Chandler's first novel introduces private detective Philip Marlowe. Hired by an ailing, wealthy general in Los Angeles, Marlowe is asked to deal with a blackmailer who is troubling one of the general's two reckless daughters. What looks like a simple job draws him into a tangle of gambling, pornography, family secrets and violence. Marlowe is tough but principled, and his wisecracking narration gives the book its distinctive voice. Its portrait of a glamorous city with rot beneath the surface set the pattern for hardboiled crime fiction and film noir.
Quotes
The Big Sleep, a 1939 novel by Raymond Chandler
The Big Sleep, a 1946 film, directed by Howard Hawks and written by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
The Big Sleep, a 1978 adaptation of the novel, starring Robert Mitchum and Joan Collins