Week 12 Reading Notes: The Big Sleep (Chandler) Chapters 1-11

Chapter 1

The Big Sleep begins y introducing us to Philip Marlowe, a private detective who is visiting an old man named Sternwood. As he is waiting for his meeting at Sternwood's house, a young lady of about 20 or so comes out to meet him, flirts with him, and then leaves. There seems to be some kind of foreshadowing going on in this first chapter as Marlowe describes the girl, Carmen Sternwood, as having "little sharp, predatory teeth" (Chandler 5). I am not sure if she will be dangerous physical or emotionally to our Marlowe, but it seems like it will be one or the other with this use of language. Marlowe hardly seems phased by her advances, as he plainly states "I was to get to know that trick. That was supposed to make me roll over on my back with all four paws in the air." (Chandler 5). After Carmen leaves, the butler invites Marlowe in to meet the General Sternwood.

Chapter 2

Marlowe is led into a hot greenhouse filled with tropical orchids filling the room that smelled like death. In the middle of the greenhouse there is an old man who is obviously dying, General Sternwood, in a wheelchair. The two men have a conversation in which the General tells Marlowe about his son in law, Rusty Regan, who he cares about deeply and has gone missing, although he is sure he will reach out soon enough. He then tells Marlowe that he I being blackmailed for the second time. The first was a man named Joe Brody, who the general paid $5,000 to leave his daughter Carmen alone. This time, he has received a letter from a man named Arthur Gwynn Geiger, who is asking for $1,000 to pay back Carmen's gambling debts. He wants to pay Marlowe to handle the situation, and Marlowe agrees. As Marlowe is leaving, the butler tells him that the general's other daughter, Vivian, would like to speak to him about the reason for his visit.

Chapter 3

Marlowe meets with Vivian in her room. She is a young, beautiful woman who Marlow thinks is "worth a stare. She was trouble." (Chandler 24). Vivian also flirts with Marlowe, but in a way that seems to intrigue him a lot more than her immature, seemingly dumb younger sister. They have a conversation in which they are snipping at one another, Vivian trying to discover the reason for Marlowe's visit with her father. She explains how Rusty got in his car one day and drove away without saying a word, and they found his car in a private garage. The two part ways, and Marlowe leaves the house. As he is leaving, he sees the land in front of the house, which is now mostly public land donated by General Sternwood, but used to be filled with wells of oil, of which only a few were left. This was how the General and his family made large amounts of money. Marlowe gets in his car and leaves, thinking about what he is getting himself into, if anything.

Chapter 4

Marlowe then heads to Geigers bookstore to scope out the place and see what is going on. He is greeted by an attractive woman who asks what he is looking for. He asks her about a few special edition books that he spent some time looking into at the public library, pretending to be someone interested in books. After she tells him they do not have them, seeming like she doesn't know anything about book, he says that he will wait for Geiger to arrive and see if he knows about the books.As he is waiting, a man comes in and out a couple of times dropping off a parcel that looks like a book, he looks suspicious to Marlowe, so he decides to follow him. The man hides behind a tree, ditches something, then leaves. Marlowe goes to where the man was standing and picks up a wrapped book and walks away.

Chapter 5

Marlowe then finds a real bookstore and asks the woman working there about the same books he asked the woman in Geiger's shop about, to which she replies that those books don't exist. Marlowe then knows that she is really who she says she is. He shows her his badge and asks her about Geiger, and she gives him a description of the man. Marlowe thanks her and leaves, opening the wrapped book as he does. He finds a book filled with pornography. Geiger seems to be running a business of renting out pornography while posing as an antique book store.

Chapter 6

Marlowe watches Geiger's book store until a man matching the description shows up. He follows the man back to his house, at which point he sees a young woman entering the home. He checks the car that the woman got out of and finds that the car is registered to Carmen Sternwood. He then continued to wait in front of the house for something to happen. He hears some screams, and approaches the house. As he does so he hears three gunshots and the footsteps of someone escaping from the scene. Marlowe breaks into the house and finds two people in the house. "Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead." (Chandler 52)

Chapter 7

Marlowe finds Carmen, sitting in a chair completely naked with her eyes wide open staring off into the distance. She was seemed to be unconscious while looking conscious. "As a naked girl she was not there in that room at all She was just a dope. To me she was always just a dope." (Chandler 54). On the ground in front of her laid the body of Geiger, who was in front of a camera that was aimed at the naked (and probably drugged) Carmen Sternwood sitting in the chair. Marlowe then got Carmen dressed and began to search the house. There was no tape in the camera, and he didn't like that. Upon searching the house he finds a book with code in Geigers handwriting in it, and takes it then leaves with Carmen.

Chapter 8

After returning Carmen to her house, Marlowe returns to Geiger's house to get his car. He returns into the house and noticed that some silk strips are missing from the wall, and Geiger's body is nowhere to be found. Marlowe figures that it was not the police or the killer that moved the body, but he is ok not knowing as long as the body is gone and he can figure out how to make sure Carmen is not in trouble. He then returns home and gets drunk before passing out and having dreams of the wild night he has had.

Chapter 9

Marlowe awakes to the first sunny day of our story, perhaps a sign that things will get better for the private eye. He receives a call from the investigator who referred him to General Sternwood, Bernie Ohls. After asking about Sternwood, Ohls tells him that they had found a Buick that had crashed into the the ocean off of a pier, and that it has a man's dead body inside. Ohls invites Marlowe to join him in checking out the scene. As they pull the young, dead man out of the car, Marlowe recognizes him. He is the Sternwood's chauffeur, who Ohls says was in love with Carmen and attempted to run off with her, on top of having a criminal record. He has apparently been hit in the head with a blackjack before having been purged into the ocean in the car. Ohls drops off Marlowe and goes off to tell the Sternwoods about what has happened. Marlowe takes a walk to Geiger's store for another look around.

Chapter 10

Upon returning to the store, Marlowe speaks to the woman again and she tells him that Geiger is out of town and to come back tomorrow. While he is talking to the woman, he sees in the back room of the store that the books are all being packed into boxes. He leaves the store and sneaks around back, discovering that they are being loaded into a truck. He follows the truck to an apartment, where he sees on one of the mailboxes the name Joe Brody. He talks to the man who is unloading the boxes and confirms that they are being delivered to Brody. He then returns to his office where he has a client waiting for him.

Chapter 11

Vivian Sternwood is waiting for Marlowe in his office when he arrives. She tells him that someone is blackmailing her for $5,000 with naked pictures of Carmen from the night of the murder. The deal has to be closed that night or they will release the photos and inform the police of what happened that night. Vivian Sternwood tells Marlowe about how she was out gambling at a man named Eddie Mars casino the night of the murder. She flirts with him some more and then leaves. Marlowe talks to Ohls for a little bit about the chauffeur, and then studies the secret code book of Geiger's again, to no avail.