The Big Sleep (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Raymond Chandler
- First Published: 1939
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Detective and mystery
- Time of Work: The 1930’s, after the end of Prohibition
- Setting: Los Angeles, California
- Genres: Long fiction, Mystery and detective literature
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Sex or sexuality, Murder or homicide, 1930’s, California, Los Angeles, West, U.S., Blackmail, Detectives, Corruption, Private investigators, Pornography
- Locales: Los Angeles, CA
Characters Discussed
Philip Marlowe, a private detective. Tall, dark, and rugged, with a poker face and a quick wit, he is attractive to women but wary of them and of all entanglements. Though cynical and hard-boiled, and a heavy drinker capable of violence, Marlowe is idealistic, even puritanical. Contemptuous of money, he is an honest loner in a corrupt world. Hired to deal with a blackmail threat, Marlowe is embroiled in a more deadly game by Sternwood’s two spoiled daughters, whose advances he spurns. Independent to the point of insubordination, he refuses to stop...
[The entire page is 1062 words long]
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