Philip Marlowe

Philip Marlowe is a fictional private eye created by Raymond Chandler in a series of detective novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared in The Big Sleep, published in 1939. Marlowe appeared in none of Chandler's early short stories, though many of his early stories were republished years later with the names of the protagonists changed to Philip Marlowe; this change was presumably made with the approval of Chandler.

Philip Marlowe's character is foremost within the genre of hardboiled crime fiction that originated in the 1920s, most notably in Black Mask magazine, in which Dashiell Hammett's The Continental Op and Sam Spade first appeared. The private eye is a pessimistic and cynical observer of a corrupt society, yet the enduring appeal of Marlowe and other hardboiled detectives lies in their tarnished idealism.

Underneath the wisecracking, hard drinking, tough private eye, Marlowe is quietly contemplative and philosophical. He enjoys chess and poetry. While he is not afraid to risk physical harm, he does not dish out violence merely to settle scores. Morally upright, he is not bamboozled by the genre's usual femme fatales, like Carmen Sternwood in The Big Sleep. As Chandler wrote about his detective ideal in general, "I think he might seduce a duchess, and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin."

Chandler's treatment of the detective novel exhibits a continuing effort to develop the art form. His first full length book, The Big Sleep, was published when Chandler was 51; his last, Playback, when he was 70. All seven novels were produced in the last two decades of his life. All maintain the integrity of Philip Marlowe's character, but each novel has unique qualities of narrative tone, depth, and focus that set it apart from the others.

Biographical Notes for Philip Marlowe

In a letter to D. J. Ibberson, written April 19, 1951, Chandler noted among other things that Marlowe is 38 years old, and was born in Santa Rosa, California. He had a couple of years at college and some experience as an investigator for an insurance company and the district attorney of Los Angeles county. He's slightly over six feet tall and weighs about thirteen stone eight (190 pounds). He smokes and prefers Camels. He drinks whiskey, or brandy very infrequently (The Little Sister), and makes good coffee. At the time of writing he was probably carrying a Smith and Wesson .38 special with a four inch barrel. A six inch barrel would be better but awkward to carry.

See also Raymond Chandler, "Novels and Other Writings" (Library of America, 1995, ISBN 1-883011-08-6) for other letters.

Influences and adaptations

Marlowe's name probably derives from either the Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe who wrote Doctor Faustus or from the narrator of Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, who uses a different spelling of the surname. Marlowe has been played on the screen by Humphrey Bogart, Robert Montgomery, George Montgomery, Robert Mitchum, Dick Powell, Elliot Gould, Danny Glover, James Garner, and James Caan. In radio, in The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the character was portrayed by Van Heflin on NBC (June 17-September 9, 1947) and by Gerald Mohr on CBS (September 26, 1948-September 15, 1951). Powers Boothe had the title role in the HBO series, Philip Marlowe, Private Eye, which ran from 1984 to 1986. Ed Bishop portrayed Marlowe in BBC Radio's The Adventures of Philip Marlowe.

Marlowe has proved such a complex and attractive character that he has appeared in short stories and novels by writers other than Chandler, such as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: A Centennial Celebration (1988). The central character in Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective is crime novelist Philip E. Marlow (portrayed by Michael Gambon). The female sleuths of the anthology Tart Noir (Berkeley, 2002) are described as "half Philip Marlowe, half femme fatale."

Listen to

Marlowe bibliography

Works by Raymond Chandler

"Finger Man" (1934, short story)
The Big Sleep (1939)
Farewell, My Lovely (1940)
The High Window (1942)
The Lady in the Lake (1943)
The Little Sister (1949)
The Long Goodbye (1954)
Playback (1958)
Poodle Springs (left unfinished at Chandler's death in 1959; completed by Robert B. Parker, 1989)

Works by others

Triste, solitario y final (by Osvaldo Soriano, 1974. Marlowe appears as a secondary character of the novel)
Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: a Centennial Celebration (collection of short stories by other writers, ed. Byron Preiss, 1988, ISBN 1596878479, and 1999, ISBN 0671038907, with two new stories)
Poodle Springs (by Robert B. Parker, 1990, Parker's completion of a manuscript Chandler left unfinished when he died)
Perchance to Dream (by Robert B. Parker, 1991, written as a sequel to Chandler's The Big Sleep)
Orange County (by John Shannon; Marlowe appears in retirement as a real person used as the model for Chandler's novels)

External links

Fictional detectives | Series of books | American radio programs | Pulp heroes and villains

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