In The American Roman Noir, William Marling reads classic hard-boiled fiction and film in the contexts of narrative theories and American social and cultural history. His search for the origins of the dark narratives that emerged during the 1920s and 1930s leads to a sweeping cr…
"This reference guide to Cain's oeuvre offers a chronology detailing his life as reporter, Hollywood scenarist, and best-selling author. Entries for his fiction follow, with plot synopses, identification of more than 900 characters, and critical commentaries, many citing works f…
A pioneer in "hard-boiled fiction," James Mallahan Cain achieved fame with his first novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice. His Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce soon followed, as did successful movie versions of all three novels. With his seventeen other novels and numerous s…
Since the 1920s the use of romantic features in the tough masculinist narratives of American hard-boiled fiction has often surprised its readers. Through an exploration of fiction written by four major hard-boiled writers (Ernest Hemingway, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and Ho…
