Customer Reviews

Vintage Hammett

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.