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Farewell, My Lovely
(Philip Marlowe #2)
by
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 leads to a ring of jewel thieves, another murder, a fortune-teller, a couple more murders, and more corruption than your average graveyard.
...more
Paperback, 292 pages
Published
August 1992
by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
(first published January 1st 1940)
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Definitely my favorite Chandler, beating out The Big Sleep by a star and more than a dozen memorable lines. This book is absolutely soaking in quotables and may have the best prose of any noir I’ve ever read. Add in a classic main character and a solid plot and you have a nice shiny bundle of win.
PHILIP MARLOWE:
Chandler’s iconic PI is an arrogant alcoholic who fails every PC test you can formulate. He’s racist (from what I recall he insults African-Americans, Japanese and Native Americans and ...more
PHILIP MARLOWE:
Chandler’s iconic PI is an arrogant alcoholic who fails every PC test you can formulate. He’s racist (from what I recall he insults African-Americans, Japanese and Native Americans and ...more
Mr. Philip Marlowe is six feet tall and weighing 190 lbs. man, women find quite attractive, maybe a tough guy to many onlookers in a sleazy and a low -paying occupation too, but is not a superhero, no eyes in the back of the head when someone smashes his skull with a club from behind, bigger stronger men can and do beat him to a bloody pulp, still the private detective is relentless and will get up... A kind of honestly is his code, yet does bend a little for his needs... constantly smoking ciga
...more
I love Goodreads it has really enhanced my reading experience. And at the same time added to my anxiety. There are too many great books to read. I have at least 3k physical books on my TBR pile in my office that has really turned into a book storage space. When another reader posts something about one of my favorite books, I stop and think about how much I loved that book. That’s what happened recently with Farewell My Lovely. I dropped what I was reading and read it again. I don’t have time to
...more
Farewell, My Lovely (Philip Marlowe, #2), Raymond Chandler
Farewell, My Lovely is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and radio.
Private detective Philip Marlowe is investigating a dead-end missing person case when he sees a felon, Moose Malloy, barging into a nightclub called Florian's, looking for his ex-girlfriend Velma Valento. ...more
Farewell, My Lovely is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and radio.
Private detective Philip Marlowe is investigating a dead-end missing person case when he sees a felon, Moose Malloy, barging into a nightclub called Florian's, looking for his ex-girlfriend Velma Valento. ...more
First of all I'm so partial to R.Chandler's books that I'd easily give only the titles three stars,and this gem is definitely a five-star title.
Apart from this sentimental love-and-hate story,I’m ALWAYS impressed by the characters speaking like they carry a book of wit and humor,to the point that I’ll start picking up sharp-edged setences from here and add them to my daily conversation.
The plot is a bit comlicated with rugged and overused narrative and minor parts,but the main irresistible chara ...more
Apart from this sentimental love-and-hate story,I’m ALWAYS impressed by the characters speaking like they carry a book of wit and humor,to the point that I’ll start picking up sharp-edged setences from here and add them to my daily conversation.
The plot is a bit comlicated with rugged and overused narrative and minor parts,but the main irresistible chara ...more
"She's a nice girl. Not my type."
"You don't like them nice?" He had another cigarette going. The smoke was being fanned away from his face by his hand.
"I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin."
Hey, copper, it's how I talk, see? Mahhhhhh
This was exactly what the doctor ordered after a blitz of wonderful yet terribly earnest books, one after the other. This classic noir was everything I needed. A handsome private dick (ahem), a heist of some rare jade jewels, mysterious beauties, ...more
"You don't like them nice?" He had another cigarette going. The smoke was being fanned away from his face by his hand.
"I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin."
Hey, copper, it's how I talk, see? Mahhhhhh
This was exactly what the doctor ordered after a blitz of wonderful yet terribly earnest books, one after the other. This classic noir was everything I needed. A handsome private dick (ahem), a heist of some rare jade jewels, mysterious beauties, ...more
Sep 30, 2011
Dan Schwent
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2012,
crime-and-mystery
Philip Marlowe is looking for a woman's missing husband when he encounters Moose Malloy, a brute fresh out of prison, looking for his lost love Velma. Moose kills a man and Marlowe gets corralled into looking for the missing Velma. In the mean time, Marlowe gets another gig as a bodyguard and soon winds up with a corpse for a client. Will Marlowe find Velma and get to the bottom of things?
As I've said before, noir fiction and I go together like chronic constipation and heroin addiction. Farewell ...more
As I've said before, noir fiction and I go together like chronic constipation and heroin addiction. Farewell ...more
Excerpts from a dinner honoring the 2016 winner of the Otis Chandler Award for Literary Criticism
Audience Question: You’re known for your essay on the Kantian aesthetic of disinterested judgment as seen in the works of James Joyce, William Gaddis, and Dan Brown. Are there other authors or titles that come to mind, perhaps even more focused on the primacy of style?
Steve: Well, let’s see… Maybe the first book I read where a certain shadowy deportment really popped as a pure statement of style ...more
Audience Question: You’re known for your essay on the Kantian aesthetic of disinterested judgment as seen in the works of James Joyce, William Gaddis, and Dan Brown. Are there other authors or titles that come to mind, perhaps even more focused on the primacy of style?
Steve: Well, let’s see… Maybe the first book I read where a certain shadowy deportment really popped as a pure statement of style ...more
Phillip Marlowe is one of the most famous and influential characters in detective fiction. He’s also a racist alcoholic, and after all the blows to the head he routinely takes, he’s almost certainly suffering from post-concussion syndrome so you gotta question his judgment.
But he’s also the guy that says things like this:
"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window."
And this:
"He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake."
And t ...more
But he’s also the guy that says things like this:
"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window."
And this:
"He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake."
And t ...more
It's impossible to think of anything that might be remotely fresh and interesting to say about this book. It's a classic of crime fiction; it was first published in 1940, and it's been reviewed thousands of times, mostly by people far more competent than I.
Suffice it to say that this is the second full-length novel featuring Los Angeles detective Philip Marlowe, following The Big Sleep, which had been published in 1939. Marlowe was the prototype for all the tough, wise-cracking P.I.s that would ...more
Suffice it to say that this is the second full-length novel featuring Los Angeles detective Philip Marlowe, following The Big Sleep, which had been published in 1939. Marlowe was the prototype for all the tough, wise-cracking P.I.s that would ...more
Not as complicated as it seems or as Chandler would like you to believe. And that's a-okay! I love a little private dick action and this is perfectly satisfying!
This story of a thug getting out of prison and trying to find his girl is fairly straightforward, but Raymond Chandler throws a bucketload of red herrings into Farewell, My Lovely in an attempt to throw you, dear reader, off the trail. Stick to the yellow brick road, Dorothy, and you'll figure it all out in short order.
Fresh off The Big ...more
This story of a thug getting out of prison and trying to find his girl is fairly straightforward, but Raymond Chandler throws a bucketload of red herrings into Farewell, My Lovely in an attempt to throw you, dear reader, off the trail. Stick to the yellow brick road, Dorothy, and you'll figure it all out in short order.
Fresh off The Big ...more
Fabulous! Philip Marlowe is the man! He gets quite knocked about in this story, which was good enough for me not to guess what was going on until I was told. And that is good enough for me!
Anne, a side kick character in this story sums up the story and Marlowe like this:
You’re so marvellous,’ 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 betw ...more
Anne, a side kick character in this story sums up the story and Marlowe like this:
You’re so marvellous,’ 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 betw ...more
3.5 stars
A very uneven successor to The Big Sleep, but truly brilliant in part. If I were to make a movie from a book, this would be The One. 😃
The first 1/4 is quite slow, clumsy even (see below). But then it quite suddenly gets wonderful. I wish I could know what happened to Chandler to wake him up. The prose suddenly soars.
Update: It turns out this book is a (clumsy) conglomeration of three of Chandler’s previous short stories:
1. Moose looking for Velma (poor)
2. A stolen jade necklace (adequa ...more
A very uneven successor to The Big Sleep, but truly brilliant in part. If I were to make a movie from a book, this would be The One. 😃
The first 1/4 is quite slow, clumsy even (see below). But then it quite suddenly gets wonderful. I wish I could know what happened to Chandler to wake him up. The prose suddenly soars.
Update: It turns out this book is a (clumsy) conglomeration of three of Chandler’s previous short stories:
1. Moose looking for Velma (poor)
2. A stolen jade necklace (adequa ...more
Down These Mean Streets
When you open up any dictionary and you look up the phrase Hardboiled private eye, you'll find it defined right there in black and white as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. If much of the book seems familiar, it may be that you read it many years ago or that so many of the motifs were borrowed and used by so many other private eye writers over the years. But if you want to know how it's really done, you return to the master Hardboiled craftsman himself.
I always picture ...more
When you open up any dictionary and you look up the phrase Hardboiled private eye, you'll find it defined right there in black and white as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. If much of the book seems familiar, it may be that you read it many years ago or that so many of the motifs were borrowed and used by so many other private eye writers over the years. But if you want to know how it's really done, you return to the master Hardboiled craftsman himself.
I always picture ...more
During a boring routine case Philip Marlowe stumbles upon a huge (really huge) guy dressed the way which would make any peacock die of jealousy. He seems to be looking for a long-lost girlfriend doing this with a grace and persistence of a charging rhinoceros. Marlowe decides to stick with the guy having nothing better to do and as a result he keeps getting high level of entertainment, noir fashion: he gets shot at, people use his head for a drum set to knock him out, and tough guys try to beat
...more
In this his second adventure, private detective Philip Marlowe – more or less in between cases – pokes his inquisitive nose where it doesn’t belong. Encountering a behemoth of an ex-con, Moose Malloy, on the street, Marlowe follows the big man into a bar and witnesses a murder. And before the reader can ask, “Where’s my Velma?” – the question makes sense when you read the novel – Marlowe finds himself embroiled in police corruption, a blackmail scam, chasing a gang of jewelry thieves, another mu
...more
“I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance. I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.”
While working a missing persons case, Detective Philip Marlowe finds himself drawn into a murder investigation. Jailbird Moose Malloy knocks off the proprietor of a local watering hole in his pursuit of a gal named Velma. While assisting the cops in hunting him down, Marlowe backs off the case when he realizes he ...more
While working a missing persons case, Detective Philip Marlowe finds himself drawn into a murder investigation. Jailbird Moose Malloy knocks off the proprietor of a local watering hole in his pursuit of a gal named Velma. While assisting the cops in hunting him down, Marlowe backs off the case when he realizes he ...more
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
Reading Raymond Chandler is a bit like wandering through a haunted house. You know that around every corner will be something new, some person popping out with a chainsaw to make you scream. In Chandler's case, it is an incredible description or metaphor or stylized piece of dialogue that will make you scream, and they'll be screams of delight.
Consider this description:
Consider this description:
A large, thick-necked Negro was leaning against the end of the bar with pink garters on his shirt sleeves and pink and white sus...more
After reading two of his novels now, I'm beginning to like Raymond Chandler much more for his writing than for his plots. For anyone who thinks crime fiction has no place in the literary world, the Marlowe novels might make you change your mind. Chandler's an amazing writer when it comes to social commentary, the similes, metaphors and the sharp, electric prose he's famous for, and of course, his superb depiction of the city of angels of the 1940s that is so lifelike you almost feel that you're
...more
Some dithering on my part between 4 and 5 stars—but I am going for 5 because I so enjoyed the reading experience.
I fear that I will repeat myself a lot from my review of The Big Sleep. Chandler’s writing is awesome—very expressive, yet very spare. Each novel is a complete joy, but not padded with anything extra. Occasional, brief descriptions of surroundings paint a full picture with very few strokes. His vocabulary choices are spot on. A delight to read.
I very much receive the impression that P ...more
I fear that I will repeat myself a lot from my review of The Big Sleep. Chandler’s writing is awesome—very expressive, yet very spare. Each novel is a complete joy, but not padded with anything extra. Occasional, brief descriptions of surroundings paint a full picture with very few strokes. His vocabulary choices are spot on. A delight to read.
I very much receive the impression that P ...more
Sep 25, 2016
Suzy
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Suzy by:
Henry Avila
What could be better than listening to Elliot Gould read a Philip Marlowe mystery?! He was the perfect narrator to match Chandler's tough guy noir classic. I loved the rat-a-tat writing, whether actual dialog or Marlowe's first person description of the action. So many quotable lines, I'm not even going to try! Creating atmosphere is what Chandler is all about and he completely transports the reader to 1940's Los Angeles's seamier side. There was so much going on that, at times, I lost the threa
...more
"Even on Central Avenue, not the quietest dressed street in the world, he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food."
I'm gonna admit right up front that the fourth star of my rating comes entirely from Raymond Chandler and his way with words. Nobody knew how to turn a phrase like good old Ray-Ray. I mean, what a guy. What a kick he must have been at parties.
I don't normally read books for language alone. I'm an emotional reader, and my emotions tend to be tickled by c ...more
I'm gonna admit right up front that the fourth star of my rating comes entirely from Raymond Chandler and his way with words. Nobody knew how to turn a phrase like good old Ray-Ray. I mean, what a guy. What a kick he must have been at parties.
I don't normally read books for language alone. I'm an emotional reader, and my emotions tend to be tickled by c ...more
“I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin.”
Review for Trouble is My Business: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I know, Raymond Chandler and his Philip Marlowe series have a peerless place in the realm of hard boiled genre, even Mr. Haruki Murakami, my idol, is a huge fan of Mr. Chandler as well. but seriously Farewell, My Lovely is the only Marlowe's mystery among the total six or seven of the series that manages to stay in my mind.
(link: https://media1.giphy.com/medi ...more
Oct 07, 2012
K.D. Absolutely
rated it
liked it
Recommended to K.D. by:
501 Must Read Books (Thriller)
It took me awhile before I was able to grasp what the story was all about. I was expecting this to be a noir but basically it was a like a Sherlock Holmes short story expanded to a novel. And for that reason, despite my failed expectation, I liked this book.
The language is quite old. This is because the setting is in Los Angeles during the 20's and the characters belong to the city's dark underworld, i.e., nightlife, crimes, drugs, murder. Racial discrimination is still rampant. The murder of a ...more
The language is quite old. This is because the setting is in Los Angeles during the 20's and the characters belong to the city's dark underworld, i.e., nightlife, crimes, drugs, murder. Racial discrimination is still rampant. The murder of a ...more
May 08, 2016
Paul E. Morph
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-read-in-2016
Philip Marlow makes for a distinctly distasteful protagonist. He's a homophobic, mysogynist racist with a pretty large booze and cigarettes monkey hanging from his back. A lot of this can be put down to the time in which he operates; almost everybody held the same prejudices in that time and place. It still makes for uncomfortable reading for this 21st century liberal at times.
Why am I reading this, then? Well, it's pretty simple: Chandler's writing is phenomenal. He pretty much defined the crim ...more
Why am I reading this, then? Well, it's pretty simple: Chandler's writing is phenomenal. He pretty much defined the crim ...more
“She sighed. “All men are the same.” “So are all women—after the first nine.”
― Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely
Detective Marlowe returns. In this tale he stumbled into a missing person case handed over to him by a disinterested detective.
As usual, Marlowe meets colorful characters and suffers for it.
This was an audio version by Elliot Gould. I doubt I can listen to any other audio narrator as he does it so well and you can tell he loves the novel series.
MY GRADE: B plus to A minus.
― Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely
Detective Marlowe returns. In this tale he stumbled into a missing person case handed over to him by a disinterested detective.
As usual, Marlowe meets colorful characters and suffers for it.
This was an audio version by Elliot Gould. I doubt I can listen to any other audio narrator as he does it so well and you can tell he loves the novel series.
MY GRADE: B plus to A minus.
A victory of style if ever there was one. Immersed in the beauty of his prose, the way in which he presents his world, the timing of his humour, one scarcely notices the storyline, and I use that word advisedly.
As it happened, style's been uppermost in my mind lately while editing a friend's autobiographical ms. In her attempt to find her style she has resorted to a heavy-handed use of The Rhetorical Comma. Eventually they began to enrage me. I pictured lining them up in front of a firing squad ...more
As it happened, style's been uppermost in my mind lately while editing a friend's autobiographical ms. In her attempt to find her style she has resorted to a heavy-handed use of The Rhetorical Comma. Eventually they began to enrage me. I pictured lining them up in front of a firing squad ...more
More tough-talking noir from the world-weary Marlowe as he untangles another convoluted case involving jewel heists, blackmail, corruption, a beautiful woman on the make and a feisty girl-next-door. The casual racism is jarring to modern ears with use of the N word alongside descriptions of an Indian who is 'greasy' and 'smelly'... But the prose is characterful and the plot flows easily - and me, I love Moose Malloy!
...more
In Farewell, My Lovely, Chandler's second novel, the activity opens with Marlowe researching an ordinary missing-individual's case. Amid his interest, Marlowe discovers something much all the more intriguing inside and out. He experiences Moose Molloy, a major bruiser simply out of prison and vigilant for his previous love, Velma. The scene is Florian's, an 'eat and dice emporium', a place where Velma filled in as a vocalist at the season of Moose's conviction nearly eight years back. Before he
...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading 1001: Farewell, My Lovely - Raymond Chandler | 3 | 15 | Sep 26, 2020 11:08PM | |
| Who Doesn't Love ...: Farewell My Lovely / Raymond Chandler - 3*** | 1 | 4 | Jun 16, 2017 07:27AM | |
| Play Book Tag: Farewell My Lovely / Raymond Chandler - 3*** | 1 | 7 | Jun 16, 2017 06:50AM | |
| Around the Year i...: Farewell My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler | 1 | 13 | May 13, 2016 06:33PM | |
| Surprised to learn this about Marlowe and Spade | 2 | 23 | Jan 24, 2016 03:03PM | |
| The lack of classic Crime Fiction books. | 5 | 79 | Oct 16, 2015 04:07AM |
Readers also enjoyed
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.
In 1932, at age forty-four, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the 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 ...more
In 1932, at age forty-four, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the 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 ...more
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“It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.”
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