The Big Sleep
- 229
- Pages
- about 4 h
- Reading time
- Film 1946 +1
- On screen
- Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century
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Our view
“The Big Sleep” is hardboiled crime read as much for Chandler’s sentences as for the answer to its mystery. The first Philip Marlowe novel moves through a dark, tense Los Angeles in 229 pages, and its phrasing is the lasting pleasure. Some readers warn that its language is that of 1939, homophobic slurs included.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Big Sleep is a 1939 hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Angeles.
Reading order · Philip Marlowe
Full order & progress →- The Big SleepThis book
7.67.6 / 10 - Farewell, My Lovely
7.77.7 / 10 - The High Window
7.67.6 / 10 - Lady in the LakeLady in the Lake–Not ranked yet
- The Little Sister
7.67.6 / 10 - The Long Goodbye
8.08.0 / 10 - PlaybackPlayback–Not ranked yet
- Trouble Is My BusinessTrouble Is My Business–Not ranked yet
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen 2 times — from 1946 to 1978.
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 447 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 75% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Classics average of 7.7. That is how 7.6 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.2 | 22 | 5% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 425 | 95% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Big Sleep?
It has 229 pages — shorter than 93% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 7.6 and 7.7, closest to this book.
