I guess there are a couple of distinct issues here: (1) are
the author's books related in such a way that enjoyment of
later ones depends to some extent on familiarity with earlier
ones; and (2) what is the best way to become familiar with an
author's body of work. With respect to (2), I often opt for
reading an author's books in order of publication, once I've
decided I want to read a bunch or all of them. With respect
to (1) I'm more relaxed than some people. As long as a book
works as a self-contained unit, I don't mind if I'm missing
out on development of themes and characters introduced
earlier. If I'm interested enough, I can always go back and
fill in that aspect of things.
Stephen
On Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 10:26 PM, Patrick King <
abrasax93@yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- On Sat, 6/21/08, Stephen Burridge <
stephen.burridge@gmail.com<stephen.burridge%40gmail.com>>
> wrote:
>
> I have been re-reading Hammett myself. So far I've
read the the Richard
> Laymon biography, followed by "The Maltese Falcon",
"The Glass Key" and
> "Red
> Harvest". It doesn't seem to me that the order
matters.
>
>
***********************************************************
> Certainly with regard to Hammett's stories it
doesn't matter at all. But
> the evolving themes of wealthy dysfunctional
families, insane femme fatales,
> and corrupt professionals evolves distinctly from
RED HARVEST to THE THIN
> MAN. A similar series of themes exists in Chandler
especially regarding
> sisters. There are opposing sisters or at least
female doppelgangers in
> every Marlow adventure.
>
> Patrick King
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 22 Jun 2008 EDT