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The Big Sleep

Detective and Crime Fiction

The Big Sleep is a 1939 hardboiled crime novel by the American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature his detective Philip Marlowe, and set in Los Angeles. The story is known for its complex plot of characters double-crossing one another and secrets exposed as the narrative unfolds; its title is a euphemism for death, echoed in the novel's closing rumination about "sleeping the big sleep." The novel was adapted for film twice, in 1946 and 1978, and was later named to Le Monde's "100 Books of the Century" and to Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels.

Facts
Classification
Audience
General 1
Original Language
English 1
Composed, From (Year)
1939 1
FAQs

How did Raymond Chandler build the novel?

Chandler cannibalized his earlier short stories Killer in the Rain and The Curtain.

Chandler had spent five years publishing short detective stories in Black Mask and later Dime Detective. For his first novel he combined parts of those published stories and reworked them into a coherent novel, a process he called cannibalizing. The two main stories at the core of The Big Sleep are Killer in the Rain, published in 1935, and The Curtain, published in 1936.
Connections

Associated With

Hardboiled, Genres

Authored By

Source Wikipedia: The Big Sleep

In Genre

Crime Fiction, Genres
Source Wikipedia: The Big Sleep
Source Wikipedia: The Big Sleep
Hardboiled, Genres
Source Wikipedia: The Big Sleep
In the Other Atlases

Original Language

Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.

Originated In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Source Wikipedia: The Big Sleeptier 2
Sources
1. Wikipedia: The Big Sleep
Wikipedia
  • Lead
    The Big Sleep is a 1939 hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe.
  • Lead paragraph
    The Big Sleep is a 1939 hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Angeles. The story is noted for its complexity, with characters double-crossing one another and secrets being exposed throughout the narrative.
  • In Genre: Hardboiled, Infobox, genre field
    Genre: Hardboiled detective, crime
  • In Genre: Detective Fiction, Infobox, genre field
    Genre: Hardboiled detective, crime
  • In Genre: Crime Fiction, Infobox, genre field
    Genre: Hardboiled detective, crime
  • Authored By: Raymond Chandler, Infobox, author field
    Author: Raymond Chandler
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