
The Maltese Falcon is a classic noir novel set in San Francisco, revolving around private detective Sam Spade who takes on a case involving a valuable black statuette of a bird. As the mystery unfolds, Spade navigates through a web of lies and deceit while dealing with dangerous adversaries and mysterious motives. The writing style is described as gritty, fast-paced, and filled with witty dialogue, creating a world where characters like Spade and the femme fatale Brigid O'Shaughnessy come to life in a story that explores themes of obsession, loyalty, and justice.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include violence, misogyny, racism, and themes of murder.
From The Publisher:
A coolly glittering gem of detective fiction that has haunted three generations of readers, from one of the greatest mystery writers of all time.
A treasure worth killing for. Sam Spade, a slightly shopworn private eye with his own solitary code of ethics. A perfumed grafter named Joel Cairo, a fat man name Gutman, and Brigid O'Shaughnessy, a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. These are the ingredients of Dashiell Hammett's iconic, influential, and beloved The Maltese Falcon.
Ratings (33)
Incredible (5) | |
Loved It (14) | |
Liked It (10) | |
It Was OK (4) |
Reader Stats (63):
Read It (34) | |
Want To Read (23) | |
Not Interested (6) |
3 comment(s)
He poured a drink and drank it standing. He put bottle and glass on the table, sat on the side of the bed facing them, and rolled a cigarette. He had drunk the third glass of Bacardi and was lighting his fifth cigarette when the street-door-bell rang. The hands of the alarm-clock registered four-thirty.
The Maltese Falcon was fine. It definitely wasn’t a slog—I read it in a few days pretty easily—but I didn’t think it was anything close to “the best detective story” I have ever read, as the back of my edition proclaims.
I think a big part of my general apathy is due to the writing style, which was effective, but kind of bland. Hammett really keeps the reader at arm’s length from the characters, never giving any insight into what Spade is thinking or what his plan is. For me, that made it difficult to be emotionally involved in the story, or really even follow what was happening.
The characters themselves are today cliches, though I imagine that Hammett must have been one of the inventors of the archetype that is Spade: he drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney, and is always manhandling the beautiful women who surround him. All of it is just off-putting. Besides Spade, none of the other characters exist beyond a two-dimensional sketch.
Crime/noir is definitely not my genre, but I thought that a much-lauded classic like
The Maltese Falcon (whose beautiful cover was initially what pulled me in) would have something in it to grab me. Unfortunately, I didn’t find much to enjoy or even acknowledge as being particularly good.
Some favorite passages:
Spade's thick fingers made a cigarette with deliberate care, sifting a measured quantity of tan flakes down into curved paper, spreading the flakes so that they lay equal at the ends with a depression in the middle, thumbs rolling the paper's inner edged down and up under the outer edge as forefingers pressed it over, thumbs and fingers sliding to the paper cylinder's ends to hold it even while tongue licked the flap, left forefinger and thumb pinching their end while right forefinger and thumb smoothed the damp seam, right forefinger and thumb twisting their end and lifting the other to Spade's mouth.
San Francisco's night-fog, thin, clammy, and penetrant, blurred the street.
He grimaced again and bent his head for a surreptitious look at the watch on his wrist. His left arm was around her, the hand, on her left shoulder. His cuff was pulled back far enough to leave the watch uncovered. It showed ten-ten.
Spade said, "Give me," and held out his hand. When she had given him the memorandum he took out his lighter, snapped on the flame, set it to the slip of paper, held the paper until all but one corner was curling black ash, dropped it on the linoleum floor, and mashed it under his shoesole.
"My guess might be excellent, or it might be crummy, but Mrs. Spade didn't raise any children dippy enough to make guesses in front of a district attorney, an assistant district attorney, and a stenographer."
"Why shouldn't you, if you've nothing to conceal?"
"Everybody," Spade responded mildly, "has something to conceal."
I picked this up as more of a educational research exercise. But it surprised me by being enjoyable and entertaining.
Wow, I'm impressed. I won't say that this is the best crime story I have ever read but this is indeed a very good book. And now I realise that many of those crime stories I have read before are just simple retellings of this story.
It is very important to emphasize that this story has a very modern feeling. If I knew nothing about this author or the book itself, I could easily believe that it was written last year. There is nothing dated about this story.
Another thing is that there is no single scene that is unnecessary. I admit that I like to skip through pages of my books when I get bored or the descriptions are too long. But I haven't skipped a page in this book. There is enough action but not too much and the plot is well-developed with lots of twists and turns that make you read page after page. It's not a long book (perfect to read during one sitting) but great read.
And there is also Sam Spade. A very complicated hero who should not be easy to like. But there is something strange about him that makes you like him despite his obvious flaws.
This is a great story. I'm so happy I read it. I will definitely read something else from Dashiell Hammett.
About the Author:
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born in 1894 in St. Mary's County, Maryland, and his family moved to Baltimore when he was five. He dropped out of high school after his freshman year and held a series of odd jobs-messenger boy,…
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