Philip Marlowe's Guide to Life

by Raymond Chandler, Marty Asher (Editor)

Raymond Chandler’s classic gumshoe Philip Marlowe is the quintessential American detective. His effortless masculinity, smoldering sexuality, and verbal fleetness remain the embodiment of cool. He liked liquor, women, and working alone. And, in a world defined by betrayal, mistrust, and double-dealing, Marlowe’s rough exterior belies an unshakable code of honor. Taken together, his observations and witticisms represent some of the most scathing and brilliant writing in crime fiction, and coalesce into a wonderfully alluring worldview: a vision of unswerving righteousness, accountability, and stylish conduct in a sea of turpitude and injustice.

Philip Marlowe’s Guide to Life is an elegant, A–Z compendium of Marlowe’s ever-more-relevant observations about crime, women, work, sex, good, evil, and life in the big city. Chandler’s genius transcended genre; though he seemed to single-handedly invent noir, his work ventured beyond it into an idiom all its own, and he left behind a legacy of grit and disarming beauty. Here is a brilliant and loving tribute to that legacy, sure to delight fans old and new.

Genres: Fiction, Noir

96 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great 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 addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective". Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe.

The Big Sleep placed second on the Crime Writers Association poll of the 100 best crime novels; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1953) also made the list. The latter novel was praised in an anthology of American crime stories as "arguably the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key, published more than twenty years earlier, to qualify as a serious and significant mainstream novel that just happened to possess elements of mystery". Chandler was also a perceptive critic of detective fiction; his "The Simple Art of Murder" is the canonical essay in the field. In it he wrote: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."
Parker wrote that, with Marlowe, "Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious—an innocent who knows better, a Romantic who is tough enough to sustain Romanticism in a world that has seen the eternal footman hold its coat and snicker. Living at the end of the Far West, where the American dream ran out of room, no hero has ever been more congruent with his landscape. Chandler had the right hero in the right place, and engaged him in the consideration of good and evil at precisely the time when our central certainty of good no longer held."

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and compact, this is a compendium of witty, cynical and often hilarious quotations, taken from Raymond Chandler’s novels featuring Philip Marlowe. Most are from The Big Sleep; Farewell, My Lovely; and The Long Goodbye but there are also a few from his lesser works. The quotes are arranged by subject i.e. Blondes, Los Angeles, The Rich etc. and the subjects are presented in alphabetical order. It’s only about 80 pages in length but it’s filled with some of Chandler’s most memorable material. The wisecracks, humour and philosophical musings in these quotes are quintessential Chandler. Reading them reminded me of how much I’d enjoyed reading his novels and short stories, back in the day. To drag this read out and not overdo a good thing, I took it in small bites - never reading more than two or three pages at a sitting. But in the end, as much as I liked this one, it left me wanting more. Got to go back and re-read some of those Chandler originals. 4 stars

[John of Canada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to categorize.Raymond Chandler really was very well rounded.His stuff on architecture and culture was very well thought out.I was very impressed by his knowlege of classical music.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a tiny (78pp) but fun book that I found in the poetry (!) section of a used-book shop. It's quotes from various Philip Marlowe books on a variety of subjects. Marlowe (or perhaps Raymond Chandler) had opinions on a variety of subjects, from Chopin, T.S. Eliot, Hemingway, Khatchatourian, and Proust, to advertising, chess, doctors, grammar, insects, and orchids. As expected there's also a lot about booze, women, L.A., and trouble. Thrown in are just some of Chandler's great lines: similes, metaphors, descriptions. She'd "make a bishop kick a holes in a stained glass window." "His surprise was as thin as the gold on a weekend wedding ring." "She had ... eyes that could count the money in your hip wallet." Reading the many quotes reminded of the novels they were taken from -- few of the excerpts are from the Marlowe stories, they're just not as memorable as the novels. Chandler put a lot more effort into the novels. My only complaint is that this collection could easily be twice as long, and there are none of his descriptions of interior decoration. No one could describe a room like Chandler. Fun, but probably hard to find, little selection of moments and memories.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of quotes and comments from the great detective is a fun and informative addition to any hardboiled fan's collection.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great bathroom book. Hard-edged bon mots from the original gumshoe himself.

[Misty · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was too bad, just a sample collection of some of Raymond Chandler's writings. A few were poetic.

[T.O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a serious and ardent Marlow/Chandler fan, it is a good one to add to your collection. Appropriate to read right before you go to bed or carry it around when you travel.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a Chandler/Philip Marlowe fan, it's well worth the read. I wish there were more quotes included, but it's a great selection.