ENG 302
Literature and Film
The Hard-Boiled Detective Novel

Writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler are credited with developing a new kind of detective novel in the 1930’s. Called “hard-boiled” fiction, these novels featured private detectives who moved through a cross-section of society, finding corruption everywhere. These detectives (like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe) were characterized by a mixture of romantic idealism, cynicism, and misogyny. The following list suggests some of the characteristics of hard-boiled fiction.

Note: As with definitions of film noir, this list is based on observations made by critics looking at a range of detective fiction. When Raymond Chandler began publishing his first stories in Black Mask magazine, however, he did not have this list in front of him to use as a blueprint. As with all such definitions, therefore, a good rule of thumb is whenever your impression of the novel doesn't fit the definitions on the list, revise the definitions to fit your experience of the novel, not the other way around.

• The detective is usually a loner, with no apparent family, few if any friends, and no stable romantic attachments.

• The novels are set in alienated, urban settings.

• The novels often suggest a pervading sense of corruption throughout society, so much so that the work of the detective in pursuit of justice often seems futile.

• The novels often display a marked class consciousness, reflecting the influence of the Depression.

• The detectives often seem as much victims of circumstances themselves as master sleuths solving crimes and restoring order.

• The novels are interested in psychology, often pathological psychology, thus reflecting the influence of psychoanalysis.

• The novels are often marked by misogyny (hatred of women) and homophobia. As with film noir, there is often a pervasive fear of sexuality and anxiety that seems to be linked to the changing roles of men and women in society.

• The language is marked by wise-cracks and the use of contemporary slang. Characters often talk around a point while the real subject of the conversation remains unsaid.

“The noir detective discovers darkness everywhere, finds it to be life’s ruling principle, and learns that even the rich and privileged are usually no better than the poor and deprived. In the battle between good and evil, the greater strength is wielded by the latter. This fictional world is not ordered by poetic justice but by an amoral determinism. People are inherently evil and self-centered. Death comes unexpectedly to all. Chance, not intention, governs human experience. Any tracing of crime to its source is thus insignificant, a triumph not o virtue but of the detective’s relentlessness and cunning. The bleak America where the private dick practices his profession holds out no real hope for a restoration of order and justice. Here crime results from the pathological pursuit of gain; it is the preeminent and inalterable fact of life, not a social or moral problem.”

R. Barton Palmer, Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir