The Critical Response to Raymond Chandler: (Critical Responses in Arts and Letters) [Hardcover]

J. K. Van Dover (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0313279489 | ISBN-13: 978-0313279485

Raymond Chandler is perhaps one of the best known and widely read American mystery writers of this century. Though he practiced in a popular genre and was once dismissed as a serious writer, his works are now receiving the attention of scholars. Chandler is now recognized as a major mid-century American novelist and as an author with a deliberate approach toward the creation of fictions that present a significant criticism of American life. This volume traces the changing reception of Chandler's works. It includes essays and reviews from 1944 to the present. These pieces treat various aspects of Chandler's art, such as his writing style, the nature of the hard-boiled detective hero, the relation of Chandler to his contemporaries, Los Angeles as the setting for his fiction, studies of individual novels, and analyses of films of Chandler's works. An introductory chapter provides a context for understanding Chandler as a writer, and the bibliography at the end of the volume demonstrates the growing amount of attention his novels are receiving.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“J. k. Van Dover has done an admirable job in providing the reader with a group of essays and selections that not only convey insight into the works of Chandler but also illustrate several critical approaches....The book [itself] is substantial, attractively bound, and easy to handle.”–Paradoxa

About the Author

J. K. VAN DOVER is Professor of English at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood Press (February 28, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0313279489
• ISBN-13: 978-0313279485
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,122,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)