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The Big Sleep

By: Raymond Chandler, Ian Rankin
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer, and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. But with Sternwood's two wild, devil-may-care daughters prowling LA's seedy backstreets, Marlowe's got his work cut out - and that's before he stumbles over the first corpse....

©2020 Raymond Chandler (P)2020 Penguin Audio
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What listeners say about The Big Sleep

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent detective noire story. Quite possibly

the ultimate. The narration really does add value and bring the story into being. Could not recommend more 👍

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful classic

This audible book has everything: cynicism, sarcasm, menace, sadness, heroics, well observed description, laugh out loud moments, understandable plot, and is beautifully narrated. So much better than most of the modern novels.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent

Brilliant as usual it's unfortunate that R. C. Is no longer with us sad RIP

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    5 out of 5 stars
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It Never Ends

Upon proof-reading The Big Sleep, Alfred Clopf deleted a double-negative Harry Jones says to Marlowe, Clopf forgetting the exception to rule "twice wrong make not one right". Now a listener ascribe implied sensorship to this production. "When I split the infinitive it stays" Chandler replied.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Pretty damn good

A good story that still holds up today. The narrator isn’t the best at distinguishing character voices, so it can be a bit confusing when there are more than two people in a scene.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Classic noir

The story is class. The only thing bad I can say about it is what's already been said. It's rubbish they cut out the f word repeatedly in 1 chapter. So the narrator has a great presence but sometimes it's hard to distinguish between characters, as the voices are often very simliar,; even between men and women.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The turn of phrase, such great lines. Ridiculous plot, really, but still great.

See above, I don’t like to waste words. Blubber, pants, prosthetic, harmonica, haemolytic. I needed 15 words.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

My introduction to Raymond Chandler

Loved the prose, plot, and characters. Truly enjoyable book, that moves along at a pace. The narration was excellent too, exactly the voice that you'd want for this genre.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

i liked the big sleep

very well written and read. the story is a classical suspense of the period before ww2

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

So good

Classic writing that captures the time brilliantly… Took me back to Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney movies. Great depth to the characters, and the flippant dialogue that stings on listening. Brilliantly narrated…

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