Raymond Chandler: Later Novels and Other Writings: The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback /Double Indemnity / Selected Essays and Letters (Library of America)

The second Chandler collection is worth its weight in gold, and exhibits some of the best English prose of the 20th century (which is to say, ever). Chandler largely transcends the limitations of the mystery genre, and his parade of private eyes, thugs, suits and dames now becomes a setting for sober, cutting reflection on trust, friendship, and betrayal.But, just like in  the first collection , he wasn't a great, or even good, mystery writer.  The Lady in the Lake  has a brilliant beginning, leading up to the discovery of the body, and a brilliant twist ending. Everything in between is rough going, plot-wise. There is a whole secondary mystery which transpires off-screen and involves side characters who are only briefly sketched out. This is a big drawback, since characterization is Chandler's biggest strength and some of these half-baked characters are central to the plot: for example, Mildred Haviland is said to be an irresistible seductress and manipulator of men, but this is never shown or described. Among the other failings of the plot, there is also yet another scene where Marlowe gets knocked out and has to make a rather improbable escape (also a pointless one, since he's discovered almost immediately -- there would have been no difference if this part had been written out). The antagonist is also quite bland: too self-centered and angry to be sympathetic, and too simple to be a master villain.At the same time, the book is compulsively readable for the dialogue, such as Marlowe's interrogation of the playboy Lavery or his professional discussions with the sheriff at the mountain retreat. The descriptions of the woods and lake are also atmospheric and serve to disrupt expectations for the book, since all of the previous Marlowe stories took place in LA. At some point the failings of the plot catch up to the witty conversations, but getting there is enjoyable in and of itself. The Little Sister  is notable for its paranoid atmosphere (even among Chandler's own work). It is a thoroughly pessimistic tale in which no one can be trusted, and every conversation is full of lies and evasion. Like in  The Big Sleep , it is not always clear just how much Marlowe understands, and so the reader has to guess where, and whether, he is trying to lead his interlocutors. It helps that these verbal duels are striking even when they lead nowhere (like the startling encounter with one "Mr. Toad"). The novel also draws on Chandler's experience as a Hollywood screenwriter to viciously criticize, in extremely specific detail, vacuous show-biz ambition and the pointless cruelty that it creates.A common trope in detective fiction is the Incompetent Policeman who does nothing but get in the sleuth's way. Chandler criticizes corrupt and over-confident cops a lot in this collection (particularly in The Long Goodbye), but The Little Sister also gives the police a chance to reply, in the form of the articulate police detective Christy French, who gives a completely ironclad, irrefutable objection to Marlowe's loose-cannon behaviour. Chandler was willing to briefly step outside Marlowe's perspective in order to show its limitations.Then we come to  The Long Goodbye , Chandler's magnum opus about misplaced trust and bitter disappointment. There are two murders, both of which are also quite improbable. But, although they set all the events in motion, they're actually very tangential to the narrative. To drive the point home, Marlowe never even visits the scene of the first crime, and his investigative work for the second consists of dredging up obscure documents, which serve as a deus ex machina for the "logical" part of the story.The rest of the book is filled up with truly bizarre, grotesque supporting characters, many of whom have no direct relevance to the plot: a misanthropic billionaire; no fewer than three shady doctors, each one with a very distinct brand of sleaze; an enraged cop; a psychotic and self-obsessed Mexican gangster; a jaded former friend from the police force; a nutty ex-colonel running a corporate detective agency; and really any other episodic character. The main characters are likewise vividly drawn: the whiny alcoholic writer Roger Wade, allegedly a stand-in for Chandler himself, wallowing in endless self-pity; his icy wife Eileen, who isn't quite all there after living through World War II; and the book's lynchpin character Terry Lennox, Chandler's highly critical take on the charming and shiftless Jake-Barnes "Lost Generation" archetype.Marlowe himself is different in this book, and has a different role. He searches for contact and repeatedly loses it for different reasons -- with Lennox, the Wades, Linda Loring, his former colleague Bernie Ohls, and even with the gangster Menendez (even as they are exchanging insults and threatening each other, their conversation at times has an odd camaraderie). Perhaps it isn't fair to say that his trust in Lennox was betrayed. Maybe his expectations were too high. All the other characters in the book seem to be quite content focusing on the shells they've built around themselves. The book allows the reader to look at them through the eyes of someone who thinks that this is wrong, and who proves his conviction by subjecting himself to considerable personal risk and inconvenience. But, as Marlowe admits, by doing this he may have actually brought about a worse outcome.The book also contains  Playback , the last long Marlowe story. It suffers in comparison to its immediate predecessor, but on its own merits I think it's quite enjoyable. Actually it might be the best pure detective story out of the seven Marlowe novels. The collection also includes the excellent screenplay of  Double Indemnity  and sundry essays, which are largely unnecessary (I'd have liked to see the final Marlowe short story "The Pencil" instead). But core of the collection is the novels, which are brilliant and contain enough depth in both style and content to reward numerous readings.

For that elusive title of "Greatest of All Time", in the field of mystery fiction, Raymond Chandler would get more than a few votes. I don't know if I'd give him that award, but he'd definitely be in the running. It wasn't merely the quality of his writing, which though over half-a-century old, still reads better than most modern mysteries; it's also the fact that Chandler was a pioneer, building on the foundation of hard-boiled predecessors like Dashiell Hammett to bring mysteries out of the gentle drawing room puzzle-solvers and into the real world.The Library of America has assembled all of his seven novels along with some other material into a two volume set. The first volume was five-star material and the second volume - the topic of this review - may even be better.The "Later Novels" compiled here are The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye and Playback, all featuring private eye Philip Marlowe. I have written separate reviews for each book, but as a set, they work wonderfully both individually and together. Reading them together helps you see the slow but certain evolution of Chandler the writer, culminating in the near-perfect The Long Goodbye. Playback, which follows it, was written when Chandler was near the end of his life, and the wear and tear shows.Like a good DVD boxed set, this volume comes not only with the novels but plenty of extras as well. Biggest of these is the screenplay for Double Indemnity (based on the James Cain novel), a movie which some consider the best film noir ever (I like it, but personally, my vote goes to Out of the Past). There are also a series of essays, including perhaps his most famous piece of nonfiction, The Simple Art of Murder. The essays and letters included give some insight into Chandler, a man who recognized what made great writing and seemed to find little that measured up to his standards. Marlowe himself often comes off as cheery compared to the cynical yet often brilliant opinions of Chandler.This book is over a thousand pages long, and there's not a bad page in the bunch. If you're a fan of mystery fiction - or even fiction in general - and have been avoiding Chandler because he is an "old" writer, avoid no more. This remains some of the best writing around.

I'm a huge fan of the Library of America series. They're handsome on the shelf, they're durable hardcover editions, they font and feel of the pages are wonderful, you get four novels and some collected essays/letters in one volume (great for trips), and they come with an interesting biographical timeline of the author so you can see their life story and how the work was influenced by their experiences. If you're browsing this particular edition here on Amazon, then you've got great taste and you're looking for something special.I can't say enough about how good Raymond Chandler is. If you like crime fiction, you've probably read hundreds of Chandler knockoffs without knowing it and will be amazed when you read the original master of the art. In these novels you'll get to see him at the top of his game with the Philip Marlowe character and will be blown away. I'm not going to summarize the stories or the characters in this review, best you find them on your own!If you like these, I'd also recommend you get the Dashiell Hammett books - also by Library of America. Right up there with Chandler.

I purchased this set as a Christmas gift for my son, who has recently become a fan of noir fiction and film. He is very pleased with the set.

Chandler is the exemplar of Noir writing, and these books have his best. Unfortunately the binding and paper are incredibly flimsy.

Livello autoriale molto alto.Ottime carta e rilegatura.

Fantastic collection of novels from an astonishing author and remarkable prose stylist, great read. I recommend it not only to the fans of the genre. Chandler was a Nabokov of crime fiction, a Faulkner of tough guys, and deprived, smoggy L.A. was his Yoknapatawpha county

Klassisch gebundene Ausgabe mit shr dünnen Papier, so dass auch 900+ Seiten in leinen gebunden und noch gut in der hand liegen können ... und das Ganze zu einem unschlagbaren Preis, da wohl durch eine Stiftung subverntioniert. Zum Inhalt muss man nicht viel sagen: ein Muss für jeden Fan englischsprachiger Kriminalstories.

字は小さめですが，Paperbackで買うより安価，かつコンパクトで置き場所に困らない点がいい．Mr.Marloweの世界にどっぷり．