I have recently read two novels for my study: Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely. The first point is that they are quite interesting in spite that they are crime fiction, and the second that they are similar. I’ d rather concentrate on the second point and I’ll try to point out why I think they are so similar.
They were written in 1930 and 1940 in America by two American writers. They belong to the genre called hard-boiled crime fiction. When you read them you don’t concentrate on the murder or other crime that has been committed but on the action. The plot in both of them is simple. Someone is murdered and a detective (private eye) tries to solve the mystery. Doing that he (because a detective has to be a white, tough guy) is involved in a series of strange and dangerous actions. He might be shot, beaten and seduced by a woman. A woman. Not an ordinary one but by a femme fatal – a very beautiful, sexy and dangerous.
The action takes place on the dirty streets of a big American city. You meet there guys from an underworld as well as some posh people. It doesn’t matter who’s who, they are all corrupted. When you read these books you can imagine these lively cities that don’t sleep where round the corner hides some guy with a gun. The books are written as they were a script for a Hollywood film with Bruce Willis as a privet eye on his quest for justice. Die Hard?
I want to come back to a femme fatal character because it is fascinating. Below you can find some contemporary example of her in a pop world. This is No doubt’s video for their cover version of Talk Talk’s It’s my life. Enjoy :).
Roman's 