The great sleep

The big sleep (English original title: The big sleep ), initially also published in German-speaking countries as Der tiefe Schlaf (1950), is adetective novel by Raymond Chandler ,published in 1939 ,which introduces the character of the detective Philip Marlowe for the first time. The plot of the novel is complex - many of the characters play a double game and the relationships between the characters and their respective secrets only gradually reveal themselves as the plot progresses. The novel, which is set in Los Angeles , has been filmed twice; In 1946 Humphrey Bogart starredin Dead Sleep and in 1978 Robert Mitchum starredin Dead Sleep Better respectively Philip Marlowe.

Today, the novel is considered a classic of the literary history of the 20th century: in 1999 the French newspaper Le Monde selected it as one of the 100 formative novels of the 20th century and the American magazine Time selected it as one of the best English-language novels published between 1923 - the year Time was founded - and in 2005.

action

Private detective Philip Marlowe is called to the home of the old, wealthy, and ailing General Sternwood. He wants Marlowe to try to blackmail: A bookseller named Arthur Geiger tries to get money from his younger daughter Carmen. It's not the first attempt at blackmail - Carmen has previously been blackmailed by a Joe Brody. While talking to Marlowe, Sternwood mentions that his older daughter Vivian is married to a Rusty Regan who has disappeared. Even if Vivian and Regan's marriage turned out to be an unhappy relationship after just a month of marriage, Sternwood misses his son-in-law, who often kept him company. When Marlowe leaves the general's house, he meets Vivian, who tries in vain to find out from him whether her father has asked him to look for Rusty.

Marlowe observes Geiger's bookstore and gets to know Agnes there, who looks after the customers. It quickly becomes clear to him that the bookstore is an illegal lending library for pornographic works. He follows Geiger home. While watching the house, he sees Carmen Sternwood go to Geiger. A little later he heard a scream, followed by pistol shots, and a little later saw two cars drive away in quick succession. He enters the house, where he finds Geiger shot. Carmen, who is obviously drugged, poses naked in an armchair in front of a camera that no longer has a photo plate.

Marlowe brings Carmen home. When he returns to Geiger's house, the body has disappeared and he quickly leaves the scene, suspecting that the police will show up soon. The next day he is called to the police, who inform him that Sternwood's car has been found in the harbor. The Sternwoods chauffeur is dead behind the wheel. It appears the chauffeur was knocked down before the car fell into the water. The police also want to know whether Marlowe has been tasked with looking for Regan.

Marlowe begins to monitor the bookstore and notices that the pornographic books are being packed and taken to Joe Brody's house. A little later Vivian visits Marlowe in his office to inform him that there is another blackmail attempt. Carmen is supposed to pay money to get back last night's nude photos. Vivian also reports that she regularly plays at Eddie Mars casinos, and mentions in passing that Eddie's wife Mona ran away with Rusty Regan. Marlowe drives to Geiger's house and finds Carmen trying to break into the house. Marlowe and Carmen look for the photos together. Carmen also mentions that she can't remember anything that happened the previous night. Suddenly Eddie Mars shows up - he claims to be Geiger's landlord and is looking for him. Mars also wants to know why Marlowe is there.

Shortly afterwards, Marlowe visits Brody in his home and meets Agnes there. He makes it clear to them that he knows they are taking over the illegal lending library and also suspects that they are blackmailing Carmen with the nude photos. A little later, Carmen forcibly enters the apartment and asks for the photos. Marlowe manages to wrest the gun from her and gets her to leave the apartment again. Marlowe asks Brody further and knows the process. Geiger blackmailed Carmen. The chauffeur, who secretly loved Carmen, then killed Geiger and took the photo plate. Brody, who was watching Geiger's house, chased the driver, stole the photographic plates, knocked the chauffeur down, and possibly pushed the car off the pier, drowning the unconscious chauffeur. Suddenly the doorbell rings. Brody, who opens the door, is shot. Marlowe pursues the perpetrator who, when Marlowe catches him, turns out to be Geiger's lover. He shot Brody because he believed he was Geiger's killer. He was also the one who hid Geiger's body in order to have enough time to clear his personal belongings from the house.

The case seems resolved, but Marlowe is still considering Regan's disappearance. The police are convinced that he just ran away with Mona Mars, because she also disappeared. The police also believe that Eddie Mars would not commit a murder in which he is so obviously the suspect. Mars invites Marlowe to his casino, where he is completely unfazed by possible suspicions. Vivian is also present at the casino and Marlowe notices that there seems to be a closer connection between her and Mars. Marlowe drives Vivian home and she tries to seduce him; however, he refuses their advances. When he comes home, he finds the naked Carmen in his bed. He also resists their advances.

A man named Harry Jones, who is Agne's new partner, contacts Marlowe and offers to reveal to him the place where Mona Mars is hiding for money. Marlowe plans to meet him later. Mars' henchman Canino, however, seems to guess Jones' and Agnes' intentions and kills Jones before he has a chance to speak to Marlowe. Marlowe manages to find Agnes before Canino and receives the information from her. Mona Mars is hiding in a garage in Realito, but when Marlowe visits her, he is intercepted by Canino, who knocks him down. When Marlowe wakes up again, he is tied up and Mona Mars is sitting with him. Mona Mars tells Marlowe that she hasn't seen Regan in months. She only went into hiding to help her husband and insists he didn't kill Regan. Mona Mars loosens Marlowe's bonds and he kills Canino.

The next day, Marlowe visits the seriously ill General Sternwood one last time, who is still puzzling over Regan's disappearance. On the way out of the house, Marlowe sees Carmen and takes the opportunity to bring her back the small pistol he stole from her in Brody's apartment. He offers Carmen to give her shooting lessons. To remain unobserved, they go to a remote oil field near General Sternwood's house. There Carmen tries to kill Marlowe, but he has loaded the pistol with blank shot cartridges. Marlowe brings Carmen back to the house and tells Vivian that he now knows why Regan disappeared. Carmen tried to seduce Rusty, and like Marlowe, he refused her advances. Carmen then shot Regan. Eddie helped Vivian cover up her sister's murder by spreading the story that his wife ran away with Regan. Then he began to blackmail Vivian. Vivian makes it clear to Marlowe that she has done everything possible to spare her dying father and promises him to take her sister to a mental institution.

characters

• Philip Marlowe is one of the so-called “ hardboiled ” private detectives, a figure from the Anglo-American crime novel, who has an illusion-free to cynical view of the world and takes little account of current legal forms. He unscrupulously uses firearms and lives in latent conflict with the police. The latter not least because he was previously assistant to the District Attorney who accused him of insubordination .
• General Sternwood is Philip Marlowe's principal. After a riding accident, he is dependent on a wheelchair. Obviously, he will not live very long and seriously ill. He has two daughters, Vivian and Carmen, who are married to Rusty Regan.
• Rusty Regan is General Sternwood's missing son-in-law. There was a close relationship between the general and his son-in-law. Regan led insurgent troops in Ireland, then came to the United States and has apparently not always led a law-abiding life.
• Vivian Regan is Regan's wife and eldest daughter of General Sternwood. The marriage with Regan was not particularly happy after a short time. She hardly seems hurt by Regan leaving her. Vivian tries in vain to seduce Marlowe and is obviously a gambler who frequent Eddie Mars' casino and who is obviously on good terms with him.
• Carmen Sternwood is General Sternwood's younger daughter who lives an unrestrained life. Your behavior suggests a drug and a psychological problem. The nude photos she took lead to another blackmail attempt.
• Arthur Geiger is murdered at the beginning of the novel while shooting Carmen Sternwood in the nude. He apparently runs a second-hand bookshop in Los Angeles, but in reality it is a lending library that lends books with pornographic content to interested parties.
• Eddie Mars is a Los Angeles casino operator whose wife Mona may have run away with Regan. Canino is one of his henchmen.
• Canino is a henchman of Eddie Mars who ruthlessly kills. He is responsible for the murder of Harry Jones.
• Harry Jones is a petty criminal who is willing to reveal the whereabouts of Mona Mars for money. This costs him his life. Marlowe witnesses the murder but is unable to intervene.
• Mona Mars is the wife of casino operator Eddie Mars and has allegedly been missing for weeks because she allegedly ran away with Rusty Regan. In reality, at her husband's request, she has gone into hiding so that a plausible story can be constructed that explains Rusty Regan's disappearance. Mona loosens Marlowe, who has been cast down by Canino, because she doesn't want to be the henchman for another murder. This enables Marlowe to trap Canino and kill him.

background

Chandler wrote The Big Sleep by cannibalizing, as with most of his novels, his previously published short stories. Chandler used stories that he had previously published in Black Mask pulp magazine , and revised them so that they made a coherent story. The two most important stories that Chandler processed for The Big Sleep are Killer in the Rain (published 1935) and The Curtain (published 1936). The two stories do not build on each other and neither have any characters in common. However, they have common characteristics that made it seem logical to combine them with one another: In both stories there was an influential father who was troubled about his unruly daughter. Chandler merged the two fathers into a new character and did the same for the two daughters. This led to the characters of General Sternwood and his unruly, drug addict, and obviously psychotic daughter, Carmen. Chandler also adopted elements from two other of his short stories: Finger Man and Mandarin's Jade .

The processing of different short stories led Chandler to several novels in which not all questions were clarified. In the case of Big Sleep, it remains unclear who actually murdered the chauffeur. When Howard Hawks filmed Dead Sleeping Tight in 1946 , the script team was unable to come up with the answer. Hawks contacted Chandler and Chandler replied that he had no idea either. For Chandler, the plot was almost irrelevant. What was in the foreground for him was the atmosphere and characters who acted in a believable way.

expenditure

• The Big Sleep, 1939
  • Deep Sleep, 1950: Translated by Mary Brand, published by Nest Verlag, Nuremberg
  • Big Sleep, 1974: Translated by Gunar Ortlepp , published by Diogenes-Verlag, Zurich
  • Big Sleep, 1980: Translated by Hans Wollschläger , published by Diogenes-Verlag, Zurich
  • Big Sleep, 2013: Translated by Gunar Ortlepp, illustrated by Thomas M. Müller , Edition Büchergilde, Frankfurt am Main
  • Big Sleep, 2019: Translated by Frank Heibert , published by Diogenes-Verlag, Zurich

literature

• Phillips, Gene D .: Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir . University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 2000, ISBN 0-8131-9042-8 .
• Armin Jaemmrich: Hard-boiled stories and films noirs: Amoral, cynical, pessimistic? An analysis of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Cornell Woolrich, WR Burnett and other authors, as well as relevant films noirs . Frankfurt 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-039216-0 .

Single receipts

1. ^ Frank MacShane: The life of Raymond Chandler , 1st ed. Edition, EP Dutton, New York 1976, ISBN 0-525-14552-4 , p. 67.
2. ^ Frank MacShane: The life of Raymond Chandler , 1st ed. Edition, EP Dutton, New York 1976, ISBN 0-525-14552-4 , p. 68.
3. ↑ Hiney, T. and MacShane, F. "The Raymond Chandler Papers" Letter to Jamie Hamilton, March 21, 1949: 105, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000