....................CLASS SCHEDULE

31 August.....An introduction to Chandler; opening of chapter I
homework:.....read chapter I and consider the question in the online verion below
7 September.....Chapter II; class test.
homework:.....read chapter II
14 September.....Chapters III and IV
homework:.....read chapter VI-VIII
20 September.....Chapters VI, VII and VIII
homework:.....read chapter IX-XI; look at essay questions
27 September.....no class
5 October.....Chapters IX-XI: is Agnes a villain?
homework:.....Chapters XII-XIV
12 October.....What is Marlowe's universe like? Did God make Los Angeles?
homework:.....Read chapter XV-XVII
19 October.....A visit by a professor of American Literature, Dr Kristen Fresonke,
............................who will speak about noir and the atmosphere of The Big Sleep (here's her Power Point L.A. noir).
2 November.....What will Marlowe not leaved the finished Sternwood case alone?
homework:.....Read chapter XIX-XXIII
9 November.....What is the point of Las Olindas?
homework:.....Read chapter XXIII-XXVIII
16 November.....Why is the point of Realito?
homework:.....Read chapter XXIX-XXII
23 November.....We're away in Prague
30 November.....The end of the novel. What is the big sleep?
homework:.....Decide on coursework: make a proposal
7 December.....An introduction to Poe;
visit our new Edgar Allan Poe webpage.

....................COURSEWORK

For submission for January 2012 and May 2012 with the opportunity for final resubmission in January 2013.
Study the cirriculum very carefully.
Here are some study notes on The Big Sleep, to be used with extreme caution.

....................TEXT

Here is my online version of the text, with my annotations and questions for you in bold print.
Chapter One,
Chapter Two,
Chapter Three,
Chapters Four and Five,
Chapters Six, Seven and Eight,
Chapters Nine, Ten and Eleven.
Chapters Twelve to Nineteen,
Chapters Twenty to Twenty-Nine,
Chapters Thirty to Thirty-Two.

....................FILMS

There have been two film versions.
......The classic The Big Sleep was made by Howard Hawks in 1946, with Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe and the sultry Lauren Bacall (Bogart's wife) as Vivian. Hollywood’s Hays Code limited what could be shown in films, so it is full of cautious evasions. But there are some nice touches: Hawks turned the delightfully cool bookseller of chapter V into a teen temptress; and Bogart and Bacall improvised this fine prank call scene.
......The 1978 film by Michael Winner was, bizarrely, set in contemporary London, with Robert Mitchum, aged 60, playing the 33 year-old Marlowe. Even Bogart, a puny wrinkled thing of 46, was pushing it a bit; but this was embarassing. In other ways, too, the film was a stinker. It is really watchable only for the awfulness of the clothes and the splendour of the cars. The opening credits give you some idea of what it looks like. But if you want more, there are pirated foreign-language versions out there – here’s the beginning of chapter IV (in French) here Marlowe brings Carmen home in chapter VIII (Spanish); the butler phones, case closed, XXI; Brody is slain in XV; Carmen appears in Marlowe's bed in XXIV.
......Two comparisons: here's the first visit to Geiger's in chapter IV, in 1946 and 1978. Vivian (here called Charlotte) calls in chapter XI (compare this with the 1946 film

E-MAIL ME

Here's a still from the 1946 film of The Big Sleep,
with Lauren Bacall, as Vivian Regan,
watching Humphrey Bogart, as Philip Marlowe,
contacting the authorities.
.....To contact me, click on the telephone.
.....