Raymond Chandler : Stories and Early Novels : Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)

by Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler : Stories and Early Novels : Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)
book data
238 ratings, 4.43 average rating, 22 reviews (more data...)
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published
October 1st 1995 by Library of America

binding
Hardcover, 1216 pages

isbn
1883011078    (isbn13: 9781883011079)

description
If you're looking for the perfect gift for yourself or some other lover of mysteries, this beautifully-made volume from the Library of America series ...more




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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 364)

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Platoeatssouls
bookshelves: mystery, theboxmarkeddone
Read in June, 2007
recommends it for: people who want to be happy
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 lat...more
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W.H. Manville
02/24/09
W.H. Manville rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in January, 1986
The Big Sleep

When Shakespeare wrote his plays in blank verse, he wasn't trying to high hat his customers. That's what they bought their tickets to hear. It was the commercial form of the day.
That was OK with WS.
Rejecting the notion that the fate of an artist is to starve, Shakespeare chose themes no less sensational than those which make our own Best Seller lists today -- murder, love, war, swordplay&duels, treachery, romance, double crossing and cross ...more
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Dia
06/06/09
Dia rated it: 5 of 5 stars

This isn't actually the book I read, but it's the closest I could find depicted on Goodreads...Mine is a 1964 omnibus edition that contains The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, and The Lady in the Lake.

With that piece of housekeeping out of the way, I will proceed to reviewing...or rather, in this case, to reverential, rhapsodic rejoicing!

I read these stories 15 years ago and was so enamored that I tried to write my own version of a Phillip Marlowe entang...more
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Yahya
03/27/08
Yahya rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2008
راستش وقتی طرح جلد کتاب و عنوانش را دیدم، با خودم گفتم این کتاب خوبی نیست. کتاب البته ترجمه خیلی خوبی داشت و شروع خوبی هم داشت. ولی کل داستان حکایت کش دار دو روز بود. آدمهای بی ربط و مزخرفی داشت و "راز" قصه هم آنقدرها چیز دندانگیری نبود. البته نقاط قوت زیادی هم داشت، من جمله ش...more
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Chris
01/25/08
Chris rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: fiction
Read in February, 2008
In my first round of reading Chandler (I had read The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye before starting this collection) I was most impressed by the language and the world-weary cynicism. This time, while I still loved those things, I also came to appreciate the nature of Chandler's detectives, especially Marlowe.

Unlike a lot of detectives, especially serialized detectives, Marlowe isn't that smart. He'll tell you so, repeatedly. Instead, Marlowe is a great detec...more
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Rob
06/27/07
Rob rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2007
recommends it for: mystery lovers
[D]efinitely [a] classic [piece] of American literature worthy of a second or even first tier position in the pantheon. [...] John commented on some parallels between Chandler and William Gibson (one of my perennial favorites), citing the former as a major and obvious influence on the latter. [...] I agree with John that Chandler’s influence on Gibson is apparent though I think they are going after far different goals as writers: Case is the illegitimate son of the illegitimate son of Philip M...more
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Taka
05/06/09
Taka rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0375415017)

Read in June, 2009
Chandler is the man--

All the stories are packed with action and very engaging. Of all the three novels, Chandler is at his best in Farewell, My Lovely with his concise, imaginative descriptions and metaphors that kept me amazed throughout.

The Big Sleep is a solid novel with a good story rendered in unique prose. The High Window definitely drops in quality in my opinion, but still delivers a highly entertaining story.

After reading these novels, I have little ch...more
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Chander2
09/22/07
Chander2 rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: currently-reading
"What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was. But the old man didn't have to be. He could lie quiet in his ...more
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Elizabeth
11/27/08
Elizabeth rated it: 5 of 5 stars

See other Raymond Chandler review.
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Douglas Wilson
01/14/09
Douglas Wilson rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: fiction
Read in June, 2007
Lotta fun.
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Christian
01/06/08
Christian marked it as to-read

This is a collection but if I only read The Big Sleep I would consider it 'read.' Marlowe is an interesting character: a sort of self-aware Don Quixote who understands he inhabits a world were morals are for suckers yet continues to follow them. The following quote is revealing: "I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. I put it back where I had moved it from. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights."
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Chris
08/23/07
Chris rated it: 3 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0375415009)

Read in January, 2008
Just picked this up. Really enjoyed reading Chandler on the train rides to/from work last winter. Don't know why, since the stories always seem to be set in southern Cal, but reading him during the winter felt like a good fit. Sort of like I can only listen to Van Halen during the summer. So I'll look forward to picking this up in 4-6 months, I'm guessing...
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Rory
08/27/07
Rory rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in September, 2007
recommends it for: fans of film noir, of course
i only read "the big sleep" in this anthology. partly because my stack of books to read is starting to scare me with its menacing height, and partly because...well, "the big sleep" was just really, really good. suggestive and sly and suspenseful. no wonder this guy's stuff was tapped for cinema adaptation so often.
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Rob Dinsmoor
02/22/08
Rob Dinsmoor rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in July, 2005
I love the language of this book, and the wonderfully vivid description of drunk low-lifes in (1930s?) Los Angeles. The book seems to deal more earnestly with subjects like homosexuality and pornography, which is hardly surprising given the Hayes Code of the time.
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Jessica
03/22/08
Jessica rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2008
Detective novels rock!!! I loved this book. . .I guess I will always have a special place in my heart for characters like Phillip Marlowe; the wonderfully detached private detective.
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Nils Samuels
Any and all of these Chandler short novels are a delight, with world weary detective Marlow and LA of the 1940s. The wounded romantic as cynical helper to those in need.
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Robert
09/09/07
Robert rated it: 5 of 5 stars

If you're going to read Chandler - and you should - you might as well get it all in one place, so these Library of America volumes are all you really need.
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bright_black
05/07/09
bright_black rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in June, 2009
Ooh that detective Marlowe is good.
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Leonard
bookshelves: fiction
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.
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Leo
05/16/08
Leo rated it: 5 of 5 stars

the slumming angel. profoundly talented author writing stuff people may actually love to read...
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The Big Sleep; Farewell, My Lovely; The High Window (Everyman's Library (Cloth))
Raymond Chandler: Collected Stories (Everyman's Library)
The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, Playback (Everyman's Library (Alfred a. Knopf, Inc.).)







groups with this book

Pulp Magazine Authors and Literature Fans
Detectives!






The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Raymond Chandler
Farewell, My Lovely (Paperback) by Raymond Chandler
The Lady in the Lake (Paperback) by Raymond Chandler
The High Window (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Raymond Chandler

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