Red harvest
Red Harvest (original title: Red Harvest ) is the first novel by Dashiell Hammett . It was also published in German-speaking countries under the title Blood Harvest . It was first published in Black Mask Magazine as a series under the title The Cleansing of Poisonville from November 1927 to February 1928.
The following year as a book by Alfred A. Knopf published, he was thus Hammett's first hard realistic novel ( hard-boiled novel ).
action
A detective from the Continental private detective agency is sent to “Pissville” to carry out an unknown assignment for a well-known citizen of the city. The client is murdered before the actual assignment can be sent to the detective. The "Pissville" of the German translation, a corruption of the actual name "Peaceville" , is called "Personville" in the American original and becomes "Poisonville" there . Once in the town, the detective discovers that the town is ruled by several rival gangster gangs. He decides to play the gangs off against each other until the city is "clean" again. He does not shrink from intrigue or murder.
background
The novel, along with The Glass Key, is the most political of Hammett's books. It shows how far it can lead when the politicians or the administration of a city are corrupt . In any case, this book is one of Hammett's darkest and most violent. It is noticeable that the detective has no name and is otherwise only described very sparsely; the narration is from the first-person perspective.
The plot of Red Harvest is similar to that of Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo (1960) , which is why it is often claimed that it was also the source of the script. Kurosawa always denied this.
Yojimbo, on the other hand, has been adapted several times from some US films in which the protagonist also remains without a name. The most successful remake is arguably For a Fistful of Dollars by Sergio Leone with Clint Eastwood in the lead role. At the latest with the Last Man Standing , clearly inspired by Hammett's genre , the circle will come full.
Quotes from other writers
- André Gide noted in his diary in 1931: "Red harvest , read by Dashiell Hammett ... with amazement bordering on admiration"
- Jakob Arjouni writes about himself: "When I was twelve I read 'Red Harvest' by Hammett for the first time - not all of it understood, but enthusiastic."
See also
expenditure
- German-language first edition: Dashiell Hammett: Blood harvest (original title: Red Harvest , translated by Peter Fischer), In: Krähen-Bücher . Nest, Nuremberg 1952.
- 18th edition: Newly translated by Gunar Ortlepp, detebe 20292, Diogenes Taschenbuch , Zurich 2007 (first edition 1976), ISBN 978-3-257-20292-2 .
- current new edition: special edition. detebe 24073, Diogenes, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-257-24073-3 .