The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (Epub)

Description

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.

User’s Reviews

“Dashiell Hammett . . . is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer.” –The Boston Globe“The Maltese Falcon is not only probably the best detective story we have ever read, it is an exceedingly well written novel.” –The Times Literary Supplement (London)“Hammett’s prose [is] clean and entirely unique. His characters [are] as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction.” –The New York Times Amazon.com

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ Few books influence not only a whole generation of readers but also create a new genre of novels and cinema, but this one does. As such, it is a reading must to any serious student of 20th century Americana and writing.Hammett’s breakthrough detective novel is well written and transcended the prior decades of popular crime pulp fiction magazines to create a more believable but “hard-boiled” detective fiction for wider and more sophisticated audiences. Serving as both prototype and template to future detective noir books and movies, this landmark work is filled with snappy dialogue and vivid characters often repeated in lesser developed and cliche-ridden efforts. This is the “original” depiction of a slice of American culture that entertained and influenced future generations of writers and readers.The storyline effectively reflects the cultural and economic conflicts emerging in American society and urban communities during the crime-ridden world emerging after World War I, during Prohibition, and complicated by social disparities soon to be magnified by the ravages of the Great Depression.The story amplifies the devaluation of everyday people by those with power or money, while adding a dark-humored theme to the ragged edge between criminals and law enforcement. The “tough-guy” and manipulative female characters are stereotypical but often revealing of human foibles that makes a story interesting and insightful. Several important and helpful insights punctuate the otherwise focused story.Newer readers might find Hammett’s tale bland and outdated, while not recognizing how edgy it was when written. Although well depicted in the 1941 classic film, the book is better, more engaging, and interesting.This work illustrates well the uncertain and ambivalent world in the 1930s when morality and fairness blurred among those just trying to survive. However, it remains an entertaining classic worth of a serious read and some well-deserved reflection.

⭐ It’s important to keep in mind that ‘The Maltese Falcon’ was published in 1929. The dominant cultural sensibilities back then are quite different compared to today. It takes place in San Francisco and way before Miranda Rights. I liked Mr. Hammett’s no-nonsense writing style but the representations of women might compel a feminist reader to pee on Mr. Hammett’s grave and the men have the emotional range of the Muppet called Animal. The story has a smidgen of mild profanity but nothing that will have you breaking out the smelling salts. The author goes out of his way to avoid using harsh swear words that he even resorts to the phrase “the first a short guttural verb, the second “you.” That made me laugh even though it was likely not Mr. Hammett’s intent. I’m guessing publishers back then were squeamish about printing such language.For a fictional character being in only one full-length novel, Sam Spade has become an American icon and a frequent caricature used today. That’s quite the cultural impact and made me curious about what all the big whoop-de-do was concerning the famous private eye. The paperback version is only 217-pages long. I found it impossible to care about any of the characters’ welfare. There’s no way in god’s creation I could take the cheesy dialogue seriously. However the book did have me looking up outdated slang such as goose-berry lay, dingus, stuss-game, twist, and fog him as well as a few notables from the 1920s that are now forgotten such as Arnold Rothstein. There’s a lot of smirking in the thing… A LOT of friggin’ smirking.‘The Maltese Falcon’ is a somewhat entertaining mystery that moves along at a brisk pace. At least I can check the thing off my bucket list. All in all, however, when it comes to mysteries of that period I’d rather read an Agatha Christie whodunit.

⭐ After seeing the 1941 film version of this 1930 book by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) and enjoying it very much, and knowing Dashiell Hammett to be a very good writer because I read other works by him, I decided to buy the book and read it. I wondered if having seen the film and enjoying it a lot, I would not like the book. I was very pleasantly surprised. I also liked the book a lot.I liked the writing style. It portrayed Sam Spade as a tough but feeling private investigator, just as Humphrey Bogart did in the film in one of his best muscular roles. The book, as the 1941 film, tells what the people did, not what they thought, and I found this enjoyable because I could use my imagination to read into the novel what the characters were thinking. It reminded me of what the famed novelist Jorge Borges wrote: there are two people who compose a novel the person who wrote it and the person who reads it.

⭐ There’s only a single issue I can come up with regarding Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, the seminal piece of noir fiction that holds up every bit as well as I remembered, even after nearly a century, delivering a dynamite tale full of crackling banter, taut writing, and a slew of shady characters, including our nominal hero, Sam Spade. That problem is that John Huston’s iconic film version so nails the book that it’s all but impossible to separate the actors from the roles – from Humphrey Bogart as Spade to Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo to Elisha Cook, Jr. as the poor “gunsel” Wilmer Cook, and especially with Sydney Greenstreet as Kasper Gutman. What’s more, given how rigorously faithful the film is to the book – nearly all the dialogue is lifted verbatim – you can’t help but hear Huston’s perfect timed patter through it all. But then again, why wouldn’t you lift the dialogue here verbatim, given how absolutely dynamite it all is? Every character talks in a style all their own, but Hammett flows it together rhythmically, letting everyone talk around each other, playing their cards close to the chest while striking the pose that they most need to display. And none of that even touches on the plotting, which is gleefully intricate, using the titular bird to explore a web of deception, greed, selfishness, and brutality. But above it all, there’s Sam Spade, whose motivations are so often impossible to read, who’s either in it for himself or for something more, who maybe trusts too much or doesn’t trust at all – and as he plays the various figures against each other, you can’t help but be sucked in. What an amazing genius Hammett was.

⭐ “What’s this bird, this falcon, that everybody’s all steamed up about?”I remember watching the film with Humphrey Bogart years ago, and finally got a chance to read Hammett’s classic crime novel featuring Sam Spade. After reading, I must say that will go against the grain and say that I like the film slightly better. While there are definitive staples of the genre here, over all I feel somewhat perplexed by the legendary status that this book has garnered.The characters, Spade included, are serviceable but nothing to write home about. There is plenty of word sparring and maneuvers from the characters during negotiations, and while much of the dialogue is a bit reaching and quite circular, I guess it’s all in good fun. Spade, sort of a despicable, yet likeable antihero (how he manages that, I’m not quite sure) has some wonderful quips and snarky comments and comebacks: “I hope you’re not letting yourself be influenced by the guns these pocket-edition desperadoes are waving.”The plot was a tad convoluted and absurd (seems to be a Hammett staple) and got downright silly toward the conclusion there. The characters’ motivations are a tad murky and hard to pin down and deception seems to be the name of the game.At the end of the day, while I respect all the love for Hammett for this genre from crime fans or noir aficionados, there is something about Hammett’s style that just is not for me. For my money, I’ll take an author whose work is more character-driven with and has less style, but more substance: lesser knowns like David Goodis or Cornell Woolrich are more in my line and wheelhouse I do believe.In sum, this was fine as a fun and very quick read for a crime novel, and seems like fine, fun escapism for the genre as entertainment, but I never think the characters, plot, story premise, or writing style here rise above much else.

⭐ The Maltese Falcon is a riveting novel that takes the reader on a journey with Samuel Spade, a private investigator, as he discovers the truth about his newest client, Mrs. Wonderley. The Maltese Falcon has everything. I would highly recommend this book to anyone as it combines the mysteriousness of a detective story, the energy of an action movie, and the drama of a soap opera. Throughout the plot, I clearly see the hard-boiled hero depicted by Samuel Spade. The author, Dashiell Hammett, kept me reading by never letting me know anything too important about the mysterious Maltese Falcon. Furthermore, Hammett, throughout the novel, makes it impossible to put the book down by introducing new characters and problems that Spade has to face. The novel never lets the reader turn away from the book because Hammett adds twists and turns that entice the reader to read on. The novel allowed me to formulate my own ideas, and opinions on the characters because it was written in the third person. The Maltese Falcon brings the reader into the novel with its descriptive details, and intense scenarios. Dashiell Hammett’s novel, The Maltese Falcon, is a great read for anyone who wants to be encompassed by a book and left wanting more after the conclusion of the story.

⭐ “The Maltese Falcon” is an American classic and the basis for one of histories best motion pictures. It is here where Hammett first introduces us to Sam Spade, a now historic Private Detective from an era of American history looked upon with nostalgia. The plot to this mystery is brilliantly crafted with none of the Agatha Christie tricks of last minute missing clues. Hammett’s skill at writing dialouge to define character is unparralled. His ability to side step the long winded back story and to par a paragraph down to an entertaining but gripping bit of necessity is similr to that of Shirley Jackson. Until the last pages we’re never certain who’s a good guy and who’s bad. Even Spade is a mystery to us until the end. This book is a classic for a good reason. As great as the film is, the book is even better. It’s easy to have Bogart and Mary Astor in our mind as we read it; that doesn’t matter. This particular publication fits in the back pocket which is ideal for those who like to have a book with them all the time. It’s not only the book that set the standard for this genre it is-rightly so- but as a stand alone novel, few compare.

⭐ The writing style is an adjustment, as it was written back in the 1930s. And the story is confusing as all hell. I needed a white board 99.9% of the time to keep track.It’s a whose-the-REAL-bad-person, where everyone is screwing over everyone else, regardless.I dunno. I wasn’t left with that feel-good ending with the “hero” triumphant and the devil squashed, especially when it turned out everyone is the devil.This came recommended, otherwise I would not have touched it.

⭐ I loved this book so much that I read it twice. There is something so intriguing and nostalgic about reading a book that was written by a man born in my own state of Maryland who became one of the greatest detective crime writers who left school at age 14.The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett is a character-driven story with the been-around-the-block-more-than-once detective, Sam Spade, the driving force in the search for an “ornament” of great value. Sam talks about the truth a lot, because many of the book’s characters have a problem with it, but Sam has no problem using his fists to give a lesson about truth and other important concepts. Sam’s wisecracks add that much more to his personality.Hammett’s characters’ names add to their personalities and descriptions as with Joel Cairo who is from somewhere in the vicinity of Egypt. The dialogue is sharp, witty, and dangerous. This cast of characters is one of the most memorable that I will not soon forget.

⭐ Elements of the hero and anti-hero qualities of Sam Spade (and perhaps like heroes of the hard boiled detective syle) have been captured from the comics to the cinema, but reading through the text makes you appreciate how much more complicated the character is. It also opens questions as to what exactly he will do next as circumstances swing for and against his favor. I had initial doubts about the book because it seemed like a low brow, misogynistic ride from the outset, with chapters showing a profound disrespect for authority, with women as superficial elements to the plot- but by the end of the book, there appears one thing that will not change, and it is this thing that defines the man.

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