RE: variations between editions of Chandler's short
stories--
I tried to post this last Tuesday when it was still being
discussed, but it did not seem to go through.... I'll rty
again, though six days seems like an eternity on a list like
this.
I've been working on tracing the short stories for the last
few months. This is one aspect to which I have given a lot of
thought.
None of Chandler's stories from the 1930s originally featured
Philip Marlowe as a character, but I think that the character
in most of these stories is indeed Marlowe in virtually every
aspect but name. Several factors outside of the stories
themselves indicate that Chandler would concur.
For example, Chandler is well known for his tendency to
"cannibalize" his better stories for material in his novels.
Fredric Jameson calls this tendency of Chandler's a
"deliberate, self-conscious apprenticeship." There are
examples of large chunks of text being taken almost verbatim
from the short stories and dropped into the novels.
Another compelling bit of evidence is that after Chandler's
Marlowe novels gained popularity, Chandler's publisher
proposed issuing a collected edition of the short stories,
with the name Philip Marlowe substituted for the names of the
various protagonists; Chandler went along with this plan,
apparently without objection. Chandler's consent suggests
that he did indeed consider the short story detectives to be
Marlowe under different names (though the motivation could,
of course, have been primarily economic).
Finally-and perhaps most important-is a comment that Chandler
made in a 1950 letter to New York Herald-Tribune mystery
critic James Sandoe. Speaking of the use of Marlowe's name in
the republication of the short stories, Chandler observed
that Marlowe "certainly had his genesis in two or three of
the novelettes." In this letter, Chandler specifically cited
the story
"Finger Man," published in 1934, suggesting that his
protagonist had not changed much between this story and THE
HIGH WINDOW, published in 1942.
"Finger Man," Chandler's third published story, originally
featured an unnamed protagonist. This nameless detective was
later renamed Marlowe in the 1950 collection of Chandler's
pulp fiction THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER.
Still, I am disappointed that the recently published
collection of Chandler's complete short stories uses the
"revised" naming. I. too, prefer the original vision. It just
seems more pure.
~Marc
----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Robison" <
miker_zspider@yahoo.com>
> Your comment on the variation in the stories
is
> enlightening. I didn't know they were
different.
> I've got both the Library of America volume and
the
> book that contains the Chandler essay and
some
> stories. I'll read the Library of America
volume
> since it was the designated text for the class,
plus
> I'd rather read unrevised versions
anyway.
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