Delphi Complete Works of Dashiell Hammett (Illustrated)

Book excerpt: The American author Dashiell Hammett created the hard-boiled school of detective fiction, with the enduring characters of Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man) and the Continental Op. Now widely regarded as among the greatest mystery stories of world literature, his works went on to have a significant impact on the development of crime fiction and film-noir cinema. His 1930 novel ‘The Maltese Falcon’ is generally considered his finest work, introducing Sam Spade, the quintessential hard-boiled private detective, who battles the gangs of organised crime, while left cynical by the cycle of violence and corruption in the world around him. For the first time in publishing history, this eBook presents Hammett’s complete published works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts and informative introductions. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Hammett’s life and works * Concise introductions to the novels and other texts * All 6 novels, with individual contents tables * The rare unfinished novel ‘Tulip’, first time in digital print * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original books and serial publications * Excellent formatting of the texts * Rare short story collections available in no other collection * The complete published Continental Op stories * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the short stories * Easily locate the stories you want to read * Includes Hammett’s rare uncollected stories – available in no other collection * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and genres Please note: the unfinished Sam Spade story ‘A Knife will Cut for Anybody’ and several other minor tales were only recently published and so cannot appear in this collection, due to copyright restrictions. When new texts enter the public domain, they will be added to the eBook as a free update. CONTENTS: The Novels Red Harvest (1929) The Dain Curse (1930) The Maltese Falcon (1930) The Glass Key (1931) The Thin Man (1934) Tulip (1966) The Shorter Fiction The Continental Op Series The Adventures of Sam Spade The Thin Man Series Woman in the Dark (1933) Hammett Homicides (1946) Dead Yellow Women (1947) Nightmare Town (1948) The Creeping Siamese (1950) A Man Named Thin (1962) The Big Knockover (1966) Uncollected Stories The Short Stories List of Short Stories in Chronological Order List of Short Stories in Alphabetical Order Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to purchase this eBook as a Parts Edition of individual eBooks