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Raymond Chandler: Stories and Early Novels
In Raymond Chandler’s hands, the pulp crime story became a haunting mystery of power and corruption, set against a modern cityscape both lyrical and violent. Now Chandler joins the authoritative Library of America series in a comprehensive two-volume set displaying all the facets of his brilliant talent.
In his first novel, The Big Sleep (1939), the classic private eye finds his full-fledged form as Philip Marlowe: at once tough, independent, brash, disillusioned, and sensitive—and man of weary honor threading his way (in Chandler’s phrase) “down these mean streets” among blackmailers, pornographers, and murderers for hire.
In Farewell, My Lovely (1940), Chandler’s personal favorite among his novels, Marlowe’s search for a missing woman leads him from shanties and honky-tonks to the highest reaches of power, encountering an array of richly drawn characters. The High Window (1942), about a rare coin that becomes a catalyst by which a hushed-up crime comes back to haunt a wealthy family, is partly a humorous burlesque of pulp fiction. All three novels show Chandler at a peak of verbal inventiveness and storytelling drive
Stories and Early Novels also includes every classic noir story from the 1930s that Chandler did not later incorporate into a novel—thirteen in all, among them such classics as “Red Wind,” “Finger Man,” The King in Yellow," and “Trouble Is My Business.” Drawn from the pages of Black Mask and Dime Detective, these stories show how Chandler adapted the violent conventions of the pulp magazine—with their brisk exposition and rapid-fire dialogue—to his own emerging vision of 20th-century America.
In his first novel, The Big Sleep (1939), the classic private eye finds his full-fledged form as Philip Marlowe: at once tough, independent, brash, disillusioned, and sensitive—and man of weary honor threading his way (in Chandler’s phrase) “down these mean streets” among blackmailers, pornographers, and murderers for hire.
In Farewell, My Lovely (1940), Chandler’s personal favorite among his novels, Marlowe’s search for a missing woman leads him from shanties and honky-tonks to the highest reaches of power, encountering an array of richly drawn characters. The High Window (1942), about a rare coin that becomes a catalyst by which a hushed-up crime comes back to haunt a wealthy family, is partly a humorous burlesque of pulp fiction. All three novels show Chandler at a peak of verbal inventiveness and storytelling drive
Stories and Early Novels also includes every classic noir story from the 1930s that Chandler did not later incorporate into a novel—thirteen in all, among them such classics as “Red Wind,” “Finger Man,” The King in Yellow," and “Trouble Is My Business.” Drawn from the pages of Black Mask and Dime Detective, these stories show how Chandler adapted the violent conventions of the pulp magazine—with their brisk exposition and rapid-fire dialogue—to his own emerging vision of 20th-century America.
1199 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1933
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991 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Chandler
449 books5,601 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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
February 1, 2011
Chandler's work has much in common with the bigass Story Of America. Not any glossy, optimistic aspect, of course, but the deep and painful themes underneath. And the pageantry overhead is unexceptional, tedious, banal.
In Chandler's period-perfect mid-thirties works, we see a lot of the threadbare and the seedy, last night's makeup, and the smoke & liquor remnants of celebrations long concluded.
An eye for the telling detail sets each sorry tale in motion: the phone-booth in a chintzy hollywood drugstore, a tired cop's worn shoe-leather, a fleabag hotel in the negro part of town, the sirens at night ....
Occasionally, the investigator is drawn out of his natural milieu, and if so at the beginning, it's often enough to a ritzy estate of some newly-found clientele. If at the end of the story, though, it's often to a deserted house in a desolate canyon. Stars glide overhead in the night sky, and really big & powerful cars are parked outside. Here takes place the intermission, wherein heavy curtains generally obscure some blunt coup d'theatre, the blow that brings down unconsciousness, and our detective, like the interlude between acts in a grand drama. When he wakes up, the cards in the deck have usually been reshuffled, and all new threats are at hand.
Have to say I was reminded of the concerns of social drama, too-- there is more than a little of the Willie Loman character and his tormentors, in the equivocators of Chandler's floating world.
I really don't know what Chandler wants for a conclusion, if he does. His fiction is uniquely descriptive of the downside of the American equilibrium, as embodied by Los Angeles : giddy and oddly elliptical on the upswing, sinister and swirlingly diabolical on the way down.......
Love the pulp stories here; the heart and pulse of the novels is all there in the stories.
In Chandler's period-perfect mid-thirties works, we see a lot of the threadbare and the seedy, last night's makeup, and the smoke & liquor remnants of celebrations long concluded.
An eye for the telling detail sets each sorry tale in motion: the phone-booth in a chintzy hollywood drugstore, a tired cop's worn shoe-leather, a fleabag hotel in the negro part of town, the sirens at night ....
Occasionally, the investigator is drawn out of his natural milieu, and if so at the beginning, it's often enough to a ritzy estate of some newly-found clientele. If at the end of the story, though, it's often to a deserted house in a desolate canyon. Stars glide overhead in the night sky, and really big & powerful cars are parked outside. Here takes place the intermission, wherein heavy curtains generally obscure some blunt coup d'theatre, the blow that brings down unconsciousness, and our detective, like the interlude between acts in a grand drama. When he wakes up, the cards in the deck have usually been reshuffled, and all new threats are at hand.
Have to say I was reminded of the concerns of social drama, too-- there is more than a little of the Willie Loman character and his tormentors, in the equivocators of Chandler's floating world.
I really don't know what Chandler wants for a conclusion, if he does. His fiction is uniquely descriptive of the downside of the American equilibrium, as embodied by Los Angeles : giddy and oddly elliptical on the upswing, sinister and swirlingly diabolical on the way down.......
Love the pulp stories here; the heart and pulse of the novels is all there in the stories.
September 14, 2015
Along with a dozen stories, this edition includes The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely and The High Window. The stories are quickly familiar--friendless shamus sets off to solve case of either blackmail or stolen pearls (seriously, you’d think he’d at least vary the gems); he gets on by being disarmingly open with all but the key facts, but is too hard boiled for anyone to fully trust him. Story ends in a big shootout in which friendless shamus is miraculously spared. It’s in the novels, though, that he hits his stride. The shamus is the same guy, now named Marlowe, but the plots are more elegant and layered, taking full advantage of an interesting moment in crime--post-prohibition with the bootlegging infrastructure still in place, looking for a new racket and new contraband to keep it in business. The cynical exchanges and piercing descriptions don’t let up and it didn’t take long for me to realize that Chandler is S.J. Perelman with a mystery to solve. Either one of them could have written “From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made to be seen from thirty feet away.” or “She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.” I’ve barreled on to volume two, knowing it means I will soon have no new Chandler novels in my future. Pre-Chandler this may have made me sad, but now, hell, I’m not going to get all soft about it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2018
As a recent convert to the hardboiled-detective story, it would be foolish for me to say anything like "Chandler's 'Farewell, My Lovely' is my favorite work of noir-fiction" - but for now, it suits.
The beauty of these stories is not the sensational crime, violence, or "mysteries" they present, so much as the cut and dried staccato of painterly details delivered just-so and matter-of-fact. Yet Chandler manages to lubricate this minutiae with enlivening doses of humorous simile and insight, allowing them to easily nose their way through to the deeper leaves of human nature.
It is somewhat tempting to say that the stories in this volume, following Dashiel Hammet, bring little new to the genre. In fact, many of the pulp shorts in this collection almost seem like shines to Hammet's work; a logical progression or a taking up of the mantle, if you will. Yet, they contain an incisive humor, detail, and inner-life that, for me, go one or two steps further than Hammet. The Philip Marlowe novels in this volume insistently push their way off the page into your brain - and you'll take it and enjoy every minute of it, y'see?
If you've never wedged your nose into the crease of one of Chandler's pulpy page pounders, I highly recommend it.
The beauty of these stories is not the sensational crime, violence, or "mysteries" they present, so much as the cut and dried staccato of painterly details delivered just-so and matter-of-fact. Yet Chandler manages to lubricate this minutiae with enlivening doses of humorous simile and insight, allowing them to easily nose their way through to the deeper leaves of human nature.
It is somewhat tempting to say that the stories in this volume, following Dashiel Hammet, bring little new to the genre. In fact, many of the pulp shorts in this collection almost seem like shines to Hammet's work; a logical progression or a taking up of the mantle, if you will. Yet, they contain an incisive humor, detail, and inner-life that, for me, go one or two steps further than Hammet. The Philip Marlowe novels in this volume insistently push their way off the page into your brain - and you'll take it and enjoy every minute of it, y'see?
If you've never wedged your nose into the crease of one of Chandler's pulpy page pounders, I highly recommend it.
April 3, 2025
The Library of America's volume 1 of Raymond Chandler's work contains 13 short early pulp stories and the first three of his seven Marlowe novels.
Pulp Stories:
Compared to the three novels in this volume, Chandler's short stories here (originally published in pulp magazines "Black Mask" and "Dime Detectives" in the late 1930s) have clearer plot-driven capers not as concerned with building complicated portraits of murky characters, but rely most heavily on some twists and turns, double-crosses, lucky scrapes, gangsters, gamblers, PIs, cops, boxing fixes, local political conspiracies, side alley confrontations, and the narrative POV style of his Marlowe novels but without, well, Marlowe.
My favorites here are "Nevada Gas," "Goldfish," "Red Wind," and the hilarious "Pearls are a Nuisance," which reads almost like a classic O'Henry blackmail caper, in which a pair of drunk buddies are out to recover a necklace of false pearls for the employer of one's fiance. Sandwiched towards the end of the sequence of 13 hardboiled and serious crime capers, "Pearls are a Nuisance" is a contrasting breath of fresh air and evidence of Chandler's range as a story-teller.
The Big Sleep:
The first in Raymond Chandler's classic noir series starring the 1930's-style LA private eye Phillip Marlowe, "The Big Sleep" (1939) begins when Marlowe is hired by a dying rich old man to track down a blackmailer and deal with him. The rich guy has two spoiled young daughters who have varying degrees of maturity and immorality and who might be connected to the blackmail.
"The Big Sleep" reads just like you would hear a pulp noir atmospheric detective story, great descriptions of the environment and character looks through Marlowe's POV, full paragraphs describing all these sneaky people with suspect motives and goals, Marlowe smartly holding his cards to the vest and seeing through deception. There are no fewer than four well-written femme fatale types who are all different and great with their own conflicting takes on morality and station that make sense. They and the mob guys, cops and jilted lovers have us guessing the whole time.
Verdict: A fun introduction to Phillip Marlowe; I'll be reading more of these. The mystery itself has some pacing issues and unresolved twists that don't track but Chandler's characters and dialogue are really fun here.
Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
Farewell, My Lovely:
"I filled a pipe and reached for the packet of paper matches. I lit the pipe carefully. She watched that with approval. Pipe smokers were solid men. She was going to be disappointed in me."
Detective Marlowe is minding his own business on a busy LA city street when he sees a monstrous white guy dressed to the nines toss a black guy out of a bar, asking about a girl. His curiosity stoked, Marlowe peeks in to see what's going on and the 6'5" monster grabs him and says Marlowe's going to help him find his girl; this wonderful character Moose Malloy ("they call me Moose Malloy, on account of I'm large") has spent eight years in prison and is now back looking for a pretty redhead named Velma where she used to work. After Moose knocks out the bouncer, shoots the proprietor and leaves, Marlowe is asked by a lazy cop to find the goon ... for free.
Marlowe then is hired by a fancy white guy to help him deliver a cash ransom to a mugger who stole his girlfriend's jewelry. Things go sideways and now Marlowe is involved in a second murder investigation.
Chandler's handling of underlying Depression-era racism and corruption in LA is smart in "Farewell, My Lovely" (1940), both with its dialogue and with the treatment of the two murders by its cops. The murder of the black bar owner by Moose gets a single, lazy cop to investigate who isn't interested in solving it. The murder of the white dandy gets a more capable detective and then a few more when they find there is a jewelry heist ring involved. Marlowe himself isn't beyond criticism here and he captures that flawed noir hardboiled mantle well.
And now let's talk about Miss Anne Riordan and Mrs. Helen Grayle. This is my second Chandler read and he seems to write his murky female side characters in a way that reminds me of how Alfred Hitchcock managed the blonde bombshells he had in his movies; they aren't props. Chandler introduces Riordan in the dead of night, a supposedly-innocent bystander who comes across Marlowe after a money-handoff gone wrong, describing her as a not-very-beautiful-but-quite-pretty anywoman. Mrs. Grayle is a more classic femme fatale who plays everyone just right and whom every guy falls for and who is obviously a central character in both murders, we just don't know if it is as a true button-pusher or as a circumstantial victim.
Verdict: A great classic murder mystery with interesting characters, darker moments than you'd expect from a 1940 mystery, and its hard-boiled nuance and relatability hold up even today. I'm not ready to call "Farewell, My Lovely" the best crime novel I've ever read but it is in my top ten for now.
Jeff's Rating: 5 / 5 (Excellent)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
The High Window:
Private Eye Phillip Marlowe is hired by a rich widow to recover a rare gold coin that she thinks was stolen by her good-for-nothing trollop of a daughter-in-law who has gone missing. Marlowe knows more is at play here and, despite his better judgement, finds himself navigating complicated storylines around family dynamics, blackmail, lies, and murder.
Marlowe's place in American crime literature is well-earned, as is his role as a cynical and smart romantic knight holding truth and discretion as tools of justice in the urban jungle of 1940's Los Angeles. Where "High Window" (1942) falters is in the step-by-step progression, or lack thereof, of the investigation itself, which left me scratching my head more than a few times. Perhaps I'm just not smart enough to get this one without a study guide.
Verdict: A decent classic detective story but complicated as heck. Not the funnest read; I was rubbing my eyes a lot trying to figure out what was going on.
Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG
Averaging out the ratings, I'll put this collection at a 4/5
Pulp Stories:
Compared to the three novels in this volume, Chandler's short stories here (originally published in pulp magazines "Black Mask" and "Dime Detectives" in the late 1930s) have clearer plot-driven capers not as concerned with building complicated portraits of murky characters, but rely most heavily on some twists and turns, double-crosses, lucky scrapes, gangsters, gamblers, PIs, cops, boxing fixes, local political conspiracies, side alley confrontations, and the narrative POV style of his Marlowe novels but without, well, Marlowe.
My favorites here are "Nevada Gas," "Goldfish," "Red Wind," and the hilarious "Pearls are a Nuisance," which reads almost like a classic O'Henry blackmail caper, in which a pair of drunk buddies are out to recover a necklace of false pearls for the employer of one's fiance. Sandwiched towards the end of the sequence of 13 hardboiled and serious crime capers, "Pearls are a Nuisance" is a contrasting breath of fresh air and evidence of Chandler's range as a story-teller.
The Big Sleep:
The first in Raymond Chandler's classic noir series starring the 1930's-style LA private eye Phillip Marlowe, "The Big Sleep" (1939) begins when Marlowe is hired by a dying rich old man to track down a blackmailer and deal with him. The rich guy has two spoiled young daughters who have varying degrees of maturity and immorality and who might be connected to the blackmail.
"The Big Sleep" reads just like you would hear a pulp noir atmospheric detective story, great descriptions of the environment and character looks through Marlowe's POV, full paragraphs describing all these sneaky people with suspect motives and goals, Marlowe smartly holding his cards to the vest and seeing through deception. There are no fewer than four well-written femme fatale types who are all different and great with their own conflicting takes on morality and station that make sense. They and the mob guys, cops and jilted lovers have us guessing the whole time.
Verdict: A fun introduction to Phillip Marlowe; I'll be reading more of these. The mystery itself has some pacing issues and unresolved twists that don't track but Chandler's characters and dialogue are really fun here.
Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
Farewell, My Lovely:
"I filled a pipe and reached for the packet of paper matches. I lit the pipe carefully. She watched that with approval. Pipe smokers were solid men. She was going to be disappointed in me."
Detective Marlowe is minding his own business on a busy LA city street when he sees a monstrous white guy dressed to the nines toss a black guy out of a bar, asking about a girl. His curiosity stoked, Marlowe peeks in to see what's going on and the 6'5" monster grabs him and says Marlowe's going to help him find his girl; this wonderful character Moose Malloy ("they call me Moose Malloy, on account of I'm large") has spent eight years in prison and is now back looking for a pretty redhead named Velma where she used to work. After Moose knocks out the bouncer, shoots the proprietor and leaves, Marlowe is asked by a lazy cop to find the goon ... for free.
Marlowe then is hired by a fancy white guy to help him deliver a cash ransom to a mugger who stole his girlfriend's jewelry. Things go sideways and now Marlowe is involved in a second murder investigation.
Chandler's handling of underlying Depression-era racism and corruption in LA is smart in "Farewell, My Lovely" (1940), both with its dialogue and with the treatment of the two murders by its cops. The murder of the black bar owner by Moose gets a single, lazy cop to investigate who isn't interested in solving it. The murder of the white dandy gets a more capable detective and then a few more when they find there is a jewelry heist ring involved. Marlowe himself isn't beyond criticism here and he captures that flawed noir hardboiled mantle well.
And now let's talk about Miss Anne Riordan and Mrs. Helen Grayle. This is my second Chandler read and he seems to write his murky female side characters in a way that reminds me of how Alfred Hitchcock managed the blonde bombshells he had in his movies; they aren't props. Chandler introduces Riordan in the dead of night, a supposedly-innocent bystander who comes across Marlowe after a money-handoff gone wrong, describing her as a not-very-beautiful-but-quite-pretty anywoman. Mrs. Grayle is a more classic femme fatale who plays everyone just right and whom every guy falls for and who is obviously a central character in both murders, we just don't know if it is as a true button-pusher or as a circumstantial victim.
Verdict: A great classic murder mystery with interesting characters, darker moments than you'd expect from a 1940 mystery, and its hard-boiled nuance and relatability hold up even today. I'm not ready to call "Farewell, My Lovely" the best crime novel I've ever read but it is in my top ten for now.
Jeff's Rating: 5 / 5 (Excellent)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG-13
The High Window:
Private Eye Phillip Marlowe is hired by a rich widow to recover a rare gold coin that she thinks was stolen by her good-for-nothing trollop of a daughter-in-law who has gone missing. Marlowe knows more is at play here and, despite his better judgement, finds himself navigating complicated storylines around family dynamics, blackmail, lies, and murder.
Marlowe's place in American crime literature is well-earned, as is his role as a cynical and smart romantic knight holding truth and discretion as tools of justice in the urban jungle of 1940's Los Angeles. Where "High Window" (1942) falters is in the step-by-step progression, or lack thereof, of the investigation itself, which left me scratching my head more than a few times. Perhaps I'm just not smart enough to get this one without a study guide.
Verdict: A decent classic detective story but complicated as heck. Not the funnest read; I was rubbing my eyes a lot trying to figure out what was going on.
Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG
Averaging out the ratings, I'll put this collection at a 4/5
March 17, 2023
[D]efinitely [a] classic [piece] of American literature worthy of a second or even first tier position in the pantheon. [...] John commented on some parallels between Chandler and William Gibson (one of my perennial favorites), citing the former as a major and obvious influence on the latter. [...] I agree with John that Chandler’s influence on Gibson is apparent though I think they are going after far different goals as writers: Case is the illegitimate son of the illegitimate son of Philip Marlowe and though they’re living in the same neighborhood, headed in opposite directions on the same street.
Or maybe it makes more sense to compare Marlowe with Hammett's Sam Spade? Marlowe as the teeth-clenched pragmatist to Sam Spade's hopeless romantic? Or maybe that's just Marlowe's LA to Spade's San Francisco?
more: [http://blog.founddrama.net/2007/06/ra...]
Or maybe it makes more sense to compare Marlowe with Hammett's Sam Spade? Marlowe as the teeth-clenched pragmatist to Sam Spade's hopeless romantic? Or maybe that's just Marlowe's LA to Spade's San Francisco?
more: [http://blog.founddrama.net/2007/06/ra...]
October 30, 2019
About twenty years back I tried to read Raymond Chandler but never, ever cracked the book. Being a fan of neo-film noir, I knew I would like it if I ever started. What I didn't know was that I would discover the lost world of my father. While Chandler was born in the late nineteenth century, my father was born in 1919 so the diction, thoughts, and mannerisms of these works are from father's milieu more than Chandler's. The hoods, jazz cats, and dicks of Chandler's stories are the future Greatest Generation of World War II. The LA of these stories is a boom town of oil, the studio system, and decadence that money and power breeds in a new frontier. These works are smoke-filled, bigoted, misogynistic, bloody - and exciting.
The book contains thirteen pulp stories including "The King in Yellow". This reference to "The King" shows that while Chandler was creating with Dashiell Hammett the hard-boiled detective genre, he also was aware of the work of other pulp writers such as H.P. Lovecraft's expansion of Ambrose Bierce and Robert Chambers' 19th century Cthulhu mythos. That story's detective and jazz enthusiast, Steve Grayce's fleeting reference: "The King in Yellow. I read a book with that title once..." alerts the reader that Steve has fallen from grace or the sanity of a normal man. He is living on borrowed time. In general, these stories paint a world of dames, broads, hustlers, gamblers, playboys, and enforcers both legal and illegal, and all of them are corrupted by the lure of fame and money.
The book finishes with his first three novels: "The Big Sleep", "Farewell, My Lovely", and "The High Window". Each of them suffers from the feeling of being a double or triple version of his short stories - solutions come in multiples. Yet, you can't help but like the fully developed, chain smoking, alcoholic Philip Marlowe. His legacy has come down to us through the adoption of film noir trops by Cyberpunk works like Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and William Gibson's "Neuromancer". In Larry McLafferty's book, "Storming the Reality Studio", he and Richard Kadrey's "Cyperpunk 101: A Schematic Guide" says this:
"The Big Sleep" (Raymond Chandler, 1939, Random House). Chandler's smooth, polychromatic prose style and vision of the detective as knight-errant has influence more than one cyberpunk."
And of course, it is why we read Chandler. We know that while many will die, most of them will deserve it but that Marlowe will perhaps save the innocent or at least the redeemable. For despite all of his street smarts he is still a force of good and a protector of the weak. These stories are quests for a better world where Might still serves Right.
The book contains thirteen pulp stories including "The King in Yellow". This reference to "The King" shows that while Chandler was creating with Dashiell Hammett the hard-boiled detective genre, he also was aware of the work of other pulp writers such as H.P. Lovecraft's expansion of Ambrose Bierce and Robert Chambers' 19th century Cthulhu mythos. That story's detective and jazz enthusiast, Steve Grayce's fleeting reference: "The King in Yellow. I read a book with that title once..." alerts the reader that Steve has fallen from grace or the sanity of a normal man. He is living on borrowed time. In general, these stories paint a world of dames, broads, hustlers, gamblers, playboys, and enforcers both legal and illegal, and all of them are corrupted by the lure of fame and money.
The book finishes with his first three novels: "The Big Sleep", "Farewell, My Lovely", and "The High Window". Each of them suffers from the feeling of being a double or triple version of his short stories - solutions come in multiples. Yet, you can't help but like the fully developed, chain smoking, alcoholic Philip Marlowe. His legacy has come down to us through the adoption of film noir trops by Cyberpunk works like Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and William Gibson's "Neuromancer". In Larry McLafferty's book, "Storming the Reality Studio", he and Richard Kadrey's "Cyperpunk 101: A Schematic Guide" says this:
"The Big Sleep" (Raymond Chandler, 1939, Random House). Chandler's smooth, polychromatic prose style and vision of the detective as knight-errant has influence more than one cyberpunk."
And of course, it is why we read Chandler. We know that while many will die, most of them will deserve it but that Marlowe will perhaps save the innocent or at least the redeemable. For despite all of his street smarts he is still a force of good and a protector of the weak. These stories are quests for a better world where Might still serves Right.
December 6, 2017
In my first round of reading Chandler (I had read The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye before starting this collection) I was most impressed by the language and the world-weary cynicism. This time, while I still loved those things, I also came to appreciate the nature of Chandler's detectives, especially Marlowe.
Unlike a lot of detectives, especially serialized detectives, Marlowe isn't that smart. He'll tell you so, repeatedly. Instead, Marlowe is a great detective because he's dogged and unbiased. Many times Marlowe comes to the true explanation because he rejects false explanations that others accept because they're easier or more convenient. This reflects the corruption that afflicts so many institutions in Chander's work. It's not that Marlowe is a better order of human being, but that he's not tied to the same structures as the cops and gangsters that surround him. He's a free agent.
Unlike a lot of detectives, especially serialized detectives, Marlowe isn't that smart. He'll tell you so, repeatedly. Instead, Marlowe is a great detective because he's dogged and unbiased. Many times Marlowe comes to the true explanation because he rejects false explanations that others accept because they're easier or more convenient. This reflects the corruption that afflicts so many institutions in Chander's work. It's not that Marlowe is a better order of human being, but that he's not tied to the same structures as the cops and gangsters that surround him. He's a free agent.
September 4, 2013
Very nice edition. Thin (not India) paper; a ribbon for bookmark; includes a detailed biographical chronology and even notes on the text.
October 1, 2011
When it comes to gritty crime writing, Raymond Chandler is still the best. You can have the great dialogs of Elmore Leonard or the gritty scenes of James Ellroy's Los Angeles but they sit at the feet of Chandler and Philip Marlowe.
I picked this edition of Chandler collections because it contains 'Red Wind', probably his best short story. I love the beginning"
"Those hot dry winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen."
This first paragraph sets both the time, location, and mood of the story. Chandler is the king of pot-boiler crime writers.
I'll knock off a star because the collections are kind of pricey.
I picked this edition of Chandler collections because it contains 'Red Wind', probably his best short story. I love the beginning"
"Those hot dry winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen."
This first paragraph sets both the time, location, and mood of the story. Chandler is the king of pot-boiler crime writers.
I'll knock off a star because the collections are kind of pricey.
November 24, 2025
Wow! I had read The Big Sleep 5-10 years ago, seen the movie in late 1970s, and known Chandler was the stuff, but this anthology makes me a fan. I took the stories with appreciation, watching him grow, returning this Library of America volume repeatedly, then once I got to Farewell, My Lovely had to go on and finish The High Window. Lots of drinking, all the way through: but lots of plots that intertwine and lots of fine words for the tough view of Los Angeles and life, courtesy of our man Chandler.
Thanks to Fulton Public Library for repeated loans.
Thanks to Fulton Public Library for repeated loans.
February 10, 2022
Not shown; another half-star. At 1,200 pages, this is a big ol' seething hunk of mystery-slash-crime fiction that starts with 13 Pulp Stories from the 30s--featured in "Black Mask," "Detective Fiction Weekly" and "Dime Detective." 600 pages, if you're counting. Three of Chandler's first Philip Marlowe novels follow in the next 600; "The Big Sleep," (1939 U.S.) "Fairwell, My Lovely," (1940) and "The High Window," (1942). The novels, herein, are reviewed separately. The noir formula is patently rooted in the seedier elements of pre-war Los Angeles, being transported as the case unfolds to gated luxury mansions of the privileged and private--but morally-bankrupt--rich attended to by complicit house staff, chauffeurs and bodyguards. Each story is derelict and dirty and dangerous enough in its own peculiar brand of rawness to delight the pulp-crime aficionado who, like a moth to the flame, is drawn to a protagonist whose ragged street lingo frames the all-too-familiar set-ups of a day and night and day of the life of a private detective; a smart dick, his whiskey-soaked hunches (rarely shared with the police earning their well-deserved toxic contempt) usually resulting in gun play, serial interludes with thugs and/or cagey, two-timing, leggy, violet-eyed dames (see also: frail), picked locks and stumbling onto stiffs, then getting sapped blindly from behind only to be shuttled to an abandoned hide-away in the desert foothills. Or, where ever. The landscape, architecture, furnishings and even each player's features and fashion and foibles, are noteworthy in every detail. For these, the similarities of fixes and plays--of murders, frame-ups, kidnapping, blackmail plots, the usual tough-guy scenarios--though repetitious, are easily overlooked. Cigarettes, whiskey, guns (see also: rods), fists, saps and dead bodies (curiously, fresh kills more frequently than not) are always at center stage. A sort of glue, as props go, that binds one shifting scene to the next. Quotes? Another trinket that Chandler will lay on you. Too numerous to mention here but well-worth Google-beagling if you care to flush them from the background. All of which amounts to this collection being--cover-to-cover--a national treasure. The hallmark of a dark genius that captured eyeballs even before the paperback was invented. Save yourself some serious couch time and unplug the television. As a post-script, Chandler in print became a sought-after brand whose style lended itself well-enough to screenplays (his first being nominated for an Academy Award) but the experience put him off with so much distaste for the industry of movie-making, and the soul-crushing frustration of having to deal with Hollywood moguls (hacks), that he composed the harshest screed toward it all to ever appear in print in "The Atlantic" in 1945. It's titled "Writers in Hollywood." Harshing in the extreme. As an unstinting look (albeit a jaded and a cathartic one) behind the scenes, it's highy relatable to anyone who's ever had to submit creatively to handlers not worthy of respect with their other self-serving agendas. And, no doubt, just as relevant today--to the mindless glam and glitz of Hollywood--as ever. Kill shot. 22-caliber rimfire, long rifle, right to the heart. But we all know Hollywood does not, and never did, have one.
December 26, 2018
Whiskey-soaked, noir crime fiction at its best. I enjoyed Chandler's language, dialog and description that painted a picture of the dark side of 1930's LA. What was unexpected was the insertion of Phillip Marlowe's sarcastic humor in the three novels in this collection. Over a 1000 pages of Raymond Chandler. It was time well spent.
August 6, 2024
Like most collections of short stories, some are better then others, but from a historical perspective it's interesting to see how Chandler developed his style in his early works before he really came into his own with the phillip Marlowe books.
November 3, 2017
It was quite an enjoyable experience to read this voluminous book of Chandler's writings, the first volume consisting of 13 short/pulp stories and his first three full-length novels, The big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The High Window.
Marlowe, the detective starring in the three novels , is being bullied and socked, cheated and manipulated by everyone, while at the same time drinking himself into oblivion and cracking wise to all and sundry. Despite that he is quite sharp and manages to somehow put everything in order, not to betray his client's trust in the process, while always keeping to his last remaining asset, his infallible integrity in a world gone dark.
Lastly, some of his thoughts and similes verge on the poetic, and many dialogues are truly witty/funny.
Marlowe, the detective starring in the three novels , is being bullied and socked, cheated and manipulated by everyone, while at the same time drinking himself into oblivion and cracking wise to all and sundry. Despite that he is quite sharp and manages to somehow put everything in order, not to betray his client's trust in the process, while always keeping to his last remaining asset, his infallible integrity in a world gone dark.
Lastly, some of his thoughts and similes verge on the poetic, and many dialogues are truly witty/funny.
September 25, 2015
The PG Wodehouse of Hardboil.
Chandler's concern with mood to the point of cannibalizing plot points word-for-word and leaving plot holes is incredible (but you wouldn't notice). Top 10-ish despite some of the seedier plot elements.
"I felt terrible. I felt like an amputated leg."
"The voice that answered was fat. It wheezed softly, like the voice of a man who had just won a pie-eating contest."
"I wasn't doing any work that day, just catching up on my foot-dangling."
Chandler's concern with mood to the point of cannibalizing plot points word-for-word and leaving plot holes is incredible (but you wouldn't notice). Top 10-ish despite some of the seedier plot elements.
August 22, 2021
"This is gun, buddy. It goes boom-boom, and guys fall down. Want to try it?" (p. 11)
Just writing this review for the Pulp Stories section as I'm entering the novels from this volume independently. These are quite fun. Similar, of course, to Hammett but I prefer Chandler's touch. There are the same issues-of-the-age here, again with the depiction of women and anyone who is not white, but it seems to me that Chandler is less troubling to read. My two favourites from this batch are the two which push farthest out from the centre of the genre: Pearls Are a Nuisance and I'll Be Waiting.
Just writing this review for the Pulp Stories section as I'm entering the novels from this volume independently. These are quite fun. Similar, of course, to Hammett but I prefer Chandler's touch. There are the same issues-of-the-age here, again with the depiction of women and anyone who is not white, but it seems to me that Chandler is less troubling to read. My two favourites from this batch are the two which push farthest out from the centre of the genre: Pearls Are a Nuisance and I'll Be Waiting.
December 22, 2013
You can really see the evolution in his writing from reading his stories and then into his novels. Re-reading the novels it brings back images of the movies that were made from these books.
He writes cinematically with such visual descriptions of people, places, and action without getting bogged down in the descriptions. Now I want to see the movies again.
He writes cinematically with such visual descriptions of people, places, and action without getting bogged down in the descriptions. Now I want to see the movies again.
July 5, 2015
I really enjoyed reading Chandler's stories and first novels in order this way. The progress of his development as a writer and storyteller is obvious and quite interesting to track. I particularly liked the stories "Guns at Cyrano's" and "Pick-Up on Noon Street," and absolutely loved The High Window by the time I got to it. I'll definitely be moving on to Volume II.
December 24, 2024
Love Chandler. Hard to review such a volume in one go, so just Farewell, My Lovely here. Always notable to me as an example of Hollywood title-changing, as probably the most notable film adaptation was retitled Murder, My Sweet because a survey of viewers thought the original title, Farewell, My Lovely, sounded too much like a musical. Dick Powell played Marlowe and was known for musicals.
Chandler was obsessed with titles and came up with lists of them presumably unattached to any particular plot, character or story. The same thing happened in Hollywood a few years ago. Maybe 2014-15? I guess that's a decade. Time accelerates as you age. For a brief moment, movies were getting greenlighted based on title alone. No script. No attachments. Only title. Titles are important. Chandler knew it.
Farewell, My Lovely is solid and engaging. Not my favorite, which are Big Sleep and Long Goodbye, which I haven't read recently. FML seems to have less similes? Chandler would also collect similes. "As much sex appeal as a turtle" "A face like a collapsed lung" Things like that. So not as many of these in FML maybe? But plenty of typical Chandler turns of phrase. Just really tight powerful evocative writing. "He looked too big. He had three inches on me and thirty pounds. But it was getting to be time for me to put my fist into somebody's teeth even if all I got for it was a wooden arm." I love this and don't know anyone who quite writes with this kind of wind up and landing. It's the cadence more than the language.
As far as the plot, it was typically convoluted. Maybe he was drunker than he should have been writing it. Or I wasn't as drunk as I needed to be reading it. I don't think a lot of people realize Chandler in later years drank like Bukowski. Not the same career. Or writing. But at least one habit in common. Yet the plot of FML was decent and more action-packed than I remember from past readings, with a terrific sequence on the low seas and even a scene that seemed somewhat reminiscent of a great sequence in French Connection II, where our protagonist is at the pharmaceutical mercy of forces beyond his ken. There's also a twist I won't ruin that prefigures in a way the twist of another famous Chandler novel he writes over a decade later. Which made me think of Chandler's "cannablization" (his term) of early short stories into some of his later novels. Despite the danger of stories becoming a patchwork, and a kind of cut and paste aspect to some of his method, Chandler always expertly makes each thing its own whole thing.
I like other novels of his better, but this one is an essential part of the timeline and not to be missed.
Chandler was obsessed with titles and came up with lists of them presumably unattached to any particular plot, character or story. The same thing happened in Hollywood a few years ago. Maybe 2014-15? I guess that's a decade. Time accelerates as you age. For a brief moment, movies were getting greenlighted based on title alone. No script. No attachments. Only title. Titles are important. Chandler knew it.
Farewell, My Lovely is solid and engaging. Not my favorite, which are Big Sleep and Long Goodbye, which I haven't read recently. FML seems to have less similes? Chandler would also collect similes. "As much sex appeal as a turtle" "A face like a collapsed lung" Things like that. So not as many of these in FML maybe? But plenty of typical Chandler turns of phrase. Just really tight powerful evocative writing. "He looked too big. He had three inches on me and thirty pounds. But it was getting to be time for me to put my fist into somebody's teeth even if all I got for it was a wooden arm." I love this and don't know anyone who quite writes with this kind of wind up and landing. It's the cadence more than the language.
As far as the plot, it was typically convoluted. Maybe he was drunker than he should have been writing it. Or I wasn't as drunk as I needed to be reading it. I don't think a lot of people realize Chandler in later years drank like Bukowski. Not the same career. Or writing. But at least one habit in common. Yet the plot of FML was decent and more action-packed than I remember from past readings, with a terrific sequence on the low seas and even a scene that seemed somewhat reminiscent of a great sequence in French Connection II, where our protagonist is at the pharmaceutical mercy of forces beyond his ken. There's also a twist I won't ruin that prefigures in a way the twist of another famous Chandler novel he writes over a decade later. Which made me think of Chandler's "cannablization" (his term) of early short stories into some of his later novels. Despite the danger of stories becoming a patchwork, and a kind of cut and paste aspect to some of his method, Chandler always expertly makes each thing its own whole thing.
I like other novels of his better, but this one is an essential part of the timeline and not to be missed.
March 27, 2018
I've read Dashiell Hammett and thoroughly enjoyed him, but had not read Chandler until now. He lived up to my expectation of the use of jargon (wiper for hired killer, beezer for nose, flattie for police officer, etc.) and enjoyed reading about what life was like in Los Angeles in the 1930s, at least according to Chandler.
At over 1100 pages, it took a while to get all the stories and novels read, but was worth the effort. Included in this tome was a chronology of Chandler's life (where I learned he and Hammett met only once, at a dinner in 1936 for contributors to the magazine Black Mask), notes on the text, from whence came the jargon interpretations above, and other notes.
I probably would have enjoyed this even more had I had more familiarity with Los Angeles. Part of my preference for Hammett is due to the setting in San Francisco, which I know much better than Los Angeles.
Nonetheless, a very good read and one that will remain in my library for future re-reading.
At over 1100 pages, it took a while to get all the stories and novels read, but was worth the effort. Included in this tome was a chronology of Chandler's life (where I learned he and Hammett met only once, at a dinner in 1936 for contributors to the magazine Black Mask), notes on the text, from whence came the jargon interpretations above, and other notes.
I probably would have enjoyed this even more had I had more familiarity with Los Angeles. Part of my preference for Hammett is due to the setting in San Francisco, which I know much better than Los Angeles.
Nonetheless, a very good read and one that will remain in my library for future re-reading.
August 3, 2024
Not quite as good as Macdonald, but still really good. Reading some of the pulp stories this time, and "Pearls Are a Nuisance" is super funny. Humor isn't usually a part of this kind of writing and it's a tribute to Chandler's skill he pulls it off. Highly recommended.
"Trouble is My Business" is bedrock Los Angeles private eye stuff. You could probably say that the whole genre comes out of "Trouble Is My Business"'s trench coat.
"I'll Be Waiting" is another gem. A highly anthologized story, "I'll Be Waiting" has it all: Chandler's bittersweet street smart characters, a pre-war urban setting that isn't seen in the U.S. anymore, and of course bad guys and good guys, with some overlap between the two.
The novels in this edition are also excllent, with "The High Window" being a personal favorite. Highly recommended.
"Trouble is My Business" is bedrock Los Angeles private eye stuff. You could probably say that the whole genre comes out of "Trouble Is My Business"'s trench coat.
"I'll Be Waiting" is another gem. A highly anthologized story, "I'll Be Waiting" has it all: Chandler's bittersweet street smart characters, a pre-war urban setting that isn't seen in the U.S. anymore, and of course bad guys and good guys, with some overlap between the two.
The novels in this edition are also excllent, with "The High Window" being a personal favorite. Highly recommended.
May 2, 2025
Well worth it for the four excellent novels included in this collection. But I checked this out for the short stories, specifically "Trouble is my Business." (Reviewed elsewhere). After reading that, I decided to read more of the short stories because I've already read the four novels.
I stopped after reading 4 or 5 shorts because they took on a certain sameness after a while. The shady protagonist (usually a PI), the wealthy, powerful antagonist, the beautiful, beaten-down, hardbitten female, usually involved with the bad guy or the victim or soon to be victim.
Reading Chandler is the equivalent of a master class in style. It's a safe bet that no one wrote quite like him, and I believe I could recognize his work if I didn't know what I was reading or listening to on audiobooks.
I stopped after reading 4 or 5 shorts because they took on a certain sameness after a while. The shady protagonist (usually a PI), the wealthy, powerful antagonist, the beautiful, beaten-down, hardbitten female, usually involved with the bad guy or the victim or soon to be victim.
Reading Chandler is the equivalent of a master class in style. It's a safe bet that no one wrote quite like him, and I believe I could recognize his work if I didn't know what I was reading or listening to on audiobooks.
June 13, 2017
The only thing better than a Raymond Chandler novel, is a collection of Raymond Chandler novels. This one contains the first three Marlowe novels and an assortment of Chandler's early pulp stories. Everything here is a winner.
-The Big Sleep is classic hardboiled crime fiction that hits all the beats.
-Farewell, My Lovely is probably Chandler's best of this collection.
-The High Window is my personal favorite.
-I can't rate the pulp stories because they are all so wonderful and varied that I re-read them over and over again. Each time I find something new.
Check this collection out and I'm sure you will find something you like.
-The Big Sleep is classic hardboiled crime fiction that hits all the beats.
-Farewell, My Lovely is probably Chandler's best of this collection.
-The High Window is my personal favorite.
-I can't rate the pulp stories because they are all so wonderful and varied that I re-read them over and over again. Each time I find something new.
Check this collection out and I'm sure you will find something you like.
October 22, 2019
I'm finished but not in the sense of reading the entire book. I thought this would be a book I could really enjoy. The beginnings of the 20th century gum shoe mysteries. Give me perspective. I love mysteries and detectives. I read most of the Pulp Stories and half the Big Sleep. I liked the Big Sleep better than the Pulp Stories but overall, I just couldn’t get past the jargon of the 30’s and 40’s; most of the time I spent trying to decipher what they were talking about….which detracted from the story. The attitude towards women was in your face awful. These are supposed to be classics but they left me cold. Just wasn’t my cup of tea by a long shot. So I’m done.
July 6, 2017
This review refers to the novel "The Big Sleep".
This is Raymond Chandler's first novel featuring the private eye Philip Marlowe and my second outing with the tall, no nonsense shamus ("Lady in the Lake" being the 1st).
I had been warned of the convoluted structure of the first half of the book so I paid close attention to the characters and was glad I did.
The story is entertaining and had an adequate amount of mystery in it right up to the conclusion. I have the Chandler 2 book set from LOA so more Marlowe will be in the offing.
This is Raymond Chandler's first novel featuring the private eye Philip Marlowe and my second outing with the tall, no nonsense shamus ("Lady in the Lake" being the 1st).
I had been warned of the convoluted structure of the first half of the book so I paid close attention to the characters and was glad I did.
The story is entertaining and had an adequate amount of mystery in it right up to the conclusion. I have the Chandler 2 book set from LOA so more Marlowe will be in the offing.
November 9, 2023
Chandler's tough guy dialogue is perfection that only someone who is not really tough could write. The same story played out again and again, except it's not raining in these noir stories, it's in California and the sun beats down on the sweat pouring off the brow of some terrified mug and the dirty cop that's putting the screws to him over some dame who just walked out of a club. Best enjoyed in small doses, unlike the liquor that basically everyone in these stories consumes.
May 16, 2024
This book includes stories from other books:
Pulp fiction (short stories)
- Blackmailers don't shoot
- Smart-Aleck kill
- Finger man
- Nevada gas
- Spanish blood*
- Guns at Cyrano's
- Pick up on noon street
- Goldfish
- Red Wind
- The king in yellow*
- Pearls are a Nuisance*
- Trouble is my business
- I'll be waiting*
* - also in the book: The simple art of murder
Full length books #1-3 Phillip Marlowe
1 - The big sleep
2 - Farewell, my lovely
3 - The high window
Pulp fiction (short stories)
- Blackmailers don't shoot
- Smart-Aleck kill
- Finger man
- Nevada gas
- Spanish blood*
- Guns at Cyrano's
- Pick up on noon street
- Goldfish
- Red Wind
- The king in yellow*
- Pearls are a Nuisance*
- Trouble is my business
- I'll be waiting*
* - also in the book: The simple art of murder
Full length books #1-3 Phillip Marlowe
1 - The big sleep
2 - Farewell, my lovely
3 - The high window
July 20, 2019
These stories are just excellent examples of classic detective fiction. The shorts were decent, but the loosely connected Marlowe novels were phenomenal. Chandler inserts so many wise guy asides and similes that I would read these books for those alone. You can see the archetype here for so many later detectives.
April 29, 2021
Everytime I came to one of those ridiculous censor bars you had so much fun splattering all over these classics I had my own game of making them say the most grossly offensive things I could. I didn't think making Raymond Chandler into a PBS kid's show would have expanded my vocabulary as far as it did.
June 17, 2021
Chandler has become one of my favorite writers. I mostly wanted this book for the collected short stories, but I loved the three novels too. Yes, there is some unfortunate and dated racial and gender terminology, but it was easier for me to overlook it than with plenty of other authors of the era. The prose is taut and fun and Marlowe is one of the great anti-heroes of all time.
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