“The Big Sleep” by Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep is a classic of mystery, a classic of noir, and even a classic of American literature. Published in 1939, it’s the first novel in which author Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) featured his famous detective Philip Marlowe, and it set the stage for the Marlowe novels that followed. The novel was also the basis for the 1946 film of the same namestarring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. 

Marlowe, a private detective, is hired by ailing General Sternwood to find out why a blackmailer is asking for money concerning one of his daughters. Sternwood made in money in the Southern California oilfields; his estate even includes pumping well (tastefully hidden from view of the palatial house). His son-in-law also seems to have disappeared, but no one seems terribly concerned about it. Marlowe is told to stick to the blackmail request.

 

The private detective makes use of clues and his many contacts to track the blackmailer to what appears to be a rare and antique book shop but is a front for a lucrative pornography business. Marlowe soon finds himself sucked into the Los Angeles underworld of pornography, gambling, violence, missing witnesses, and the glamour that disguises all of it.

 

Raymond Chandler

Marlowe is a fascinating detective. An outstanding graduate of the hardboiled detective school, he uses his tough-guy, no-nonsense exterior to harbor democratic ideals and a desire for good to triumph. He’s often compelled to chase down a wrong that’s been done, even when his employer tells him not to. It often leads to another feature of the ambiguousness of the culture highlighted in The Big Sleep – where the good buys and bad guys frequently change places.

 

Chandler’s Philip Marlowe’s novels also include Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The High Window (1942), The Lady in the Lake (1943), The Little Sister (1949), The Long Goodbye (1953), and Playback (1958). He also worked as a Hollywood screenwriter, writing the scripts for such movies as Double Indemnity, The Blue Dahlia, and Strangers on a Train. Many of his short stories were published as collections. He died in 1959 at La Jolla, California. 

 

The Big Sleep is one of the milestones of American mystery fiction. It occasionally included descriptions and terms that were commonly used in the 1930s and 1940s but would cause many readers to wince today. But it’s a fascinating read, opening a window on life and culture in southern California at the time and giving us one of the great hardboiled detectives of American mystery fiction.

Related:

 

Dispatch No. 1: Raymond Chandler – Ameria Friedline at Dispatches to Jack.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Why conservatives should read more fiction – Daniel Pitt at The Critic Magazine.

 

The Sixties Never Happened – Greg Sullivan at Sippican Cottage.

 

Surrender town: An 1881 visit to Appomattox Court House – John Banks’ Civil War Blog.

 

Lifetime Reader – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Sloane Square, the Bloody Bridge and King’s Private Road – A London Inheritance.

Top photograph: A scene from the 1946 movie with Bogart and Bacall.