The Long Goodbye (novel) - Background

Background

The Long Goodbye is Chandler's most personal novel. He wrote it as his wife was dying and her illness and eventual death had a profound effect on him, driving him into fits of melancholy as well as talk of and even attempts at suicide. The novel contains two characters obviously based on Chandler himself and both of them highlight Chandler's awareness of his own flaws such as alcoholism as well as his insecurities (e.g., in the value of his writing).

The most obvious Chandler substitute is the usually drunken author Roger Wade. Like Chandler, Wade had a string of successful novels behind him but as he got older he found it more difficult to write. Also, like Chandler, Wade's novels (romantic fiction) were viewed by many as not real literature and Wade obviously has the desire to be thought of as a serious author. Wade also stands in for Chandler in discussions about literature, e.g., praising F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The other Chandler stand-in was Terry Lennox. Lennox was also an alcoholic. Also, like Chandler he had been in a war and the war had left emotional scars. In Lennox's case it was the Second World War in Chandler's case the first. Lennox was a US citizen but he had spent a great deal of time in England and retained the more restrained and formal attitude of an English gentleman. This made him somewhat of an anomaly in the fast paced and more informal world of wealthy Los Angeles that he inhabited due to his wife's money. Chandler was also raised in England and received a classical education there. Chandler also retained a great love for the English and what he viewed as their more civilized way of life compared to the shallowness and superficiality of Los Angeles. This frequently put him at odds with screen writing collaborators such as Billy Wilder as well as with most of Los Angeles and Hollywood society.