The Maltese Falcon

Zusatztext “Dashiell Hammett . . . is a master of the detective novel! yes! but also one hell of a writer.” – The Boston Globe “ The Maltese Falcon is not only probably the best detective story we have ever read! it is an exceedingly well written novel.” – The Times Literary Supplement (London) “Hammett’s prose [is] clean and entirely unique. His characters [are] as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction.” – The New York Times Informationen zum Autor DASHIELL SAMUEL HAMMETT was born in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Hammett left school at the age of fourteen and held several kinds of jobs thereafter—messenger boy, newsboy, clerk, operator, and stevedore, finally becoming an operative for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Sleuthing suited young Hammett, but World War I intervened, interrupting his work and injuring his health. When Sergeant Hammett was discharged from the last of several hospitals, he resumed detective work. He soon turned to writing, and in the late 1920s Hammett became the unquestioned master of detective-story fiction in America. In The Maltese Falcon (1930) he first introduced his famous private eye, Sam Spade. The Thin Man (1932) offered another immortal sleuth, Nick Charles. Red Harvest (1929), The Dain Curse (1929), and The Glass Key (1931) are among his most successful novels. During World War II, Hammett again served as sergeant in the Army, this time for more than two years, most of which he spent in the Aleutians. Hammett’s later life was marked in part by ill health, alcoholism, a period of imprisonment related to his alleged membership in the Communist Party, and by his long-time companion, the author Lillian Hellman, with whom he had a very volatile relationship. His attempt at autobiographical fiction survives in the story “Tulip,” which is contained in the posthumous collection The Big Knockover (1966, edited by Lillian Hellman). Another volume of his stories, The Continental Op (1974, edited by Stephen Marcus), introduced the final Hammett character: the “Op,” a nameless detective (or “operative”) who displays little of his personality, making him a classic tough guy in the hard-boiled mold—a bit like Hammett himself. Klappentext A coolly glittering gem of detective fiction that has haunted three generations of readers! from one of the greatest mystery writers of all time. A treasure worth killing for. Sam Spade! a slightly shopworn private eye with his own solitary code of ethics. A perfumed grafter named Joel Cairo! a fat man name Gutman! and Brigid O'Shaughnessy! a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. These are the ingredients of Dashiell Hammett's iconic! influential! and beloved The Maltese Falcon. Leseprobe Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down-- from high flat temples--in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan. He said to Effie Perine: 'Yes, sweetheart?" She was a lanky sunburned girl whose tan dress of thin woolen stuff clung to her with an effect of dampness. Her eyes were brown and playful in a shiny boyish face. She finished shutting the door behind her, leaned against it, and said: "There's a girl wants to see you. Her name's Wonderly." "A customer?" "I guess so. You'll want to see her anyway: she's a knockout." "Shoo her in, darling," said Spade. "Shoo her in." Effie Perine opened the door again, following it back into the outer of...

Product details

• Authors: Dashiel Hammett, Dashiell Hammett
• Publisher: Vintage USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 17.07.1989
• EAN: 9780679722649
• ISBN: 978-0-679-72264-9
• No. of pages: 217
• Dimensions: 132 mm x 202 mm x 16 mm
• Series: VINTAGE BOOKS; Vintage Pbk; Vintage crime/Black Lizard
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature