Books

First edition, first printing. One of 5,000 copies. Publisher's brownish orange cloth, stamped in dark gray-blue to boards and spine, top edge stained black; lacking original dust jacket. Near fine, with very light toning to spine, light pencil mark to bottom edge of text block, and some offsetting to endpapers. Overall, a great copy of this classic work of hardboiled detective fiction. Bruccoli A1.1.a The Big Sleep marks the debut of Chandler's hard-boiled detective character Philip Marlowe. Unlike Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op and Sam Spade, who are widely considered the archetypal hard-boiled detective figures, Marlowe possesses a sensitivity underneath his tough exterior that distinguishes him from similar detective characters in the genre. Indeed, as he investigates a case of blackmail serving as a red herring for a more sinister crime, Marlowe stands out, as Isaac Anderson writes in his 1939 New York Times Review, "as almost the only fundamentally decent person" in the story. Notably, in 1946, The Big Sleep was adapted into a film of the same name starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. A Haycraft Queen Cornerstone.

The Big Sleep is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first in his acclaimed series about detective Philip Marlowe. The story is set in Los Angeles and follows Marlowe as he investigates a complex case involving blackmail, mystery, and murder, which begins with a wealthy general who is being blackmailed and needs Marlowe's help.