Vintage Hammett [Paperback]

Dashiell Hammett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2005

Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, The Continental Op. In his novels and stories, Dashiell Hammett created some of the most memorable characters--detectives, dames, and assorted miscreants--in twentieth-century fiction. It is nearly impossible to imagine modern American literature without Hammett.

Vintage Hammett features episodes from Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon, The Dain Curse, and The Thin Man; and stories featuring the Continental Op, including “The House in Turk Street,” “The Girl with the Silver Eyes," and "Flypaper.” It also includes the story "Nightshade" which has not been available in over fifty years.

Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers, presented in attractive, affordable paperback editions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Hammett's prose was clean and entirely unique. His characters were as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction." –The New York Times

About the Author

Dashiell Hammett was born in St. Marys County, Maryland, in 1894.  HE grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore.  He left school at the age of fourteen and held several kinds of jobs thereafter—messenger boy, newsboy, clerk, timekeeper, yardman, machine operator, and stevedore.  He finally became an operative for Pinkerton's Detective Agency.
   World War I, in which he served as a sergeant, interrupted his sleuthing and injured his health.  When he was finally discharged from the last of several hospitals, he resumed detective work.  Subsequently he turned to writing, and in the late 1920s he became the unquestioned master of detective-story fiction in America. During World War II, Mr. Hammett again served as a sergeant in the army, this time for more than two years, most of which he spent in the Aleutians.  He died in 1961.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; First Edition. pb original edition (January 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400079624
• ISBN-13: 978-1400079629
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,136,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better to Read a Hammett Novel or Short Story Collection than This Sampler., August 27, 2006

By 

mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vintage Hammett (Paperback)

It's difficult to know how to rate "Vintage Hammett", because the writing is generally very good. But this is part of the Vintage Reader series, which, in Vintage Books' words, "offer an attractive, accessible selection of writing that matters." Vintage Readers are intended as an introduction to the writers they represent, whose purpose is to entice the reader to buy the authors' complete works, also published by Vintage Books. "'Vintage Hammett" contains 3 short stories, one vignette, and 5 novel fragments, one from each of Hammett's novels. The trouble is that anyone can read an entire Hammett novel or part of a short story collection in the time it would take to read "Vintage Hammett". And that's what I suggest you do. I don't think that reading bits and pieces of novels is worth the effort.

As for what's here: "The House on Turk Street", "The Girl with the Silver Eyes", and "Fly Paper" are short stories included in their entirety. The first two are excellent and sure to pique interest in Hammett's short fiction. "Fly Paper" is good as well. From the novels, we get chapters 1-2 of "Red Harvest", chapter 1 of "The Dain Curse", chapters 11-13 of "The Maltese Falcon", the opening chapters of "The Glass Key", and chapters 1-5 of "The Thin Man". The first paragraph of "Red Harvest" is one of the most memorable opening paragraphs ever. Read it twice. "The Dain Curse" may be limited to one chapter here, because the novel is not very good. The other fragments are representative of their respective works but not long enough to do "The Maltese Falcon" or "The Glass Key" justice. There is also a 4-page vignette entitled "Nightshade" that was originally published in "Mystery League Magazine" in 1933. It's not worth much, but was probably included because it was not available anywhere else. (Now it is also available in "Lost Stories".)

Skip this sampler and read one of Hammett's novels or short story collections. "The Maltese Falcon" is one of the greatest American novels of the 20th century. "The Glass Key" is also excellent. And "Red Harvest" comes in third. The novels are about the same length as "Vintage Hammett", and they are more worthy of your attention. The Hammett short story collections from Vintage Books are "The Continental Op", "The Big Knockover", and "Nightmare Town". They can be read leisurely and provide plenty of material from which to judge whether or not you like Dashiell Hammett.