In May we will be reading The Maltese Falcon by Dashiel Hammet.
Please post your comments and questions here.
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In May we will be reading The Maltese Falcon by Dashiel Hammet.
Please post your comments and questions here.
Oh cool. I'll have to dig out my copy.
I ordered mine yesterday. Should get it some time next week.
I find that I have to read this book slowly. I'm on page two.
I'll see if I can borrow my dad's copy
I'm buying mine this weekend :)
I read and did a theis on this as an undergraduate - going to get my notes out and bore you all to death!
I started reading this 2 days ago. I would have finished this morning but I had to go to work so I'll be finished this evening. It's fantastic! Not a book I would have picked up and read on my own, but I'm so glad it was picked. It's a hard one to put down! I'm looking forward to discussing it. I may go buy the movie tonight
Oh that would be great. I actually had this as a read in an undergrad class centuries ago and have loved it since.Quote:
Originally Posted by optimisticnad
I'll have to go dig outr my copy and start. It is a great detective story. The prose writing is tops. Have you seen the movie with Humphery Bogart? After you finish you should try to get it Stargazer. It's a really fine movie too. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Stargazer86
I just finished up an undergrad class in Roman Noir, so we did a lot of the hard-boiled detective fiction. I'll probably get around to posting some of my notes on it here pretty soon.Quote:
Originally Posted by optimisticnad
My copy of The Maltese Falcon has now arrived from Amazon and I am looking forward to what looks like a good read. I have all of Sunday at home this weekend so I hope to read it all in one go. It will be a nice break from War and Peace, which I have been reading all year - and I still have 600 pages to go!
I really enjoyed this book. As I stated earlier, it was so hard to put down! There's action from beginning to end. I absolutely love the descriptions and dialouge and how seedy all these people are while still managing to maintain some class. I could just picture the whole thing in black and white and almost hear thier voices. I wouldn't say the ending was alltogether shocking, but I profusely enjoyed it nonetheless. I've never seen the movie but I saw it on sale at Target and will be buying it. I believe it stars Humphrey Bogart who I'm sure is just PERFECT in the part of Spade. Actually, that's exactly who I was picturing while reading the book. Spade is just such a scumbag, but you've gotta love him. And in the end he does seem to have some sort of twisted sense of morality.
I didn't realize that Spade is a recurring character in other Hammett stories. I'd be interested in checking those out to read on the history of Archer and Spade. Perhaps that would have made this book even more interesting.
This may not be the thread to mention it, but you should check out the novels of Raymond Chandler. His detective is Philip Marlowe and Bogart played him in more than one movie.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stargazer86
I read about a year ago- didn't like it too much... I've always preferred classical detectives.
They're selling a fantastic special edition version at Target right now for $20. That's my next DVD purchase for sure. I'm looking forward to seeing it (and the special features as well)Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
Great!! Though $20 sounds pricey. I wonder what special features they are providing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stargazer86
I think classics cost more. They've been releasing them gradually at Target. $20 used to be standard DVD price but it seems $10 now is a little closer to standard. Not sure what the special features are though I believe it said over 7 hours of them. And I think there's an extra movie on there. How close is the movie to the book?Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
I read the book several years ago, and liked it very much. I've seen the film version starring Humphrey Bogart at least a dozen times, and still haven't gotten tired of it. His was the third movie based on the novel, which I discovered while doing a term paper on the movie for Cinema 101.
I'm going to re-read the novel since it is the month's featured novel.
PS: Have re-read it, & still like it a lot!
So, I started reading today. Read only about 1/10 but hello? I don't know why guys complain about chick-flicks as this one is obviously a "guy flick"...
And "sweetheart", "darling"? *rolls her eyes so much that she can see the back of her own head*
Otherwise, it sounds like a typical detective story so far.
Stargazer, look on Amazon. Many of the classics are coming out now and they are cheaper than $20. I buy mostly all my DVD's from Amazon and they have sales, too. I got "Casablanca" not long ago and it was onsale for under 15 bucks; might have been $10.99. Do you really need 7 hours of special features? I always group a few items so I don't pay shipping - designate super-saving shipping when you check out. You save on tax, too. How can you beat that?Quote:
Originally Posted by Stargazer86
:lol: I guess it might be. But I know lots of women that love these hard detective novels. I think it's mostly women who buy them. There are now women hard detectives.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
I've never understood why this book is so popular. My boyfriend read it and he enjoyed it. I found it boring, and I didn't like any of the characters (except for Effie, she was okay). Sam Spade was repugnant. I DID like the flow and vocabulary, and the Flitcraft story made me pause and think for a while, but all in all not one of my favorites.
Spade is pretty despicable. Well they all are. No one would EVER get away with talking like that now. That's part of what really gets you in that frame of mind and the setting so I think its appropriate for what it is and the time period in which it's told. He's the upper echelon of scumbag. And well...I love it! Never was much a chick flick fan myself. I've always been more into "guy movies" (stories in general).Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
Oh lol I think the 7hours of special features includes another movie. And I'm a dork and love watching interviews, bios, and behind the scenes stuff.Quote:
Originally Posted by Janine
Just purchased the book from Borders. They had the Maltese Falcon for $12.95 and then they had all three of Hammett's book for $24. I had a 40% coupon, so all three cost me ~$15. Read the first chapter last night...
be back May 31st!
It's done it again. :flare: :flare: :flare:
I've just written a careful, thoughtful and (ahem) erudite assessment of MF and my log-in has run out and the whole lot has disappeared into the wide blue ether. :rage:
So, briefly: reads like a film. Date is significant - 1929-30, talkies taking over from silent movies. Visual, lots of minute descriptions, silent films conveyed story visually. Dialogue short and sharp - silent films interspersed visual action with short, quick to read bits of dialogue, style carried over into talkies, gave rise to 'hard-boiled' convention. No introspection, no authorial interpretations, not allowed into character's interior thoughts or allowed to share their moments of illumination. Sam a superhuman detective - no description of previous life or how he became a detective, physical description 'Satanic', satyr-like, to emphasize superhuman aspect. Characters stock character, serve their purpose within the plot and have no existence outside the plot. Effie the most 'human' of characters because she reacts with her emotions - like us - and Sam warns against use of 'woman's intuition', must think like a detective and read the clues.
Now - will I be able to post this?
Yes! :banana:
Oh I'm sorry to hear about that Kasie. It happens to me on occaision too. I can't seem to find my book. I know it's somewhere in the basement. I'm just about done wqith Kim (yes, I was still reading that) and I'll put Austen's Persuasion on if I can find my Maltese Falcon.
Yeah, I take Sam's behaviour with a grain of salt, it sets up the story really well.
I just finished the book and I'd give it a 3.5. I still like the Thin Man better.
Is that 3.5 out of ten or five or four?Quote:
Originally Posted by papayahed
I am a little disappointed that not many read this book. I am almost done, 50 more pages to go!! Then, Ill prob watch the movie. But I'll post no later than tomorrow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
Out of 5.;)
Finished reading it couple of weeks ago. The earth did not move.
It is a good holiday/beach read but that's about it for me.
I don't mean to be read too critically here, but it seems only kasie made an effort to really discuss the novel. It is something of a happenstance that I have studied Hammett under a number of instructors, and he did more than make hard-boiled detectives into a stock formula.
If I had the time, which I don't, I'd give his work its due and respect.
I've started. I'll make a few points shortly as I get further in. It is an interesting novel. It really formulates a picture of how we see the world which was fairly innovative for it's time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jozanny
Yes, particularly in Hammett's embrace of Manichian tendencies in both his hero and the text itself. That statement ought to keep the gang busy on Google for a few:p. I have read the novel perhaps three, for times, but I am really under pressure with this deadline, at least for this week, but even after that, I am not up for swimming along Virgil, but maybe I'll agree with you or not from memory; I'll peek in here and there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Virgil
PS: If I can really coax my poet-writer friend in here, I will rib him more mercilessly than I would you:D. Happy? He emailed me back today and said he might join Lit Net because I'M here. Everytime I hear from him he cheers me up immensely and I envy his joy of life. Read my last post here if I am losing you dear, but he has known me 11 years, and survived the association!:lol: His wife is equally charming. We should have an LN gathering one day.
Great on your friend Jozy. Anyone that writes poetry is welcomed and I'm certainly interested. As to Hammett, I will have to look up to see what you mean by Manichian. ;)
Come back, Jozy, come back - please, what redeems Sam? Is there any redemption for any character or any to be found in that dark world? I wasn't reading at that sort of depth!
Hehe, in short, his personal code. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by kasie
But has he got a personal code? Doesn't he revenge his partner's death only because it wouldn't be good for the business to let it go unavenged?
'...When one of your organization gets killed it's bad business to let the killer get away with it. It's bad all round - bad for that one organization, bad for every detective everywhere....' Ch.20
kasie, as much as I'd love to accommodate you, I am trying to whip up a sentimental vignette for around 100USD, and I have the title and one line. Why? I fried up kippers with hash browns last night, flicked my television remote in homage to the uber-reality of digital, popped in here to whirlpool with Virgil, and took an hour to order 100 dollars worth of food to my door, had three cups of coffee, and made about 3 chess moves, stopped to read a few articles, fed the cats twice, watched StarTrek, and by 5am EST frowned at my swelling tullip bulb foot, and wonder if I can get through a paragraph with my ears ringing while the cats are sleeping.
I have only myself to blame.
I personally don't think that there is much in this novel that piqued my interest to offer it a in depth analysis or discussion.
It might be a novelty in the sense that the central character treats female characters like objects or uses them to the best of his ability (as oppose to, say, Agatha Christie's Poirot, who is always moral and respectful). This is not a character trait I find endearing or giving my full attention.
Once I reached the half-way, the story became quite predictable to me as well so there was nothing exciting there either.
The constant description of outfits, make-up and food items made me want to skip passages.
So, I stand by my feedback that it did not impress me.
Having said that I also don't see why I should be in a position to defend my dissatisfaction.
I don't have the time to give this book the criticism it deserves.