The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely

Review of The Big Sleep onlyWhat did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep… ~ Philip Marlowe This is the first time I’ve read The Big Sleep or Raymond Chandler. The novel is the first in Chandler’s detective series about private detective Philip Marlowe. It is a hardboiled (that’s actually a genre…I didn’t know that), crime and/or detective novel, set in late 1930s Los Ang [...]

Raymond Chandler seems to be everywhere. His style, his language, his worldview have been recycled so many times they've almost turned into a cliche: cynical loner navigating a diverse and morally ambiguous modern landscape with nothing but his wits and a biting sense of humor. So it's a total revelation to actually read him and find just how fresh, funny, exciting, appealing and beautiful his writing is.

Farewell, My Lovely was Raymond Chandler’s second novel, following The Big Sleep, and I suppose I wouldn’t have read it this week, having read The Big Sleep last week, if it didn’t come in a two-novel edition issued by the Modern Library. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy The Big Sleep or Farewell, My Lovely, I just tend to let a writer cool off a bit before picking up his or her next book.But in this case I didn’t do that. Here’s what I thought: Farewell, My Lovely sustains Chandler’ [...]

When The Big Sleep was published in 1939. It wasn't all that popular until after the Howard Hawks' film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall came to theaters. The movie was minus a couple of the book's chapters but kept all the best lines. My rating: 3-1/2The Big Sleep introduced readers and movie goers to Philip Marlowe, according to the Los Angeles Times, the "quintessential urban private eye." There were a whole lot of writers that later imitated Raymond Chandler's hero. In the book (no [...]

The last time I had seen Dr. Cliff Harbour, we had spent time talking about the book I was writing as well as the book that he had written, John Dewey and the Future of Community College Education. During that visit, he insisted that I read The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. In fact, he opened the book to the first page and had me read the first couple paragraphs. He wanted to point it out, and what I noted while reading the book, was that Raymond Chandler sparingly us [...]

I wasn't planning on reading both books, but since Chandler's novels are such quick reads, I plowed through The Big Sleep in a couple of days and was stranded without anything else to do but go on. The hardboiled, sarcastic dialogue of Phil Marlowe was the real treat of both of these noir mysteries. Being a fan of the genre of film, I was lured to check out one of the most influential writers of 50s pulp crime fiction. The Big Sleep was by far the best yarn, and one that takes the reader on the [...]

Didn't particularly feel concerned about the results of the plot, as the stakes didn't feel high, but the characterization made up for it to the point that I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Sat this down too often and never made a lot of sense, and I was Ok with that too. Lots of memorable scenes. Zippy reads l, but if these were long I'd be having doubts about whether it is worth it. The constant rain is never ending, and it's implausibility (for LA!) means that the novel has a surreal, Carnival of [...]

The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely are both great mystery stories with beautiful writing. Well written crime novels are an unusual thing! The detective, Philip Marlowe, is such a funny and interesting character. The mystery thing keeps you guessing what's going to happen, but the visual descriptions are also surprisingly enjoyable. I remember an incredibly beautiful passage describing rain. I think Raymond Chandler is the best of his genre! (Hammett is also great, but his writing isn't as bea [...]

Chandler is one of my favorite all time authors. I still havne't read everything he's ever written, but I'm working on it. but of all his work, The Big Sleep was his first and best novel. Funny, with a characters you can't help but like, and not a word wasted anywhere. Too bad Chandler himself was reputedly a total bastard, and an alcoholic, too.

I find myself drawn more and more to detective stories. These are quite good. Detective Marlowe always seems to be a step ahead of the rest of the players and, even though he might get beat up a little, he always comes out on top. It's also great to see someone solve crime without a cell phone and DNA evidence.

Classic hardboiled private investigator stuff. The best the genre ever got. With all the humor and the crazy language, all the dark scenes, all the twisted plots. You have to read this at some point in your life.

The writing was fabulous! It was disappointing to not have one of the murders solved. Apparently Chandler thought he made it clear in the novel and when he went back and read it, he realized it was not clear.

The noirish detective genre has been parodied so many times in so many ways that when someone is playing it absolutely straight you automatically start looking for an ironic angle or some kind of post-modern recontextualization, some wink toward modern times that seems to suggest "Isn't this silly?" while acknowledging the awesome parts of it at the same time. You wait for the rain to hit the roof like hammers and the dames to be dangerous and sexy, for all the most important conversational piec [...]

I loved reading Chandler in my teens, his writing style is easy to get into.Rereading it now in my 60's I am a bit more critical of the plots which in all honesty aren't very good (Who did kill the Sternwood's Chauffeur ?). The truth is however its all about Marlowe, and his interaction with the sleazy world and even sleazier characters that he investigates. Enjoy it on that level and forget about the plot.

The Big Sleep Only - a little dated for me but some of Chandler’s descriptions are clever “her eyelashes cuddled her cheeks”

Farewell, My Lovely was the second Philip Marlowe novel Raymond Chandler wrote, but it was the first to be adapted for the screen as a Philip Marlowe movie. This was the movie retitled as Murder, My Sweet (1944), the film which refashioned the image of crooner Dick Powell and turned him into a popular movie tough guy. The movie hews closely to the plot of the book, with a couple of exceptions, though it leaves much out (as inevitably happens). Marlowe is working on a case that is going nowhere w [...]

Wow. These books were great. I thought the hard-boiled style would seem dated, and I thought I wouldn’t be terribly engaged with The Big Sleep, as I’d seen the Bogart film version a few years before. But I was wrong on both counts. Chandler’s style is smart, funny, and shocking, and the story was changed so much for the movie that there were plenty of moments I was completely unprepared for. The world that Chandler creates is full of great characters that seem one-dimensional at first glan [...]

03May14- It's on Brundage's canon, and I see how Chandler became an icon of the boiler mystery, but the racism, sexism, and homophobia make it difficult to read. It's from a time when those isms were commonplace, and accepted, but great literature, or literature of any kind, usually rises above. He doesn't.:The Big Sleep (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first to feature detective Philip Marlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film, once in 1946 and again in 1978. [...]

Why on earth has it taken me so long to read Raymond Chandler? I love it. His detective, Phillip Marlowe, is funny and lovably fallible, and the edgy world Chandler creates is totally absorbing. I read The Big Sleep for our book club. And then I blew right through Farewell, My Lovely, (which I think was a little better.) I should mention that there are slurs and slights everywhere, on almost every minority you can think of. Also interesting are his women characters, many of whom privileged and/o [...]

My star rating is based on the lumping-together of the two novels. The Big Sleep I would give four stars on its own- engaging, fantastic language, great characters and thematic nuances. Farewell My Lovely I would give two stars on its own- tired language, facile characters; it's like Chandler was tired of writing these novels and had a predictable formula, which didn't quite work with the strange cast of characters he'd assembled, none of whom were adequately examined in the course of the book. [...]

Great insight into 1930s lingo. Makes me wish we would bring some of it back and I can tell someone to "dust" if I want them to leave. Also paints a fantastic picture of LA during that era. Overall, a very good detective story - man without allies trying to survey in a dirty world and the women who throw themselves at him.Should be noted that Farewell, My Lovely far more brutal then The Big Sleep.

I can't really decide how I feel abt this. I mean, I'm a fan of the film, bute book left me a little disappointed. It's interesting to note the complete absence of any black identity in in Film Noir films, yet this book beings with the killing of a black club owner (a killing that is subsequentky forgoteen abt and not dealt with--yet through out the entire book the characters refer to "the killing if the ni**er."). The action is also a little bit lack luster :-/

Chandler's prose is remarkable but I found myself never able to get going with this. I love Marlowe's snappy self-effacement but there was something about the long blocks of description that made my eyes glaze over. I'd read more once I'm done getting through Sin City. Too much noir can make an even keeled guy like myself feel a little less than jake.

Two of the better examples of the hard-boiled genre. Both novels are a thrill ride full of tough men, corrupt cops and femme fatales. Chandler's prose really comes alive in the original language (I had read them both in Spanish years ago), to the point where you can almost smell the cigarrette smoke and taste the cheap whiskey after each reading session. Essential reading for fans of the genre.

so far i really like it. it's hilariouse big sleep was good. all the cheesy PI talk which i guess was made famous by this story and it's contemporaries. i quit in the middle of farewell, my lovely. must have been boring.

Chandler and Hammett are elevated from genre detective novels by the quality of prose and the great sardonic humor and wit. These two books are also great for their illustration of life on the wrong side of the tracks in L.A. in the 30s.

A confusing, but highly entertaining and satisfying read. You don't even have to understand the mystery or the outcome of the case to enjoy Marlowe's wise-cracking, hard-bit existence as a private eye. A must read for everyone.

Pretty good so far. I like these early hard-boiled detective thrillers. Pulpy.Finished - Great book, great movie. Bogart rocks in this - no surprise - and the film runs impressively close to the book.

Farewell, My Lovely is full of remarkably pungent writing, with memorable characters and a somewhat wacky plot. Some really astute sketches of pre-war L.A and a raw scene or two that'd fit in any post-modern play. A great read!

I really liked both stories ("The Big Sleep" & "Farewell, My Lovely"). Mr. Chandler did an excellent job creating believable stories with Philip Marlowe as the main character. It made me want to read more of his works.