I read a lot of crime fiction and mystery stories, both modern and classic, but somehow I’ve skipped over Philip Marlowe. In this introduction to Marlowe, a dying millionaire hires him to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in. As the annotations show, even though this is the first in the series, it’s not really the first time we may have met Marlowe, although under other names. Chandler apparently often took earlier short stories he had written for pulp magazines like Black Mask, and combined and expanded them into the Marlowe novels.

The Big Sleep is a complicated story, set in 1930s Los Angeles, involving blackmail and a bookstore that is a rental library for pornography. The annotations provide lots of information about the time period, about Chandler’s writing, and about some of the cultural differences between now and then. Almost everyone in The Big Sleep is a bad guy to some extent, except Marlowe. The women are gamblers and as capable of killing as any man. The men are mobsters, flunkies, and blackmailers. Or too rich for their own good. It’s no wonder so many people end up dead.

Marlowe is really the only morally decent character. I think the best description of Marlowe was written by Chandler himself in The Simple Art of Murder and included in the annotations. “Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this kind of story must be such a man. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor — by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.” Marlowe is witty and wise-cracking, he likes clothes and women, but he is not an anti-hero. He may be nonconformist, but he is definitely a good guy.

The story is a bit confusing, and some loose ends never get tied up. I enjoyed all the annotations, but they also broke up the story for me, which is a bit of a shame.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for a copy of The Annotated Big Sleep for an honest review.

Raymond Chandler's first novel, The Big Sleep, is a masterpiece of the noir and is on the "1001 Books to Read Before You Die List" and I always wanted to read it. This annotated book gives notes and images alongside the full text of the novel. I was able to gain insight of what Los Angeles was like during the 1920's which included maps and images of famous buildings, notes from Chandler's personal letters, pictures of hairstyles and clothing from the characters and an analysis of class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity mentioned in the book. The main character, Philip Marlowe, was brought to life along with pictures of Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum who played Marlowe on film. Not only was I able to enjoy reading The Big Sleep but I got a lot more than I bargained for by reading The Annotated Big Sleep.

Credit for this version of The Big Sleep should be given to the editors, Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson and Anthony Rizzuto, who did an excellent job putting this book together. I would highly recommend this book as an addition to any crime fiction fan's library and hope that you would enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed reading The Annotated Big Sleep.

I wouldn’t recommend this book in the current format, which is messy and difficult to navigate. I love the book itself , but I hated the reading experience of this edition.

What a delightful annotated work. If you are a fan of any of the following - Chandler, Marlowe, Bogart, Noir, Los Angeles, then you need this book!

This book which, of course, includes the entire text of Raymond Chandler's novel, is extremely well edited by Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson and Anthony Rizzuto. The reader learns so much about the period that only enhances the novel. Geography, to hairstyles, to currency and so much more. Beyond just text there are also pictures through out to assist with the descriptions, as well as photos from film, including the classic version of the novel.

If you are a fan of the book, or not...you will be. This is definitely the text to read.