With this volume, I've read all of Mr. Chandler's fiction and most of his nonfiction. This one's got all of his short stories, some of which were embiggened to become novels, others were robbed of scenes and plot threads to help fill out novels, and some are, well, some are just horrid highlights of his racist, misogynist, homophobic nature.

I love his writing style. Few people, I feel, match him when it comes to descriptions of nouns (people, places, things) or when it comes to the witty stichomythia. It wasn't until I read his novels through for the second time that I realized, he's not the greatest at plots. His style is good enough to make up for that. But, as much as I like his writing, I dislike the man equally.

Like I said, he's steeped deeply in all the -isms. While he was a product of his time, I'm not willing to forgive him for it. Nor am I willing to forget about his writing. See, Mr. Chandler is my most treasured example of being human. Far too often we hold up artists, sports stars, politicians, to unrealistic ideals. By ignoring their flaws, or unreasonably defending them, we do everyone a disservice. So I don't defend him when I come across an ignorant description or a terrible slur.

Because this collection showed me how far his writing skills developed and how stagnant his prejudices stayed over the course of his career.

It is said that Chandler himself said that he cannibalised his short stories to write [some of] his novels. With this in mind, and having just recently read all seven of his [completed] novels back-to-back, I thought it'd be interesting to see just what exactly was borrowed/lifted from the short stories, and to what extent.

Out of the 25 stories included here, and except for a few character name changes and minor plot thread adjustments to connect the different stories (re-)used, 2 (or 3) stories were, um... blatantly recycled for each of the following Chandler novels: The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, and The Lady in the Lake. Even the title for this last one was recycled!!

The Lady in the Lake is probably my favourite Chandler novel (closely followed by Farewell, My Lovely), so re-reading them - or parts of them - I didn't mind so much at all.

But what about the other stories? Well, there's some really good stuff in here, and some things you definitely would not expect from Raymond Chandler. For instance, one story (The Bronze Door) involves a huge magical (bronze) door, and anyone (or anything) that crosses its threshold just... disappears. With its plot and humour, this is the kind of story I'd expect to find in a Mark Twain anthology (for example: The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain - yet another Everyman's Library book), certainly, but we can agree that Chandler and Twain are not exactly in the same market, and that's what makes it a welcome surprise.

If you've read the three Chandler novels mentioned above, there's still plenty in here for you. This massive, 1299-page beast is anything but. The stories are so good, the pages practically turn themselves (it seems I could not avoid the oft-recycled cliché). It's a beautiful hardcover from the Everyman's Library series published by Alfred A. Knopf, and at the low price you can get it online from, say, Amazon - well, it's practically a crime NOT to get this book.

Just picked this up. Really enjoyed reading Chandler on the train rides to/from work last winter. Don't know why, since the stories always seem to be set in southern Cal, but reading him during the winter felt like a good fit. Sort of like I can only listen to Van Halen during the summer. So I'll look forward to picking this up in 4-6 months, I'm guessing...

Although perhaps accurate to the time in which it is set, there is too much random killing, and EVERYONE is drinking way too much. I read probably 1/2 of the short stories and never found one that was engaging! Lots of deals under the table or off the radar, but I was never sure who was the good guy & who was the bad guy. I should have abandon it sooner!

One and a half stories in and I'm hooked. I've read that the early stories are not up to the later stuff and I suppose they are a bit more linier but the magic of the language and the description of scenes , people and action are very familiar. A thought - I think it's best to read the novels first - some later stories include plot points and scenes cannibalised for use in the novels and I think that might detract from their enjoyment. I haven't come to any of these passages yet but I imagine it won't have the same spoiler effect in a short story ... anyway - I'll see.

Really good read, with some better than others. Red Wind, Nevada Gas, Try The Girl were among the ones i can remember (at least the title) with I'll Be Waiting probably my favourite. A fun mixture of characters too. I'm glad for his novels they all became marlowe, but it was nice to have several options for the shorts. Not completely sure how i feel about his cannibalizing. If i had read the shorts first i probably wouldn't like it, but i knew beforehand novels were cannibalized. It was interesting to see the differences and such, with it being simple to line them up with their corresponding novel.

I was a bit overwhelmed by the end of it, i shall like to re-read it all, picking and choosing over a few weeks probably.

I picked this up in the library of the Princess cruise ship Island Princess. The stories are long, very long, but they're classic Chandler, and it was fun to read stories that creative the foundation for his novels and for his narrator/protagonist, Phillip Marlowe.

It’s honestly a pretty draining prospect to read 26 Raymond Chandler stories. Here’s why: he was so remarkably consistent that the stories are thorough, thoughtful, a little repetitive–along a few common paths–, and they are long. Each of these stories is between about 45-60 pages (using Everyman Library pages at that), and so the grand total of 26 of his stories is about 1300 pages. And so I have been working on these a lot.

If there were more variety, I would be more excited by a lot of these, but there’s usually a murder, a blackmail, or an insurance scam. There’s Marlowe stories, which is great, and there are another set of stories using a different detective named Carmady, which is ok. And then there are the more random stories where Chandler creates a different world, which is the best.

Another goofy thing about the stories is how very detective! the stories are here. So for example the number of times the phrases “shamus” and “dick” are used is ridiculous. There’s also some uncomfortable racism thrown in against Mexicans, Black people, and Jewish people….so you know.

Anyway, the other thing I will tell you is that Chandler’s writing is very mature and polished from the get go. I think this is a result of his career not really getting started until he was in his mid-40s. In addition the stories are just not meant to be read in this format. They were published over about 10 years in a variety of magazines, and that difference in space and time I imagine that adds to their variety.

Spent the longest time reading this book. I love Raymond Chandler, but this book confirms that he felt more comfortable writing actual novels to short stories. I know this because he writes in one of his prologues. Many of the earlier stories are a bit of a tryout for longer versions to be done later on. In others, he tries to give a distinctive voice to his varied narrators. Some times he does this better than others. But as a whole, this collection is top notch because even a few good Chandler short stories is so much better than a collection by any similar writer.

One of a handful of books I've bought more than once, and read many times, Collected Stories recently returned to my bedside table. The format is the main selling point here: the ability to dive into a Chandler world for 50 pages and then do it again the next day. A handful of the stories will seem familiar, which is because Chandler recycled certain plots or plot elements for his novels -- I'd recommend reading them first -- but the pleasures are no less visceral.

This mammoth tome occupied my bedside nightstand for several weeks, and I'd read a bit each night. It is an excellent collection of short stories, most take place in and around Los Angeles. Some are better than others, but there really isn't a bad one in the bunch. Interesting too, that one finds several short stories in here that Chandler revisited later and fleshed out as a couple of his Philip Marlowe novels. And having recently reread the Philip Marlowe novels, it was instructive to see how much Chandler's writing craft and plot development had matured and improved with time. This Everyman's Library cloth-bound edition is a nice collection to have on the shelf.

Chandler's Collected Stories gets 4 of 5 stars from me.

Excelente recopilación de relatos del policial negro. Se nota la mano del maestro. Aparece Marlowe entre otros muchos detectives. Si te gusta Chandler es de lectura obligatoria. Si te gusta la novela negra o el cine negro, aquí tienes el surgimiento de estos. Rubias platino, pelirrojas, mucho whisky barato (y no tan barato), diálogos imborrables... Un cóctel para todo buen aficionado de este tipo de novela.