***Writer's Corner- The Making Of Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe-The Collected Stories
Book Review
Collected Stories, Raymond Chandler, Everyman’s Library, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2002
A couple of years ago when reviewing a 1940s film version of the Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely, re-titled Murder My Sweet, starring Dick Powell I mentioned that I had found an old dog-eared edition of Raymond Chandler’s other writings (other than the Marlowe seven novel series) and that I wondered if there was more. Well, there was and there is, and here it is in over 1200 pages of pure Chandler from when he was a pup (an older pup since he did not start writing until later in life)up to and including some things that turned out to be sketches for the Marlowe series.
As is the nature of such all-inclusive volumes the material is uneven. Some stories are forgettable, or mere fluff. Others, as I have mentioned seem eerily very familiar except for the names of the detective and some of the characters. This book is made up of several stories from a period when Chandler was just developing his prototypical hard-boiled detective that evolved into Phillip Marlowe. The composites eventually make up The Long Goodbye, Lady in the Lake and The Big Sleep. Fascinating in their own right but also as harbingers of things to come.
The major drawback here is not the value of the work but the ungainliness of the one volume at 1200 pages. If you are a beach chair reader, this thing will cave in your chest. On the other hand this is a treasure trove of the work of one of the second- level masters in the American literary pantheon. Enough said. Read on.
Book Review
Collected Stories, Raymond Chandler, Everyman’s Library, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2002
A couple of years ago when reviewing a 1940s film version of the Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely, re-titled Murder My Sweet, starring Dick Powell I mentioned that I had found an old dog-eared edition of Raymond Chandler’s other writings (other than the Marlowe seven novel series) and that I wondered if there was more. Well, there was and there is, and here it is in over 1200 pages of pure Chandler from when he was a pup (an older pup since he did not start writing until later in life)up to and including some things that turned out to be sketches for the Marlowe series.
As is the nature of such all-inclusive volumes the material is uneven. Some stories are forgettable, or mere fluff. Others, as I have mentioned seem eerily very familiar except for the names of the detective and some of the characters. This book is made up of several stories from a period when Chandler was just developing his prototypical hard-boiled detective that evolved into Phillip Marlowe. The composites eventually make up The Long Goodbye, Lady in the Lake and The Big Sleep. Fascinating in their own right but also as harbingers of things to come.
The major drawback here is not the value of the work but the ungainliness of the one volume at 1200 pages. If you are a beach chair reader, this thing will cave in your chest. On the other hand this is a treasure trove of the work of one of the second- level masters in the American literary pantheon. Enough said. Read on.
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