num_pages: 251
description: "His thin, claw-like hands were folded loosely on the rug, purple-nailed. A few locks of dry white hair clung to his scalp, like wild flowers fighting for life on a bare rock." Published in 1939, when Raymond Chandler was 50, this is the first of the Philip Marlowe novels. Its bursts of sex, violence, and explosively direct prose changed detective fiction forever. "She was trouble. She was tall and rangy and strong-looking. Her hair was black and wiry and parted in the middle. She had a good mouth and a good chin. There was a sulky droop to her lips and the lower lip was full."
language: English
title: The Big Sleep
titlecomplete: The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)
characters: Vivian Regan, Mona Mars, Owen Taylor, Bernie Ohls, Harry Jones, Agnes Lozelle, Eddie Mars, Philip Marlowe, Joe Brody, General Guy Sternwood, Carmen Sternwood, Arthur Gwynn Geiger, Lash Camino, Carol Lundgren, Rusty Regan
genres: Fiction, American, Mystery, Thriller, Noir, Detective, Mystery Thriller, Classics, Novels, Crime
ratings_count: 151493
places: Los Angeles area, California, Hollywood, California, Los Angeles, California
series: Philip Marlowe
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Anthony Award
category: Best Novel of the Century, awardedAt: 1357027200000
name: CWA Best Ever
category: Crime Novel
publisher: Ballantine Books