The Big Sleep: 3.5
Farewell, My Lovely: 4
The High Window: 4.5

Damn, this guy had a way with words. So stylish. His work feels so modern.

“The white moonlight was cold and clear, like the justice we dream of but don’t find.”

The Big Sleep is required reading but not my favorite. Farewell, My Lovely is the most exciting but most outlandish. The High Window is the most realistic but not as exciting as the second.

All are good examples of classic PI stories, though certain passages will make the modern reader wince.

4.5 all together

The Big Sleep - 4
Farewell, My Lovely - 5
The High Window - 4.5

Read just the first novel of this collection, The Big Sleep. Enjoyed some of the language Chandler used and some of the plot twists but the noir mood/style just didn’t hold my attention for long stretches. Good, not great. Perhaps I’ll visit the supposedly superior Farewell, My Lovely at a later date.

The first time I had encountered anything that had developed around the personality & activites of Philip Marlowe, the emotions that had flooded my mind can be summarised as: "No, not Sherlock Holmes, but....". Not only is Marlowe's world light-years away from the Victorian London in terms of time, space, characters, thought-process, but he himself is as different from Holmes as it is possible to imagine. But nevertheless, there are traits in him (I hope you have already noticed that I am not describing the novels in this book, because they are literary accomplishments way beyond my limited reviewing capacity, and better persons have spent reams upon them) that make him the template for any modern detective. If you know him, and are interested in reading his classic cases, this book and its companion volume are the best possible options, since they are sturdier than the Library of America volumes, and you should associate a certain degree of elegant rusticity with Chandler's works, shouldn't you?

I think the first 3 in the series gets pretty complicated. They stack up the bodies and being hit with black jacks.

Readers just starting out with Chandler (as I was, just last week!), should consider getting The Big Sleep; Farewell, My Lovely; The High Window. It's a nice hardcover collecting Chandler's first three novels, and it can be ordered online for relatively not much.

n  The Big Sleepn

Nice introduction to Philip Marlowe, and an interesting look at a by-gone era, when one could go to the drugstore to buy some whiskey & cigarettes and sit down for a cup of coffee & a smoke. No, seriously.

As for the story itself, with its multiple deaths & mysteries, intertwining threads and flawed characters, it's incredibly well-written in a minimalist style that manages to evoke the right tone & atmosphere. And the way everything ties together at the end? Wow. It's easy to see why this book is a classic. And this was Raymond Chandler's FIRST novel!

n  Farewell, My Lovelyn

I really, really liked this one! I don't know if that's what Raymond Chandler was going for, but I found it quite funny (the things Marlowe says, I tell you...). This is Chandler's second Marlowe book and, as good as the first one was ("The Big Sleep"), "Farewell My Lovely" is head and shoulders above it.

Just like in The Big Sleep, it's a very easy read, and it's a real treat to follow Marlowe around, seemingly without a purpose (even though you just know there's a method to his madness).

And just like in the first book, the mystery is wrapped up in the last 15-20 pages, and that's fine. The way Marlowe goes about it is very clever, it all makes sense, and you wonder why you didn't see it before, since the pieces of the puzzle were all there.

Of course I highly recommend this to absolutely anyone, but especially to fans of noir and detective stories.

n  The High Windown

Not quite as awesome as Farewell, My Lovely, "The High Window" is still a very good book, a taut mystery, with the unflappable Marlowe up to his usual sleuthing.

Next Philip Marlowe mystery: The Lady in the Lake.

Funny and very interesting use of language, but I found it hard to get past the stereotypes and sexism. By the time I got done with the third story, I couldn't remember the distinct plots and it all blurred together.

I've reviewed The Big Sleep previously so this one will focus on the other two novels. Of the two, I think Farewell, My Lovely was darker and more dangerous to the hero. The High Window was sadder and somehow more unresolved. Only some of the killers were brought to justice and not all the really evil characters got what was coming to them which was a bit disappointing. He made me laugh in the "reveal" scene because one of the "villains" made fun of the typical detective story: "Now you're going to tell me how it all happened and include some detail you've been holding back that makes it all clear."

I always end up hoping for Marlowe to have a relationship with the sweet girl in each story because I can see he cares for each of them and wants to protect them but I know in the back of my head that it won't happen. I read in the biographical notes that Chandler rewrote Double Indemnity for the screen based on someone else's writing. I wonder if he wrote part of Chinatown too because it definitely has that same noir LA feel. I realize that this is more a review of the mood of the novels than the plot but I can't help it. That's what sticks with me.

The undisputed hero of noir fiction
n  n

A lot more shocking than I expected for the time period. Some of the similes fall flat and some try too hard, but some are brilliant.

As with the novels of Robert B. Parker (who went to school on Chandler), it's the writing that makes these a joy. The twisted similes that make such good fodder for parody are all on display here. And Chandler's descriptions benefit from the detachment of an outsider (he was schooled in England). As a result, the novels rise to the level of art, in the opinion of no one less than W.H. Auden. And if he's good enough for Auden, he's good enough for me.