The fictional character Philip Marlowe first appeared in which novel by Raymond Chandler?

"The Big Sleep" (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler; it is the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. In the book, it specifically is about cynicism and survival. Chandler represents life in the dark, criminal world of 1930s L.A. as total war. He critiques a self-serving and mistrustful American society where people have turned to violence and dishonesty to achieve personal gain. At the heart of the novel, a key answer to a big mystery concerning key people in the novel is found when down in the abandoned Sternwood family oil field, Carmen turns her gun on Marlowe in an attempt to kill him. Marlowe, however, foreseeing this turn of events, has loaded the gun with blanks. He figures out, in the end, that Carmen killed Regan and that Vivian paid Eddie Mars's man, Canino, to hide the body.

Here, the story is noted for its complexity, with characters double-crossing one another and secrets being exposed throughout the narrative. The title is a euphemism for death; the final pages of the book refer to a rumination about "sleeping the big sleep".

In 1999, "The Big Sleep" was voted 96th by the French daily afternoon newspaper "Le Monde" on its list of the "100 Books of the Century". In 2005, the novel was then included on the "List of the 100 Best Novels" by "Time magazine".