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The Big Sleep (Penguin fiction)
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| List Price: | £7.99 |
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Product Description
Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. But with Sternwood’s two wild, devil-may-care daughters prowling LA’s seedy backstreets, Marlowe’s got his work cut out – and that’s before he stumbles over the first corpse …
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #5191 in Books
- Published on: 2005-07-07
- Original language: English
- Binding: Paperback
- 272 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
The private eye novel is distinctively American (though Chandler was English), and its emphasis on action, romantic if battered heroism and atmosphere make it an indispensable part of the thriller's heritage. Chandler's finest novel, The Big Sleep, and its hero, Philip Marlowe, were seminal influences. In the late 1940s, Chandler single-handedly dragged pulp fiction into literature with the private eye Philip Marlowe as the white knight on the mean streets of Los Angeles. This novel, which introduces the laconic detective, is a racy story of corruption, murder and blackmail. Marlowe is witty and incorruptible - certainly by the standards of his own moral code. But Marlowe isn't the real star of the books. Top billing goes to Los Angeles - a city exploding with energy, new wealth and greed. You can almost see the orange groves being flattened to make way for the condominiums. Marlowe's Los Angeles is a great setting and a great metaphor for the American dream and the many ways in which it can go sour. Nobody one wrote on these themes better than Chandler. (Kirkus UK)
A good one in the tough school, in which private detective Marlowe is hired to investigate a blackmailing and finds himself bucking a well-run gang, several murders, and the D A's office. Hard-boiled, fast paced, plenty of action, some sensationalism. Not for conservatives. (Kirkus Reviews)
About the Author
Best-known as the creator of the original private eye, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in 1959. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, and he is widely regarded as one of the very greatest writers of detective fiction.
