Ready Reference Treatise: The Big Sleep

By Raja Sharma

“The Big Sleep” by Raymond Chandler is a crime novel. It was published in 1939. This was the first novel which presented detective Philip Marlowe.

Two movies have already made on this novel, the first was made in 1946 and the second in 1978.

The story of the novel is set in Los Angeles, California. It is a very complex story, with various characters who continue to double cross one another. Throughout the narrative, various secrets continue to be revealed.

The title “The Big Sleep” is a euphemism of death. It evidently refers to rumination in the book about “sleeping the big sleep.”

Ready Reference Treatise: The Big Sleep
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Background
Chapter Three: Plot Summary
Chapter Four: Characters
Chapter Five: Complete Summary
Chapter Six: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Jun 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301927333

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: The Big Sleep

Raja Sharma

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: The Big Sleep

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2013 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler is a crime novel. It was published in 1939. This was the first novel which presented detective Philip Marlowe.

Two movies have already made on this novel, the first was made in 1946 and the second in 1978.

The story of the novel is set in Los Angeles, California. It is a very complex story, with various characters who continue to double cross one another. Throughout the narrative, various secrets continue to be revealed.

The title The Big Sleep is a euphemism of death. It evidently refers to rumination in the book about sleeping the big sleep.

The Big Sleep made it to the list of Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century in the year 1999.

In the year 2005, The Big Sleep made it to the TIME’s List of the 100 Best Novels.

Chapter Two: Background

In his own words, about his stories Chandler said that he was cannibalizing previously written stories. The Big Sleep is also like most of his earlier novels.

He used to pick his old stories which were published in the pulp magazine Black Mask, and then he reworked them to fit in a coherent story.

The Big Sleep was the product of the two of his earlier stories: Killer in the Rain which was published in 1935 and The Curtain which was published in 1936.

These two stories were completely independent, but they had some similarities which made it easier for the author to combine them into the form of a novel The Big Sleep.

Both these stories have a powerful father distressed by his wild daughter. Taking those two fathers from these two stories, Chandler gave birth to a new character and the same he did to the two daughters from these two stories. The result was General Sternwood and his wild daughter Carmen.

The Big Sleep also borrows some parts of two other stories written by Chandler: Finger Man and Mandarin’s Jade.

There are obviously some loose ends in the story of The Big Sleep, the most famous of which is who killed the chauffeur.

When the book was being adapted into a movie by Howard Hawks, his writers were obviously perplexed as to the answer. Then Hawks contacted Chandler but he said that he had no idea.

Chandler mostly concentrated on the atmosphere and the characters, and the plot was always secondary to him. He did not believe in a proper ending which resolved all the issues and answered all the questions. He concentrated on expanding descriptions of people, places, etc.

Chapter Three: Plot Summary

It is the month of October. Philip Marlowe happens to be a private investigator. He is called to the house of General Sternwood, an elderly wealthy man.

Sternwood informs detective Marlowe that a bookseller named Arthur Geiger has made an attempt to blackmail his wild young daughter Carmen.

He also informs the detective that Carmen had earlier been blackmailed by a person named Joe Brody.

He then tells Marlowe about his other, older daughter Vivian, who is married to a man