Five Complete Novels by Dashiell Hammett

Description

Bibliographic Details

• Author: Dashiell Hammett
• Title: Five Complete Novels
• Publisher: ‎ Wings Books/Random House/Alfred A. Knopf (1980)
• Language: ‎ English
• Format: Hardcover – 726 pages‏
• ISBN-10: ‎ 0517060116
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0517060117
• Item Weight: ‎ 2.15 pounds
• Dimensions: ‎ 6.5 x 2.5 x 9.5 inches
• Book Condition: Used – Good (shows some of discoloration on pages / page edges)
• Dust Jacket Condition: (cover in good condition; missing dust jacket)

Synopsis:

Complete in one volume, the five books that created the modern American crime novel. In a few years of extraordinary creative energy, Dashiell Hammett invented the modern American crime novel. The five novels that Hammett published between 1929 and 1934, collected here in one volume, have become part of modern American culture, creating archetypal characters and establishing the ground rules and characteristic tone for a whole tradition of hardboiled writing.

Drawing on his own experiences as a Pinkerton detective, Hammett gave a harshly realistic edge to novels that were at the same time infused with a spirit of romantic adventure. Each novel is distinct in mood and structure.

Red Harvest (1929) epitomizes the violence and momentum of his Black Mask stories about the anonymous detective the Continental Op, in a raucous and nightmarish evocation of political corruption and gang warfare in a western mining town.

In The Dain Curse (1929) the Op returns in a more melodramatic tale involving jewel theft, drugs, and a religious cult.

With The Maltese Falcon (1930) and its protagonist Sam Spade, Hammett achieved his most enduring popular success, a tightly constructed quest story shot through with a sense of disillusionment and the arbitrariness of personal destiny.

The Glass Key (1931) is a further exploration of city politics at their most scurrilous.

His last novel was The Thin Man (1934), a ruefully comic tale paying homage to the traditional mystery form and featuring Nick and Nora Charles, the sophisticated inebriates who would enjoy a long afterlife in the movies.

About the Author:

Samuel Dashiell Hammett (May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, a screenplay writer, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), and the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse).

In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time" and was called, in his obituary in The New York Times, "the dean of the… 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction." Time magazine included Hammett's 1929 novel Red Harvest on a list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005.