Product Description

A warm day on Central Avenue, and Philip Marlowe's hunch about the man beside him is as vague as the heat waves that dance above the sidewalk. The way business is looking, even a hunch is enough. Moose Malloy stands six five and one-half and weighs two hundred and sixty-four pounds, without his necktie. After eight years in the pen, he wants little Velma back, and no cops or mobsters are ready to stand in his way. Marlowe's tough enough for the ride, but he can't help thinking – there’s never been a happy ending to the story of beauty and the beast . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16301 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

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.

Customer Reviews

Farewell my lovely is an intriguing and compelling story
farewell my lovely is a superb example of Chandlers works showing that his use of dialogue coupled with his use of first person narrative creates an atmosphere that draws you in and won't let you go . The story itself is enough to keep the reader interested and so it is not surprising that this tail of a missing girl who has disapeared without a trace and one mans search for her can compell you to just keep on reading, I myself was late for work because of it. I think that the main appeal of this book is that it was written some sixty years ago and yet is still capturing peoples imaginations and still has an apeal that can't quite be fully explained, the style is serious dealing with race issues displaying the American polices indifference towards Blacks at the time (late 1930s) and humorous at the same purely because the mian character in this, and many other Chandler stories, Phillip Marlowe, has some superb lines that will make you smile if not laugh out loud. The dialogue is just perfect the banter the narrative and the serious investigative side of it all seeming to show that Chandler has thought alot about what the actual content of the book would be, rather than relying entirely on the story to sell itelf. This book covers alot of ground including many plot twists but still doesn't seem far fetched or ridiculous in fact it is a better book because of the plot complications . All in all one of the best books i have ever read.

classical black series
This is my first Marlow novel. I cherish its rememberance. I read it when I was about 15 and came like a blow in the stomach. Then I read all Marlow novels in a row.

Marlow is hired to protect a man while he perfoms some business. The man is killed and Marlow begins to investigate. It contains all the good topics of the black series: a honest, tough detective, beautiful gals, tough policemen, dirty politics, runaway gangsters...

This is a detection novel, but also - like good detective novels like Maigret, Waallander, Hammet - a social satire, a raw criticism of USA society and particularly of the affluent, rich, care-for-nothing upper class. The power of money can deform everybody, and little hope is there for the innocent or honest. Morality is nowhere to be found but in some obscure detective, some bitter police officers who cannot do anything about it.

But what I liked best was the clever dialoges, the witty conversation, the inteligent twists in the plot, which takes a new turn in every chapter. In the end, it was not so complicated. It was only a woman and a lot of money. But brother, it was worth the trouble.

In the end, love will take a rush at saving if only poetically those who are foolish enough to belive in love.

Worth the time.

Chandler's best and most literate Marlowe novel
The slick and hard hitting style employed in this book belies its deeper social satire, metaphor and significance as a great character study. The character study is of both Marlowe and the glitzy, dirty world he inhabits. Themes include the effects of success on a personality, honour in places where people don't play by the rules, misplaced love and corruption in the heart of not only a judiciary system, but also the infrastructure of a whole area. It works well as a piece of literature filled with allusion and metaphor. It also works well as a thrilling detective novel - the distinctive and influential prose doesn't miss a beat, nor does the plot, which is lubricated with a pulled gun whenever things start to stick.

I've said all that without really touching on the main draw (in my opinion) of the book - Marlowe. I'll let Chandler say it like it is:

"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. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness."

-- The Simple Art of Murder; the words mean streets were an inspiration for the title of Martin Scorsese's film Mean Streets.

Now buy this book and dangle before I start pumpin' lead!