Chandler, Raymond - Philip Durham (essay date 1963)
Philip Durham (essay date 1963)
SOURCE: "The Technique," in Down These Mean Streets a Man Must Go: Raymond Chandler's Knight, The University of North Carolina Press, 1963, pp. 106-29.
[In the following essay, Durham analyzes Chandler's narrative technique, noting his lively prose, elegant expression, and belief that style was more important than plot]
In England early in 1954 Ralph Partridge, in The New Statesman and Nation, wrote that although there was a "jarring note of sentimentality" in The Long Goodbye, the "crusading" Marlowe was, nevertheless, a "remarkable creation"—"the perpetually crucified redeemer of all our modern sins." Almost alone among the reviewers, Partridge commented on Chandler's writing technique: "Mr. Chandler's style by now can be regarded as fixed . . . [his] language has lost none of its impetus, the rhythm of his prose is superb, and the intensity of feeling he packs into his pages makes every...
[The entire page is 6924 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
