book data
1,964 ratings,
4.12
average rating, 122 reviews
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published
July 12th 1988
(first published 1940)
by Vintage Crime / Black Lizard
binding
Paperback, 304 pages
characters
isbn
0394758277
(isbn13: 9780394758275)
description
Marlowe's about to give up on a completely routine case when he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time to get caught up in a murder that l...more
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avg 4.12
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in May, 2007
I wish I had Lauren Bacall's looks and a mouth as salty as Phillip Marlowe's. The characters are such great throw backs to the days when men were Men and women were Dames. Chandler's writing is amazingly rich for this genre and the plot lines are just convoluted enough to keep you guessing. Phillip Marlowe is a great faceted character which contrasts nicely against the one-dimensional villains, cops and women who populate the stories. If authors like Sue Grafton are the gummi bears of the genre ...more
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Read in February, 2008
The second Marlowe story continues to establish him as a racist, sexist, homophobic asshole that I just can't help but love. I'm not alone, either! "Farewell..." brings Marlowe a female sidekick, almost as sharp as he is, who also can't help but love him. These first few Chandler novels, the story took second stage to the characters for me, which is a treat when you're dealing with (what was originally conceived as) pulp. This solidified my fan status, while the following two novel...more
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Read in March, 2009
There are many similarities to the film, Murder My Sweet, in Farewell My Lovely. The film was based off the book, however, it was re-titled because the book title had already been used in another film. A lot of the lines that are so classic in the film come from the book. The contexts are different but the lines remain unchanged. What has changed is the plotline. The plot of the book starts when Moose Malloy bumps into Philip Marlowe. Marlowe follows Moose into a bar and is a witness to a murder...more
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Read in December, 2008
A bit more unconventional than The Big Sleep, with forays into dreams and unconsciousness, Farewell, My Lovely is every bit as enjoyable as the former. It's again unapologetically racist and misogynistic, but its interesting and twisting murder plot and its excellent set pieces in L.A.'s most elegant mansions and most dilapidated hovels and dive bars make it compulsively readable. I suppose one could try to blame Chandler's worst impulses as to race and gender on the era he lived in, but I cho...more
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Read in January, 1971
recommends it for:
everyone
Moose Malloy lumbers through life, striking down whatever gets in his way. He nonchalantly kills the owner of a low-life nighclub called Florian's. The object of Moose's affection, a torch singer named Velma Valento, disappears. Marlow is also asked to investigate the disappearance of a valuable jade necklace from the home of an upper crust client. While investigating both Velma's disappearance and the mystery of the jade necklace, he runs into a cast of sleazy characters from all tiers of L...more
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Read in September, 2005
This was my introduction to the work of Raymond Chandler, and in fact it was also my introduction to the American hardboiled school of crime writing. Within a few pages I was totally hooked by Chandler’s prose. I also quickly became fond of Philip Marlowe, and was pleasantly surprised to find that he wasn’t a mere tough guy. In fact he’s a delightful mixture of tough guy and sensitive guy, of cynic and idealist. And Chandler makes that combination of qualities believable. The plot was...more
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Read in March, 2008
Farewell, My Lovely reminded me of Cornell Woolrich in that Raymond Chandler's plot is at least as ridiculous as the plot of any (famously ridiculous) Woolrich novel. What is remarkable is how differently Chandler and Woolrich deal with their own absurdities. The Woolrich strategy is to build a novel whose narrative drive is so intense that readers (hopefully) never notice the plot's defects. The Chandler strategy is just the opposite: His characters spend much of the novel sitting around an...more
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Didn't think Marlowe could get any harder? This is a really good Chandler, I liked it quite a bit better than The Long Goodbye. It had its confusing moments but it generally flowed better and there were a few less turns in the story which made it a whole lot easier to follow.
And, Marlowe drinks harder and kicks even more ass. The final scenes on the waterfront were half James Bond and really solid. If you like these stories this is a really good one.
And, Marlowe drinks harder and kicks even more ass. The final scenes on the waterfront were half James Bond and really solid. If you like these stories this is a really good one.
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Read in May, 2000
Back in the good old California days when women were called "broads" and policemen were referred to as "coppers," Private Detective Philip Marlowe stumbled on a murder. Compelled to find the killer, he becomes involved with a world of high gambling, low crime, and some very disreputable broads, er, women. Marlowe is one of the great literary detectives -- manly, strong and always one step ahead of the bad guys.
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Read in February, 2008
I had not read this in over 14 years. without a doubt, despite my comrade's belief that the plot is so multiple as to frustrate any sense of forward progress, and admittedly, the sentences and the waiting roll over into new plot subsects, despite this though, chandler reigns supreme in constructing a spectral noir l.a., a space of the city that is so labyrinthine, and so vastly comprised of machines, that it will stamp out any individual's efforts. unless you are p. marlowe. then you win. althou...more
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Read in May, 2009
"'You're so marvelous," she said. 'So brave, so determined and you work for so little money. Everybody bats you over the head and chokes you and smacks your jaw and fills you with morphine, but you just keep right on hitting between tackle and end until they're all worn out. What makes you so wonderful?'"
I think that quote from the book about sums it up. Marlowe's just the cat's pajamas when it comes to hard-boiled lit.
I think that quote from the book about sums it up. Marlowe's just the cat's pajamas when it comes to hard-boiled lit.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2007
My second foray into Raymond Chandler (I read i The Big Sleep i earlier in the year). For those who are unfamiliar, Chandler writes stylized detective mysteries set in the LA area during the first half of the 20th century. Real fodder for film noir. The reading is not exactly light, but it's quite cleverly written (i.e. "I used my knee on his face. It hurt my knee. He didn't tell me whether it hurt his face"). I think it really requires a deliberate read, or else a re-reading to catch...more
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Phillip Marlowe is questioning some guy. The guy protests that he has made no comment on a particular subject. Marlowe replies something to the effect that "comments want you to make them." Just an inconsequential piece of dialogue, but I loved it. I like Chandler.
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Read in January, 1980
Chandler set up to write a love story, but it's all over by the time Philip Marlowe guesses what's what. This owes, as most of crime fiction does, a real debt to Jacobian tragedy, most certainly The Changling by Rawling. This is a great retelling.
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Read in July, 2009
I loved it. Even better than The Big Sleep, in my opinion. The end seemed to tail off a bit, which stops it getting five stars, but it's still damn good - worth buying for the dialogue alone, although it's all great.
Favourite quote (not very representative, but still awesome): "I'm in a wild mood tonight. I want to go dance in the foam. I hear the banshees calling."
Favourite quote (not very representative, but still awesome): "I'm in a wild mood tonight. I want to go dance in the foam. I hear the banshees calling."
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Read in January, 2005
My first Chandler--a pretty good read, though these stories are all so similar they don't stick with you much. It's all about the dialogue, the dangerous dames and the tough guys, and this has plenty of those.
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Read in April, 2007
This was the first detective noir book I ever read, and damn, what a read. Wow. I picked it up solely because the library copy was a gorgeous black leather bound hardcover with silver-edged pages (sorry. I know, don't judge books by their covers. but sometimes it is the cover which grabs my eyes...)
And what a read! Chandler's characterization is great, but more than that the witty metaphors he uses keep the game fresh. It was the first book I read in a long time where the prose itself was ...more
And what a read! Chandler's characterization is great, but more than that the witty metaphors he uses keep the game fresh. It was the first book I read in a long time where the prose itself was ...more
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Read in July, 2008
Marlowe strikes again: "I used my knee on his face. It hurt my knee. He didn't tell me whether it hurt his face." Or this: "I like smooth shiny girls, hard-boiled and loaded with sin."
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Read in January, 2007
There's no excuse, I suppose, being an English major, a writer and an editor, for not having read Chandler before now. I'm trying to correct that. Still need to read THE LONG GOODBYE.
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Read in April, 2008
Another Chandler classic. Marlowe gets involve into a web of intrigue that ends up almost costing him his life. Talk about being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Marlowe has develop that ability into an art form. It's noir at his best, written by one of its master. The one every other writers tried and some are still trying to copy or emulate. The plot is like the proverbial Ariadne's thread, you need to find one end and to follow the thread down to the bitter end in order to solve the puzz...more
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quotes from this book
"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window."
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