The Big Sleep

Marlowe and the butler walk past a chauffeur polishing cars and into an uncomfortably hot greenhouse filled with orchids. Sitting in a wheelchair at the center is the aged General Sternwood. His black eyes are similar to the ones in the gallery portrait.

Marlowe removes his jacket and pats his sweating neck with a handkerchief. Sherwood signals for the butler, Norris, and orders brandy. He invites Marlowe to smoke, inhaling Marlowe’s cigarette vicariously: "A nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy” (5).

The general’s daughter Vivian has been married three times—including, for a month, to bootlegger Rusty Regan, a close friend of the general. Regan disappeared recently; meanwhile, the general is being blackmailed over his other daughter Carmen’s gambling debts. Already, Sternwood has paid a large sum to someone named Joe Brody to get him to leave Carmen alone.

Marlowe looks at the evidence, a mailed envelope: It contains a note requesting payment and a handful of promissory notes filled out by Carmen a month earlier. The sender is A. G. Geiger.

Neither the general nor his daughters have much moral sense. Vivian went to excellent schools but tends to be ruthless; Carmen was a wild child who messed up her education. Vivian has some money, and both receive hefty allowances. Marlowe thinks Sternwood should simply pay off the blackmailer, but the general’s pride is involved, so Marlowe agrees to locate Geiger and deal with him. Sternwood admits there may be more people like Geiger to contend with.

As Marlowe leaves the greenhouse, Norris tells him that Mrs. Regan—Vivian—wants to speak with him. Marlowe chides Norris for informing her of his business.

Marlowe meets Vivian Regan in her fancy white sitting room. She flirts with him, but less brazenly than her sister, fishing for information about Marlowe’s assignment. When he’s cagey, she insults his manners. He fires back, dressing her down. Vivian is appalled: "People don't talk like that to me” (13). When Marlowe smiles and lights another cigarette, the frustrated Vivian spits, “I loathe masterful men […] I simply loathe them” (13).

She tries to learn if Marlowe is supposed to find Regan, but realizes he isn’t.

Outside, Marlowe gazes past the front gate and down the hill toward the oil wells in the distance that made the Sternwood rich. As he walks down the hill to his parked car, Marlowe decides that his new job assignment is a low-level test. He wonders, though, if there’s more to it. He heads to the library to do some research.

A. G. Geiger’s shop in Hollywood is dark, with easy chairs and tables topped with fancy leather-bound books. An attractive young woman rises from a corner desk and slinks toward him. Here, Marlowe adopts exaggerated mannerisms that he thinks are typical of gay men; his anti-gay biases go unquestioned in the novel. In a falsetto, he asks if the store has a third-edition Ben Hur or a complete set of Audubon illustrations. The woman looks annoyed; she says the proprietor might know, but he won’t be back until late. Marlowe says he can afford to wait.

Minutes pass. A tall man walks in, plunks a package onto the desk, and then slips through a doorway in the rear wall. The tall man reappears carrying a package, pays money at the desk, and leaves. Marlowe follows him.

The man, agitated, speeds up and heads for a set of bungalows. Marlowe sees him hiding behind trees, waiting. After some minutes, the man lights a cigarette and walks boldly past Marlowe, as if unconcerned. Marlowe ignores him, walks down to the trees, finds the hidden package, and takes it.

At a phone booth, Marlowe finds Geiger’s home address and phone number. He dials the number; no one answers. He looks up bookstores, and then walks to one not far from Geiger’s business. He asks the woman proprietor about Geiger: Geiger’s store doesn’t sell regular books and she knows it. She’s reluctant to help, but says Geiger is in his 40s, is plump, sports a Charlie Chan mustache, and has a glass eye. Marlowe compliments her observational skills, saying she’d make a good policeman. She replies, “I hope not” (21).

Marlowe hurries through a downpour to his car. Inside, he opens the package. It’s a well-made book of pornography: Geiger’s store is a “lending library of elaborate smut” (21).

From his car, Marlowe watches the entrance to Geiger’s store. Fancy cars stop, and well-dressed people, both men and women, enter and leave with parcels. Geiger arrives, and then drives off. Marlowe follows.

Geiger drives up Laurel Canyon into a residential area in the hills. Marlowe parks and waits. Geiger enters his house. About an hour later, another car arrives, and a young woman emerges and enters the house. Marlowe walks to her car, reaches through an open window, finds the registration, and learns that the car belongs to Carmen Sternwood.

After 7:00 p.m., a bright light flashes from Geiger’s house, followed by a scream. Marlowe leaps from his car and runs to the door. He hears three gunshots and the sound of footsteps on a back stairway. A car starts up on the street below and drives away. Marlowe tries to force open the door but fails. He breaks a side window, climbs through, and finds two people inside. One of them is dead.

Geiger’s living room is decorated with Asian art. Sitting quietly erect in a teakwood chair is Carmen, eyes wide but glazed, emitting a “tinny chuckling noise” (25). She wears costly jade earrings and nothing else. Nearby on the floor lies Geiger, his kimono bloodied by three bullet holes. Next to him is a mounted camera with a used flash bulb attached; the camera is pointed at Carmen. On a desk is a flagon of what smells like ether and laudanum—the implication is that Carmen is drugged.

From a divan, Marlowe retrieves a pile of women’s clothing. He slaps Carmen several times as she mutters nonsensically, Marlowe pulls her dress over her head and stands her up. Giggling, Carmen falls into his arms. He sets her back down and gets her hose and shoes on. He tries to walk her, but it’s no use, so he sets her on the divan and she promptly falls asleep.

Marlowe checks the camera: The photographic plate (i.e., the picture that was taken) is missing. He searches the house: A kitchen window is broken in. Geiger’s bedroom is “neat, fussy, womanish” (27), featuring perfume and a flounced bed cover—a homophobic description meant to signal that Geiger is gay (see Background). Marlowe finds Geiger’s keys, unlocks a metal box, and finds a notebook filled with coded symbols. Marlowe takes the notebook and wipes his fingerprints from the box. He manages to get Carmen into her car, and then drives her back to the Sternwood mansion.