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Philip Marlowe #4-7
The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback
Creator of the famous Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler elevated the American hard-boiled detective genre to an art form. Chandler’s last four novels, published here in one volume, offer ample opportunity to savor the unique and utterly compelling fictional world that made his works modern classics.
The Lady in the Lake moves Marlowe out of his usual habitat of city streets and into the mountains outside of Los Angeles in his strange search for a missing woman. The Little Sister takes Marlowe to Hollywood, where he tries to find a sweet young thing’s missing brother, uncovering on the way a little blackmail, a lot of drugs, and more than enough murder. In The Long Goodbye, a case involving a war-scarred drunk and his nymphomaniac wife has Marlowe constantly on the move: a psychotic gangster’s on his trail, he’s in trouble with the cops, and more and more corpses keep turning up. Playback features a well-endowed redhead who leads Marlowe to the California coast to solve a tale of big money and, of course, murder.
Throughout these masterpieces, Marlowe’s wry humor and existential sense of his job prove yet again why he has become one of the most recognized and imitated characters in fiction.
The Lady in the Lake moves Marlowe out of his usual habitat of city streets and into the mountains outside of Los Angeles in his strange search for a missing woman. The Little Sister takes Marlowe to Hollywood, where he tries to find a sweet young thing’s missing brother, uncovering on the way a little blackmail, a lot of drugs, and more than enough murder. In The Long Goodbye, a case involving a war-scarred drunk and his nymphomaniac wife has Marlowe constantly on the move: a psychotic gangster’s on his trail, he’s in trouble with the cops, and more and more corpses keep turning up. Playback features a well-endowed redhead who leads Marlowe to the California coast to solve a tale of big money and, of course, murder.
Throughout these masterpieces, Marlowe’s wry humor and existential sense of his job prove yet again why he has become one of the most recognized and imitated characters in fiction.
1016 pages, Hardcover
First published September 26, 2002
10 people are currently reading
549 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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January 17, 2022
The Long Goodbye
Los Angeles, 1953. [Sound of harbor tug.] Marlowe meets a down and outer, has a hunch and befriends him, in a manner of speaking. The down and outer is the ex-husband of a debauched California heiress who turns up dead. Marlow drives fleeing husband to Tijuana etc. — just a glimpse of the opening.
It wasn’t made into a movie until 1973, with Elliot Gould, nevertheless I can hear Humphrey Bogart’s Marlowe voice from The Big Sleep as I read. Moreover I envision his various facial expressions and tics. Cinema of the mind.
Fun, dated, hokey, hard boiled language, but not too much of it. Extremely wry humor, very compact. It’s a nice break from the Pages from the Goncourt Journals.
Chandler shifts the moral high ground from one character to another and back again. This happens often with the police. So who is behind the eightball, who has the upper hand? Hardly a headline, I know.
It’s template genre stuff, don’t get me wrong. It’s formulaic, but it’s deftly done. Did you know that Toni Morrison was a great fan of detective stories? Read them by the score on her Kindle.
The discussion of jail In chapters 6 through 9 reminds me of Jean Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers — minus the homosex. Chandler’s one of the many writers who wouldn’t have existed if Ernest Hemingway had not a generation before shown them the way.
“A lovely dish and no mistake.” (p. 564)
This is just one of those unfortunate dated metaphors for a beautiful woman. Is she meant to be consumed? Obliterated. And then what? So not all of the dated language is fun, some makes me cringe.
There’s too much dialogue. Dialogue is Chandler‘s Get Out of Jail Free card. As long as it’s cute he can say anything. Almost all the plot is spoken. All the narrator has to do is acerbicly dish out morsels of plot and he feels that’s enough. It isnt.
Los Angeles, 1953. [Sound of harbor tug.] Marlowe meets a down and outer, has a hunch and befriends him, in a manner of speaking. The down and outer is the ex-husband of a debauched California heiress who turns up dead. Marlow drives fleeing husband to Tijuana etc. — just a glimpse of the opening.
It wasn’t made into a movie until 1973, with Elliot Gould, nevertheless I can hear Humphrey Bogart’s Marlowe voice from The Big Sleep as I read. Moreover I envision his various facial expressions and tics. Cinema of the mind.
Fun, dated, hokey, hard boiled language, but not too much of it. Extremely wry humor, very compact. It’s a nice break from the Pages from the Goncourt Journals.
Chandler shifts the moral high ground from one character to another and back again. This happens often with the police. So who is behind the eightball, who has the upper hand? Hardly a headline, I know.
It’s template genre stuff, don’t get me wrong. It’s formulaic, but it’s deftly done. Did you know that Toni Morrison was a great fan of detective stories? Read them by the score on her Kindle.
The discussion of jail In chapters 6 through 9 reminds me of Jean Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers — minus the homosex. Chandler’s one of the many writers who wouldn’t have existed if Ernest Hemingway had not a generation before shown them the way.
“A lovely dish and no mistake.” (p. 564)
This is just one of those unfortunate dated metaphors for a beautiful woman. Is she meant to be consumed? Obliterated. And then what? So not all of the dated language is fun, some makes me cringe.
There’s too much dialogue. Dialogue is Chandler‘s Get Out of Jail Free card. As long as it’s cute he can say anything. Almost all the plot is spoken. All the narrator has to do is acerbicly dish out morsels of plot and he feels that’s enough. It isnt.
June 20, 2007
Raymond Chandler is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy. Or at least my ownership of this is proof that someone loves me, because these are four of the best novels I've read all year.
Philip Marlowe, Chandler's detective, roams the streets of Los Angeles and environs, looking for clues, criminals, or someone to hit with a witty one-liner. He's tired, lonely, propelled forward by some impetus he doesn't reveal; what we see of him comes in bits and pieces: he's in his late thirties, not bad looking, plays chess, speaks Spanish, and smokes and drinks. He likes coffee in the morning, sandwiches for lunch, and blondes for dinner, and he works by his own moral code which makes seducing someone else's wife all right, but taking money for the wrong sort of case uncool. And did I mention he's funny?
The novels here are hardboiled noir in the sense of "no innocents, only suspects", but there's actually relatively little violence in them, at least compared to contemporary writers like John Burdett. The Lady in the Lake has four bodies, as does The Little Sister, and the other two have fewer. Marlowe takes his share of knocks, and Chandler handles the violence and his reaction to it realistically.
Chandler is often credited as being the one who raised detective fiction to a literary form (credited, I suppose, by literature snobs), but if he did so he did it entirely through his use of language. To give a brief example from the beginning of The Lady in the Lake:
"The sidewalk in front of [the Treloar Building:] had been built of black and white rubber blocks. They were taking them up now to give to the government, and a hatless pale man with a face like a building superintendent was watching the work and looking as if it was breaking his heart."
This style, clipped and clear eyed, has become known as Chandleresque, and rightly so. He plays out his genius slowly, keeping you hooked, waiting for the next good one liner.
This edition is nice, with a hard cover and a little bookmark, very handy if you're me and schlep everything everywhere. It also has an introduction by a guy named Tom Hiney which is worth skipping; Hiney seems mostly to want to apologize for the fact that this is GENRE FICTION and not LITERATURE and seems to have difficulty keeping straight the difference between Marlowe (fictional) and Chandler (real). But you and I, being more intelligent, don't need that sort of person to tell us what to think.
In summary, read this book, it will make you happy.
Philip Marlowe, Chandler's detective, roams the streets of Los Angeles and environs, looking for clues, criminals, or someone to hit with a witty one-liner. He's tired, lonely, propelled forward by some impetus he doesn't reveal; what we see of him comes in bits and pieces: he's in his late thirties, not bad looking, plays chess, speaks Spanish, and smokes and drinks. He likes coffee in the morning, sandwiches for lunch, and blondes for dinner, and he works by his own moral code which makes seducing someone else's wife all right, but taking money for the wrong sort of case uncool. And did I mention he's funny?
The novels here are hardboiled noir in the sense of "no innocents, only suspects", but there's actually relatively little violence in them, at least compared to contemporary writers like John Burdett. The Lady in the Lake has four bodies, as does The Little Sister, and the other two have fewer. Marlowe takes his share of knocks, and Chandler handles the violence and his reaction to it realistically.
Chandler is often credited as being the one who raised detective fiction to a literary form (credited, I suppose, by literature snobs), but if he did so he did it entirely through his use of language. To give a brief example from the beginning of The Lady in the Lake:
"The sidewalk in front of [the Treloar Building:] had been built of black and white rubber blocks. They were taking them up now to give to the government, and a hatless pale man with a face like a building superintendent was watching the work and looking as if it was breaking his heart."
This style, clipped and clear eyed, has become known as Chandleresque, and rightly so. He plays out his genius slowly, keeping you hooked, waiting for the next good one liner.
This edition is nice, with a hard cover and a little bookmark, very handy if you're me and schlep everything everywhere. It also has an introduction by a guy named Tom Hiney which is worth skipping; Hiney seems mostly to want to apologize for the fact that this is GENRE FICTION and not LITERATURE and seems to have difficulty keeping straight the difference between Marlowe (fictional) and Chandler (real). But you and I, being more intelligent, don't need that sort of person to tell us what to think.
In summary, read this book, it will make you happy.
December 23, 2015
This is the second volume of a collection of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe mysteries, and it is superb reading. I love "LA Noir," and Chandler is arguably the father of this genre. Being an Angeleno, it is great fun reading about Marlowe visiting various locations from San Diego to Santa Barbara and knowing exactly where he is. While all of the novels in this collection are terrific, my favorite Chandler novel of them all is The Long Goodbye, and if you read that then you simply must read Playback for the twist at the end.
I would love to see some new film adaptations of these novels. Chandler is ever so adept at peering into the deep and dark recesses of human psychology. Great stuff!
This collection gets a solid 4 of 5 stars from me, and maybe 4.5 stars of 5 for The Long Goodbye.
I would love to see some new film adaptations of these novels. Chandler is ever so adept at peering into the deep and dark recesses of human psychology. Great stuff!
This collection gets a solid 4 of 5 stars from me, and maybe 4.5 stars of 5 for The Long Goodbye.
September 4, 2022
Masterworks.
December 20, 2025
Keturios istorijos. Tūkstantis puslapių. Turbūt daugiausiai džiaugsmo šiais metais atnešusi knyga, kuri nuteikė į rankas dažniau paimti detektyvų. Tačiau vargu ar kas prilygs šių istorijų herojui Philipp Marlowe. Atrodo, kad bylose yra susitepę absoliučiai visi, net ir pačios nusikaltimų aukos ar policininkai. Tad perskaičius kilo klausimas - kaip detektyvas, bandantis suprasti, kas nusikaltimuose atstovauja gėrio, o kas blogio pusę, gali išlaikyti viltį pasauliu ir pats išlikti moraliai švarus? Kiek jėgų reikia turėti, kad tokiuose beprasmiuose iššūkiuose jis pats neparduotų savo sąžinės? Sakyčiau, kad toks detektyvas, kuriame gėris nebegali laimėti, kuria stiprios asmenybės patikrinimą. Bylos išsprendimas nebėra gėrio pergalės prieš blogį klausimas, veikiau savęs paties įsitikinimų išsaugojimo klausimas.
May 6, 2013
The second Raymond Chandler omnibus, containing his last 4 novels in one sweet-looking hardcover. As with the other omnibus volumes of Everyman's Library (like The Big Sleep; Farewell, My Lovely; The High Window, The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, and Selected Stories, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce and Selected Stories, and others...), this is actually a better deal than buying the trade paperbacks separately: it's cheaper & they're collected in a nice hardcover. Just saying.
Here are my reviews for the four novels collected therein:
The Lady in the Lake - - 5 stars - -
I could not put this one down. One of my favourite Raymond Chandlerbooks. I guess if I loved it so much, my review should be a little longer, no? Okay, here goes:
I thought everything about this book was perfect. There really is nothing more I can think of saying about it.
The Little Sister - - 3 stars - -
Let me get this out of the way: Orfamay Quest is an annoying b*tch! Whenever she was in a scene in the book, I found my patience being tested. And the way the "puzzle" all fits together (or maybe I should say: " is put together") is a bit of a stretch.
I found this particular Marlowe story very dark (& depressing, even). It's kind of sad to see Marlowe at such a low, after the first four novels. Raymond Chandler just lays it out: everything's an act & everyone is for sale, appearances are everything. And maybe I could add: Good guys finish last.
The Long Goodbye - - 5 stars - -
After a somewhat depressing (and overall darker than its predecessors) The Little Sister, Chandler returns to form in what some have hailed as his masterpiece. I won't argue with them. I don't think this is my favourite Philip Marlowe mystery (that would be Farewell, My Lovely or The Lady in the Lake), but The Long Goodbye would certainly come in third place. Mind you, I'm not a literary critic and my opinion is worth about as much as the next person's, so there.
In this story, Marlowe is definitely older (and grayer?), but he's still that character we've grown to love. The mystery presented is elaborate and well-paced by Chandler, and it's got one of the best endings I've come across: touching, bittersweet, but also totally in character with Philip Marlowe. Loved it.
Playback - - 5 stars - -
Literally read this one cover to cover in one sitting (it's that good) right after finishing The Long Goodbye and, this being Raymond Chandler's farewell novel, he gives his creation, Philip Marlowe, the greatest gift of all: A Happy Ending.
At a mere 150 pages, this is Chandler's shortest novel, but that doesn't mean anything. In fact, it could very well be a good thing: Chandler could've padded his last novel, but decided not to. Just the facts, Jack. Just the facts.
Here are my reviews for the four novels collected therein:
The Lady in the Lake - - 5 stars - -
I could not put this one down. One of my favourite Raymond Chandlerbooks. I guess if I loved it so much, my review should be a little longer, no? Okay, here goes:
I thought everything about this book was perfect. There really is nothing more I can think of saying about it.
The Little Sister - - 3 stars - -
Let me get this out of the way: Orfamay Quest is an annoying b*tch! Whenever she was in a scene in the book, I found my patience being tested. And the way the "puzzle" all fits together (or maybe I should say: " is put together") is a bit of a stretch.
I found this particular Marlowe story very dark (& depressing, even). It's kind of sad to see Marlowe at such a low, after the first four novels. Raymond Chandler just lays it out: everything's an act & everyone is for sale, appearances are everything. And maybe I could add: Good guys finish last.
The Long Goodbye - - 5 stars - -
After a somewhat depressing (and overall darker than its predecessors) The Little Sister, Chandler returns to form in what some have hailed as his masterpiece. I won't argue with them. I don't think this is my favourite Philip Marlowe mystery (that would be Farewell, My Lovely or The Lady in the Lake), but The Long Goodbye would certainly come in third place. Mind you, I'm not a literary critic and my opinion is worth about as much as the next person's, so there.
In this story, Marlowe is definitely older (and grayer?), but he's still that character we've grown to love. The mystery presented is elaborate and well-paced by Chandler, and it's got one of the best endings I've come across: touching, bittersweet, but also totally in character with Philip Marlowe. Loved it.
Playback - - 5 stars - -
Literally read this one cover to cover in one sitting (it's that good) right after finishing The Long Goodbye and, this being Raymond Chandler's farewell novel, he gives his creation, Philip Marlowe, the greatest gift of all: A Happy Ending.
At a mere 150 pages, this is Chandler's shortest novel, but that doesn't mean anything. In fact, it could very well be a good thing: Chandler could've padded his last novel, but decided not to. Just the facts, Jack. Just the facts.
July 14, 2013
"Crime isn't a disease, it's a symptom. Cops are like a doctor that gives you aspirin for a brain tumor, except that the cop would rather cure it with a blackjack. We're a big rough 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. Organized crime is just the dirty side of the sharp dollar."
December 16, 2007
If you have no Chandler, this collection is a must-own -- the first and third novels here are among the best he's ever done.
January 15, 2023
“The Lady in the Lake” (1943)-
The clerk on duty was an egg headed man with no interest in me or anything else. He wore parts of a white linen suit and he yawned as he handed me the desk pen and looked off into the distance as if remembering his childhood-p. 77
“The Long Goodbye” is generally regarded as his best, but “Lady in the Lake” is my personal favorite. I initially read it in an inexpensive turning rack paperback edition. The cover pictured what looked like a log in a lake-it took a while for me to see the lady and I remember the pleasure I felt at the revelation and my pleasure at unraveling the picture. In the book, her arm comes up and breaks the surface of the water-just like in Malory! Holy smokes! Chandler’s dreams and pretensions come true. Don’t tell him, but it really is rather clever. Jim Patton, the Sheriff up at Little Fawn Lake, is a wonderful creation. I pictured Marlowe’s visits to Chris Lavery’s house as occurring in Manhattan Beach, California at that time I first read it, circa 1973. The solution to the mystery is both wildly improbable and wonderfully satisfying. I have begun, per Author Chandler’s instructions, to picture Marlowe as Cary Grant. It sounds crazy but it works. Grant is easy to picture in your mind’s eye and it explains Marlowe’s otherwise unexplainable success with women; and irony comes so easily to them both. Their speech rhythms are very similar at times. After all these years I still enjoy the landlady scene, heaven only knows why. Finale is abrupt and final. Lead up to the finale with the scarf business very good. Chandler depends on the reader to spot something illogical (first person narrator Marlowe does not explain himself to the reader) and thus be drawn into the story. Really strong book.
—————-
“The Little Sister” (1949)-previously considered a throwaway, now reconsidered. The thwarted romanticism becomes bitterness and poor Merle of “High Window” morphs into Orfamay Quest. Competently constructed and pretty entertaining. Our hero does a minimum of soul searching.
—————
“The Long Goodbye “ (1953)-
That was a dream girl. Some of her was here and now, but a lot of her was there and then-Bernie Ohls, p 766
Time makes everything mean and shabby and wrinkled. The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that beautiful things die young, but that they grow old and mean-Eileen Wade, p 771.
The murderous disillusioned dream girl. Terry Lennox the false friend. The bad parts are really bad, the good parts are really good, and the whole thing is about lost illusions. The good parts are easy and true, the bad parts are clunky and fake. I guess I liked “Lady in the Lake” because it was more pulled together, very smooth, with no clunky parts-and maybe because it didn’t “aim high” and try to be a “real” novel. I don’t hold Author Chandler’s pretensions against him (I admire ambition) but I’m not taken in by them, either.
Domestic helper Candy rendition as god awful as might be expected. This dated racism stuff is embarrassing. The n-word and a little homophobia round things out. Jesus.
I’ll be blunt, I really don’t get why Marlowe is so mad at Terry. Because he didn’t take Phillip into his confidence? Because Marlowe wasn’t his rescuer, but that his rescuers were a couple of gangsters? The Marlowe nobility thing gets worn pretty thin here. You get tired of him refusing money (you think, “at least he has the $5,000” and then he gives THAT back) and his distain for Sylvia’s sexual activities is as tired as his racism. Much is made by the critics about Wade as a stand-in for Chandler; I don’t recall anyone comparing the disillusioned romantics, Eileen and Phillip.
It’s funny, as far as I can tell, the critics put Chandler up on a higher shelf than Hammett, but I don’t see it, mainly because the Hammett guys go about their business without sighing and looking into the distance and tripping over their shattered dreams. Interesting that Hammett actually served time for not naming names, but none of his novel heroes ever did. Maybe he didn’t think it was all that heroic.
Don’t get me wrong-Chandler is a superb writer-better than Hammett if it comes to that. I just find his world view beautifully expressed and unpersuasive.
—————
“Playback” (1958)- No, not his best and yes, a minor work. Anything from the sad American genius is a gift. Chandler died the year after publication. Oh, and Marlowe wouldn’t take any money in this one either. It’s almost creepy.
The clerk on duty was an egg headed man with no interest in me or anything else. He wore parts of a white linen suit and he yawned as he handed me the desk pen and looked off into the distance as if remembering his childhood-p. 77
“The Long Goodbye” is generally regarded as his best, but “Lady in the Lake” is my personal favorite. I initially read it in an inexpensive turning rack paperback edition. The cover pictured what looked like a log in a lake-it took a while for me to see the lady and I remember the pleasure I felt at the revelation and my pleasure at unraveling the picture. In the book, her arm comes up and breaks the surface of the water-just like in Malory! Holy smokes! Chandler’s dreams and pretensions come true. Don’t tell him, but it really is rather clever. Jim Patton, the Sheriff up at Little Fawn Lake, is a wonderful creation. I pictured Marlowe’s visits to Chris Lavery’s house as occurring in Manhattan Beach, California at that time I first read it, circa 1973. The solution to the mystery is both wildly improbable and wonderfully satisfying. I have begun, per Author Chandler’s instructions, to picture Marlowe as Cary Grant. It sounds crazy but it works. Grant is easy to picture in your mind’s eye and it explains Marlowe’s otherwise unexplainable success with women; and irony comes so easily to them both. Their speech rhythms are very similar at times. After all these years I still enjoy the landlady scene, heaven only knows why. Finale is abrupt and final. Lead up to the finale with the scarf business very good. Chandler depends on the reader to spot something illogical (first person narrator Marlowe does not explain himself to the reader) and thus be drawn into the story. Really strong book.
—————-
“The Little Sister” (1949)-previously considered a throwaway, now reconsidered. The thwarted romanticism becomes bitterness and poor Merle of “High Window” morphs into Orfamay Quest. Competently constructed and pretty entertaining. Our hero does a minimum of soul searching.
—————
“The Long Goodbye “ (1953)-
That was a dream girl. Some of her was here and now, but a lot of her was there and then-Bernie Ohls, p 766
Time makes everything mean and shabby and wrinkled. The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that beautiful things die young, but that they grow old and mean-Eileen Wade, p 771.
The murderous disillusioned dream girl. Terry Lennox the false friend. The bad parts are really bad, the good parts are really good, and the whole thing is about lost illusions. The good parts are easy and true, the bad parts are clunky and fake. I guess I liked “Lady in the Lake” because it was more pulled together, very smooth, with no clunky parts-and maybe because it didn’t “aim high” and try to be a “real” novel. I don’t hold Author Chandler’s pretensions against him (I admire ambition) but I’m not taken in by them, either.
Domestic helper Candy rendition as god awful as might be expected. This dated racism stuff is embarrassing. The n-word and a little homophobia round things out. Jesus.
I’ll be blunt, I really don’t get why Marlowe is so mad at Terry. Because he didn’t take Phillip into his confidence? Because Marlowe wasn’t his rescuer, but that his rescuers were a couple of gangsters? The Marlowe nobility thing gets worn pretty thin here. You get tired of him refusing money (you think, “at least he has the $5,000” and then he gives THAT back) and his distain for Sylvia’s sexual activities is as tired as his racism. Much is made by the critics about Wade as a stand-in for Chandler; I don’t recall anyone comparing the disillusioned romantics, Eileen and Phillip.
It’s funny, as far as I can tell, the critics put Chandler up on a higher shelf than Hammett, but I don’t see it, mainly because the Hammett guys go about their business without sighing and looking into the distance and tripping over their shattered dreams. Interesting that Hammett actually served time for not naming names, but none of his novel heroes ever did. Maybe he didn’t think it was all that heroic.
Don’t get me wrong-Chandler is a superb writer-better than Hammett if it comes to that. I just find his world view beautifully expressed and unpersuasive.
—————
“Playback” (1958)- No, not his best and yes, a minor work. Anything from the sad American genius is a gift. Chandler died the year after publication. Oh, and Marlowe wouldn’t take any money in this one either. It’s almost creepy.
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December 20, 2025A hefty book (A Long Goodbye certainly lives up to its name), but a highly entertaining one. These stories are a little convoluted and more than a little dated, but no-one writes like Raymond Chandler.
September 12, 2025
The Long Goodbye is Raymond Chandler’s 1953 crime story featuring the private investigator Philip Marlowe. It is one of the most well regarded pulp fiction noir genre known for its cynical tone set within the shady side of society.
This was my first Chandler novel and prior to reading I had believed Marlowe would be the tough guy (i.e. Humphrey Bogart) roughing up witnesses to get information. Nope, an incorrect assumption.
Marlowe is a contemplative loner who hates society’s corruption. His dislike for criminals is far less than his loathing of politicians, lawyers, and policeman who should be protecting the weak but to often look away.
The story follows Marlowe as he becomes entangled in a murder case involving a friend, and the numerous betrayals that follow in the gray zone between what is legal and what is accepted if a person is wealthy in 1950s Los Angeles.
This was a fast paced read with snappy dialogue between people who do not like or trust anyone. Oddly, the plot doesn’t build to a crescendo, but steady twists and turns as Marlowe pieces together scraps of information.
I enjoyed The Long Goodbye. It’s always great fun rooting for the flawed character whose idealism interferes with life in a morally ambiguous society. The novel shines a spotlight on the wealthy who manipulate situations to protect their reputations and money.
Yup, not much has changed in seven decades except the center of exploitation is now Washington D.C. and the trail of orange slime.
This was my first Chandler novel and prior to reading I had believed Marlowe would be the tough guy (i.e. Humphrey Bogart) roughing up witnesses to get information. Nope, an incorrect assumption.
Marlowe is a contemplative loner who hates society’s corruption. His dislike for criminals is far less than his loathing of politicians, lawyers, and policeman who should be protecting the weak but to often look away.
The story follows Marlowe as he becomes entangled in a murder case involving a friend, and the numerous betrayals that follow in the gray zone between what is legal and what is accepted if a person is wealthy in 1950s Los Angeles.
This was a fast paced read with snappy dialogue between people who do not like or trust anyone. Oddly, the plot doesn’t build to a crescendo, but steady twists and turns as Marlowe pieces together scraps of information.
I enjoyed The Long Goodbye. It’s always great fun rooting for the flawed character whose idealism interferes with life in a morally ambiguous society. The novel shines a spotlight on the wealthy who manipulate situations to protect their reputations and money.
Yup, not much has changed in seven decades except the center of exploitation is now Washington D.C. and the trail of orange slime.
May 19, 2010
I don't often read genre fiction but when I was kid, it was all I read, especially the detective kind.
Chandler's awesome. Of course. Just finished the first novel in this collection, "The Lady in the Lake." Talk about thrust! It literally reached out, grabbed me, and pulled me through through the book to the final page in about three days: one day reading about 20 pages; the next, 80 pages; the next, 120 pages. And if I wasn't so busy, you can bet I would finished this in one day.
The style is very quotable. My favorite line(s): "Police business is a hell of a problem. It's a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there's nothing in it to attract the highest type of men. So we have to work with what we get--and we get things like this."
And his plotting is masterful. Not only is there a new, exciting piece of information at the end of every chapter, but he is constantly misdirecting you so that even if you did guess the ending, he's pushed so many different alternatives in front of you, tantalizingly, that you still feel like the reveal is a true revelation.
"The Little Sister" is also quite good, although I was scratching my head a little at the end. The action slowed down towards the end and then you were getting explanations for things you didn't even think needed explaining. And yet, what is better: everything tied up perfectly or a little confusion, a little ambiguity? The latter is certainly closer to the world. One interesting thing about the book is that it has many characters who act and have their own agenda--most of the time, there are only a few who do this and the rest just fill in the plot points. This is probably why the plot is so tangled at the end: when you have so many different threads going their own way, it's hard to weave a cloth with a coherent pattern.
Update: Finished "The Long Goodbye." Very interesting read considering I had seen the movie two years ago. Once you know who killed whom, then you're looking more carefully at characters when they first make their appearances. It's striking, however, how much Leigh Brackett changed in her script for Altman's movie. Very different story, particularly the ending--and she even added a whole new subplot. I think Brackett's conclusion is more satisfying than the book's but the novel, as a whole, is more enjoyable than the movie. That's because it feels like Chandler filled the story with so much personal material. His jabs at the publishing industry, the movie industry, the newspaper industry, and law enforcement feel sharp and authentic, with details not found in Hollywood, allowing the reader inside access to the corruption running rampant. The social commentary is really a good half of the book and makes the read more sophisticated than the average detective novel. And that's why it's almost disappointing that Chandler ends the book with the usual bit of the private eye explaining everything to everybody. It's funny how Chandler transcended quite a number of genre elements but still couldn't truly break the mold. But maybe that's all for the best--it's still a wild, wonderful ride.
Chandler's awesome. Of course. Just finished the first novel in this collection, "The Lady in the Lake." Talk about thrust! It literally reached out, grabbed me, and pulled me through through the book to the final page in about three days: one day reading about 20 pages; the next, 80 pages; the next, 120 pages. And if I wasn't so busy, you can bet I would finished this in one day.
The style is very quotable. My favorite line(s): "Police business is a hell of a problem. It's a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there's nothing in it to attract the highest type of men. So we have to work with what we get--and we get things like this."
And his plotting is masterful. Not only is there a new, exciting piece of information at the end of every chapter, but he is constantly misdirecting you so that even if you did guess the ending, he's pushed so many different alternatives in front of you, tantalizingly, that you still feel like the reveal is a true revelation.
"The Little Sister" is also quite good, although I was scratching my head a little at the end. The action slowed down towards the end and then you were getting explanations for things you didn't even think needed explaining. And yet, what is better: everything tied up perfectly or a little confusion, a little ambiguity? The latter is certainly closer to the world. One interesting thing about the book is that it has many characters who act and have their own agenda--most of the time, there are only a few who do this and the rest just fill in the plot points. This is probably why the plot is so tangled at the end: when you have so many different threads going their own way, it's hard to weave a cloth with a coherent pattern.
Update: Finished "The Long Goodbye." Very interesting read considering I had seen the movie two years ago. Once you know who killed whom, then you're looking more carefully at characters when they first make their appearances. It's striking, however, how much Leigh Brackett changed in her script for Altman's movie. Very different story, particularly the ending--and she even added a whole new subplot. I think Brackett's conclusion is more satisfying than the book's but the novel, as a whole, is more enjoyable than the movie. That's because it feels like Chandler filled the story with so much personal material. His jabs at the publishing industry, the movie industry, the newspaper industry, and law enforcement feel sharp and authentic, with details not found in Hollywood, allowing the reader inside access to the corruption running rampant. The social commentary is really a good half of the book and makes the read more sophisticated than the average detective novel. And that's why it's almost disappointing that Chandler ends the book with the usual bit of the private eye explaining everything to everybody. It's funny how Chandler transcended quite a number of genre elements but still couldn't truly break the mold. But maybe that's all for the best--it's still a wild, wonderful ride.
November 17, 2008
"The Lady in the Lake" and "The Little Sister" behind me. What is there to say about Raymond Chandler? I used to be a Hammett man. Didn't think Chandler held a candle to him. I was so, so wrong. So wrong. Just started "The Long Goodbye", and expectations are high, not least because of the Altman/Gould film. "The Little Sister" floored me. It put me on the floor and stapled me to the floor and buried the floor and covered the buried floor in an ocean of floorage. I don't even know what so say except read "The Little Sister". Philip Marlowe is a knight, he's a goddamn knight. Stop what you're doing and read everything that Raymond Chandler wrote.
October 15, 2011
Knopf is the name associated with "Black Mask" stories and hardboiled genre, so it is perhaps suitable that Chandler's greatest stories have been published so handsomely by Knopf, that beats even the "Library of America" version in its elegance & strength. The novels themselves are almost gold-standards of hardboiled or mystery fiction, and should be considered as great pieces of literature on their own. Highly recommended.
June 18, 2010
All great stories, but I lost some of the awesomeness by bingeing and reading all of them at once. The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely are two of his best ones. The Long Goodbye is also in the top three, but it's a different structure, with more autobiographical elements.
Chandler's top theme is always that the corrupt rich can buy protection, while the lower classes get the punishment.
Chandler's top theme is always that the corrupt rich can buy protection, while the lower classes get the punishment.
June 19, 2010
I read 2 of the 4 novels: The Lady in the Lake and The Long Goodbye. I think these are the 2 popular ones, and I wanted to just get a taste of Raymond Chandler.
I didn't identify too much with the time period (LA in the 50s) or the main character, but the unexpected twists and turns in the mystery were entertaining.
I didn't identify too much with the time period (LA in the 50s) or the main character, but the unexpected twists and turns in the mystery were entertaining.
October 20, 2014
Of these four The Long Goodbye is the best though not a lot happens and I'm not sure how plausible the twist at the end is for 1953. The Little Sister was the weakest. There were a couple of errors in the text like a heading for the wrong story.
to-read-own
May 19, 2015I'm about halfway through this collection. Still have to read The Long Goodbye and Playback.
October 5, 2016
The great American stylist. Essential.
October 13, 2024
"Shut up," she said, between teeth so tight they grated. "Shut up, you slimy, blackmailing keyhole peeper."
"You don't need me," I said. "You don't need anybody. You're so God-damn smart you could talk your way out of a safe-deposit box. Okay. Go ahead and talk your way out. I won't stop you. Just don't make me listen to it. ..."
She didn't move or breathe when I reached the door, nor when I opened it. I don't know why. The stuff wasn't that good.
I went down the stairs and across the court and out of the front door, almost bumping into a slim dark-eyed man who was standing there lighting a cigarette.
"Excuse me," he said quietly, "I'm afraid I'm in your way."
I started to go around him, then I noticed that his lifted right hand held a key. I reached out and snapped it out of his hand for no reason at all. I looked at the number stamped on it. No. 14. Mavis Weld's apartment. I threw it off behind some bushes.
"You don't need that," I said. "The door isn't locked."
"Of course," he said. There was a peculiar smile on his face. "How stupid of me."
"Yeah," I said. "We're both stupid. Anybody's stupid that bothers with that tramp."
"I wouldn't quite say that," he answered quietly, his small sad eyes watching me without any particular expression.
"You don't have to," I said. "I just said it for you. I beg your pardon. I'll get your key." I went over behind the bushes, picked it up and handed it to him.
"Thank you very much," he said. "And by the way –" He stopped. I stopped. "I hope I don't interrupt an interesting quarrel," he said. "I should hate to do that. No?" He smiled. "Well, since Miss Weld is a friend in common, may I introduce myself. My name is Steelgrave. Haven't I seen you somewhere?"
"No you haven't seen me anywhere, Mr. Steelgrave," I said. "My name's Marlowe, Philip Marlowe. It's extremely unlikely that we've met. And, strange to relate, I never heard of you, Mr. Steelgrave. And I wouldn't give a damn, even if your name was Weepy Moyer." I never knew quite why I said that. There was nothing to make me say it, except that the name had been mentioned. A peculiar stillness came over his face. A peculiar fixed look in his silent black eyes. He took the cigarette out of his mouth, looked at the tip, flicked a little ash off it, although there was no ash to flick off, looking down as he said: "Weepy Moyer? Peculiar name. I don't think I ever heard that. Is he somebody I should know?"
"Not unless you're unusually fond of ice picks," I said, and left him. I went on down the steps, crossed to my car, looked back before I got in. He was standing there looking down at me, the cigarette between his lips. From that distance I couldn't see whether there was any expression on his face. He didn't move or make any kind of gesture when I looked back at him. He didn't even turn away. He just stood there. I got in and drove off.
"You don't need me," I said. "You don't need anybody. You're so God-damn smart you could talk your way out of a safe-deposit box. Okay. Go ahead and talk your way out. I won't stop you. Just don't make me listen to it. ..."
She didn't move or breathe when I reached the door, nor when I opened it. I don't know why. The stuff wasn't that good.
I went down the stairs and across the court and out of the front door, almost bumping into a slim dark-eyed man who was standing there lighting a cigarette.
"Excuse me," he said quietly, "I'm afraid I'm in your way."
I started to go around him, then I noticed that his lifted right hand held a key. I reached out and snapped it out of his hand for no reason at all. I looked at the number stamped on it. No. 14. Mavis Weld's apartment. I threw it off behind some bushes.
"You don't need that," I said. "The door isn't locked."
"Of course," he said. There was a peculiar smile on his face. "How stupid of me."
"Yeah," I said. "We're both stupid. Anybody's stupid that bothers with that tramp."
"I wouldn't quite say that," he answered quietly, his small sad eyes watching me without any particular expression.
"You don't have to," I said. "I just said it for you. I beg your pardon. I'll get your key." I went over behind the bushes, picked it up and handed it to him.
"Thank you very much," he said. "And by the way –" He stopped. I stopped. "I hope I don't interrupt an interesting quarrel," he said. "I should hate to do that. No?" He smiled. "Well, since Miss Weld is a friend in common, may I introduce myself. My name is Steelgrave. Haven't I seen you somewhere?"
"No you haven't seen me anywhere, Mr. Steelgrave," I said. "My name's Marlowe, Philip Marlowe. It's extremely unlikely that we've met. And, strange to relate, I never heard of you, Mr. Steelgrave. And I wouldn't give a damn, even if your name was Weepy Moyer." I never knew quite why I said that. There was nothing to make me say it, except that the name had been mentioned. A peculiar stillness came over his face. A peculiar fixed look in his silent black eyes. He took the cigarette out of his mouth, looked at the tip, flicked a little ash off it, although there was no ash to flick off, looking down as he said: "Weepy Moyer? Peculiar name. I don't think I ever heard that. Is he somebody I should know?"
"Not unless you're unusually fond of ice picks," I said, and left him. I went on down the steps, crossed to my car, looked back before I got in. He was standing there looking down at me, the cigarette between his lips. From that distance I couldn't see whether there was any expression on his face. He didn't move or make any kind of gesture when I looked back at him. He didn't even turn away. He just stood there. I got in and drove off.
August 9, 2025
This collection, published in 2002, comprises the last four of Raymond Chandler's seven novels. It's an Everyman's Library volume, and Alfred A. Knopf makes sure the book is attractive. The jacket is ugly, but so is every jacket in Everyman's Library. It looks like a surveillance photo from a drunken meet-and-greet. This doesn't matter. The binding, the font and the ribbon bookmark are great. It has an enthusiastic introduction by a Chandler scholar, Tom Hiney, and a bibliography and Chandler's chronology.
I spent the last four months reading each of Chandler's novels, and now I've finished them all. If you are reading them in the Everyman's editions, I suggest you seek the previous collection and start there. I have never seen that one; I read the first few books in their individual volumes. I have to assume the first volume contains THE BIG SLEEP; FAREWELL, MY LOVELY and THE HIGH WINDOW.
The volume I'm reviewing contains four novels: THE LADY IN THE LAKE; THE LITTLE SISTER; THE LONG GOODBYE and PLAYBACK. The second collection has two novels I'd recommend to anyone, which are THE LADY IN THE LAKE and THE LONG GOODBYE, but, though Chandler is a tremendous stylist, and though I was very fond of his final novel, PLAYBACK, I don't think that one or THE LITTLE SISTER are good starting places. So: Get Volume One and start at the start with THE BIG SLEEP and FAREWELL, MY LOVELY. THE HIGH WINDOW is taut, but Chandler reigns in the free-wheeling prose poems that make his GREAT ones so entertaining. I'll also say this: I recommend that you be a completist. If you LOVE at least three of his novels, read 'em all.
I plan to read the story collection Everyman's published. Many of Chandler's stories were re-shaped by the author for the novels, so I anticipate repetition. That's fine with me. I'll watch for what he changed.
I spent the last four months reading each of Chandler's novels, and now I've finished them all. If you are reading them in the Everyman's editions, I suggest you seek the previous collection and start there. I have never seen that one; I read the first few books in their individual volumes. I have to assume the first volume contains THE BIG SLEEP; FAREWELL, MY LOVELY and THE HIGH WINDOW.
The volume I'm reviewing contains four novels: THE LADY IN THE LAKE; THE LITTLE SISTER; THE LONG GOODBYE and PLAYBACK. The second collection has two novels I'd recommend to anyone, which are THE LADY IN THE LAKE and THE LONG GOODBYE, but, though Chandler is a tremendous stylist, and though I was very fond of his final novel, PLAYBACK, I don't think that one or THE LITTLE SISTER are good starting places. So: Get Volume One and start at the start with THE BIG SLEEP and FAREWELL, MY LOVELY. THE HIGH WINDOW is taut, but Chandler reigns in the free-wheeling prose poems that make his GREAT ones so entertaining. I'll also say this: I recommend that you be a completist. If you LOVE at least three of his novels, read 'em all.
I plan to read the story collection Everyman's published. Many of Chandler's stories were re-shaped by the author for the novels, so I anticipate repetition. That's fine with me. I'll watch for what he changed.
June 12, 2019
I reviewed two of the books in this anthology under their own titles, "The Lady in the Lake" and "Playback".
July 25, 2021
I kind of liked it , its a criminal roman about a missing person
October 29, 2023
This is a must have if you love Raymond Chandler as much as I do. 4 finals Philips Marlowe novels. Here is my rating:
- Lady In The Lake 4⭐
- The Little Sister 4⭐
- The Long Goodbye 5⭐
Play Back 5⭐
- Lady In The Lake 4⭐
- The Little Sister 4⭐
- The Long Goodbye 5⭐
Play Back 5⭐
October 6, 2024
One knows that this curious connection to Mr Chandler through his writing does absolutely nothing to challenge or improve her character, and yet , discovering him has been so immensely satisfying.
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