Rating: 
Summary: 5 stars does not give it justice
Review: With proper respect to Dashiell Hammett and others, this is quite simply the granddaddy of detective novels. Go ahead, try to figure it out beforehand, the mystery is so twisted that even Mr. Chandler admitted later that he was not quite sure if one of the deaths was a murder or a suicide. It doesn't matter though, because the thrill of this novel is not in the ending, but rather in the journey to get there. Chandler can turn a phrase, and makes dialogue sparkle like no other writer. If you have even a passing interest in crime novels, this is an absolute must read. Heck, even if you don't have a passing interest in in crime novels, this is an absolute must read. I cannot recommend this book highly enough
Rating: 
Summary: Lisa Vinayak: Casserlypd5
Review: I'm not into detective stories, and I had never read Chandler before this; neither have I seen the movie. Did I like it? Yes, why not - it had a certain sense of style, a certain attraction, present in every comment by every character. As it comes to dialogue, this book has it all. That's easy to admit.
That much for the good sides, there were weak points too. Most of all Chandler's descriptions seemed to me somewhat showy and heavy. Also, the plot could've been more mesmerizing. Compared to other detective novels I have read in the past, this one might not do so well. Incredibly sophisticated plots always make me feel confused. Too much glamour in the plot seems like a desperate need to gain attention. But I'm pretty satisfied; it is very rare that 'a classic' turns out to this good.
Rating:
Summary: The movie in your head
Review: Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep" is a perfect starting place for people who want to get in the "Private Eye" world of books. With incredible, and often humerous descriptive powers, Raymond chandler creates a story setting that reads as if you are watching the old black and white films. You can't help but imagine at how any competent director would film this book. With the colors, fogs, the roads, the clothing and above all the carachters that make you want to scream out in frustration. The information you know they have but aren't saying makes you feel as if you are standing next to the detective Philip Marlowe as he meanders through this book picking up clues while not seeming to give one iota about the people around him. Philip Marlowe is one of the first Private Eyes and may be the best. He is drawn so clearly that by half way through the book you know before it happens how he will respond to certain situations, and if you're really smart, you'll solve the mystery before he does. The Big Sleep is worth every minute of your reading time. I highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys this genre.
Rating:
Summary: THE DEBUT OF THE MODERN FICTIONAL DETECTIVE KNIGHT
Review: As a mystery author with my first novel in its initial release, I make frequent appearances at mystery conventions to promote my debut title. At one recent convention, I was sitting on an author panel discussing "The Private Eye." Following our presentation, a reader in the audience asked us to trace the development of the modern private eye. I fielded that question and explained that Raymond Chandler's THE BIG SLEEP is one of the crucial developmental steps along the way to the private eyes contemporary authors write about today. In THE BIG SLEEP, Chandler started with a pulp magazine character-type and transformed that character-type into a Romantic hero--the modern urban knight-errant. He took Hammett's tough guy, kept him tough yet gave him heart. THE BIG SLEEP tells a complicated tale in a complicated fashion. William Faulkner, when he was scripting the classic Bogart film, claimed he couldn't comprehend the plot. I've always assumed Faulkner was joking. The story can be comprehended by even small minds, like mine. The story involves murder, blackmail, gambling, a family of great wealth, self-destructiveness, and other standard plot fixtures of detective fiction. Most importantly, this book marks the debut of Philip Marlowe. Without Chandler's Marlowe the mystery genre would not be what it is today.
Rating:
Summary: An Intriguing Philip Marlowe Mystery
Review: This is, without a doubt, one of Raymond Chandler's best mystery novels. The star of the book is Philip Marlowe, a detective hired by a millionaire in order to solve a mystery. However, Marlowe soon discovers that he has gotten himself into deeper trouble as he attempts to solve the murder of a man who leads a very secretive life. Soon afterwards, more conflicts arise while at the same time he encounters some rather interesting characters, including the two daughters of the millionaire. With numerous twists and turns throughout the entire plot, this hard-boiled piece of detective fiction will keep you reading as you follow Marlowe on his quest for answers.
Rating:
Summary: A little something about character development
Review: that a lot of 'serial' novelists would do well to learn. Here we first meet Marlowe and he is different from the way he is in later novels. He's less jaded, less cynical and thus less sarcastic. His profession hasn't taken that really big bite out of him yet, but this case puts him well on that path. We see more of the 'knight in shining armor' in Philip and it is less begrudged by him. The plot is a little scattered, but it ties up well & has the usual weird elements (THIS little sister is out there!). If this is your first Marlowe, you won't be disappointed. If you've read TLS or TLG already, you might miss that cutting edge to his observances that makes you laugh out loud (I did).
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated
Review: I was raised to believe Chandler was just this brilliant writer ... & he was ... but perhaps it's become a knee-jerk, unquestioning thing to say how brilliant he was ... because revisiting "The Big Sleep" after lately reading Jim Thompson I was disappointed: the book doesn't win in a comparison with, say, "The Killer Inside Me." Chandler has these moments of brilliance (especially the clever phrases that rightly won him immortality in dictionaries of quotations) but he's not all that. Sure, the atmosphere is wonderful & Marlowe is a great character ... but the plot's confusing & tiresome & I'm not impressed by hearing that's because he wanted to achieve a certain impression. It's not worth it. Certainly Chandler was a trailblazer, but he's become an icon, famous for being famous, a literary Liz Taylor. It's time to reassess the unbridled praise.
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Summary: Meet Marlowe, world-weary prose-poet of the Mean Streets
Review: THE BIG SLEEP functions on several levels, and appeals to a wide variety of readers for this reason. On the surface, it's a vintage (1939) whodunnit with a wealthy geriatric patriarch (who just wants to get rid of some bothersome gambling debts incurred by an unmanageable daughter), a missing Irish ex-bootlegger, a beautiful but shallow blonde pixie with some unsavory connections to a purveyor of smut, a long-legged raven-haired beauty who seems uncharacteristically unconcerned about her missing Irish husband, and a series of corpses that keep littering the path to a resolution of matters. The convoluted plot may strain credibility like a politician's campaign promises, but never mind that. The book is not about plot. It's about the details of death, the emotions of danger and the smell of fear, the corruption of power, and the power of corruption. It's about hedges trimmed as tidy as poodle-dogs, stained-glass knights in shining armor, damsels more dangerous than any alleged distress that might serve to lure a chivalrous private eye into their web of deceit. It's about a Don Quixote of the mean streets waging a private war between his own base desires and his own impossible standards. It's a guided tour of the small triumphs and victories of decency and honor and human conscience in the face of the overwhelming flood of depravity, dishonesty and degradation. It's a fun and easy read, and while some of the slang may be dated, the symmetry of syntax and the graphic power of simile never gets stale, read after read after read. A watershed work that has inspired generations of mystery writers from Ross Macdonald to Michael Connelly, and echoes in the works and words of countless of wordsmiths of the macabre persuasion.
Rating:
Summary: A highly personable detective
Review: Raymond Chandler's highly acclaimed detective classic, "The Big Sleep", (1939) may not live up to his later works, especially "The Little Sister" and "The Long Goodbye". Though the plot is no less convoluted and diffuse, it seems to lack the panache and self-parodying irony that have made Chandler one of the greatest names in the history of detective fiction. Nevertheless, "The Big Sleep" is perhaps one of the most representative example of the "hard-boiled" American school of the detective novel. The hero, a tough-speaking, cynical private detective, Philip Marlowe, has been immortalised by Hollywood in the guise of the chain-smoking, trenchcoat-wearing Humphrey Bogart. Admittedly, Marlowe is cast in a different vein than his predecessor, Sherlock Holmes, though he is no less personable and distinctive. In the British detective novel, which Chandler despised, the hero is portrayed as a representative of a relatively stable moral world, who merely corrects the misdemeanours that occur in it. However, Marlowe, whose personality combines toughness with sentimentality, is a citizen of a totally amoral world and, as he progresses down the "mean streets" of L.A., he can only rely on his conscience as the repository of his private moral code. Moreover, Chandler is an extremely clever stylist in his own right (indeed, so many subsequent detective writers are indebted to him) and the caustic dialogue and compelling soliloquies of his hero approximate a highly original form of lyrical beauty. The atmosphere of Chandler's novel is redolent of sex, danger and gunsmoke and I would recommend this novel to anyone who appreciates great detective fiction.
Rating:
Summary: The classic debut of Phillip Marlowe
Review: Raymond Chandler virtually invented the private eye novel as we think of it today. Phillip Marlowe is an honest, world weary and compassionate tough guy who is as quick with his mouth as his is with his gun. Chandler is a master at creating quirky charcters, memorable villians and is as good with a metaphor as any writer has ever been. That said, "The Big Sleep" set in then-contemporary Los Angeles (circa 1939), reads like a cultural artifact. Life and investigative work was a lot different back then. It was a time when a daughter of a wealthy man posing for nude photographs WAS in fact shocking enough to be a potential for blackmail. Today, no one would think twice about it. Nevrtheless, if you want to see how modern detective fiction as well as modern noir got its start, "The Big Sleep" is for you.
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