The Big Sleep

by

231 pages

English language

Published Nov. 13, 1988

ISBN:
978-0-394-75828-2
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4 stars (1 review)

The Big Sleep (1939) is a 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. The title is a euphemism for death; the final pages of the book refer to a rumination about "sleeping the big sleep". In 1999, the book was voted 96th of Le Monde's "100 Books of the Century". In 2005, it was included in Time magazine's "List of the 100 Best Novels".

11 editions

reviewed The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Re-reading it in english

4 stars

I was reading all of the Marlowe books by Raymond Chandler, when I was about 15 or 16. My father gave them to me in German. I loved them, read all of them about five times, and generally loved Chandlers language so much I tried to emulate it in my own writing.

I thought it would be a good idea to once read one of the books in English, which I did, and it was fine. I actually remember some of the German translation and could compare some sentences. I'm astonished to see how close it was to the original, yet in english it's even better.

I will go on to read some other Marlowes in english as well.