The Big Sleep

Zusatztext "Raymond Chandler is a master." -- The New York Times [Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered. -- The New Yorker Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious. --Robert B. Parker, The New York Times Book Review Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye. -- Los Angeles Times Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . . An original. . . . A great artist. The Boston Book Review Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century. . . . Age does not wither Chandler's prose. . . . He wrote like an angel. -- Literary Review [T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision. --Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence. Ross Macdonald Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude. --Erle Stanley Gardner Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since. --Paul Auster [Chandler]'s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that's like ours, but isn't. --Carolyn See Informationen zum Autor Raymond Chandler Klappentext The iconic first novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler! featuring Philip Marlowe! the "quintessential urban private eye" ( Los Angeles Times ). A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters! and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping! pornography! seduction! and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in. Leseprobe ONE 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. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars. The main hallway of the Sternwood place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn't have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling with the knots on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him. He didn't seem to be really trying. There were French doors at the back of the hall, beyond them a wide sweep of emerald grass to a white garage, in front of which a slim dark young chauffeur in shiny black leggings was dusting a maroon Packard convertible. Beyond the garage were some decorative trees trimmed as carefully as poodle dogs. Beyond them a large greenhouse with a domed roof. Then more trees and beyond everything the solid, uneven, comfortable line of the foothills. On the east side of the hall a free staircase, tile-paved, rose to a gallery with a wrought-iron railing and another piece of stained-glass romance. Large hard chairs with rounded red plush seats were backe...

"Raymond Chandler is a master." --The New York Times
*
*“[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered.” --*The New Yorker

*“Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.” --Robert B. Parker, *The New York Times Book Review

*“Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye.” --*Los Angeles Times
*
“Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . . An original. . . . A great artist.” —*The Boston Book Review
*
“Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century. . . . Age does not wither Chandler’s prose. . . . He wrote like an angel.” --*Literary Review
*
“[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision.” --Joyce Carol Oates, *The New York Review of Books

*“Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence.” —Ross Macdonald
*
*“Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude.” --Erle Stanley Gardner
*
*“Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since.” --Paul Auster

“[Chandler]’s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that’s like ours, but isn’t. ” --Carolyn See
*
*

Autorentext

Raymond Chandler

Klappentext

The iconic first novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, featuring Philip Marlowe, the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times).

A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.

Zusammenfassung
One of the most acclaimed works of crime fiction ever written, The Big Sleep is the first novel featuring Raymond Chandler’s iconic creation Philip Marlowe, hailed as the “quintessential urban private eye” (Los Angeles Times).

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

“Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.” —Robert B. Parker, The New York Times Book Review

When old man Sternwood, a dying millionaire, hires Philip Marlowe to expose the blackmailer of one of his troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than simple extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, and seduction are just a few of the complications standing in the way of completing the task at hand. And just as Marlowe feels he’s getting ahold of the situation, he discovers the first body.

Leseprobe
ONE

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. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.

The main hallway of the Sternwood place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn't have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling with the knots on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or…