Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction

Raymond Chandler’s work is part of a sub-class of the Modernist Literary Movement known as Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction. It is a literary style distinguished by “the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex” (Manoah). The term hard-boiled actually refers to any fictional work that has elements of toughness and violence, and can be applied to adventures or westerns as well as crime stories. The style of the detective story in this genre however is very distinctive.

The genre evolved from the English detective mystery such as Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books or the stories of Agatha Christie. These predecessors from the so called golden age of detective fiction were stories presented as problems in logic and deduction. Chandler was scornful of these works and once remarked that they were an "affair of the upper classes, the weekend house party and the vicar's rose garden" (qtd. in MacShane). He commented, “They do not come off intellectually as problems, and they do not come off artistically as fiction” (Chandler 8). Hard-boiled detective fiction is much more authentic with characters and stories based on events from daily life or found in the news. According to Manoah the style can be recognized by four main elements; the setting, the language, the detective, and the detection (Manoah).

The setting is usually a large city that is portrayed as a dangerous place where criminals operate freely and politicians, elected officials, and sometimes even the police are corrupt. The language is that of the streets with its own vocabulary, sarcasm, and wit. The detective is a common man with a strong sense of purpose and an ethical and moral code of behavior. “The tough-guy detective’s action oriented code of honor enables him to act in a violent world without losing his moral purity and force…his unsullied isolation and failure maintain the purity of his stance as a man of honor in a false society” (Ogdon). As the hero his job is to investigate the crime, uncover the criminal or conspiracy, and restore order.

Raymond Chandler along with Dashiell Hammett is considered to be a founder of the hard-boiled style of detective fiction. He elevated the standard of writing for the genre to an art form and his works are considered to be modern classics, not just mystery stories. The May 2004 issue of American Heritage Magazine contained an article by Allen Barra which listed the people who have, in the judgment of the writer, had the greatest influence on popular culture in America over the last fifty years; Raymond Chandler was listed third (Seals).

Works Cited

Chandler, Raymond. “The Simple Art of Murder.” New York: Vintage, 1977. Print.

MacShane, Frank. “Raymond Chandler: Overview.” Reference Guide to American Literature.

     Ed. Jim Kamp. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center . Web. 14

     Nov. 2012

Manoah, J. John Sunil. “Crime Fiction and Crime Detection: contributions to the society with

     reference to Lee Horsley's works.” Language In India (July 2012) : 447+. Literature Resource

     Center. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.

Ogdon, Bethany. “Hard Boiled Ideology.” Critical Quarterly 34.1 (1992) : 71-87. Google

     Scholar. Web. 10 Nov. 2012.

Seals, Marc. "Notes on Raymond Chandler's 'Red Wind.'" Eureka Studies In Teaching Short

     Fiction 9.1 (2008): 166-172. Google Scholar. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.