These two classic novels featuring private eye Philip Marlowe made Raymond Chandler's name synonymous with America's hard-boiled school of crime fiction. The Big Sleep was an instant success when first published in 1939. It centers around a paralyzed California millionaire with two psychopathic daughters; he involves Marlowe in a case of blackmail that turns into murder. Farewell My Lovely, which Chandler regarded as his finest work, came out the following year. It has Marlowe dealing with the Los Angeles gambling circuit, a murder he stumbles upon, and three very beautiful but potentially deadly women. "Chandler writes like a slumming angel and invests the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence," said Ross Macdonald. And George V. Higgins wrote: "Chandler is fun to read. He's as bleak as tundra, and his dirtbag characters far outnumber his stellar citizens, but Philip Marlowe is a laconic tour guide through a zoo of truly interesting animals." From the Hardcover edition.

レイモンド・チャンドラーが描くのは、腐敗したロサンゼルスに差す一筋の「孤独な高潔さ」です。彼の文体は、汚れきった街並みを神々しいまでの叙情性で描き出す、まさに「堕天使の詩」に他なりません。フィリップ・マーロウという男は、倫理が崩壊した世界を皮肉と誇りを武器に歩き続ける、ハードボイルドという名の現代の騎士なのです。 謎解き以上に、太陽に灼かれた街の倦怠感や、そこに蠢く人間たちの歪な生命力こそが本作の真骨頂です。読者はマーロウの冷徹かつ多感な観察眼を通じて、人間の醜悪さと美しさが同居する深淵を覗き込むことになります。言葉の牙と魂の渇きが交差するこの世界観は、ミステリの枠を超えた純文学としての圧倒的な品格を放っています。