
The Big Sleep
American novelist, 1888–1959.
The Big Sleep is a 1939 novel by Raymond Chandler.
On 6 of the 16 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Raymond Chandler
- First published
- 1939
- Length
- 512 pages (UK paperback)
- Genre
- Crime and mystery
Is The Big Sleep worth reading?
6 of the 16 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them 100 novels everyone should read (The Telegraph) and 100 books of the century (Le Monde).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| 100 books of the century (Le Monde, 1999) | No. 96 | See the list |
| 100 novels everyone should read (The Telegraph, 2009) | No. 34 | See the list |
| 100 novels that shaped our world (BBC Arts, 2019) | Listed | See the list |
| All-Time 100 Novels (Time, 2005) | Listed | See the list |
| The 100 best novels written in English (The Guardian / Observer, 2015) | Listed | See the list |
| The 100 greatest novels of all time (The Observer, 2003) | Listed | See the list |
Best edition of The Big Sleep
The edition we link to is the Penguin Classics paperback (2023), 512 pages.
- Publisher
- Penguin Classics (paperback, 2023)
- Pages
- 512
- ISBN
- 9780241654149
How critics, prizes and readers rate The Big Sleep
Critics rate it most highly: it earned 54% of the points available on critics' lists, against 0% on prize lists and 0% on readers' and booksellers' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like The Big Sleep
If you liked The Big Sleep, try Rebecca, The Hound of the Baskervilles or The Name of the Rose.



