Farewell, My Lovely 　　by Raymond Chandler

　やってしまいました。これは２００２年４月２４日付けの朝日新聞，「連休の２０冊」で紹介された１冊。
せっかくなので洋書の１０冊を読みすすめようと，Amazon.comに注文しました。
よく見れば良かったのに，Penguin Readersというシリーズで，もう１冊より多少安かったので思わず注文してみました。
届いた本を見てびっくり！！！　Retold版で５３ページほど。このシリーズなら学校に一杯あって，何も７００円も出さずとも読めるのに！！！

というわけで，１時間もかからずにあらすじだけを読みました。元祖ハードボイルドというだけあって，主人公と一緒に事件に関われば，肉体的に精神的にもタフでなければ，やっていられない，という内容でした。
最初の１ページだけ引用します。

Chapter 1 Moose Malloy

　It was a warm day, almost the end of March. I was over on Main Street, looking up at the sign of a second floor nightclub called Florian's. There was a man near me looking up at the sign too, his eyes dreamy and a little shiny with tears, as if he was thinking of other people, other times he'd known there. He was a big man, but not much taller than six and a half feet and not much wider than a bus. His hands hung at his sides; in one of them was a forgotten cigar, smoking between his enormous fingers.
　Passers-by were looking at him. He was interesting to look at, too, with his old gangster hat, worn, wool jacket with little whitefootballs on it for buttons, a brown shirt, yellow tie, grey trousers and snakeskin shoes with white bits over the toes. A bright yel-low handkerchief, the same colour as his tie, was stuck in the top pocket of his jacket. Main Street isn't the quietest dressed street in the world, but even there you couldn't miss him. He was like a spider on a bowl of pink ice-cream.
　He stood completely still, then slowly smiled and moved towards the door at the bottom of the steps up to the club. He went in and the door closed behind him. A couple of seconds later, it burst open again, outwards. Something flew out fast and landed between two cars on the street. A young black man in a purple suit with a little white flower in his buttonhole, stood up slowly, making a sad sound like a lonely cat, shook himself and walked painfully away down the street.