and shot by Robert Altman in 1973). First things first: the novels are far more complex than the films, including many more characters and subplots and loose ends ultimately tied up than could fit into the standard film (noir). So, even though I know these films by heart, the novels expand the plots and develop the characterizations more deeply, including that of Philip Marlowe, the private detective and narrator in all three. He was played by Bogart, Dick Powell, and Elliott Gould (and later Mitchum on TV) and, if you triangulate appropriately, you might come pretty close to Chandler's Marlowe, a tough, sarcastic, but honorable and even sensitive guy who isn't afraid to play rough. Invariably, he tells the truth and plays things straight (but can't resist a good one-liner). Surprisingly, Gould's non-traditional take in Altman's free seventies update/parody/homage to noir seems to get Marlowe's spirit most authentically, though of course there's no denying the hard-boiled archetypes created by Bogart and Powell. Somehow they seem closer to the work of Dashiell Hammett to me, tougher and less playful, though just as effective in plotting and characterization. (Unfortunately, Chandler allows some homophobia and racism to slip into his work, which I don't remember in Hammett; a bit of a bum note in an otherwise perfect package). To sum up, The Big Sleep hangs closest to the film (although Hawks' omissions make the twisty plot nearly incomprehensible), Farewell, My Lovely, seems to double in length with additional scenes in the book, and The Long Goodbye is familiar to a point but Altman creates his own unique work out of Chandler's starting place. Amazingly, the films and novels are all tremendous.
July 21, 2017
Raymond Chandler's novels that comprised as part of this collection always felt too short for me to justify picking them up as paperback copies individually, but when I saw that The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Good-Bye were all published together as an Omnibus edition I knew I had to pick it up and I was blown away by Chandler's excellent writing as he brings the truly memorable PI Phillip Marlowe and his adventures to life in a classic example of the noir genre at its best. Like with Elmore Leonard, it's clear why Chandler's movies have been adapted so many times to screen - The Big Sleep is one of my favourite movies ever, and I haven't watched but do own The Long Goodbye movie, so it was interesting to see the source material before I checked out the film.
Chandler's prose is unputdownable as you're pulled into a richly compelling mystery that really excels. Well-plotted, full of twists and turns, all of these three novels showcase Chandler at his best and although Farewell, My Lovely may not quite match the brilliance of The Big Sleep or The Long Good-Bye, I still really enjoyed it. The progression of Chandler's writing style that changes over time over the course of the three novels is fantastic to witness as well, and by the time you get to the final novel in the Omnibus it's clear Chandler is writing with experience and it shows. We get to see Marlowe well and truly fleshed out in these pages and it's clear what made him such a memorable character, and really enhanced by Chandler's fantastic writing that has been parodied and imitated over the course of the books' release, but hardly ever bettered.
If you've ever considered yourself a fan of crime fiction then you need to read this Omnibus. It is an excellent release from Penguin and I'm looking forward to hopefully checking out more of their Modern Classics in the future.
Chandler's prose is unputdownable as you're pulled into a richly compelling mystery that really excels. Well-plotted, full of twists and turns, all of these three novels showcase Chandler at his best and although Farewell, My Lovely may not quite match the brilliance of The Big Sleep or The Long Good-Bye, I still really enjoyed it. The progression of Chandler's writing style that changes over time over the course of the three novels is fantastic to witness as well, and by the time you get to the final novel in the Omnibus it's clear Chandler is writing with experience and it shows. We get to see Marlowe well and truly fleshed out in these pages and it's clear what made him such a memorable character, and really enhanced by Chandler's fantastic writing that has been parodied and imitated over the course of the books' release, but hardly ever bettered.
If you've ever considered yourself a fan of crime fiction then you need to read this Omnibus. It is an excellent release from Penguin and I'm looking forward to hopefully checking out more of their Modern Classics in the future.
March 17, 2021
A collage of sentences I have written about this book:
I read the first two novels in this collection years ago and finally got around to reading the third one, The Long Goodbye. It is the longest, and perhaps the best of the bunch.
Despite its chauvinism, I’ve always enjoyed detective Philip Marlowe’s stark commentary and devil-may-care attitude toward his life and work, and the way he distributes his grace is interesting.
A “hard-boiled detective” I think Marlowe’s type is called. What does this mean? Cynical and unapologetic I assume, but the origin of the idiom must be interesting. I also learned that “shamus” is a slang term for a private detective, a la “dick” or “gumshoe” I assume.
Fun noir style but also delivers serious commentary on society and culture, law enforcement, the courts, and the wealthy. Characters are disillusioned though not entirely cynical.
Of course murder has a dark side, but mystery novels are often a bit of a romp. Here we have real rich people with real rich people problems and depressions.
A quote from a tragic character: “The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that the beautiful things die young, but that they grow old and mean.” And another secondary character says, “I always find what I want. But when I find it, I don’t want it any more.”
I wish Chandler had been more prolific, but I think there’s still one of his detective novels I haven’t read, which I will certainly enjoy whenever I get to it.
Books I thought of while reading:
The Great Gatsby, for the narrator’s indictment of the rich and the wealthy class.
Less Than Zero, for the wasted lives of some aimless and complacent and dissipated rich people on the west coast.
I read the first two novels in this collection years ago and finally got around to reading the third one, The Long Goodbye. It is the longest, and perhaps the best of the bunch.
Despite its chauvinism, I’ve always enjoyed detective Philip Marlowe’s stark commentary and devil-may-care attitude toward his life and work, and the way he distributes his grace is interesting.
A “hard-boiled detective” I think Marlowe’s type is called. What does this mean? Cynical and unapologetic I assume, but the origin of the idiom must be interesting. I also learned that “shamus” is a slang term for a private detective, a la “dick” or “gumshoe” I assume.
Fun noir style but also delivers serious commentary on society and culture, law enforcement, the courts, and the wealthy. Characters are disillusioned though not entirely cynical.
Of course murder has a dark side, but mystery novels are often a bit of a romp. Here we have real rich people with real rich people problems and depressions.
A quote from a tragic character: “The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that the beautiful things die young, but that they grow old and mean.” And another secondary character says, “I always find what I want. But when I find it, I don’t want it any more.”
I wish Chandler had been more prolific, but I think there’s still one of his detective novels I haven’t read, which I will certainly enjoy whenever I get to it.
Books I thought of while reading:
The Great Gatsby, for the narrator’s indictment of the rich and the wealthy class.
Less Than Zero, for the wasted lives of some aimless and complacent and dissipated rich people on the west coast.
January 26, 2016
My first contact with Chandler was through a BBC radio 4 series with Toby Stephens as Philip Marlowe. The atmosphere, the plot twists, the gritty reality and the wit captured me so much that I wanted to read the source of it.
It was only after I read this book that I realised the magnificence of Chandler's prose. The words glide effortlessly on paper like dancers on ice, each carefully crafted sentence a thin brushstroke in a Pre-Raphaelite painting. It is only after the novel is over, when everything has been said and done and the seemingly knotted thread of a plot finally untangles itself that one can take a step back and admire the masterpiece: the final picture.
This collection covers the span of Chandler's writing, starting from his first Marlowe novel "The Big Sleep", the film adaptation of which really does it no justice, continuing with "Farewell My Lovely" and finishing with "The Long Goodbye". Along the course of these stories the reader can experience the course or Marlowe's life - or at least that part of it that is written down - and Chandler's evolution as a writer.
No review I could ever write would do Chandler justice, but for people who enjoy the dark, gritty, corrupted Los Angeles of 60-70 years ago, for people who enjoy a good detective mystery, for people who like noir, for people who enjoy evocative descriptions that make you feel like you can see everything with your own eyes, for people who just want to go to a smoky club, be left alone and down some hard whisky: this is for them.
It was only after I read this book that I realised the magnificence of Chandler's prose. The words glide effortlessly on paper like dancers on ice, each carefully crafted sentence a thin brushstroke in a Pre-Raphaelite painting. It is only after the novel is over, when everything has been said and done and the seemingly knotted thread of a plot finally untangles itself that one can take a step back and admire the masterpiece: the final picture.
This collection covers the span of Chandler's writing, starting from his first Marlowe novel "The Big Sleep", the film adaptation of which really does it no justice, continuing with "Farewell My Lovely" and finishing with "The Long Goodbye". Along the course of these stories the reader can experience the course or Marlowe's life - or at least that part of it that is written down - and Chandler's evolution as a writer.
No review I could ever write would do Chandler justice, but for people who enjoy the dark, gritty, corrupted Los Angeles of 60-70 years ago, for people who enjoy a good detective mystery, for people who like noir, for people who enjoy evocative descriptions that make you feel like you can see everything with your own eyes, for people who just want to go to a smoky club, be left alone and down some hard whisky: this is for them.
August 9, 2018
A collection of three classic novels by Raymond Chandler, pioneer undisputed master of his own LA-noir niche.
Chandler's writing style, his cast of characters and the way he depicts post-war Los Angeles are so iconic that it feels familiar, even cliche, when you read him for the first time. Chances are, before you ever read the original, you've been exposed to derivatives, parodies or homages throughout film, TV and other literature.
There's still a lot of fun to be had going to the source. The novels are seen through the stoic, cynical eyes of private detective Philip Marlowe (basically a proto-Humphrey Bogart, who ended up playing him on screen). Los Angeles is sketched out as an intoxicating, decadent hive of vice and mendacity, and the dialogue absolutely crackles, even with now-quaint LA street slang.
The higher literary values of Chandler's writing - plot ambiguity, deep characters, unreliable narration, and an aversion to spelling things out for the reader - are laced with the guilty, page-turning pleasures of lurid pulp fiction.
As far as iconic detectives go, it's influential as Sherlock Holmes, and honestly, a lot more interesting to read.
Chandler's writing style, his cast of characters and the way he depicts post-war Los Angeles are so iconic that it feels familiar, even cliche, when you read him for the first time. Chances are, before you ever read the original, you've been exposed to derivatives, parodies or homages throughout film, TV and other literature.
There's still a lot of fun to be had going to the source. The novels are seen through the stoic, cynical eyes of private detective Philip Marlowe (basically a proto-Humphrey Bogart, who ended up playing him on screen). Los Angeles is sketched out as an intoxicating, decadent hive of vice and mendacity, and the dialogue absolutely crackles, even with now-quaint LA street slang.
The higher literary values of Chandler's writing - plot ambiguity, deep characters, unreliable narration, and an aversion to spelling things out for the reader - are laced with the guilty, page-turning pleasures of lurid pulp fiction.
As far as iconic detectives go, it's influential as Sherlock Holmes, and honestly, a lot more interesting to read.
January 20, 2023
I just love Chandler’s writing style. The plots of his books are wildly over the top but they way he describes just about anything, with his deadpan sarcastic wit, ah I love it.
The Long Good-Bye was probably the best of the three novels here, but The Big Sleep is the one with maybe the most believable plot line.
Farewell My Lovely was much weaker and had a lot of little racist tendencies which I didn’t like.
From The Big Sleep:
“It was a crisp morning, with just enough snap in the air to make life seem simple and sweet, if you didn’t have too much on your mind. I had.”
From Farewell, My Lovely:
“I like smooth shiny girls, hard-boiled and loaded with sin.”
From The Long Good-bye:
“Crime isn’t a disease, it’s a symptom. Cops are like a doctor that gives you aspirin for a brain tumour, except that the cop would rather cure it with a blackjack. We’re a big, tough, rich, wild people and crime is the price we pay for it, and organized crime is the price we pay for organization. We’ll have it with us a long time.”
The Long Good-Bye was probably the best of the three novels here, but The Big Sleep is the one with maybe the most believable plot line.
Farewell My Lovely was much weaker and had a lot of little racist tendencies which I didn’t like.
From The Big Sleep:
“It was a crisp morning, with just enough snap in the air to make life seem simple and sweet, if you didn’t have too much on your mind. I had.”
From Farewell, My Lovely:
“I like smooth shiny girls, hard-boiled and loaded with sin.”
From The Long Good-bye:
“Crime isn’t a disease, it’s a symptom. Cops are like a doctor that gives you aspirin for a brain tumour, except that the cop would rather cure it with a blackjack. We’re a big, tough, rich, wild people and crime is the price we pay for it, and organized crime is the price we pay for organization. We’ll have it with us a long time.”
September 10, 2019
It's certainly well worth the read and probably set the trend for a long time when it came to creating private investigator characters. Chandlers books are set in a world where both cops and PIs are har drinking tough guys who are not above using muscle to get a confession. This makes the stories seem dated. However, the stories are good and well constructed and once you immerse yourself in the world of 1940s/50s Los Angeles; they become very enjoyable.
February 2, 2017
So maybe hardboiled detective stories from the 30s don't age so well (the PC police would have a good time shining a bright light on these stories in the homicide detective's messy office) - but it's still darn good writing. Off to find me some Dashiell Hammett.
January 16, 2018
If I could write like anyone it would be a combination of Raymond Chandler and Douglas Adams, I have read this compilation almost every year since I can remember, and there is always, always a different line that stops me in the page and makes me want to write like he does.
September 3, 2019
Boy, he is the master! Of detective fiction, the thriller, the short story, the US filmy black and white cop drama - boy, he's got it all. I've watched his stories turned into film. But boy read his stuff - its great.
Whose looking at you? see? Toast
Whose looking at you? see? Toast
January 29, 2022
I don’t normally read detective novels, but I had heard that Raymond Chandler was a great writer. I read Farewell My Lovely and thought it was hard to put down. It’s classic noir and the sparse language is great. I’ll probably read The Big Sleep.
Read
July 10, 2016Aner ikke hvad der skete i denne her bog. Hørte den som lydbog. Det skal man ikke gøre. Kunne godt forestille mig den var god.
April 18, 2019
A classic American hard-boiled crime novel. Could not put the book down, managed to read it in a day I was so hooked!
August 1, 2024
I am not capable of writing a review that will make you want to go out and pick up this book but I can tell you that I enjoyed this collection very much.
Always had a soft spot for mid-century Americana and the Western world of that time. As time moves endlessly forward, this kind of story will slowly become harder to read with a lot of the language and slang having been lost to time. To that end, I say, *read it while it still makes sense!*
The Big Sleep was a bit confusing and showed Chandler as 'wearing in' his character, Philip Marlowe. It was a wonderful introduction to what was to come - the more polished Farewell, My Lovely. A story rich in suspense, tension, mystery and was honestly a very exciting read.
Compared to Jim Thompson, the only other pulp novelist I've read; it was refreshing to have a hard-boiled story with some redemption arc. In Jim Thompson's world, everyone is shit. I still haven't finished Thompson's second omnibus because characters kept narrating their own deaths at the end.
It's nice to see characters you could perhaps look up to - who doesn't want to buy a slick talking, tough guy detective? - rather than characters that warn you of what not to do, who not to be.
Lastly was The Long Goodbye. Dying to see the film. I hear the interpretation on film is a controversy among fans. Can't wait to see it! Compared to Farewell, My Lovely, The Long Goodbye is a longer story with much less action. He stills carries tension and suspense well and the story has many plot twists that I - a simple reader - didn't see coming. The ending shocked me!
I can't say anything too intellectual of my own perspective because firstly, I read this for pleasure, thank you very much and secondly, I had to read up on interpretations of the story and motivations of the writer at the time.
I'd say that Farewell is possibly my favourite story here for it's gripping suspense but The Long Goodbye can't be overlooked. The suspense may not have been as palpable but was still present and exciting, all the same. It even had me laughing out loud.
Hey, maybe you *should* go and grab yourself a copy and pop your feet up. Pour yourself some black coffee, smell the cynicism and ask yourself *Who did it?*
Always had a soft spot for mid-century Americana and the Western world of that time. As time moves endlessly forward, this kind of story will slowly become harder to read with a lot of the language and slang having been lost to time. To that end, I say, *read it while it still makes sense!*
The Big Sleep was a bit confusing and showed Chandler as 'wearing in' his character, Philip Marlowe. It was a wonderful introduction to what was to come - the more polished Farewell, My Lovely. A story rich in suspense, tension, mystery and was honestly a very exciting read.
Compared to Jim Thompson, the only other pulp novelist I've read; it was refreshing to have a hard-boiled story with some redemption arc. In Jim Thompson's world, everyone is shit. I still haven't finished Thompson's second omnibus because characters kept narrating their own deaths at the end.
It's nice to see characters you could perhaps look up to - who doesn't want to buy a slick talking, tough guy detective? - rather than characters that warn you of what not to do, who not to be.
Lastly was The Long Goodbye. Dying to see the film. I hear the interpretation on film is a controversy among fans. Can't wait to see it! Compared to Farewell, My Lovely, The Long Goodbye is a longer story with much less action. He stills carries tension and suspense well and the story has many plot twists that I - a simple reader - didn't see coming. The ending shocked me!
I can't say anything too intellectual of my own perspective because firstly, I read this for pleasure, thank you very much and secondly, I had to read up on interpretations of the story and motivations of the writer at the time.
I'd say that Farewell is possibly my favourite story here for it's gripping suspense but The Long Goodbye can't be overlooked. The suspense may not have been as palpable but was still present and exciting, all the same. It even had me laughing out loud.
Hey, maybe you *should* go and grab yourself a copy and pop your feet up. Pour yourself some black coffee, smell the cynicism and ask yourself *Who did it?*
February 3, 2024
I enjoyed reading these stories a whole lot more than I expected to. I was aware of Chandler's influence on detective fiction and I have read Chandler before, including The Big Sleep.
There are three of Chandler's novels in this one book: The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye. The Big Sleep was Chandler's first novel (and it is very short), the Long Goodbye was his last, I think, and Farewell my Lovely must have been somewhere in between.
I liked each one of them, and I liked each one more than the last, probably because I was enjoying getting familiar with Philip Marlowe and the world he inhabits. I didn't expect to like the stories because I am not a fan of historical fiction. But as it turned out, it didn't matter a jot whether the setting was "history" or not, or whether it was "authentic" or not. If Chandler had invented it from his imagination, it would have worked just as well. It was a dark, dreary and dangerous setting. Chandler conveyed this brilliantly from the start - in The Big Sleep, it was always raining! But the shining light was Marlowe - a decent, principled man in a morass of crime and corruption.
It would be easy to try and judge Chandler and his characters and stories by our own standards. Everyone smoked, drank and womanised too much. Attitudes to black people, Mexicans and woman are far from politically correct for the times we live in, but these were the times Marlowe lived in and I didn't find anything offensive, except the American love affair with guns.
Marlowe wasn't perfect, by any means, but he had his own moral code and he never deviated from it. I particularly liked The Long Goodbye, a tale of friendship, loyalty and determination to do the right thing.
So Marlowe was a great character, an admirable man and a clever detective. The plots are really well put together. But absolutely the best thing about all the Chandler novels in this volume is the writing, which is sharp and witty, often funny and always scintillating. I really loved Chandler's similes, even the ones I didn't understand! His descriptions of people and places were brilliant.
Chandler had a huge influence on the genre of detective fiction that I am sure still reverberates in modern detective novels. He had a unique voice that I think may have often been copied, but never bettered.
I haven't seen any of the films (I gather there are films of all the novels in this book) and I don't think I want to . Although I can see that the plots would work well in films, I'm sure something would be lost of Chander's lively and vivid writing.
Glad I read these.
There are three of Chandler's novels in this one book: The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye. The Big Sleep was Chandler's first novel (and it is very short), the Long Goodbye was his last, I think, and Farewell my Lovely must have been somewhere in between.
I liked each one of them, and I liked each one more than the last, probably because I was enjoying getting familiar with Philip Marlowe and the world he inhabits. I didn't expect to like the stories because I am not a fan of historical fiction. But as it turned out, it didn't matter a jot whether the setting was "history" or not, or whether it was "authentic" or not. If Chandler had invented it from his imagination, it would have worked just as well. It was a dark, dreary and dangerous setting. Chandler conveyed this brilliantly from the start - in The Big Sleep, it was always raining! But the shining light was Marlowe - a decent, principled man in a morass of crime and corruption.
It would be easy to try and judge Chandler and his characters and stories by our own standards. Everyone smoked, drank and womanised too much. Attitudes to black people, Mexicans and woman are far from politically correct for the times we live in, but these were the times Marlowe lived in and I didn't find anything offensive, except the American love affair with guns.
Marlowe wasn't perfect, by any means, but he had his own moral code and he never deviated from it. I particularly liked The Long Goodbye, a tale of friendship, loyalty and determination to do the right thing.
So Marlowe was a great character, an admirable man and a clever detective. The plots are really well put together. But absolutely the best thing about all the Chandler novels in this volume is the writing, which is sharp and witty, often funny and always scintillating. I really loved Chandler's similes, even the ones I didn't understand! His descriptions of people and places were brilliant.
Chandler had a huge influence on the genre of detective fiction that I am sure still reverberates in modern detective novels. He had a unique voice that I think may have often been copied, but never bettered.
I haven't seen any of the films (I gather there are films of all the novels in this book) and I don't think I want to . Although I can see that the plots would work well in films, I'm sure something would be lost of Chander's lively and vivid writing.
Glad I read these.
April 24, 2025
2.75
The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right. To say goodbye is to die a little.
Well, I definitely give props to Raymond Chandler for pioneering the detective fiction genre. Interestingly, though, it was not what I expected at all. Plot, one in a way that makes sense, was weirdly lacking in the three stories I read, which is odd because I always thought crime-fiction was notorious for well-planned beats of action held together by red string. The vibes, on the other hand... that's what was definitely unmatched. It's what makes me a bit conflicted since, at times, I felt like the aura alone could maybe carry the story, but then, unfortunately, the lack of action would pull me out again. If anything though, reading all three back to back definitely was proof of the fact that writing is a skill that can only be improved by doing it consistently (so annoying, I know). The sentences in The Big Sleep felt halting and janky at times. Like, "I put on my shoes. I stood up. I walked to the door. I opened the door. " Not this bad, obviously, but it's hard not to notice it. The Long-Goodbye, however, had none of that, and the writing flowed beautifully through the pages
I especially loved how it focused more on the human condition. It only elevated the atmosphere already apparent.
The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that the beautiful die young, but that they grow old and mean. It will not happen to me.
The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right. To say goodbye is to die a little.
Well, I definitely give props to Raymond Chandler for pioneering the detective fiction genre. Interestingly, though, it was not what I expected at all. Plot, one in a way that makes sense, was weirdly lacking in the three stories I read, which is odd because I always thought crime-fiction was notorious for well-planned beats of action held together by red string. The vibes, on the other hand... that's what was definitely unmatched. It's what makes me a bit conflicted since, at times, I felt like the aura alone could maybe carry the story, but then, unfortunately, the lack of action would pull me out again. If anything though, reading all three back to back definitely was proof of the fact that writing is a skill that can only be improved by doing it consistently (so annoying, I know). The sentences in The Big Sleep felt halting and janky at times. Like, "I put on my shoes. I stood up. I walked to the door. I opened the door. " Not this bad, obviously, but it's hard not to notice it. The Long-Goodbye, however, had none of that, and the writing flowed beautifully through the pages
I especially loved how it focused more on the human condition. It only elevated the atmosphere already apparent.
The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that the beautiful die young, but that they grow old and mean. It will not happen to me.
October 8, 2024
I struggled to find a way to enjoy this book but its clear that in the end I didn't find it. The fact that it is billed as a classic of the detective genre proved to me to be a false start as the plot as in "who dunnit" was to me completely incomprehensible. A lot of the time I didn't have friggin clue about what was going on and why and the motives of the characters. That brings me to characters. Thinly drawn the motives of the characters are opaque to say the least. Nobody is happy and everybody is double crossing everybody else all the time. So no enjoyable plot, no enjoyable characters. what about scenery and atmosphere. Well you do get a sense of film noir style but a lot of this comes from half remembered, half absorbed impressions from the film version of the book. Would this exist without the film one wonders. There is certainly atmosphere but the sense of place is broken up by perpetual car journeys so nothing connects with anything else and the description of places never seems worth the effort. Perhaps if I knew Los Angeles better, but I don't. So just a lot of witty dialogue, drinking and shooting. I don't think I will be reading the 'other novels' so its a no.
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