1. Written By: Raymond Chandler Presentation By: Tyler Shalvarjian
THE BIG SLEEP
Written By: Raymond Chandler
Presentation By: Tyler Shalvarjian

2. Back Cover Teaser
Philip Marlowe, a private detective, is hired by General Sternwood to investigate what is supposed to be a simple blackmailing case. Marlowe soon realizes that this is a deeper case than what he first perceived, as Sternwood’s daughters both end up becoming major parts of the case. Despite the complexity, he jumps straight in, targeting and following his first suspect, an owner of a “bookstore”. This, unfortunately, does not last long, as his suspect is murdered. The murder leads Marlowe nowhere and his case is postponed shortly. However, after another mysterious murder, Marlowe is able to find a few leads. His case is jumpstarted once again and he begins to learn about the circumstances surrounding each murder.

3. Back Cover Teaser cont.
He finds that each successive murder has a connection to the first murder which lead him nowhere. Nearly stumped, Marlowe is confronted by a seemingly innocent man who offers his help to Marlowe in exchange for a sum of money. Marlowe realizes that he is becoming a target in the blackmailing case, and that he must “take matters into his own hands” in order to ensure his safety. This murder mystery is seemingly over, but what later ensues, changes the entire plot of the story. The masterful end to the confusing novel is all due to Marlowe’s ability to decipher the case from stage one. Follow Philip Marlowe as he disassembles a case of many false fronts and reassembles the puzzle that makes up the entirety of this blackmailing case.

4. Novel Setting West Hollywood, California 1930s-1940s
3765 Alta Brea Crescent (General Sternwood’s Mansion)
Majority takes place during the nighttime
Very descriptive:
“The air was thick, wet, steamy and larded with the cloying smell of tropical orchids in bloom. The glass walls and roof were heavily misted and big drops of moisture splashed on the plants. The light had an unreal greenish color, like light filtered through an aquarium tank. The plants filled the place, a forest of them, with nasty meaty leaves and stalks like the fingers of newly washed dead men. They smelled as overpowering as boiling alcohol under a blanket” (Chandler 8).
Weather

6. Detective Philip Marlowe
Private Detective
Only honest person throughout the novel
Helps others before helping himself
Tough, resilliant, focused; resists temptation
Does not do things for money (paid very little), only for
enjoyment
Smart, clever; much like Sherlock Holmes

7. Significant Passage
“You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that, oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was. But the old man didn’t have to be. He could lie quiet in his bed, with his bloodless hands folded on the sheet, waiting. His heart was a brief uncertain murmur. His thoughts were as gray as ashes. And in a little while he too, like Rusty Regan, would be sleeping the big sleep” (Chandler 206).

8. Raymond Thornton Chandler
Born in Chicago, Illinois; spent his childhood years in Plattsmouth, Nebraska; moved to London, England in 1900
Educated in England but did not attend university
Worked an admiralty job, during which he published his first poem (1907)
Became a reporter for the Daily Express and the Bristol Western Gazette newspapers
Moved to Los Angeles in Along the way he strung tennis rackets and picked fruit
Worked at the Los Angeles Creamery for four years and enlisted in World War I in 1917

10. Raymond Thornton Chandler
After the war, Chandler worked for the Dabney Oil Syndicate but was fired due to his alcoholism, absenteeism, promiscuity with female employees and threatened suicides
During the Depression, Chandler turned to writing to earn a living
Taught himself to write pulp fiction by studying the Perry Mason story formula of Erle Stanley Gardner.
Chandler's first professional work: "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", published in Black Mask magazine in 1933; First novel, The Big Sleep, published in 1939
After second novel’s success (Farewell, My Lovely (1940)), became a screenwriter
Attempted suicide in 1955, but was unsuccessful and died from pneumonial peripheral vascular shock and prerenal uremia

11. MY Recommendation Did not know what to expect
LA Noir – set in Hollywood
Philip Marlowe – Protagonist
Eddie Mars – Antagonist
Characters in-between
Rusty Regan Puzzle

12. MY recommendation Cont.
Logical/typical mystery plot
Misleading at times
Mysterious, dark tone
Everybody is out to get you
Corruption
I recommend this novel.

13. Novel Information Genre: Detective/Crime Novel; LA Noir
Reading Level: High School (11-12)
Length: 211 pages
Point of View: First Person