Literary Techniques
Red Harvest is an excellent example of the differences in technique between the classic and the hard-boiled detective novel. Whereas...
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Social Concerns
Hammett's first novel clearly shows the writer's deep-seated proletarian biases and his disenchantment both with the social structure of the...
(The entire section is 509 words.)
Bibliography
(Masterpieces of American Literature)
Dooley, Dennis. Dashiell Hammett. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1984.
Gale, Robert L. A Dashiell Hammett Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.
Gregory, Sinda. Private Investigations: The Novels of Dashiell Hammett. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985.
Hammett, Jo. Dashiell Hammett: A Daughter Remembers. Edited by Richard Layman, with Julie M. Rivett. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001.
Johnson, Diane. Dashiell Hammett: A Life. New York: Random House, 1983.
Layman, Richard. Shadow Man: The Life of Dashiell Hammett. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Bruccoli-Clark, 1981.
Mellen, Joan. Hellman and Hammett: The Legendary Passion of Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.
Metress, Christopher, ed. The Critical Response to Dashiell Hammett. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.
Nolan, William F. Hammett: A Life at the Edge. New York: Congdon and Weed, 1983.
Nyman, Jopi. Hard-Boiled Fiction and Dark Romanticism. New York: Peter Lang, 1998.
Panek, LeRoy Lad. Reading Early Hammett: A Critical Study of the Fiction Prior to “The Maltese Falcon.” Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004.
Symons, Julian. Dashiell Hammett. San Diego, Calif.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985.
Wolfe, Peter. Beams Falling: The Art of Dashiell Hammett. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1980.
Literary Precedents
The American hard-boiled detective novel does not develop, as one might think, out of the classic detective story in the mold of Arthur Conan...
(The entire section is 465 words.)