An edition of High Sierra (1940)

High Sierra

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Last edited by ImportBot
August 17, 2023 | History
An edition of High Sierra (1940)

High Sierra

  • 0 Ratings
  • 8 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 1 Have read

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.

Publish Date
Publisher
RosettaBooks
Language
English

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: High Sierra
High Sierra
2002, RosettaBooks
eBook in English
Cover of: High Sierra
High Sierra
November 1, 1987, Zebra
Paperback in English
Cover of: High Sierra
High Sierra
1986, Critic's Choice
Mass Market Paperback
Cover of: High Sierra
High Sierra
December 1986, Carroll & Graf Pub
Paperback - 1st Carroll & Graf Ed edition
Cover of: High Sierra
High Sierra
1984, Diogenes
Taschenbuch in German - Deutsche Erstausgabe
Cover of: High Sierra
High Sierra
June 1982, Buccaneer Books
Hardcover in English
Cover of: High sierra.
High sierra.
1958, Transworld Publishers
in English
Cover of: High Sierra.
High Sierra.
1940, Kaye & Ward
in English
Cover of: High Sierra
High Sierra
1940, A. A. Knopf
in English
Cover of: High Sierra
High Sierra
1940, Kensington Pub., Zebra, Brand: Zebra
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Published in
New York

The Physical Object

Format
eBook

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL24299699M
Internet Archive
highsierra00hust
ISBN 10
0795300425, 0795300468
OverDrive
8016F491-B989-436B-A8E0-FCC43610A1A9

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
August 17, 2023 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 17, 2023 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
May 20, 2020 Edited by CoverBot Added new cover
April 6, 2014 Edited by ImportBot Added IA ID.
June 23, 2010 Created by ImportBot Imported from marc_overdrive MARC record