The Literature Book

236

DEAD MEN ARE

HEAVIER THAN

BROKEN HEARTS

THE BIG SLEEP (1939), RAYMOND CHANDLER

H

ard-boiled detective

fiction brought realism,

sex, violence, and fast,

colloquial dialogue to the crime

genre. It began with the short-

story form, especially those stories

published in the popular pulp

magazines of the 1920s to 1940s,

the leading exponent being Black

Mask. Raymond Chandler’s most

illustrious predecessor was Dashiell

Hammett, whose first hard-boiled

detective story, Red Harvest, came

out a decade before Chandler’s

The Big Sleep and was originally

serialized in Black Mask.

The hard-boiled detective, although

intelligent, is a man of action.

Battling organized crime and police

corruption, he gets dragged into

violence. Guns are among the

hazards he faces, and in certain

situations he needs to carry one,

and sometimes use it. These

experiences harden him into

cynicism—hence the phrase

“hard-boiled.” Yet at the same time,

he has his principles. Chandler’s

detective, Philip Marlowe, ordering

a young woman to get dressed in

The Big Sleep after refusing her

advances, looks down at his

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Hard-boiled fiction

BEFORE

1930 The Maltese Falcon, by

American author Dashiell

Hammett, introduces sleuth

Sam Spade, whose strong

ethics were an inspiration for

Chandler’s Philip Marlowe.

1934 The Postman Always

Rings Twice, by American

writer James M. Cain, gains

notoriety for its sex and

brutal violence.

AFTER

1943 Another novel by Cain,

Double Indemnity, tackles the

theme of a femme fatale plotting

to kill her husband, the motive

in this case is the life insurance.

1953 In Chandler’s The Long

Goodbye, which has Marlowe

as its hero, two characters,

Roger Wade, a hard-drinking

writer, and Terry Lennox,

another alcoholic, are partly

autobiographical.

Raymond Chandler

Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1888,

Raymond Chandler was taken

to England at the age of 12 by

his divorced mother. He was

schooled at Dulwich College,

South London, and later studied

international law in France and

Germany. Returning to the US in

1912, he lived in California,

working, among other jobs, as

a tennis-racket stringer. He

joined the Canadian Army after

World War I broke out, and

served in France. In 1924 he

married Cissy Pascal, a woman

18 years his senior. He started

writing in earnest after losing

his job at an oil company in

the Great Depression. His first

published story appeared in

Black Mask magazine in 1933.

The Big Sleep was his first

novel; he went on to write six

others. In 1959, the year before

he died, he became president of

the Mystery Writers of America.

Other key works

1940 Farewell, My Lovely

1949 The Little Sister

1953 The Long Goodbye

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