CHANDLER, Raymond. The Long Good-Bye.

CHANDLER, Raymond. The Long Good-Bye.CHANDLER, Raymond. The Long Good Bye. London: Hamish Hamilton. 1953. 8vo. Original burgundy cloth lettered in silver to the spine, in the dustwrapper designed by Fritz Wegner, priced 10s. 6d. net to front flap; pp. 319, [1]; marginal spotting to prelims, early and final leaves, wrapper rubbed to spine tips with two small closed tears (c. 1 cm) to inner and outer lower edges of the front panel, a few marks to rear panel, small booksellers label to rear

CHANDLER, Raymond. The Long Good-Bye. London: Hamish Hamilton. 1953.

8vo. Original burgundy cloth lettered in silver to the spine, in the dustwrapper designed by Fritz Wegner, priced 10s. 6d. net to front flap; pp. 319, [1]; marginal spotting to prelims, early and final leaves, wrapper rubbed to spine tips with two small closed tears (c. 1 cm) to inner and outer lower edges of the front panel, a few marks to rear panel, small bookseller’s label to rear pastedown; a very good copy in like wrapper.

A sharp first UK edition, first printing (preceding the US edition) of the sixth Philip Marlowe novel.

The Long Goodbye follows Philip Marlowe’s uneasy friendship with Terry Lennox, a down-and-out alcoholic who turns to him for help after the apparent murder of his wealthy wife. Marlowe assists Lennox in fleeing Los Angeles, only to learn that he has committed suicide in Mexico. Doubting the account, Marlowe is drawn into a murky world of wealth, infidelity, and chronic dissipation in LA's Idle Valley. As the investigation unfolds, he becomes convinced of Lennox’s innocence, pursuing the truth through a series of deceptions and further deaths. An exploration of disillusionment, loyalty, and moral ambiguity, The Long Goodbye is the most personal of the Marlowe novels, its parallel portrait of the self-loathing novelist Roger Wade often read as a distorted rendering of Chandler himself.

Published 27 November 1953, the UK edition preceded the US edition by four months. Winner of the Edgar Award for best novel in 1955, it was later adapted for the 1973 film directed by Robert Altman, starring Elliott Gould as Marlowe.

Bruccoli A.10.1.a.

SKU: 2121817