Get a sneak peek at the thrilling lineup of performances for San Jose Stage Company's 2023-2024 season. From highly anticipated shows to extraordinary productions, this article reveals all the details you need to know. Don't miss out on the excitement coming to San Jose Stage Company.
Lit REACTOR, fair use
Raymond Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett before him and Ross Macdonald after, effected a startling change in the crime novel. As Chandler put it, he took the novel away from those who commit murder with “hand-wrought dueling pistols, curare, and tropical fish” and returned it to “the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse.”
This passage from Chandler’s essay explaining his technique in “The Simple Art of Murder” is dripping with sarcasm, contempt, and class analysis in its explanation of how the genre had been practiced by the upper-class detectives of the Sherlock Holmes/Agatha Christie school.