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The Big Sleep (Penguin Fiction)
 
 
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The Big Sleep (Penguin Fiction) (Paperback)

by Raymond Chandler (Author), Ian Rankin (Introduction) "It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness..." (more)
4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (7 Jul 2005)
  • ISBN-10: 0140108920
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140108927
  • Product Dimensions: 18 x 11.2 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,877 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Mystery > Hard-Boiled
    #1 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > R > Rankin, Ian > Complete List
    #1 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > C > Chandler, Raymond

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Product Description

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 …

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.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. Read the first page
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the all-time classic American crime novels, 6 Feb 2001
By A Customer
First of all, I should say that I can't believe no one else has written a review of this wonderful crime novel. I'm happy to rectify this oversight now.

For me, Raymond Chandler's first novel, published in 1939, stands as not only one of the great crime novels of the 20th century, but one of the best genuinely American prose works in all of literature. Only an ignorant snob could argue that this isn't a piece of literature and a work of art as well as a highly entertaining story of detection. Philip Marlowe is Chandler's laconic private eye hero, an urban knight and man of honour operating in a grim world, a tough guy with a hard shell covering a man of culture and learning. Chandler writes both lines of dialogue and first person narrative to die for, combining a poet's use of metaphor with the hard-edged wit of the mean streets of Los Angeles, whose dark underbelly Chandler explores in his novels.

The plot of this mystery is legendary for its labyrinthine structure as Marlowe takes on a case for the wealthy General Sternwood, getting mixed up in murder, sex and a pornography racket.

I couldn't praise this masterpiece enough. Suffice to say that I consider it to be flawless.

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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Old School Crime, 25 May 2004
By A Customer
I read The Big Sleep because I wanted to finally read one of the classics in the crime genre. I couldn't have picked a better book. The plot is interesting, and the style of writing is very descriptive and easy to read. I thought the style (such as referring to some of the women as 'dames' etc.) would be a bit jarring and dated, but instead it turned out to fit perfectly with the character Phillip Marlowe.

That isn't to say the book isn't dated, but that is part of what makes it so enjoyable. The emphasis in many crime novels these days is on forensic evidence and psychological profiling, but the absence of these elements makes for a refreshing change. At first I was yelling "No, you're ruining the trace evidence" (yelling in my head, obviously, as it would have caused a few odd looks if I'd actually yelled loud in the Tube), but after a while you get used to it and just go with the story.

I can recommend this book to anybody who enjoys modern crime novels, but I'm sure others will enjoy it just as much. I only wish it had lasted a bit longer, I finished it within a couple of days even though I had to work in between bits of reading.

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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Original, 25 Feb 2003
It's almost 75 years since the original publication of 'The Big Sleep' and it shows its age all of once, if that.

Reading the book, you can almost feel the ground still shaking from the time Chandler broke it. Marlowe is fresh a character as he always was, breezing through the hell-hole of LA, up to his knees it and still not caring that much; still the man brissles with originality and wit, despite (or maybe because of) every hack crime writer trying to immitate him.

Pick this book up, you won't put it - it took me five days, but you know how a working life can get in the way - as Marlowe begins looking into a blackmail racket and by the end finds himself sunk under five or more homicides. Chandler's control of the pace is wonderful, his plot sublime like he stumbled across it a line at a time - not until the last few pages does he let it all slide and, though the book had pulled and dragged across a couple of places, the ending is gripping. Without having a clue where Chandler's taking you, you'll want to be there all the same.

An excellent peice of work.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally! An enjoyable focus for study :D
At last, the general rule of boring books being used as a subject of study at A-level and GCSE's and what have you has been (in my opinion) OBLITERATED! Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jennifer S. Dickens

5.0 out of 5 stars I was everything a well dressed private detective ought to be.I was calling on four million dollars
I was everything a well dressed private detective ought to be.I was calling on four million dollars


This story has been made famous by the film which is a... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Peter Wade

5.0 out of 5 stars An Immortal Murder Mystery
The combination of prose that is both sparse and flowing, a dense plot and a tragic yet oddly subtle denoument would be enough to make The Big Sleep one of the greatest, and most... Read more
Published 7 months ago by The Piglit

3.0 out of 5 stars Maybe I missed the point??
I loved the way that this book was written. The first person narrative made me feel as though I was in the middle of the action and this book is all action, described in immense... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Janie U

5.0 out of 5 stars Iconic Roman Noir
Very few characters fill a space in our collective imagination in the way that Marlowe does. From the 1946 Humphrey Bogart to Calvin & Hobbes's character 'Tracer Bullet', and... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Martin Turner

5.0 out of 5 stars Crime writing genius
The first Philip Marlowe book and one of the best. There's only so many different ways one can talk about Chandler being one of the greatest crime writers ever but this book also... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Spring-heeled Jack

5.0 out of 5 stars As Hard-boiled as it gets......
"It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Bentley

4.0 out of 5 stars Nearly Converted
I'm no fan of mysteries, except perhaps the general mystery surrounding life, and I see crime enough in the every day without feeling the need to return to it for entertainment,... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Zinta Aistars

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and gripping
Chandler has showed all the qualities which a skilled crime author should have. The story is very complicated and yet Chandler always manages to keep the reader on top of the... Read more
Published on 19 April 2001

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