The Big Sleep
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The Big Sleep
Narrated by:
Scott Brick
Buy Now for $21.97
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Narrated by:
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Scott Brick
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Written by:
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Raymond Chandler
One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
“Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.” —Robert B. Parker, The New York Times Book Review
When old man Sternwood, a dying millionaire, hires Philip Marlowe to expose the blackmailer of one of his troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than simple extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, and seduction are just a few of the complications standing in the way of completing the task at hand. And just as Marlowe feels he’s getting ahold of the situation, he discovers the first body.
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What the critics say
"Raymond Chandler is a master." —The New York Times
“[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered.” —The New Yorker
“Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye.” —Los Angeles Times
“Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . . An original. . . . A great artist.” —The Boston Book Review
“Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century. . . . Age does not wither Chandler’s prose. . . . He wrote like an angel.” —Literary Review
“[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision.” —Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books
“Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence.” —Ross Macdonald
“Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude.” —Erle Stanley Gardner
“Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since.” —Paul Auster
“[Chandler]’s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that’s like ours, but isn’t. ” —Carolyn See
“[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered.” —The New Yorker
“Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye.” —Los Angeles Times
“Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner. . . . An original. . . . A great artist.” —The Boston Book Review
“Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century. . . . Age does not wither Chandler’s prose. . . . He wrote like an angel.” —Literary Review
“[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision.” —Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books
“Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence.” —Ross Macdonald
“Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude.” —Erle Stanley Gardner
“Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since.” —Paul Auster
“[Chandler]’s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that’s like ours, but isn’t. ” —Carolyn See
Continue the series
But it's the censoring of the text that bothers me.
In Chapter 17 we're given the first taste of the word "fu*k", but the performer continously doesn't actually say the word, for some reason. This is a novel that was written in 1939, and a lot of what is said could be considered problematic in this age of enlightenment, but out of everything they chose not to censor; homophobia, misogynistic views, and racial stereotypes (which the performer actually emulates with a stereotypical "black speech pattern", although he's simply reading the written word I suppose...) that a silly word is what gets censored is beyond me.
Performance is great! Scott Brick does a wonderful Marlowe!
The music in-between chapters was an odd choice, but it really grew on me. It simply just made it easier to keep track of how many chapters I had listened to in a sitting. I've read a few reviews stating that that's what turned people off this performance; these people are nuts. The music certainly doesn't hinder the performance, but adds a level of immersion. The music is fitting for the chapters they follow and just adds more mood to the overall performance.
If you have never read something from the great Raymond Chandler, I highly suggest this entry
Why censor the original text?
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Awesome
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Excellent but dark
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