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ریموند چندلر از پایهگذاران رمان پلیسی واقعگرایانه است. این نوع رمانهای پلیسی بیشتر با زندگی سروکار دارند. آدمهایش واقعیترند. چندلر یکی از برترین نویسندگان رمان جنایی و پلیسی بود که از بیشتر آثار وی نسخههای متعدد سینمایی اقتباس شده است.
«فرانسویها واسهاش ی اصطلاح دارن. لعنتیها واسه همهچیز یه اصطلاح دارن و همیشه هم درست میگن. خداحافظیکردن یعنی یه ذره مردن»
«فرانسویها واسهاش ی اصطلاح دارن. لعنتیها واسه همهچیز یه اصطلاح دارن و همیشه هم درست میگن. خداحافظیکردن یعنی یه ذره مردن»
36 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1939
3 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Chandler
449 books5,616 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 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 16, 2023
One of the strangest stories from Mr. Chandler. The girl, the detective, the bad boys looking for someone are all in their places, but there is no visible action. There are only a lot of phone-calls, and you have to take someone's word for what has happened. Nonetheless, I've liked it, mostly perhaps for Tony' character.
March 28, 2023
4 Stars. What we may have here is a love story. Eve Cressy is staying for a week at the Windermere Hotel while waiting for someone, and she's bored. But it maybe more than it seems. Watch for the line. One night the house detective, Tony Reseck, finds her curled up in the Radio Room listening to Benny Goodman. Killing time but enjoying it. He's polite, as he should be, but the room is supposed to be closed for the night. The story first appeared in the "Saturday Evening Post" in 1939. It's one of nine in the 1950 anthology, "The Simple Art of Murder." Who is Cressy waiting for? Let her explain, "A tall dark guy that's no good. You can make a lot of mistakes in just one lifetime. I played him a low trick once. I put him in a bad place - without meaning to." At about this time, Carl, the night porter, approaches Tony and tells him that a man outside wearing a dark hat down over his face wants to see him. We soon learn that the person Eve is waiting for is Johnny Ralls just out of San Quentin, and the mob wants the girl. Didn't I say there's more to the story? Reseck does his best to resolve it quietly, but there are no winners. Except the reader. (December 2020)
April 4, 2017
Μια αυθόρμητη αγορά ενός μικρού αλλά συνάμα τόσο καλού βιβλιου. Ομολογώ ότι δεν είχα διαβάσει μέχρι τωρα Raymond Chandler. Νομίζω πως ειναι μια πολυ καλή αρχή.
Η ιστορία ειναι σύντομη και διαδραματίζεται μέσα σε ένα ξενοδοχείο στο οποίο ο πολωνικής καταγωγής Τονι Ρισεκ γνωρίζει μια νέα και μόνη γυναίκα. Ο Τονι σύντομα θα ανακαλύψει πως η γυναίκα αυτή δεν ειναι τελικά τόσο αθώα και πως το παρελθόν της ειναι τόσο σκοτεινό, όσο και το δικό του. Η μήπως ειναι και εκείνη αθώα όσο και αυτός;
Η ιστορία ειναι σύντομη και διαδραματίζεται μέσα σε ένα ξενοδοχείο στο οποίο ο πολωνικής καταγωγής Τονι Ρισεκ γνωρίζει μια νέα και μόνη γυναίκα. Ο Τονι σύντομα θα ανακαλύψει πως η γυναίκα αυτή δεν ειναι τελικά τόσο αθώα και πως το παρελθόν της ειναι τόσο σκοτεινό, όσο και το δικό του. Η μήπως ειναι και εκείνη αθώα όσο και αυτός;
September 2, 2019
COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime -Top 50
BOOK/Novella 47 (of 250)
This is "as much a love story as it is a crime tale" says the editors Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert in their outstanding omnibus entitled "The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories".
HOOK = 3 stars: "At one o'clock in the morning, Carl, the night porter, turned down the last of the three table lamps in the main lobby of the hotel...Tony Resnick [house detective] yawned...He frowned...that should be his radio room after one a.m. Nobody should be in it. That red-haired girl was spoiling his nights." And how else might she interfere with Tony's life?
PACE = 4: Nicely done short, straight to a surprising denouement.
PLOT = 4: Tony's brother, Al [mob criminal], tells Tony that the red-haired lady is waiting on her other half, who is now out of prison and owes Al's gang 25K. There is to be trouble: Tony must act. And he does, in surprising ways with a very good twist at the end.
CHARACTERS = 4:You'll remember no one but Tony. Al tells Tony, "Listen...You always kept your nose clean. You're a good brother, Tony." But Tony's actions have unintended consequences.
ATMOSPHERE -5: This story has one of the most beautiful lines I've come across for creating atmosphere. It's 1939 and Chandler writes about radio music, "Since Vienna died, all waltzes are shadowed." A perfect line from an author heavy in style. The lobby of the hotel has "chairs filled with shadowy loungers [after the lights are turned low]. In the corners were memories like cobwebs."
SUMMARY - 4.0: this is one of my favorite Chandler works. He, along with so many authors, got their start with pulp shorts and this is a very good example.
BOOK/Novella 47 (of 250)
This is "as much a love story as it is a crime tale" says the editors Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert in their outstanding omnibus entitled "The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories".
HOOK = 3 stars: "At one o'clock in the morning, Carl, the night porter, turned down the last of the three table lamps in the main lobby of the hotel...Tony Resnick [house detective] yawned...He frowned...that should be his radio room after one a.m. Nobody should be in it. That red-haired girl was spoiling his nights." And how else might she interfere with Tony's life?
PACE = 4: Nicely done short, straight to a surprising denouement.
PLOT = 4: Tony's brother, Al [mob criminal], tells Tony that the red-haired lady is waiting on her other half, who is now out of prison and owes Al's gang 25K. There is to be trouble: Tony must act. And he does, in surprising ways with a very good twist at the end.
CHARACTERS = 4:You'll remember no one but Tony. Al tells Tony, "Listen...You always kept your nose clean. You're a good brother, Tony." But Tony's actions have unintended consequences.
ATMOSPHERE -5: This story has one of the most beautiful lines I've come across for creating atmosphere. It's 1939 and Chandler writes about radio music, "Since Vienna died, all waltzes are shadowed." A perfect line from an author heavy in style. The lobby of the hotel has "chairs filled with shadowy loungers [after the lights are turned low]. In the corners were memories like cobwebs."
SUMMARY - 4.0: this is one of my favorite Chandler works. He, along with so many authors, got their start with pulp shorts and this is a very good example.
January 2, 2020
Chandler's writing is in fine form in this very short piece about a hotel detective on the graveyard shift that manages to get caught up in some late night trouble.
February 28, 2022
*
28February2022
Read in 19June2021 as part of the collection Red Wind.
28February2022
Read in 19June2021 as part of the collection Red Wind.
March 7, 2021
Can readers of this famous short story dilate upon its climax for me? (If you have not read "I’ll Be Waiting," you may not want to go further. It is a compelling story about which I have questions.)
What happens at the end? As I read “I’ll Be Waiting,” Tony Reseck is a good man, a hero. Because he likes Eve, at personal risk he maneuvers Johnny Ralls out of room 14B. Ralls may be both an innocent—he says that he did not cheat the “spot on the Strip” out of $25,000 (is it true?)—and vengeful—what does he intend to do to Eve Cressy? “'Nobody’s all bad,’” but “there’s some that are.” Reseck succeeds in double crossing nasty Al by smuggling Ralls out of the Windermere Hotel, but Al anticipates the double cross and confronts Ralls.
The report of what ensues is ambiguous. The anonymous phone call that reports everyone’s plans going awry says that Al “takes Ralls to the curb” and then “backfire.” “Backfire” has at least three possible meanings. One might be the sound of Al shooting Rawls, possibly before the topic of the possibly unrecoverable $25,000 is broached. A second might be that “backfire” is the sound of the gun that Ralls uses to shoot Al and that reverses the “trouble boys’” revenge. In this scenario Ralls escapes. Thirdly, possibly the two men kill each other: “'Al won’t be phoning anybody any more.’”
Which is it? What arguments can be adduced for each position?
Why does Chandler not opt for a clear resolution? Is the reader’s distance from the machinations of criminal activity in some way (explain?) appropriate? The power of the story derives from its opacity, but non-transparency by itself is not a sufficient reason.
This dilemma is like the ending of J. D. Salinger’s “Teddy,” where it is unclear whether Teddy falls into an empty pool causing his sister Booper to scream or whether his sister pushes him and then screams at what she herself has done.
Chandler, as is known, admired Hemingway. “Al” in “I’ll Be Waiting” reminds me of a sinister character with this name in Hemingway’s story “The Killers.” Another, closer literary reference: “I’ll Be Waiting” is an unresolved (because of the participles) rewording of Sam Spade’s ironic assurance to Brigid O’Shaughnessy that after she is released from San Quentin after twenty years he will be there for her: “I’ll Wait for You.”
Thoughts?
What happens at the end? As I read “I’ll Be Waiting,” Tony Reseck is a good man, a hero. Because he likes Eve, at personal risk he maneuvers Johnny Ralls out of room 14B. Ralls may be both an innocent—he says that he did not cheat the “spot on the Strip” out of $25,000 (is it true?)—and vengeful—what does he intend to do to Eve Cressy? “'Nobody’s all bad,’” but “there’s some that are.” Reseck succeeds in double crossing nasty Al by smuggling Ralls out of the Windermere Hotel, but Al anticipates the double cross and confronts Ralls.
The report of what ensues is ambiguous. The anonymous phone call that reports everyone’s plans going awry says that Al “takes Ralls to the curb” and then “backfire.” “Backfire” has at least three possible meanings. One might be the sound of Al shooting Rawls, possibly before the topic of the possibly unrecoverable $25,000 is broached. A second might be that “backfire” is the sound of the gun that Ralls uses to shoot Al and that reverses the “trouble boys’” revenge. In this scenario Ralls escapes. Thirdly, possibly the two men kill each other: “'Al won’t be phoning anybody any more.’”
Which is it? What arguments can be adduced for each position?
Why does Chandler not opt for a clear resolution? Is the reader’s distance from the machinations of criminal activity in some way (explain?) appropriate? The power of the story derives from its opacity, but non-transparency by itself is not a sufficient reason.
This dilemma is like the ending of J. D. Salinger’s “Teddy,” where it is unclear whether Teddy falls into an empty pool causing his sister Booper to scream or whether his sister pushes him and then screams at what she herself has done.
Chandler, as is known, admired Hemingway. “Al” in “I’ll Be Waiting” reminds me of a sinister character with this name in Hemingway’s story “The Killers.” Another, closer literary reference: “I’ll Be Waiting” is an unresolved (because of the participles) rewording of Sam Spade’s ironic assurance to Brigid O’Shaughnessy that after she is released from San Quentin after twenty years he will be there for her: “I’ll Wait for You.”
Thoughts?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 20, 2020
I'm at the end of a Raymond chandler jag. I'm reading his last set of short stories, and this one, I'll be waiting, really hit me. It's vivid. It's atmospheric. Its prose is a study in economy. For me, it had a surprising emotional punch.
October 30, 2017
A wonderful short.
October 29, 2020
Love the dialogue in this short.
“I never had it, copper. Leave that lay. I’m the only guy in the world that believes it. It was a deal I got suckered on.”
“I never had it, copper. Leave that lay. I’m the only guy in the world that believes it. It was a deal I got suckered on.”
November 26, 2025
…This Cressy was married to a lad named Johnny Ralls. Ralls is out of Quentin two, three days, or a week. He did a three-spot for manslaughter. The girl put him there. He ran down an old man one night when he was drunk, and she was with him. He wouldn’t stop. She told him to go in and tell it, or else. He didn’t go in. So the Johns come for him.”
I thought this paragraph was pure gold, revealing the entire story in a few, taught sentences. However, I got it all wrong. I thought he was coming back to murder the woman who put him away, but they’d reconciled and she was waiting for him faithfully at the Windermere Hotel. But other people have plans for Johnny Ralls when he comes back for the gal. I think my first assumption could have made a better story, with Tony the Detective getting between the former lovers, but it didn’t go my way.
As it goes, nothing much happens other than introductions. The real actions goes on off camera, as they say in the movies (I think because what the hell do I know what they say in the movies?)
“You know who they are?” Tony said softly.
“I could maybe give nine guesses. And twelve of them would be right.”
No one writes stuff like this, not for a long time. I don’t know what it means, but it sounds hard and cool.
There are lots of other lines that need a codebreaker to understand. I wonder if anyone really talked like that or if it was all manufactured by crime writers.
I thought this paragraph was pure gold, revealing the entire story in a few, taught sentences. However, I got it all wrong. I thought he was coming back to murder the woman who put him away, but they’d reconciled and she was waiting for him faithfully at the Windermere Hotel. But other people have plans for Johnny Ralls when he comes back for the gal. I think my first assumption could have made a better story, with Tony the Detective getting between the former lovers, but it didn’t go my way.
As it goes, nothing much happens other than introductions. The real actions goes on off camera, as they say in the movies (I think because what the hell do I know what they say in the movies?)
“You know who they are?” Tony said softly.
“I could maybe give nine guesses. And twelve of them would be right.”
No one writes stuff like this, not for a long time. I don’t know what it means, but it sounds hard and cool.
There are lots of other lines that need a codebreaker to understand. I wonder if anyone really talked like that or if it was all manufactured by crime writers.
February 21, 2022
یک داستان کوتاه نوآر ۳۵ صفحهای که همهی حال و هوای قصهها و سینمای نوآر را با همان تاریکی و درماندگی کارآگاهش در همین ۳۵ صفحه خلاصه کرده و آورده. قصه خیلی خوب است و مثل همهی نوآرهای خوب شایسته ۵ ستاره. ۳ ستاره بودنش فقط برای این است که کل کتاب همین ۳۵ صفحه است و وقتی وارد این فضا میشوی دوست داری بیشتر توی آن بمانی.
February 3, 2021
Nice short suspense story!
February 14, 2022
A nice little tidbit.
March 31, 2022
Light on the plot but it was so atmospheric plus the narrator added some jazz music chef's kiss
November 20, 2024
has this man ever seen a woman?
February 11, 2025
What the twist
May 3, 2021
خوشبختانه فتحالله جعفری جوزانی اخیرا چندین عنوان جدید از چندلر ترجمه کرده. به نظرم بهترین مترجم چندلر تو ایرانه و البته بدست آوردن این عنوان کار راحتی نیست، وقتی قاسم هاشمینژاد هم توی همین دسته باشه. تا الان چهار عنوانش رو خوندم، کارهای کوتاهین و اکثرا هم قهرمانشون فیلیپ مارلو نیست. توی این کتاب که کلا 36 صفحه است، ماجرای کوتاهی از یک کارگاه هتل، به اسم تونی ریسک روایت میشه. اگر خورهی کارهای چندلر هستین، این مجموعه براتون جالب خواهد بود، چون این جا و اونجا نشانههایی میبینید که بعدا توی شخصیت فیلیپ مارلو به حد کمال میرسن.
اگر هم تا الان از چندلر چیزی نخوندین، آب دستتونه بذارین زمین، و برین کتاب «خداحافظی طولانی» رو تهیه کنید.
اگر هم تا الان از چندلر چیزی نخوندین، آب دستتونه بذارین زمین، و برین کتاب «خداحافظی طولانی» رو تهیه کنید.
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