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Good collection of pulp classic detective stories. Personally, I like Chandler's novels better even though they're take-offs from these tales. If you like short, hard-boiled crime, this book is for you.
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The Simple Art of Murder
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Contains Chandler's essay on the art of detective stories and a collection of 8 classic Chandler mysteries.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1944
This edition
- Format
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384 pages, Paperback
- Published
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September 12, 1988 by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
- ISBN
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9780394757650
- ASIN
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0394757653
- Language
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English
Characters More characters
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Arthur Conan Doyle (goodreads)
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Agatha Christie (goodreads)
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Walt Whitman (goodreads)
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About the author
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Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective". Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe.
The Big Sleep placed second on the Crime Writers Association poll of the 100 best crime novels; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1953) also made the list. The latter novel was praised in an anthology of American crime stories as "arguably the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key, published more than twenty years earlier, to qualify as a serious and significant mainstream novel that just happened to possess elements of mystery". Chandler was also a perceptive critic of detective fiction; his "The Simple Art of Murder" is the canonical essay in the field. In it he wrote: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."
Parker wrote that, with Marlowe, "Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious—an innocent who knows better, a Romantic who is tough enough to sustain Romanticism in a world that has seen the eternal footman hold its coat and snicker. Living at the end of the Far West, where the American dream ran out of room, no hero has ever been more congruent with his landscape. Chandler had the right hero in the right place, and engaged him in the consideration of good and evil at precisely the time when our central certainty of good no longer held."
Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective". Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe.
The Big Sleep placed second on the Crime Writers Association poll of the 100 best crime novels; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1953) also made the list. The latter novel was praised in an anthology of American crime stories as "arguably the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key, published more than twenty years earlier, to qualify as a serious and significant mainstream novel that just happened to possess elements of mystery". Chandler was also a perceptive critic of detective fiction; his "The Simple Art of Murder" is the canonical essay in the field. In it he wrote: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."
Parker wrote that, with Marlowe, "Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious—an innocent who knows better, a Romantic who is tough enough to sustain Romanticism in a world that has seen the eternal footman hold its coat and snicker. Living at the end of the Far West, where the American dream ran out of room, no hero has ever been more congruent with his landscape. Chandler had the right hero in the right place, and engaged him in the consideration of good and evil at precisely the time when our central certainty of good no longer held."
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Five stars for the title essay, three stars for the short stories, which fall, sadly, into a familiar rut. But the title essay is worth the price of admission alone, and anyone interested in either American or British crime writing during both our golden ages should give it a read.
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Raymond Chandler se sale con esta recopilación de relatos detectivescos. Muy fáciles de leer, pero sobretodo, muy bien escritos. El ensayo del final es bastante curioso. También me ha gustado. Es un libro que he disfrutado muchísimo leyendo y me ha dejado con muchas ganas de más.
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Love it or hate it, Chandler's writing has shaped the modern mystery genre more than any other writer. If you have any intention of writing mystery you have to read Chandler and the 1944 essay, The Simple Art of Murder, which opens this collection of his eight longish short stories, is a must-read for anyone who writes crime. You could quibble about Chandler's hardboiled style getting in the way of his precious "realistic" approach to writing detective stories (how absurd now it seems for his characters to be downing quart after quart of rye whisky before driving off to confront some corrupt city councillor and beat them in a shoot-out). His use of now-dated street slang (detectives are "dicks", guns are "irons" women are "dames") gets quite comical to the modern ear, as does his odd, occasionally distracting observations, such as a blonde with smoky green eyes having very small pupils. What? So? But if his lexicon seems dated, his approach to writing about the people who commit crimes, and making the crimes more believable than arcane puzzles of logic to be solved by geniuses with schoolboy French, is with us to this day, alive and kicking. His stories are good, but his essay is sublime. Read it. He outlines exactly the archetypal action hero in the final three paragraphs, and those alone are worth coughing up the dough for.
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Download my starter library for free here - http://eepurl.com/bFkt0X - and receive my monthly newsletter with book recommendations galore for the Japanophile/crime fiction/English teacher in all of us.
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Son una serie de relatos cortos para quien desee completar la lectura del maestro Chandler.
They are a series of short stories for those who wish to complete master Chandler's reading.
They are a series of short stories for those who wish to complete master Chandler's reading.
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mr chandler you've given me half a mind to give up noir altogether! i'm feeling merciful though, so i'm sure i'll give the genre another chance.
i liked the first short story -- although it completely lacked murder! -- because i think it did its job at being witty, fast paced, and a bit silly. unfortunately each subsequent story only grew more tiresome, and it became hard to keep track of which hard boiled hotel detective and which handsome broad were even talking to each other! and there's only four stories in here! and this is perhaps due to my modern sensibilities, but the acts of violence and murder in this book are not as gruesomely detailed as it seemed they would be from the comically pulpy blurb on the back (i quote: "SLAUGHTER" "BRUTALITY" "HOMOCIDE" in big red letters).
the title essay, "the simple art of murder", was actually pretty interesting to me. (although i find it a bit funny that directly after four subpar mystery stories comes an essay proclaiming that the specific genre that the author works within is good, actually, he promises!) it contains some good quotes, and even though he shit talks my girl agatha christie and acts as if attempting absolute realism is the only way to write a book, i found it a valuable perspective for a mystery enthusiast such as myself.
i liked the first short story -- although it completely lacked murder! -- because i think it did its job at being witty, fast paced, and a bit silly. unfortunately each subsequent story only grew more tiresome, and it became hard to keep track of which hard boiled hotel detective and which handsome broad were even talking to each other! and there's only four stories in here! and this is perhaps due to my modern sensibilities, but the acts of violence and murder in this book are not as gruesomely detailed as it seemed they would be from the comically pulpy blurb on the back (i quote: "SLAUGHTER" "BRUTALITY" "HOMOCIDE" in big red letters).
the title essay, "the simple art of murder", was actually pretty interesting to me. (although i find it a bit funny that directly after four subpar mystery stories comes an essay proclaiming that the specific genre that the author works within is good, actually, he promises!) it contains some good quotes, and even though he shit talks my girl agatha christie and acts as if attempting absolute realism is the only way to write a book, i found it a valuable perspective for a mystery enthusiast such as myself.
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No Marlowe, but Still Good
The Kindle collection I have has the following stories the first being an essay: 1 The Simple Art of Murder, 2 Spanish Blood, 3 I'll Be Waiting, 4 The King in Yellow, 5 Pearls Are a Nuisance, 6 Pickup on Noon Street, 7 Smart-Aleck Kill, 8 Guns at Cyrano's, Nevada Gas. Make sure you click on the item and check this list of stories. Finally the Table of Contents should be active, highlighted, roll over with mouse. Beware there are bogus items out on Amazon, of inferior quality. This version has no typos either.
The Kindle collection I have has the following stories the first being an essay: 1 The Simple Art of Murder, 2 Spanish Blood, 3 I'll Be Waiting, 4 The King in Yellow, 5 Pearls Are a Nuisance, 6 Pickup on Noon Street, 7 Smart-Aleck Kill, 8 Guns at Cyrano's, Nevada Gas. Make sure you click on the item and check this list of stories. Finally the Table of Contents should be active, highlighted, roll over with mouse. Beware there are bogus items out on Amazon, of inferior quality. This version has no typos either.
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07/2018
A collection of non Marlowe stories from pulps in the 1930s, starring an assortment of police officers, hotel dicks and I forget who. They are just okay. His 1950 Atlantic essay is pretty good. He basically puts down all genre and literature too. He makes fun of everyone who imitates him, but admits he imitates Hammett, and does have nice things to say about him.
A collection of non Marlowe stories from pulps in the 1930s, starring an assortment of police officers, hotel dicks and I forget who. They are just okay. His 1950 Atlantic essay is pretty good. He basically puts down all genre and literature too. He makes fun of everyone who imitates him, but admits he imitates Hammett, and does have nice things to say about him.
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