HIGH SIERRA.
by Burnett, W.R
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Very Good with no dust jacket
- Seller
-
Santa Monica, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
NY: KNOPF.. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1940. First Edition; First Printing. Softcover. ADVANCE READING COPY. A very good copy in pale yellow printed wrappers, lacking rear blank cover. (Clear tape reinforcing along spine, which has a lean. Creasing to front cover. ) An elusive advance. Filmed by Raoul Walsh in 1941. .
Synopsis
The tormented and exhausted man at the center of W.R. Burnett's High Sierra is a notorious criminal whom the newspapers call "Mad Dog" Roy Earle. Earle is every bit the criminal the newspapers depict, but he is a complicated soul who is the tragic hero of the novel -- a horribly flawed man, a violent criminal who still retains a bit of a conscience but never gets a decent break.As in most of Burnett's novels, High Sierra ostensibly describes a carefully plotted crime that is undermined by human nature. More interesting and important, perhaps, is its study of Roy Earle, who hardly seems the "Mad Dog" he is made out to be in the press. Pardoned from prison, he idealizes his childhood as he wearily makes his way across the California desert to meet up with two hoods named Red and Babe. Earle is dismayed to find they have with them a tough and brazen woman named Marie, though he begins to warm to her crude charm. He has been moved by the plight of a physically impaired woman he meets, Velma Goodhue, and he resolves to help her -- imagining, somehow, that she will be his. After a holdup he plans with Red, Babe and Marie (who has now fallen in love with him), Earle takes money to Velma for an operation to repair her clubfoot. But the holdup has disastrous results. Red and Babe are killed, and Roy goes on the lam with Marie. They have nowhere to turn and even Velma deserts him. Earle sends Marie away, to meet him eventually in a mountain pass in the High Sierras -- a rendezvous high in the sky that will not take place as planned.Much happens plotwise in High Sierra but it is Roy Earle who holds our interest. As remorseless as the book is -- the concluding chapter consists a few lacerating paragraphs of post-mortem chitchat from the police -- it makes Earle a rich and deeply compelling man, without sentimentalizing him at all. Reading High Sierra is close to the experience of reading James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, a tough, bleak and unforgiving narrative that works a dark and elusive magic.
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Details
- Seller
- Waverley Books
(US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- 23689
- Title
- HIGH SIERRA.
- Author
- Burnett, W.R
- Format/Binding
- Softcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good with no dust jacket
- Edition
- First Edition; First Printing
- Binding
- Paperback
- Publisher
- KNOPF.
- Place of Publication
- NY
- Date Published
- 1940
- Keywords
- Mystery & Detective Fiction/w.r. Burnett/advance Reading Copies/books Into , Films/holiday List
Terms of Sale
Waverley Books
TERMS:
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SHIPPING:
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California residents, please add 9.25% sales tax to your order.
About the Seller
Waverley Books
Biblio member since 2005
Santa Monica, California
About Waverley Books
Waverley Books is a mail order operation.We conduct business from our home. Lists of books for sale are issued regularly during the year. Customers are welcome by appointment to view the inventory.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Wrappers
- The paper covering on the outside of a paperback. Also see the entry for pictorial wraps, color illustrated coverings for...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Reading Copy
- Indicates a book that is perfectly serviceable for reading. It may have a defect or damage. As such, reading copy is not a...
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