Literary Masterpieces, Volume 3: The Maltese Falcon

Literary Masterpieces (Gale) #3

by Richard Layman

Gale Study Guides to Great Literature are a unique reference line composed of three series: Literary Masters, Literary Masterpieces and Literary Topics. Convenient, comprehensive and targeted to current coursework, the guides put authors, titles and topics into context for high school and college students as well as general researchers.Not to be confused with uninspiring reference "notes" that spoon-feed students essay answers, the Gale Study Guides to Great Literature feature original material designed to compliment the research process. These series give educators and researchers a source featuring not only literary movements and biographical data but also discussions of significant cultural and historical aspects of literature.

Literary Masterpieces volumes provide comprehensive analyses of major literary works, including concise discussions of characters, themes and critical reception of the work. In the Literary Masterpieces Series, look for these chapters:
-- About the Title
-- The Evolution of the Work
-- Themes
-- Critical Response
-- The Work in History
-- And more

192 pages, Hardcover

First published December 14, 1999

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like to think of this book as a study in 1930s male machismo (and feminine mystique). It was like getting to see what Hammett considered to be a real man's man, someone who's stoic and tough and doesn't take any shit, especially from authority. A man that, when he looks at a woman, first sizes up her sexual potential, who knows that his aura draws women in and doesn't know how to interact without objectifying them. (And let's not forget the femme fatale that uses all her arts to fake an innocent and helpless persona - though man, that one got old after a while.) That all by itself I didn't mind. I like to think standards have changed just enough that we can recognize the ways in which Spade's masculinity is outdated and appreciate it as a historical artifact (though I can readily see how some crime fiction writers today draw their inspiration from The Maltese Falcon). In the end, what got to me was that so many of the characters had to tell us just how great a guy Spade was. I say, let the character's actions do the convincing. Putting other characters to the task of convincing me just gets on my nerves. Oh, and the 7 minutes of heartfelt - "I love you but I gotta put you away in case you make a chump out of me." "No Sam, give me a chance." - dialogue could seriously have been reduced to a few lines. Guess it's a little late to do anything abot that now...

[Meltha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, I think this is an example of a good plot with a relatively strained writing style. Too many simple sentences were strung together with a great deal of essentially superfluous description. Oddly, the last third or so of the book was basically nearly no action but a great deal of sitting around and talking. While it was an excellent mystery, the general style of the book bothered me, and Spade eventually comes off as something of a massive jerk (though I'm pretty sure he could qualify as a James Bond prototype in many ways).

[Chris and Yuri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I see why they adapted this book. I've read three of Hammett's books in just a few weeks, and this is the best by far. Clean, solid structure and pacing, a real hard-boiled character in Sam Spade, and dialogue and scenes that crack like a whip and can be heard echoing down through a thousand imitators on page and on the screen.

[Sean Sexton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where it all began for the hard-boiled detective. Great reading.