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Farewell, My Lovely
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The creator of Philip Marlowe
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The creator of Philip Marlowe
The creator of Philip Marlowe Raymond Chandler, author of Farewell, My Lovely (1940), in 1954.

Farewell, My Lovely

novel by Chandler
Written by
Therie Hendrey-Seabrook
Therie Hendrey-Seabrook's work appears in Encyclopaedia Britannica as part of a joint publishing agreement with the publisher of 501 Must-Read Books, where the work originally appeared. 
Therie Hendrey-Seabrook
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History

Farewell, My Lovely, detective novel written by American author Raymond Chandler and published in 1940. This was his second book in which the protagonist and narrator is Los Angeles private detective Philip Marlowe.

Farewell, My Lovely is constructed around two complicated narrative strands which eventually fuse themes of drugs, corruption, blackmail, and murder. Moose Malloy, a slow-witted giant of a man, newly out of prison, is looking for his erstwhile girlfriend, Velma, at Florian’s bar where she used to be a singer. The bar, however, is now a gambling club with new ownership and clientele, and they know nothing about Velma. Marlowe comes across him here and witnesses Malloy’s killing of the bar owner. Barely interested in this murder, the police inveigle Marlowe into helping them, and his first quest is to find Velma. At the same time, Marlowe is hired as a bodyguard for a man, Lindsay Marriott, who is to ransom a stolen jade necklace. In the event, Marlowe is knocked unconscious and Marriott killed.

Marlowe is found by a reporter, Anne Riordan, who learns that the owner of the necklace is Mrs. Grayle, whose husband is a man of great wealth. Mrs. Grayle hires Marlowe to find the necklace and also seduces him. The plot takes many turns and throws out red herrings before the threads of the two stories twist together into a complex web of guilt and murders both for revenge and in aid of keeping secrets.

Raymond Chandler was an admirer of hard-boiled fiction author Dashiell Hammett but had his own take on the genre. Chandler gives us a panoramic view of contemporary society, setting Marlowe up as the incorruptible hero of the people who can move easily through the seedy, hustling areas of Los Angeles as well as the city’s upper reaches. Although Marlowe is a wise-cracking, heavy-drinking tough guy, he also has a softer side. Farewell, My Lovely was made into two notable films: Murder, My Sweet (1944), with Dick Powell as Marlowe, and Farewell, My Lovely (1975), starring Robert Mitchum.

Therie Hendrey-Seabrook