The Long Goodbye

In the bar, Marlowe is approached by Linda Loring, who eventually reveals herself to be Sylvia Lennox’s sister. They talk about Lennox; Marlowe does not believe that he murdered Sylvia, but Linda does. Linda explains that her father liked Lennox but disliked Sylvia, who he had “written off long ago” (92). Their discussion becomes increasingly heated until Linda warns Marlowe to stay away from her father and her family, otherwise his career will “be extremely short and terminated very suddenly” (93). As she leaves, Marlowe becomes embroiled in an acrimonious dispute between a petty criminal named Chick Agostino and a vice police officer named Big Willie Magoon. Marlowe drives home.

Marlowe attends the cocktail party at the Wades’ home. He meets their butler, a Chilean man named Candy, and talks briefly with Linda and her husband. In private, Wade offers Marlowe a $1,000 per month retainer to live in his house and prevent him from drinking. Marlowe refuses.

At the party, Linda’s husband angrily confronts Wade, telling Wade to stay away from Linda. As the guests stare, Wade dismisses the man and returns to the party. Linda refuses to leave with her husband. At the bar, Marlowe finds himself trapped in a conversation with a drunk young woman and her husband. He exits and finds Eileen. They talk about Wade’s offer to Marlowe, and Eileen mentions her previous partner, a man she truly loved but who died during World War II. His body was never found. Marlowe speaks to Wade, who warns Marlowe to “stay away from my wife” (103) and complains about Eileen’s wistful reminiscences of her dead lover. Marlowe leaves, deciding that “something more than alcohol” (104) is the Wade family’s problem. That night, after a brief telephone conversation with Eileen, Marlowe sits up all night playing chess.

A week later, Marlowe learns that Dr. Verringer’s ranch has been repossessed. He receives a telephone call from a drunken Wade, who says that he is “in bad shape” (106). Marlowe rushes to Wade’s house, where Eileen explains that her husband fell from his chair and cut his head. Marlowe struggles to get the unconscious Wade into bed. Linda’s husband, a doctor, visits and announces that the wound is “superficial” (108). He recommends that Wade be allowed to rest.

Candy returns from his day off to help Marlowe carry Wade to bed. Once Wade is in bed, Candy suggests that Marlowe may be romantically interested in Eileen. The two men scuffle. As Marlowe dresses Wade’s wound, Wade wakes up. He remembers nothing but asks Marlowe to find and destroy some recent writing that he does not want Eileen to see. He falls asleep, mumbling incoherently to himself.

Marlowe goes to Wade’s office. He satisfies his curiosity about how Wade fell and then finds the recently written pages that Wade does not want Eileen to see. Marlowe reads Wade’s “really wild” (113) words.

Wade’s writing provides a lurid description of his alcoholic depression and how “a good man” (115) once died for him. Marlowe finishes the pages, puts them in his pocket, and then hears a gunshot.

In Wade’s bedroom, Marlowe finds Eileen wrestling a gun from her husband’s hands. Marlowe cools the situation, claiming that Wade is “swimming in a sea of self-pity” (116) and had no intention of really killing himself. After Eileen goes to bed, Marlowe quizzes Wade about the writing. He asks whether Candy is blackmailing Wade with some dark secret, and he suggests that Wade was having an affair with Sylvia Lennox. Wade reacts bitterly, making Marlowe suspect that he is correct. As he leaves, Marlowe is approached by Eileen. She seems to be in a daze, in which she is convinced that Marlowe is someone else. As she calls on Marlowe to go to bed with her, he is saved (118) by Candy, whose presence in the hall is enough to break “the spell” (119). Marlowe drinks whiskey until he passes out in Wade’s office.

Marlowe wakes up in Wade’s office. He talks to Candy, and they nearly scuffle again. Marlowe accuses Candy of blackmailing Wade. They exchange insults, and Marlowe slaps Candy across the face, insisting that he can “come around whenever” (121) he feels like it. Candy does not react. As Marlowe leaves, he meets Eileen, who tells him that she had a strange dream about someone who has been “dead for ten years” (122). He accuses her of not truly wanting to save her husband.