The Big Sleep | Related Titles
In writing his first novel, Chandler used elements of his earlier short fiction. For The Big Sleep he cannibalized parts of two stories, "Killer in the Rain," which appeared in the June 1935 issue of Black Mask, and "The Curtain," published in that magazine in September of 1936. In so doing, Chandler did not rehash old story lines; instead, he read through the stories then approached his new novel afresh, refashioning ideas from the earlier work into new dramatic incidents. Both the stories that served as sources for this novel involve explosive family situations (a stern...
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