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Mysteries and Detection

The novels of Raymond Chandler, hard-boiled detective fiction in the vein of Dashiel Hammett, focus on the experiences of detective Philip Marlowe. If ChandlerÆs novels featuring Marlowe, like The Big Sleep, have a moral, the moral appears to be that there are intelligent and stupid criminals and law enforcement officials and those that are the most intelligent usually wind up victorious. According to Michael D. Sharp (p. 405), with his ô1944 manifesto, æThe Simple Art of Murder,Æ Chandler nearly single-handedly defined the American crime fiction tradition and posited himself as its most talented and knowledgeable practitioner.ö

The moral in many of ChandlerÆs novels appears no more complex than the way in which his tough-guy, first-person narrator-detective Philip Marlowe is able to effectively combat danger and chaos in a corrupt world of dark forces. After failing in his once successful business, Chandler began writing detective stories at the age of 44, selling his first one, ôBlackmailers DonÆt Shoot,ö and never looking back. A few years later, he would write The Big Sleep, forever establishing his tough-guy Private Investigator Philip Marlow. ChandlerÆs detective fiction includes a style that has become associated with classic hardboiled detective fiction. According to Leon Arden (p. 76), ChandlerÆs style features ôvividness and variety of characterization, poetic descriptions the all-pervasive sharp edge of MarloweÆs wit, an encyclopedic knowledge of Los Angeles, [including] the evocation of its climate and the diverse elements of its society all so excellently drawn.ö

In Dashiel HammettÆs characters and stories, like Nick and Nora Charles and hardboiled private-eye Sam Spade, there is a morality apparent. In The Big Sleep, Spade would rather send the woman he loves to prison than permit her to get away with murdering his partner. Nick Charles always does the ôright thing,ö so-to-speak. However, i...

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Mysteries and Detection. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 09:40, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1710170.html