Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler’s first three novels, published here in one volume, established his reputation as an unsurpassed master of hard-boiled detective fiction. The Big Sleep, Chandler’s first novel, introduces Philip Marlowe, a private detective inhabiting the seamy side of Los Angeles in the 1930s, as he takes on a case involving a paralysed California millionaire, two psychotic daughters, blackmail and murder. In Farewell, My Lovely, Marlowe deals with the gambling circuit, a murder he stumbles upon, and three very beautiful but potentially deadly women. In The High Window, Marlowe searches the California underworld for a priceless gold coin and finds himself deep in the tangled affairs of a dead coin collector. In all three novels, Chandler’s hard-edged prose, colourful characters, vivid vernacular, and, above all, his enigmatic loner of a hero, establish his enduring claim to the heights of his chosen genre.

A collection of public and private writings by the late author of The Big Sleep and other classic crime novels provides a fascinating glimpse of the writer at work as it brings together early anecdotes, ideas, and descriptions that later appeared in his works, as well as his reflections on Hollywood, the mystery story, prison slang, and American and British writing. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

Three adaptations of Raymond Chandler's tales of the classic noir PI Philip Marlowe.

Three early mystery novels--The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, and The High Window--introduce the world of harboiled 1930s private detective Philip Marlow, in an omnibus edition. 15,000 first printing.

Hardboiled Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe marks his return in Chandler's four later novels--The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, and Playback--in an action-packed mystery omnibus. 15,000 first printing.

A brilliant graphic novel adaptation of Raymond Chandler's classic noir tale featuring iconic private eye Philip Marlowe "Inspired. . . . This trio brings Chandler's] words to vivid life. . . . A triumph of teamwork."--Air Mail In 1940s Los Angeles, a sour-faced millionaire hires Philip Marlowe, a hard-boiled, harder-drinking detective, to scare off a suspected gold digger who has gotten her claws into his even wealthier stepson. Marlowe takes the case but quickly discovers that the woman, Harriett Huntress, isn't just after gold: she's playing a long, cold game of revenge... Marlowe forms an alliance with George, the client's chauffeur-cum-bodyguard-cum-fixer. George is a Black, Dartmouth-educated veteran with a sniper's skills and his own agenda, and the two uneasy allies find themselves on the wrong end of a brace of hired killers and an enigmatic casino boss. . . . It quickly becomes clear that Marlowe, sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, is just asking for trouble. But that's the thing. Trouble is his business.

Discover the new Penguin Crime and Espionage seriesFor wise-cracking Private Eye Philip Marlowe, murder is all in a day's work...There are no streets meaner than those of L.A.'s underworld - but luckily one detective has more than his fair share of street smarts. Here, in the first two novels featuring the immortal creation Philip Marlowe, we see the cynical sleuth taking on a nasty case of blackmail involving a Californian millionaire and his two devil-may-care daughters; then dealing with a missing nightclub crooner (plus several gangsters with a habit of shooting first and talking later).

The complete collection of landmark BBC Radio dramas of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe mysteries. Philip Marlowe is the archetypal noir detective: wisecracking and world-weary, hardboiled yet honourable. This volume includes all eight dramatisations of Raymond Chandler's groundbreaking crime novels featuring his iconic hero. The Big Sleep Marlowe is consulted by a wealthy family man with two big problems: his children. Farewell My Lovely Marlowe's search for an ex-con's ex-girlfriend leads him into danger. The High Window When rare gold coin is stolen from her collection, Mrs Murdoch hires Philip Marlowe to find it. The Lady in the Lake Businessman Derace Kingsley hires Marlowe to find his estranged wife Crystal. The Little Sister Commissioned to find Orfamay Quest's missing brother, Marlowe is drawn into the glamorous film world of Hollywood. The Long Goodbye Marlowe befriends a drunk named Terry Lennox, but comes to regret doing him a favour. Playback Hired to follow the mysterious Betty Mayfield, Marlowe soon finds that he is being tailed too... Poodle Springs Newly-married Marlowe puts his bride aside to look for a gambler on the run. Starring Toby Stephens as Philip Marlowe, these stylish, suspenseful dramatisations – full of witty, ironic dialogue and colourful characters – bring the beautiful, corrupt world of California in the '40s and '50s to luminous life. Duration: 11 hours approx.

The Lady in the Lake is a classic detective novel by the master of hard-boiled crime, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time.Derace Kingsley's wife ran away to Mexico to get a quickie divorce and marry a Casanova-wannabe named Chris Lavery. Or so the note she left her husband insisted. Trouble is, when Philip Marlowe asks Lavery about it he denies everything and sends the private investigator packing with a flea lodged firmly in his ear. But when Marlowe next encounters Lavery, he's denying nothing - on account of the two bullet holes in his heart. Now Marlowe's on the trail of a killer, who leads him out of smoggy LA all the way to a murky mountain lake . . .'Anything Chandler writes about grips the mind from the first sentence' Daily Telegraph 'One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times'Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes' Anthony Burgess

The World of Raymond Chandler shows how Chandler precariously balanced the values of a classical English education against those of a fast-evolving America during the years before the Great War; how he adopted Los Angeles as his home after WWI, with Hollywood in turn adopting him (and adapting his works); how his detective hero and alter ego Philip Marlowe evolved over the years; and, above all, what it is to be a writer, and in particular one writing in the "other language" of hardboiled fiction. Acclaimed biographer and historian Barry Day deftly interweaves images and text, using quotations from Chandler's novels, short stories, letters, and interviews, to craft a unique portrait of the mystery writer's life and times.

Hard-boiled detective fiction at its best: Raymond Chandler's best loved novel, The Big Sleep, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time.'I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.'Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is hired by wheelchair-bound General Sternwood to discover who is indulging in some petty blackmail. A weary, old man, Sternwood just wants the problem to go away. But Marlowe finds he has his work cut out just keeping Sternwood's wild, devil-may-care daughters out of trouble as they prowl LA's dirtiest and darkest streets. And pretty soon, he's up to his neck in hoodlums and corpses . . .

It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars. With these words, private eye Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's great literary creation and one of the most enduringly popular characters in American fiction, first took life seventy-five years ago. Here, for the first time in a deluxe collector's box, are all seven Philip Marlowe novels--The Big Sleep; Farewell, My Lovely; The High Window; The Lady in the Lake; The Little Sister; The Long Goodbye; and Playback--along with thirteen classic pulp stories, Chandler's brilliant screenplay for Double Indemnity, and a selection of his revealing essays and letters: the most comprehensive edition of the hard-boiled crime fiction of Raymond Chandler ever published. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

'I need a man good-looking enough to pick up a dame who has a sense of class, but he's got to be tough enough to swap punches with a power shovel.' In the first of the four cases in Trouble is My Business, Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is offered a job that leaves a bad taste in the mouth: smearing a girl who's 'got her hooks into a rich man's pup'. Before too long Marlowe's up to his neck in corpses and cops and he's taken pity on the girl. There's nothing like making trouble out of your business . . .The four novellas collected here are quintessential Raymond Chandler: slick, crystal-clear writing that pins the reader to the seat and won't let go until the last page is turned.'Age does not wither Chandler's prose' Literary Review'Chandler's prose flies off the pages like a burst from a Tommy gun. Chandler was perhaps the finest exponent of the fledgling genre now known as pulp fiction' Scottish Field'One of the greatest crime writers, who set the standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times 'Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner . . . An original . . . A great artist' Boston Review'Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since' Paul AusterDiscover the newest addition to the inimitable Philip Marlowe series - Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne - out 6 September 2018 in hardback and ebook from Hogarth.

'Everything was quiet and sunny and calm. No cause for excitement whatever. It's only Marlowe, finding another body. He does it rather well by now. Murder-a-day Marlowe, they call him . . .'Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired to find a missing woman. Derace Kingsley's wife ran away to Mexico to get a divorce and marry a hunk named Chris Lavery. Or so the note she left her husband says. Trouble is, when Philip Marlowe asks Lavery about it he denies everything. But when Marlowe next encounters Lavery, he's denying nothing - on account of the two bullet holes in his heart. Now Marlowe's on the trail of a killer, who leads him out of smoggy Los Angeles all the way to a murky mountain lake . . .The Lady in the Lake is Raymond Chandler's fourth novel featuring laconic PI Philip Marlowe.'Chandler's best novels carry the crime story to levels of artistry that have rarely been matched' Daily Mail'Chandler grips the mind from the first sentence' Daily Telegraph 'One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times'Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes' Anthony Burgess

From the creased pages of 1930s pulp magazines Black Mask and Dime Detective come eight of Raymond Chandler's finest short stories:KILLER IN THE RAIN, THE MAN WHO LIKED DOGS, THE CURTAIN, TRY THE GIRL, MANDARIN'S JADE, BAY CITY BLUES, THE LADY IN THE LAKE and NO CRIME IN THE MOUNTAINSSet against a Southern Californian backdrop, the stories are rich with suspense, violence and tragedy, and each comes laced with booze, bullets and a detective with an eye for a damsel in distress and an even keener eye for justice . . .Readers will also recognize episodes, characters and flashbacks from the Marlowe novels that made Chandler the undisputed master of his genre.'Anything he writes about grips the mind from the first sentence. It is a spare, finished performance: full of life and character: as tense as a tiger, springing into action' Daily Telegraph'One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times'Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes' Anthony Burgess

A CLASSIC NOVEL BY THE MASTER OF HARD-BOILED CRIME, THE HIGH WINDOW IS RAYMOND CHANDLER'S THIRD STORY FEATURING LACONIC PI PHILIP MARLOWE.'He lay crumpled on his back. Very lonely, very dead. The safe door was wide open. A metal drawer was pulled out. It was empty now. There may have been money in it once.'Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe's on a case: his client, a dried-up husk of a woman, wants him to recover a rare gold coin called a Brasher Doubloon, missing from her late husband's collection. That's the simple part. It becomes more complicated when Marlowe finds that everyone who handles the coin suffers a run of very bad luck: they always end up dead. That's also unlucky for a private investigator, because leaving a trail of corpses around LA puts cops' noses seriously out of joint. If Marlowe doesn't wrap this one up fast, he's going to end up either in jail or in a wooden box in the ground . . .'Chandler's books should be read and judged, not as escapist literature, but as works of art' W.H. Auden'Chandler grips the mind from the first sentence' Daily Telegraph'One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times'Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes' Anthony Burgess

'I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.'Los Angeles Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wheelchair-bound General Sternwood to discover who is blackmailing him. A broken, weary old man, Sternwood just wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. However, with Sternwood's two wild, devil-may-care daughters prowling LA's seedy backstreets, Marlowe's got his work cut out. And that's before he stumbles over the first corpse.The Big Sleep is Raymond Chandler's first novel featuring laconic PI Philip Marlowe.'One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times'Chandler grips the mind from the first sentence' Daily Telegraph 'One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times'Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes' Anthony BurgessDiscover the newest addition to the inimitable Philip Marlowe series - Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne - out 6 September 2018 in hardback and ebook from Hogarth.

Playback is Raymond Chandler's gripping last full-length novel featuring laconic PI Philip Marlowe.'Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since' Paul AusterLos Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is mixing business with pleasure - he's getting paid to follow a lovely mysterious redhead called Eleanor King. And wherever Miss King goes, trouble is sure to follow. But she's easy on the eye and Marlowe's happy to do as he's told. But one dead body later and what started out as a lazy afternoon's snooping soon becomes a deadly cocktail of blackmail, lies, mistaken identity - and murder . . .'Chandler grips the mind from the first sentence' Daily Telegraph 'One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times'Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes' Anthony Burgess

'So you need help. What's your name and trouble?'Private Investigator Philip Marlowe's latest client is Orfamay Quest. She's come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing brother Orrin. Or at least that's what she tells Marlowe, offering him just twenty dollars for his trouble. Feeling charitable, Marlowe accepts - though it's not long before he wishes he hadn't. Soon the trail leads to a succession of Hollywood starlets, uppity gangsters, suspicious cops and corpses with ice picks jammed into their necks . . .The Little Sister is Raymond Chandler's fifth novel featuring laconic PI Philip Marlowe.'Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye' Los Angeles Times'Chandler grips the mind from the first sentence' Daily Telegraph 'One of the greatest crime writers, who set standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times'Chandler is an original stylist, creator of a character as immortal as Sherlock Holmes' Anthony BurgessDiscover the newest addition to the inimitable Philip Marlowe series - Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne - out 6 September 2018 in hardback and ebook from Hogarth.