This was my first Raymond Chandler read and I liked it. The plot was based in southern california during the late 1930's. The same time the book was written. A dying, wealthy old general is being blackmailed. He engages the services of private investigator Philip Marlowe to get to the bottom of things. It's a quick moving read of 231 pages. The story stands up well to the test of time having been originally published about seventy years ago. I think most would agree that this is an excellent introduction to the author.

Why is it that books that are labeled as "classics" often seem to disappoint? That's a question that has a longer answer than I'd care to write about here, but that thought did occur to me several times while reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. I'm sure high expectations have something to do with it, and the story did seem to be a winner. Philip Marlowe, a private dick from L.A. is on a black mailing case involving a millionaire and his two insane daughters.

Here we find excellent prose, but a plot that is so hard to follow, I gave up about three quarters of the way through. I would have been able to keep up if I kept a notebook of all the characters (of which there are too many), and a history of what had happened thus far (too much too soon). Someone reading this for a college class may have a highlighter or two handy, and get more out of this book. However, the casual reader will find this novel tough going.

What more can or needs to be said about Raymond Chandler and The Big Sleep? Not much. The Big Sleep was his first novel, introduced Philip Marlowe, and is often considered his best work. The Big Sleep is a good whodunit, but Chandler shines when he examines the corruption that bubble up from the underworld of pornography, drugs, and illegal gambling. Chandler also takes the reader on a tour of a now-long gone Los Angeles.

Is Chandler's work `literature'? Chandler thought so. Here's how Chandler defined literature: "When a book, any sort of book, reaches a certain intensity of artistic performance it becomes literature. That intensity may be a matter of style, situation, character, emotional tone, or idea, or half a dozen other things. It may also be a perfection of control over the movement of a story similar to the control a great pitcher has over the ball."

If you've ever enjoyed a detective story, a crime story, any kind of noir fiction, then you owe it to yourself to read Chandler and there's no better place to start than here at the beginning. The book is only about 150-230 pages long, depending on the edition, so trying it out for yourself will not long detain you. Highest recommendation.

THE BIG SLEEP is one of the great books of American Literature, not merely of hardboiled fiction. It is far from a perfect book. There are passages that are so over-the-top that they border on self-parody. The scenes in which women can't help themselves in the presence of Philip Marlowe are generally appalling. But the book's virtues are difficult to overstate. The prose frequently veers into the realm of genius. The characters -- even minor characters -- are brilliantly and unforgettably sketched. The L.A. of the late 1930s captures the time and place as perfectly as Berenice Abbott's photos of thirties New York. For many individuals, Raymond Chandler in this and subsequent novels created the L.A. that haunted film noir in the next two decades.

Chandler's prose both thrills and infuriates me. His brilliance at negotiating English sentences makes me about as mad as when I read the first page of Nabokov's LOLITA. In both cases I read sentences that I know I could not emulate if given a lifetime to ape. In both instances the words go far beyond brilliance to something ineffable. What is amazing is that Chandler, though born in Chicago, was raised in Ireland and educated in English public (i.e., private) schools. He did move to the U.S. as an adult and resubmerged himself in the country of his birth, but just as no one wrote English prose better than the Russian born and raised Nabokov, no one wrote more cutting and hard-edged in the American vein than did the Anglicized Chandler.

THE BIG SLEEP is famous for its convoluted plot, but I have to say that even in my first reading I did not have this experience. Certainly it makes more sense than the famous movie version with Humphrey Bogart, which was hampered by extensive censorship (there are simply too many lines to read between to make grasping the plot an easy undertaking). But really, you don't read Chandler for plot. Of the big three hardboiled writers -- Hammett and Ross MacDonald being the other two -- only MacDonald can profitably be read for the story. You read Hammett and Chandler for the impossible to resist one-liners, the vivid ragged guys and treacherous woman who litter their stories, and for the way they evoke the San Francisco and Los Angeles that they write about. If you start getting hung up on plot, you've already missed the point.

One thing that is striking is how closely the movie -- hampered as it is by censorship -- hews to the book. Most of the book's major scenes can be found more or less intact in the film. Most of the great lines are in both, though the famous horse racing conversation between Bogart and Lauren Bacall was unique to the film. The one huge difference is the ending. The movie scraps the last 15 or so pages of the book and ends with an exhilarating and violent confrontation between Marlowe and Eddie Mars. All in all I actually prefer the movie's ending, helped in part by the brilliant dialogue written by William Faulkner and Leigh Brackett. But the Chandler ending makes far more sense of the plot.

This was Chandler's first full length novel. The most remarkable thing about that is that he was fifty years old when it was published. He wrote his first story when he was forty-five. There are few if any stories of such a brilliant writer getting started so late in life. And he did it despite an on and off very serious drinking problem, in which he drank not to be mildly inebriated, but drank to the point of getting DT's. But he illustrates better than anyone that it is never too late to start. He remains an inspiration of all of us aging potential authors.

I tried with this "classic" ... two times, then a third ... and as much as the first few chapters (the exchanges between Marlowe and the daughter) were brilliant, I couldn't finish the thing. Just couldn't. I have an issue with private eye books anyway, but this one (between the several characters and all the confusion) just didn't take hold. I thought the exchanges between Marlowe and the kid (who killed the guy who killed his boyfriend) were great also, but immediately after that scene, I folded. It's probably my issue with private eye novels anyway, but aside from the wonderful dialogue, I had a hard time swallowing and ultimately couldn't/didn't finish The Big Sleep ... i became too anxious to read what was waiting in the bin (The Leopard). This is just the 2nd novel I couldn't finish this year (2008).

For my money, the James Cain novels were pure gold by comparison.

I tried with this "classic" ... two times, then a third ... and as much as the first few chapters (the exchanges between Marlowe and the daughter) were brilliant, I couldn't finish the thing. Just couldn't. I have an issue with private eye books anyway, but this one (between the several characters and all the confusion) just didn't take hold. I thought the exchanges between Marlowe and the kid (who killed the guy who killed his boyfriend) were great also, but immediately after that scene, I folded. It's probably my issue with private eye novels anyway, but aside from the wonderful dialogue, I had a hard time swallowing and ultimately couldn't/didn't finish The Big Sleep ... i became too anxious to read what was waiting in the bin (The Leopard). This is just the 2nd novel I couldn't finish this year (2008).

For my money, the James Cain novels were pure gold by comparison.

Before Jim Thompson's nihilistic, tough guy crime fiction, and long before smart-talking private detectives like Robert Crais' Elvis Cole or Dennis Lehane's Patrick Kenzie, there was Raymond Chandler and his prototype hard boiled PI, Phillip Marlowe. While Hammett's Sam Spade pre-dates Marlowe's 1939 debut here in "The Big Sleep", Chandler - through Marlowe - is arguably the standard by which all others are measured, the author who could credibly lay claim as the master of the irreverent maverick sleuth: the fast-fisted, impossibly clever, dame-magnet which so many have since sought to emulate. Less debatable is Chandler's mastery the style and the elegance of prose that he introduced to pulp fiction - sharp and lean as one would expect of the genre, but rich in simile and image and as readable today as it was nearly seven decades ago.

In "The Big Sleep", in what looks like a routine case, Marlowe is summoned by a fatally ill millionaire to track down a blackmailer holding compromising pictures of one of his two wayward adult daughters. Chandler gets right to the point in spinning a tale of thugs and hit men trading in pornography and gambling, leading to more murders than a Mel Gibson movie and dalliances sleazy enough to make Bill Clinton blush. Still, while the violence and sex is quaint by today's no-holds-barred onslaught, it is no less effective - consider the terror of the shower screen in Hitchcock's brilliant "Psycho" - one of film's most disturbing moments, though the knife is never seen striking flesh.

In fairness, "The Big Sleep" is not Chandler's finest moment. The initial transgression seems neatly wrapped up with nearly half of the book to go, and one wonders what Marlowe is doing as he aimlessly kicks around what seem to be meaningless loose ends in a rather muddled middle of the book. But Chandler's craft keeps the reader engaged, wrapping up with a few clever twists and enough (barely) of the irony these early masters of pulp fiction are so well noted for.

If you're a fan of pop crime fiction and haven't gone back to read Chandler (or Thompson, Hammett, Block, Westlake, McBain...), you've got some real treats ahead of you. Great entertainment, while at the same time a peak into the roots and inspiration for so many of today's best crime writers.

The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler

"I went to bed full of whiskey and frustration and dreamed about a man in a bloody Chinese coat who chased a naked girl with long jade earrings while I ran after them and tried to take a photograph with an empty camera."

Only Raymond Chandler could write a sentence like that. He's easy to parody, but impossible to improve on. In "The Big Sleep" (1939) he leads us through a sleazy LA world of hookers, pimps, pornographers, blackmailers, gambling junkies, and floozies too many to mention.
Their indiscretions lead Philip Marlowe from one red herring to another. Marlowe manages to keep his head high and his standards out of the gutter that surrounds him.

It's easy to see how much Chandler influenced everyone who followed him, consciously or not-- Mickey Spillane, James Ellroy, Sue Grafton, Elmore Leonard and so on.

Some of his work is dated: Greater Los Angeles was still surrounded by Orange and Avocado groves, gang-bangers didn't rule neighborhoods, and the Papparazzi hadn't taken over Sunset Boulevard. Men still wore hats and dressed for dinner, and people went out to Clubs in the evening. There is male chauvinism, political incorrectness, racism, and homophobia, but those were part of the times.

Chandler's work was a natural for the movies, and for radio. His ear for dialogue was matchless. Written by Chandler and director Billy Wilder, the screenplay of James M. Cain's "Double Indemnity" became a classic with Fred MacMurry, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson. His later works, "T he Long Goodbye: and "The Lady in the Lake" show a bit more maturity and cohesiveness. But it's safe to say that books like "LA Confidential" and "T he Black Dahlia" wouldn't exist without the earlier works of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

The Big Sleep is Raymond Chandler's first novel featuring Philip Marlowe, the private eye who is the main character in most of Chandler's novels. The author immediatly thrusts the reader into the story without wasting any time on introductions or setting up characters. It's refreshing to read an author who gets straight to the point without wasting any words. The story begins with Marlowe being hired by a wealthy old man to discover the source of an extortion attempt, but the story quickly expands to include murder, pornography, and a few missing people. Marlowe is very methodical and impartial in his investigations, creating a stark contrast to the seedy and unpredictable cast of characters. Chandler does a wonderful job of portraying Los Angeles in the 1930's as it really was with its hidden dark side behind the beautiful exterior of fancy houses and nice suits. Although Chandler's style is a little dry, he has still created a thoroughly readable story without any unnecessary descriptions to slow it down. It's a shame that Chandler didn't start on his writing career until the age of 39. Even so, he was still able to write some other outstanding Marlowe novels to carry on his legacy.

Although I understand the popularity of the genre, murder mysteries like The Big Sleep are not usually satisfying reading experiences for me. I frequently feel like I'm missing or overemphasizing clues: "Does that empty coffee cup mean something?" "Oh, his eyebrow went up! He must have done it!"

With The Big Sleep, I still experienced that feeling a bit, but the characters and voice were so strong and compelling that they more than made up for the plot twists and angles. Raymond Chandler's sentences are artistic masterpieces and clear influences on many 20th Century literary and cinematic archetypes.

Marlowe is a strong individual. The other Raymond Chandler characters are like Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, searching for meaning in all the wrong places.

"Where there is mystery, it is generally suspected there must also be evil."
Lord Byron

The novel takes place during the 1930's and is set in the seedy world of Los Angeles, a place Jack Kerouac once described as 'a jungle'. The story is told to us through the eyes of the main protagonist - private investigator Phillip Marlowe. To me, Marlowe is a fusion of Dirty Harry, Howard Rourke and Jim Rockford all rolled into one. He's got that machismo, loner thing going on and you know how we Americans love that type of character (i.e. see above). He's also an extremely honest and straight-shooting sleuth, absolutely no BS in the guy. He's your true-blue American hero, married to his job, battling endlessly with the hypocrisy of the powers-to-be and not afraid of anyone or anything.

The story begins when a dying millionaire hires Marlowe to find the blackmailer of one his daughters. The old man, like Balzac's Old Goriot, has two spoiled, self-absorbed party girls as daughters - Carmen and Vivian - and they are always seemingly getting into trouble. However, this time one of them is in BIG trouble and it's up to our hero Marlowe to save the day. This imaginative, hardboiled work of fiction got really convoluted about midway through the novel for me, but I still plowed on until it's very end, and never did my enthusiasm ebb. It's the type of story I couldn't wait to finish in order to unravel the mystery.

Raymond Chandler was some kind of writer - acerbic, satirical, brutally honest and candid, yet his prose also contains a certain magnetism and simple elegance that makes this author, at least in this reviewer's opinion, a joy to read. I am looking forward to not only reading his other works, but also catching "The Big Sleep" on film, the classic by Howard Hawks starring Bogie and Bacall. A film that I have abstained from because I wanted to read the book first; and now I'm off to rent me a film folks...

A great story!

The first Philip Marlowe book and one of the best.

There's only so many different ways one can talk about Chandler being one of the greatest crime writers ever but this book also has a very good plot, which some of the others fall down on. An undeniable classic of the genre.

Nearly seventy years after it was published, The Big Sleep is still an interesting detective story with an intriguing style. This was Raymond Chandler's first published novel and it made him a celebrity. In an old interview I read somewhere, Chandler said he was going against the grain of the then-popular British detective novels that climaxed with the gathering of all the suspects into a single room while the detective revealed his brilliant solution to the crime. He meant Philip Marlow to be a more realistic and gritty detective. He succeeded. Marlow became America's favorite private eye, both in print and on the silver screen.

As I read the book, two thoughts came to me. First, the Chandler style has been copied and parodied so much, that you can easily forget that this was the original. The second is that although the novel was written at the time as a modern story, it now reads like someone wrote it today as period literature. This adds to the book's charm, sort of like the Chinatown or The Sting.

Raymond Chandler goes in and out of fashion, but if you want to curl up with a good mystery written by one of the masters, you can't go wrong with The Big Sleep.

The Shopkeeper

There is something transporting about this book. The relentless rain. The over-the-top blondes. The hats always have some angle, whether they're cocked on top of a fashionable fairy or parked on a telephone receiver.

"If the mystery novel is at all realistic (which it very seldom is) it is written in a certain spirit of detachment; otherwise nobody but a psychopath would want to write it or read it," Chandler wrote in his essay "The Simple Art of Murder". "The murder novel has also a depressing way of minding its own business, solving its own problems and answering its own questions." (Hence the rain, maybe. It keeps the head down, the shoulders hunched, the collar up.) Okay, good to know, but more importantly, The Big Sleep corrected my mistaken belief that the detective/murder/mystery novel is all about plot. It isn't. Not when it's done right.

Philip Marlowe is called to the sprawling mansion of the elderly and infirm (paraplegic) General Sternwood. He asks Marlowe to deal with a blackmailer named Arthur Gwynn Geiger, apparently a purveyor of rare books.

The story is the classic detective story. A Femme fatale, double-crosses, intrigue, and a hero that smokes. Chandler pushes the [then] boundaries of acceptability, and has sexual and pornographic references, which adds to the dark world he created.

Philip Marlow is of course the next best thing to Sherlock Holmes and all fans of murder mysteries have to read the Big Sleep before they go to bed...

Relic113

Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel "The Big Sleep" introduced the world to fictional hard-boiled private eye Philip Marlowe, who would feature in several subsequent novels and on the big screen. Chandler's remarkable combination of tough detective story with noirish overtones, set in the dark underside of sunny California, set a standard still followed by writers of popular fiction.

Philip Marlowe is hired by General Sternwood, a wealthy but dying man, to protect his family from blackmail. Marlowe's investigation is complicated by the repeated interventions of the older of Sternwood's two daughters and by the misadventures of the younger daughter. The deeper Marlowe digs, the more complex, and more dangerous, a simple matter of blackmail becomes. It will be up to Marlowe to wrestle some kind of justice out of a case involving pornography, blackmail, gambling, murder, and a missing bootlegger.

This story sets the essentials of Philip Marlowe: a tough, cynical investigator with an eye for the ladies, his own standards of integrity, and a surprising amount of compassion behind a hard shell. "The Big Sleep" also highlights Chandler's superbly entertaining writing style: spare, direct, and sardonic in the voice of his principal character. The plot of "The BIg Sleep" becomes a challenge to follow, but perhaps this contributes to the air of life-like mystery that is not entirely dispelled by story's end. This book is highly recommended to fans of Raymond Chandler and of noir detective fiction.

This novel has been written so many times by writers of less skill, the reader needs to remind him or herself of the originality of Raymond Carver. There is the wit and snappy dialogue, the profusion of quirky characters, the quick summing up of key points of the narrative, complete with names and motives in rapid succession and the use of violence at key moments to speed up the plot. If Carver created this narrative map, others then followed his trail. It is just too bad it is so well-trodden.

This is the only novel by Chandler that I even like. I read a fair amount of FAREWELL, MY LOVELY and all of PLAYBACK; pieces of the others. But I couldn't sustain more than the few pages I read of the others. THE BIG SLEEP is a myth, a landmark, a monument. FAREWELL disappointed me from the start basically because... the best way to put it is this: to me, taking Philip Marlowe out of THE BIG SLEEP is like taking Sam Spade out of THE MALTESE FALCON. And I've read them both over and over again the past year.

"It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars."

- Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep

And thus began the criteria for what a private eye would look like and what his moral code would be. Raymond Chandler, author of the Philip Marlowe series of crime novels, set the bar high and generations would follow in his writing footsteps.

Raymond Chandler is considered to be one of the most influential writers of crime fiction and his phenomenal creation of the detective Philip Marlowe has survived decades.

Every time a modern reader discovers a new private eye who is facing some interesting and very tough times but is able to do it with integrity and a strict moral code alongwith a "soldier's eye"; you are meeting Raymond Chandler the writer all over again. And Philip Marlowe his creation is playing a pivotal role in the background.

Raymond Chandler wrote seven detective novels but THE BIG SLEEP is probably his best. He was fifty years old when he wrote this novel yet this novel would become an American landmark in the hard-boiled detective genre and would really launch him into the icon that he is today.

The reader will discover a unified theme with strong and fully developed characters with incredible imagery and metaphors. Chandler's literary style is distinctive and very crisp. You will love this book. If you are new to hard-boiled detective stories, this is the novel that I would start with

You will be introduced to the Sternwoods: General Sternwood, Vivian and Carmen and all three are interesting studies and all three as General Sternwood notes hasn't "any more moral sense than a cat." General Sternwood is on his deathbed and hired Philip Marlowe to check out why he was being blackmailed by one Arthur Gwynn Geiger. His two daughters, Vivian and Carmen, are quite a handful but General Sternwood feels in part responsible for his plight. As he tells Marlow, "I need not add that a man who indulges in parenthood for the first time at the age of fifty-four deserves all he gets." He describes his two daughters as being "spoiled, exacting, smart and ruthless with the younger girl as being the type who likes to pull wings off flies".

Chandler's novels do highlight crooks and morally-corrupt characters and derelicts, but they are counter-balanced by Marlowe, Bernie Ohls, and General Sternwood--all of whom possess a strong sense of honor, a consideration of what is proper and are for the most part trying to live a life above board.

There are numerous murders that take place and a tight interwoven plot which will keep you on the edge of your seat until you get to the last page.

When THE BIG SLEEP was published in 1939 there was only an advance of 5,000 copies by Alfred A. Knopf. However, Knopf knew the power and the contribution that this novel would make. They actually took out an advertisement for this book on the front cover of the Publisher's Weekly which was most unusual for a novelist's first book.

The dust jacket flaps read:

"Not since Dashiell Hammett appeared has there been a murder mystery story with the power, pace, and terrifying atmosphere of this one. And like Hammett's this is more than a "murder mystery": it is a novel of crime and character, written with uncommon skill in a tight, tense style which is irresistible."

And so it was. I would highly recommend reading this crime novel and being introduced to Philip Marlowe. This novel was made into a movie starring Bogart and Bacall with the screen play being written by William Faulkner no less.

Don't miss this one. I almost did.

Rating: A

Bentley/October 2007

The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep is a first person narrative about private detective Philip Marlowe. The novel is considered a classic crime detective fiction story. Chandler perfectly builds the setting of the underworld of Los Angeles in the 1930s with memorable character, dialogue, and an interesting plot.

Chandler builds this world with a sparse-style that is of the same mold as Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver. His writing is tight and crisp, which keeps the speed of the plot moving fluidly, and rapidly.

The story begins when Marlowe is called on by a crippled millionaire, General Sternwood, to investigate Arthur Gwynn Geiger; the General wants to know more about the man with a blackmail attempt against one of his two 20-something year old daughters, Carmen Sternwood.

Seems simple enough? Well, lets just say the plot is complicated. Geiger turns out to be running a pornography racket, ends up murdered in his house with a naked and drugged Carmen sitting next to him. The next morning the Sternwood's chauffeur turns up murdered.

The pornography racket leads to Joe Brody, a two-bit hustler, who tries selling naked photographs of Carmen that were taking minutes before Geiger was murdered. But before Brody can get even more involved in the story, he gets murdered.

If that isn't plenty, the plot gets further complicated when you toss in a casino owning gangster, a hit man, a few missing people, and another hustler with a lead to Silver Wig. Marlowe eventually solves the blackmail situation, but soon gets on the chase for a missing ex-husband, which leads to a wild grand finale - A murder mystery. The plot is so involved that Chandler forgets to mention who killed the chauffeur!

Today, most readers would not even wince at the storyline. But, Chandler's novel must have been considered controversial to audiences when it was printed in 1939, especially because the story included themes such as pornography, homosexuality, and inter-racial relationships; even the 1946 film version starring Humphrey Bogart had to change some of the plot to make it suitable for the audience.

But what makes the novel such a great read is the character Philip Marlowe, the wisecracking, heavy drinking, and chain-smoking private eye. The character, like the plot, is also complex. Marlowe acts tough throughout, but also has a heart. Instead of calling the cops on Carmen, which he could do for a number of reasons in the story, he just wants her to seek help; and he doesn't even take advantage of her when she's lying naked in his bed. He just throws her out. He also plays chess and likes poetry.

Marlowe's quotes are also memorable. When the General asked him how he liked his brandy, Marlowe responds "In a glass." But my favorite line was: "You know what he'll do when he comes back? Beat my teeth out, then kick me in the stomach for mumbling." Wisecracks like these are constant throughout, which makes the story a fun read.

If you appreciate them, you will also appreciate Chandler's metaphors with lines like "Dead men are heavier than broken hearts." I recommend The Big Sleep; it's a classic. A definite must read.

A fantastic detective story centered around tough guy P.I. Philip Marlowe. Many people have complained Chandler leaves a lot of loose ends - which may be true - but over all its a compelling read that you won't be able to put down.

What a great read. I am a major fan of noir fiction and after reading "The Postman Always Rings Twice", I craved another novel to fulfill my addiction and this one popped up. Chandler was way ahead of his time (it was published in 1939) and as cliche as it sounds, I simply could not put this book down. This is a classic that should be read and savoured by any fan of noir fiction.

Good vintage/ classic detective novel. I haven't read any of Chandler's books before, so I started with this one, his first.

I never read the classic detective novels because I knew that they took place in the forties and I thought that they would be really dated and old fashioned.

Yet again, I was wrong. I don't know why I thought that it would be more innocent than it was. People are people and they murdered and gambled and drank and slept around just as well, if not better, than we do now. If you are a fan of mystery and detective novels you should give this a try.

Disclaimer: I began reading THE BIG SLEEP knowing that Humphrey Bogart plays the story's narrator, detective Philip Marlowe, in the screen adaptation. However, I haven't seen the movie, nor read a single Chandler novel until this book.

Nevertheless, I forgot Bogart about as quickly as a smile vanishes when an unasked-for bucket full of cold water is thrown at it. After all, what kind of hard-boiled macho knows interior design, alludes to Marcel Proust, or can resist the desperate advances of a naked woman?

For example, here's how Marlowe describes Eddie Mars's place: "It was wainscoted in walnut and had a frieze of faded damask above the paneling." Damask? Get outta here. Marlowe does this repeatedly, and by the mid-way point, I concluded that Marlowe is about as hard boiled as a three-minute egg.

Regarding Chandler's style, it could be argued that he overuses the simile, because this device sometimes calls attention to itself. For example, "The plants filled the place, a forest of them, with nasty meaty leaves and stalks like the newly washed fingers of dead men" is the third of four such similes in a single long paragraph in chapter 2.

Nevertheless, this book moves so rapidly, you'd better be wearing a seatbelt. A bigger mystery seems to loom behind every solved one leading to a surprising conclusion.

And old codger who lives his last days in a hot-house calls in Marlow to help him. It seems he has received a blackmail threat from a person whom he has never met! Before Marlowe can hit the pavement, the codger's sexy young daughter has dragged Marlowe upstairs for a quick conference. The trail leads to a rather disreputable bookstore on Hollywood Boulevard and the trail keeps twisting as marlowe opens a can of malignant worms that he never imagined. As usual (okay, always!) with me, the plot is confusing and difficlut to follow. In fact, I admit to occasionally being bugged by Chandler's stylish techniqye of letting the reader guess who is talking, but the words Chandler uses are above reproach. I loved this book, and admired Chandler's ability to absorb the reader in the dark world of his imaginings.

Great book! If you like detective fiction, then you will love this book.

This review was written for the movie version of the Big Sleep but the key points apply here.


I admit to being a film noir fan of long standing. Maybe it was the fact of growing up in the time of black and white television and watching all those late night movies which were freely available at the time. Maybe it was that tight, if improbable, dialogue, the relatively simple plots and the dramatic effect of the shadows of black and white photography on mood. In any case, the Big Sleep fits nicely into that mix. The plot line is fairly simple- Out in pre-World War II California an old rich man with two young wild daughters mixed up in who knows what is looking for his old drinking companion who is missing- enter Phillip Marlowe, gumshoe extraordinaire, who will go through hell and high water to find him dodging bullets, blackjacks, gangsters, crooked cops and meaningful glances from the daughters in order to satisfy his client's wishes. Intrepid, this Marlowe. Of course, as always the real guilty parties will have to face justice, some kind of justice. That is Marlowe's way, as well.

In any case one should read Raymond Chandler's book by the same name, that this movie is based on, to get a better feel for the language, his original plot, and better insight into the motivations of the parties. This movie was remade in color in the 1980's and is probably truer to Chandler's designs but this is the definitive Big Sleep.

This review was written for the movie version of the Big Sleep but the key points apply here.


I admit to being a film noir fan of long standing. Maybe it was the fact of growing up in the time of black and white television and watching all those late night movies which were freely available at the time. Maybe it was that tight, if improbable, dialogue, the relatively simple plots and the dramatic effect of the shadows of black and white photography on mood. In any case, the Big Sleep fits nicely into that mix. The plot line is fairly simple- Out in 1930's California old man with two young wild daughters mixed up in who knows what is looking for his old drinking companion who is missing- enter Phillip Marlowe, gumshoe extraordinaire, who will go through hell and high water to find him dodging bullets, blackjacks, gangsters, crooked cops and meaningful glances from the daughters in order to satisfy his client's wishes. Intrepid, this Marlowe. Of course, as always the real guilty parties will have to face justice, some kind of justice. That is Marlowe's way, as well. In any case one should read Raymond Chandler's book by the same name, that this movie is based on, to get a better feel for the language, his original plot, and better insight into the motivations of the parties. This movie was remade in color in the 1980's and is probably truer to Chandler's designs but this is the definitive Big Sleep.

A very good detective novel that whisks you away to the gritty underbelly and ornate mansions of 1930's Los Angeles. Beautifully written with razor sharp dialogue, a strong central character (Philip Marlowe, Private Investigator) and atmospheric description. The story's infamously labyrinthine plot with it's twists and turns is challenging but doesn't come close to being impenetrable. My only real complaint is that the book to me seems more like an exercise in style and there really isn't too much substance. All in all, an excellent read if you're looking for something well written but light. Recommended.

A vivid use of simile compounded by a strong story line - all surrounding the just-arriving urbanization of Los Angeles - makes this one of the great American classic crime novels.

Chandler's writing is short and quick. Occasionally, he may drop a unique word upon the reader, but more often his reader receives a simile or description which does not mirror or even compare to the British writers of the same generation. One example: "he felt as empty as a scarecrow's pocket."

And, Chandler is not trying to deliver a hidden meaning within the story. There is no hidden symbolism. It is merely a story. Well told. Extremely well told. All by an extremely talented writer.

Chandler's debut book (first published in 1939) with similarly intriguing novels by contemporaries James Cain, Dashiell Hammett and others helped mold many subsequent great crime writers (Micky Spillane, John MacDonald, and James Ellroy among so many others) to create a uniquely American literary venue. This book may have inspired all of the before-mentioned writers. This book, almost 70 years after initial publication, still reads well and most probably will inspire many more writers.

This is a masterpiece.

"The Big Sleep" was the first of Raymond Chandler's classic mystery novels featuring the character of Philip Marlowe, the clever detective portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in the 1946 film adaptation and Robert Mitchum in the 1978 adaptation. In this novel, Marlowe is hired by the old, crippled, and rich General Sternwood to find out who has blackmailed him. To Marlowe it seems simple enough - at first. Then he meets the General's two daughters: troublesome, cute little sister Carmen, and Vivian, the watchful big sister with a gambling problem. From there, things get messy.

The novel is, at times, a little confusing - as was the '46 movie. There is at least one murder which is never resolved - in fact, it's dropped completely. But flaws like these didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. Instead, they made me enjoy it more. It makes it all the more mysterious and bizarre. All is resolved in the end, though.

One of the high points of the book is the snappy, witty dialogue, most of which comes from Marlowe. I had the same though reading this that I did when I read "The Maltese Falcon" recently: it's amazing how much the English language has changed in a period of about seventy years.

Throughout the novel, you get a fine sense of how Raymond Chandler saw Los Angeles in 1939. It's a dark, sprawling city filled with criminals and crime to the point where the cops don't even care anymore. In a way, I was reminded of the city depicted in Robert Rodriguez's "Sin City". The last true hero in the city is Marlowe, an unconventional hero to be sure. And that's because he's a human hero. A hero from the real world. He's not perfect, but he tries hard to do what's right.

"The Big Sleep" is a marvelous book, a true masterpiece of detective fiction. I would most definitely recommend it.

Except for his "Poodle Springs", Chandler's last [unfinished] novel, which Robert B. Parker completed for him, we're new to the exploits of Philip Marlowe. We're not sure we find him that likable a character, although he's a stereotypical "hard-boiled" private eye in the tradition of Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade. He is indeed a persistent cuss; and the ladies seem to all fall for him, disrobing at the slightest provocation, usually to their own frustration, as Marlowe seems to be more the looker than the doer!

As most would aver, Chandler can turn beautiful phrases and is well known for outstandingly descriptive simile. We were really charmed by something on just page two: "Then she lowered her lashes until they almost cuddled her cheeks and slowly raised them again, like a theater curtain." Nice, eh? Unfortunately, to us, the author's skill at plot development doesn't match his wordcraft.

In "Sleep" (his first novel, published in 1939), Marlowe takes on a job to stop a wealthy ex-General's daughter from being blackmailed by a sleazy Los Angeles porno promoter. He takes care of that matter soon enough but eventually noses into the missing husband of the other daughter, the job everybody seems to think the General really wanted solved. As the story develops, a quagmire of underworld types, with some more murders and attempts on Marlowe himself thrown in for good measure, propel us toward a surprising conclusion. Having discovered the brutal truth, would a professional sleuth really turn his back on the police and the court system in favor of his own dispensation of "justice?" We doubt it.

We'll admit this tale holds up well for being close to 70 years old! And there's plenty of enjoyable suspense as the book unfolds. We suspect if this book could be re-edited to clean up some of the confusing middle-book plot, it would be a top notch mystery. But as is, "Sleep" is certainly an entertaining novel - one that compels us to try at least one more Marlowe just for fun!

After I started reading Cain, specifically Double Indemnity, I decided that I should brush up on good ole' American detective novels. Chandler, no doubt, is considered to amongst the Pantheon of American detective writers.

The Big Sleep is the first novel by Cain. I admire the gritty Los Angeles of the 1930s that Cain presents. His main character, Marlowe, is a tough yet sarcastic detective whose off to solve a blackmail problem for a certain wealthy family. Marlowe then gets involved with Murder, more blackmail, organized crime, and more.

There are quite a few good things about this novel. The way he describes Los Angeles is both pertinent to the novel, and fun to read by itself. The snappy one liners and tough guy attitude both presents a noir type image for Marlowe, while allowing for humor. The characters, though outlandish, are indeed interesting and add to depth of the novel.

There were some problems that I just couldn't get past though. First and foremost is the lack of continuity and fluidity. Chandler places a lot of emphasis on descriptions of buildings and atmosphere. While adding to the novel in some aspects, it bogs down the reader in many other aspects. It's also a pretty hard to follow book for today's reader. I'm not sure if it's his unique writing style that hasn't quite been developed, if the reader expected something different in the 30s, the language and colloquialisms have changed, or a combination of all of the above. Often times I found myself re-reading a few paragraphs and still being a bit confused about the exact situation.

Finally, the book just kind of gets out there. It goes from blackmail to some murder with pornographers, to nude photographs, and casinos and such. With the fluidity and difficulty in reading this book, it magnified the lack of realism and outlandishness that I wouldn't really expect from a realistic detective novel.

All in all, I admire the book, but I can't really say I enjoyed it.

I don't think that it is an exaggeration to call The Big Sleep one of the best American novels ever written. It is the novel that introduces Phillip Marlowe to the world - as well as the inimitable literary styling of Raymond Chandler. No one knew how to work a simile quite the way Chandler could. It has been parodied, but never duplicated.

The plot of the novel is almost impossible to follow, but who cares. Phillip Marlowe is hired by General Sternwood because he is being blackmailed. Soon after, people keep turning up dead. "So many guns in this town and so little brains," Marlowe observed. There is the famous story: when Howard Hawks was filming the movie, he couldn't figure out who killed the chauffer. He sent a letter to Chandler - who couldn't figure it out either.

Just enjoy the book. It not only bears reading but re-reading. It is truly classic literature.

The private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by the ailing General Sternwood to help out with a blackmail case. However, the case turns out to be far more complicated than that, involving Sternwood's two daughters and their chequered past (and present). Marlowe finds himslef involved in greater intrigue and danger than he had originally anticipated.

This short novel is more punchy and risqué than the film version - dealings in pornography feature large and the sexual references are about as subtle as an air raid. The repartee spicey, witty and fun to read. Perhaps all this was original for the time in whjich it was written, and it now makes up for the rather confused plot: you could almost state that "The Big Sleep" is a huge triumph of style over substance. It certainly gives a picture of late a 1930s/early 1940s America is which booze flowed (even when you were driving), and just about everyone smoked and thought it was chic to do so - the world must have been viewed through a pall of tobacco smoke. Heaven help your lungs, even if you were a non-smoker! There is a strong vein of misogyny running through the book too: the women are sexual objects, but held in some contempt at the same time.

Overall a fun read, despite its age and faults.

G Rodgers

If you enjoyed the indispensable Bogey & Bacall classic movie by the same name, you will undoubtedly enjoy this masterfully pinned classic novel. What makes this novel worth reading even after having seen the flick are the both subtle and striking divergences amongst the two art forms.

For starters, the book is infinitely more juicier than the movie in terms of sheer debauchery and scathing wisecracks. Secondly, Carmen is much more central in the book than in the movie -- not to mention the conspicuous absence of Eddie Mars' wife in the movie. As a bonus, you get to hear "You're cute" uttered by the temptress many more times in the book. Moreover, a pivotal scene at the end is omitted at the end of the movie that will irretrievably change your outlook on the movie's conclusion.

Vivian: Why did you have to go on?

Marlowe: Too many people told me to stop.

I picked up The Big Sleep after the author of one of my favorite new authors of last year, Richard K. Morgan, was compared left and right to Raymond Chandler. The comparison was apt, and Morgan should be flattered, because Chandler is a genius.

This book is Chandler's first and it introduces his hero, Philip Marlowe, a smart-mouthed, hard-boiled private dick who is straight as an arrow. The mystery is a wonderful tale, but what makes this book great is the noir writing. The characters are all cynical and full of wonderful 1930's slang. The first person narrative is also laden with delicious similes: "I was as empty of life as a scarecrow's pockets."

Five stars for Chandler and this wonderful book.