The eternal dream
The Big Sleep (1939), Chandler's first novel, Philip Marlowe takes on a case that promises to be simple. General Sternwood, old, crippled and extremely wealthy, has received a blackmail note concerning his youngest daughter, the wild Carmen.
Sternwood suspects Arthur Geiger, a local bookseller, and asks Marlowe to investigate him further. However, Vivian Sternwood, the General's eldest daughter, suspects that the detective has been hired to find her husband, Rusty Regan, who recently disappeared.
Marlowe will soon discover that what seemed like a routine job is actually a labyrinthine plot of pornography and murder in which the Sternwood sisters will play a diabolical role.
The setting: Los Angeles, a young, isolated city with a dubious moral law and a corrupt police department; the streets Marlowe treads range from her office near decadent Sunset Boulevard to the grand mansions uptown.
From the underworld of an almost non-existent Santa Monica to the desert canyons that surround the city. His most famous character, Philip Marlowe, is a detective of few words and deep reflections who ages through the novels in which he stars.
Marlowe is lonely, with excellent physical qualities, self-confident, a romantic antihero and a referent of literature: and the cinema of the XNUMXth century. His novels reflect an impoverished, violent and dishonest society that is still experiencing the consequences of the Great Depression. you may also like Contemporary Literature.
Touring the city from his office in Hollywood
Argument
General Sternwood hires Detective Philip Marlowe to free him from the blackmail attempt of a certain Geiger, who uses the alleged gambling debts of his youngest daughter, Carmen. The general's eldest daughter, Vivian, is interested in finding out how interested the detective is in Rusty Regan, her ex-husband, who is on the run with the wife of a local gangster.
When Geiger is shot dead in his apartment, Carmen is found at the crime scene but naked and drugged, and by then the detective already knows that the investigation has only just begun.
The complexity of the plot is intertwined with the characters who present us with a microscope of morality and immorality. The historical and social context of the work, with themes that resonate in contemporary literature, is one of the features that make The eternal dream an enriching experience.
Detective Marlowe, in his tireless search for the truth, navigates the murky waters of a world where appearances are deceptive and danger lurks around every corner. The uncertainty of his mission leads him to cross paths that confront him with the demons of others as well as his own.
The characterization of Carmen and Vivian Sternwood adds layers of complexity to the narrative, showcasing the struggle for power within an environment where the occult is the norm, leading the reader to reflect on gender relations and the representation of women in noir literature.
