The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, Playback (Everyman's Library)

This is a wonderful volume. The four stories in the book are classics, a joy to read. The book also contains a good scholarly easy-to-read introduction. The $25.60 price means that each of the four tales cost a little over $6, cheap for what one is getting, hours of pleasure. The book itself looks great on my shelf.Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) published seven full-length novels during his lifetime along with some 25 short stories. His eighth full-length novel was completed and published by Robert B. Parker after his death. Chandler is considered by many to be the founder of the hard-boiled school of detective fiction. Chandler cannibalized some of his short stories, such as combining two of his short stories to produce a full-length novel. He did so, for example, with “The Big Sleep,” combining the two short stories “Killer in the rain” (published in 1935) and “The Curtain” (published in 1936); and also inserted small parts of “Finger Man” and “Mandarin Jade.” “The Big Sleep,” a reference to Philip Marlowe’s attitude to death, was published in 1939 as his first novel as well as the first hard-boil crime novel with hard-nosed private detective Philip Marlowe. In 1950, Chandler wrote an introduction where he reflects on writing pulp mysteries like his own. These stories, he tells, stressed the atmosphere of the events, times, and places, rather than the plot. “(T)he scene outranked the plot…. The ideal mystery was one you would read if the end was missing.” In the good hard-boiled story there is “some very determined individual (who) makes it his business to see that justice is done.All of his novels, with the sole exception of his last novel Playback, which is in this book, published in 1958, were made into movies, some more than once.

Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) and his great character Philip Marlowe belong together atop the high steep mountain of noir detective fiction. Chandler was Chicago born and English raised. He was an alcoholic master of the metaphor as his seven novels and many short stories featuring Marlowe take us to the dark streets, tough alleys and palatial homes of Hollywood royalty. Chandler is a master of hard boiled dialogue and sets scenes from jail cells to rooming houses to sleazy bars in the Los Angeles Southern California milieu of 1930s-1950s life. This volume of Chandler's last four novels published by Everyman Library is a gem worthy of purchase and veneration at reading peerless prose. The Lady in the Lake first published in 1944 finds Marlowe investigating the wife of a wealthy businessman. It was later turned into a fine film starring Robert Montgomery as Marlowe. The Little Sister is about a Midwest woman's quest to find her missing brother. The Long Goodbye features murder and deceit amid the Hollywood elite. Playback the final novel written by Chandler deals with a client who wants Marlowe to find a missing woman. All these novels are classics and will provide the reader with hours of reading pleasure.

Read US service men were supplied with pocket size versions of selected Everyman Library titles. Supposedly some American GI's carried Everyman books during D-Day invasion. Everyman Library offers quality books which are worth the purchase price. I love Raymond Chandler's stories and the Phillip Marlowe character. Have read several biographies about Chandler and his wife Cissy, and found their lives almost as interesting as Ray's fiction. No doubt Chandler's knowledge about Los Angeles and the crime and corruption there influenced his writing greatly. Chandler's early education, astute observations of human nature, and his knack to transfer it so emphatically to paper made him the gold standard among crime writers. IMO if you're going to read just one Chandler book by all means make it 'The Big Sleep.' Note: Recommend the 'Library of America' books also.

Knopf is the name associated with "Black Mask" stories and hardboiled genre, so it is perhaps suitable that Chandler's greatest works have been published so handsomely by Knopf, that beats even the  Raymond Chandler: Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)  and  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) version in its elegance & strength. The novels themselves are almost gold-standards of hardboiled or mystery fiction, and should be considered as great pieces of literature on their own. Highly recommended.

I consider the whole genre as must reads.

This is a terrific compilation of 4 Philip Marlowe (P.I.) detective stories by Raymond Chandler. The writing is superb and one hates to come to the end of each novel. The writing style, pace, and suspense is similar to that of Michael Connelly, and greaterLos Angeles is the setting for both of these novelists. Must reads!

Great storiesEdition is nice size. Compact but easily readable

As you near the end of this second volume of Philip Marlowe novels (say, about halfway through The Long Goodbye) you can't help but get a little sad at the thought that soon you will have read them all and there will be no more.

I bought this (and the others in the series) for my husband and he loved them all. Thank you.

truly classic.

The book is awesome. Very good binding and print. A collectors edition but I was not satisfied with the condition of the book. The book was not fresh and somewhat damaged.

正直言って所謂チャンドラリアンにはほど遠い評者なのだが、『 湖中の女 』については、メドレーのように過去の 諸短編 を乱暴に連結する流儀にはやはりイタダけないものを感じつつも、水を死や殺人の隠喩として扱う象徴的手法が印象深く、個人的にはこれがチャンドラーのベスト作。ひときわ映像化に向いているはずとも思い、1947年のロバート・モンゴメリー監督・主演作を観てみたら、これがまたとてつもない 珍作 でアッケに取られたもの。そりゃ原作者も怒るはず、と『 かわいい女 』に典型的なハリウッドへの剥き出しの悪意の所以がフに落ちた次第。今日びチャンドラーでもないのかも知れないが、誰かあらためてきちんと映画化してあげないものか。　そのチャンドラーの代表的長編を日本語で読もうとしたら、専ら清水俊二の旧訳か村上春樹の新訳かということになるわけだが、これがどちらもハヤカワ・ミステリ文庫。海外の一有名作品の邦訳各種が出版社を異にして併存したり、自社刊行の旧訳を廃して新訳を出すのは珍しくもないが、同一出版社の新旧両訳が現役として流通、書店に仲良く並んでいるのはちょっとした奇観で、明治以来の翻訳大国の面目躍如といったところ。　上記のように特に思い入れのない作家なのに加え、例え時たまにでも30年以上にわたって読んでいれば、今となっては多少古びた観がある清水訳でも―ないと言っては嘘になる誤訳・悪訳に類する部分を含めて―特に気にはならないもの。そもそも、誤訳や悪訳に気付いたら、その時点で既に正しくliterately ＆ criticallyに読んでいる・読めているということなので、そこで出版社や翻訳者に「カネ返せ！」などと文句を付けるのはヤボの沙汰、とも個人的には思う。まあ、英語（と日本語）のベンキョウ代みたいなものですから。　その清水訳の『 長いお別れ 』でひときわ印象に残ったのが、ご多聞に漏れずでマーロウとテリーの最後の対話。マーロウがテリーをなじる「道徳に関するかぎりは敗北主義者だ」（昭和59年6月30日第19刷p.479。原文は本書p.815 "You're a moral defeatist." ）という台詞、「敗北主義者 defeatist」という戦時のヴォキャブラリーをナマでぶつけることで、事件や登場人物たちの上を覆う第二次大戦の暗い影があらためて浮き彫りになる。反面、今の若い読者にはピンと来にくいのも確かで、 村上新訳 が出た時、どう訳しているのかとここだけは気になった。書店でパラパラッと立ち読みしたところ、大意「君はまっすぐな心をどこかで失ってしまったんだ」だったか。このあたり、世代の差もあるし、新訳を全編読みもしないで決めつけてもいけないけれど、チャンドラー（と清水）が一語に込めた不条理への怒りと哀しみが消えてしまったのではないか、と。　清水の自由闊達・融通無碍―と言っては語弊があるような気がするが―の翻訳は映画字幕の仕事にむしろ顕著で、昭和30年公開のデイヴィッド・リーン『旅情』で「ラヴィオリ」を「そんなシロモノ、日本の観客に分かるワケない」と字幕では「スパゲッティ」にしてしまったのは 有名な話 。戦前から海外生活を経験、字幕製作にも最初期から携わってきたプロの知恵が生んだ名誤訳。直訳か意訳か超訳かは文芸翻訳の永遠の課題なのだろうけれど、字ヅラのみを精密に辿る―むろん作品のコンテクストも充分に踏まえた上で―アカデミックなアプローチとは矛盾しがち、字数その他の制約も少なくない反面、口調やボディ・ランゲージを訳文に加味した映画字幕（と日本語吹き替え台本）は意外に達意なものだったりする（そもそも、達意でなければ字幕として通用しない）。映画ではあれほどワーワーギャーギャーと騒がしい『十二人の怒れる男』も、 英語シナリオ で読むとお互い「です」「ます」で議論しているような印象を受けたり、とか。句点（ピリオド）や読点（コンマ）、「！」「？」に「...」も本来は日本語にはない、いわば外来語。海外小説を原書で読んだり日本語訳する際には、それらにあまり引き摺られないよう注意するのも大事かも。 湖中の女諸短編珍作かわいい女長いお別れ村上新訳有名な話英語シナリオ