Dusk was advancing. I was trying to think. But my thoughts were jumping around chaotically in my mind, as if some sadistic gaze was intervening to disorganize them. I thought of the eyes of a dead man looking at the sky on a moonless night and the dried blood at the corners of his mouth. I thought of the face of an ugly old woman, with a broken head against the bars of her bed. A man with shiny blonde hair, who was afraid without even knowing exactly why. [...] I thought of Indians, psychotherapists, doctors, and drugs.

"Farewell, My Lovely" is one of the finest novels by Raymond Chandler. Behind the contradictory, tough, romantic private detective Philip Marlowe, one of the most well-known characters in contemporary detective literature, who appears as the embodiment of the "modern sentiment" of life in the big city and transforms from a symbol of professionalism in modern mythology into a tragic figure without past and future, a figure without identity, lies the hidden charm of Chandler: the loneliness, the anxiety, the eroticism of the author.

The edition, which is complete and unabridged, is accompanied by 31 photographs and an extensive study by Andreas Apostolidis on the themes and motifs of the author through his letters, excerpts from his other books, and testimonies from his collaborators: on the murderous world of women and Marlowe's eroticism, the scenography of the big city, the loneliness of the private detective, male friendship, Chandler's literary model, and his relationship with Hollywood.

The novel was adapted into film twice: in 1942, in the movie "The Falcon Takes Over" by Irving Reis, starring George Sanders (detective Falcon), Lynn Bari, and James Gleason, and in 1975, in the more faithful adaptation "Farewell, My Lovely" by Dick Richards, starring Robert Mitchum (Philip Marlowe), Charlotte Rampling (Helen Grail), John Ireland, and Harry Dean Stanton in the main roles.