The Big Sleep (novel)
The Big Sleep is a 1939 novel by Raymond Chandler that was made into a film by Howard Hawks in 1946. Both the original novel and the movie are considered classics.
Written by: | Raymond Chandler |
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Central Theme: | |
Synopsis: | |
Genre(s): | Hardboiled Detective |
First published: | 1939 |
What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. |
The convoluted plot follows the investigation by Hardboiled Detective Philip Marlowe into the gambling debts of young dilettante Carmen Sternwood at the behest of her father, an old, wheelchair-bound millionaire. However, Carmen's older sister, Vivian Regan, claims that the investigation is really about finding what happened to her husband Sean Regan, who has mysteriously disappeared.
- Affably Evil: Eddie Mars.
- Big Sleep: Trope Namer.
- Bitter Almonds: A side character is poisoned with cyanide in whisky and dies in the span of a single page. Notably, although the smell is noted, Marlowe calls the cyanide not because of the smell but because the victim vomited.
- Deadpan Snarker: Everyone.
- Empathic Environment: Used frequently in the novel.
- Expy: Philip Marlowe bears a striking resemblance to a detective named Carmady who featured in the short stories Chandler had written for Black Mask magazine. Chandler also recycled incidents from three of those stories into this novel.
- Femme Fatale: Vivian Regan. Averted in that Marlowe withstands her advances aside from when he needs to get information out of Vivian.
- Fille Fatale: Carmen Sternwood.
- Gentleman Snarker: Marlowe.
- Godiva Hair: The woman tied to the tree in the stained glass window is nude but for "convenient" hair.
- Hardboiled Detective: The character of Philip Marlowe is pretty much the Trope Codifier.
- Ignore the Fanservice: A beautiful young lady turns up naked in Philip Marlowe's bed and tries to seduce him. His response is basically Please Put Some Clothes On.
- Never Suicide: Police are initially inclined to treat one of the deaths as a suicide, but a couple of details don't add up. In the book, it probably was suicide after all. The answer is never explicitly stated, but Marlowe's investigation accounts for all the not-adding-up details, and he suggests that Taylor's circumstances were pretty desperate. And then the police close the case as suicide, and Marlowe -- whose most endearing characteristic is that he'll keep on a case forever if he's not satisfied -- doesn't pursue it, which would indicate that he considers it settled.
- Posthumous Character: Rusty Regan.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: General Sternwood
- Yandere: Carmen Sternwood. Good God. She'd be a full-blown Ax Crazy if she didn't prefer guns.