(Original Review, 1981-03-25)

Speaking of the femme fatale or fatale woman, she is hardly an invention of noir however automatically we identify the two. So much has focused on who and what Sam is, and what he is like, that Brigid's literary identity as opposed to her character and role in the plot get a little lost, which is exacerbated by our tendency to think of the archetype as inextricably identified with film noir. Brigid is an iconic femme fatale but the femme fatale is an ancient literary archetype, at least as old as Aeschylus' Prometheus is, for example Sophocles' Sphinx or Medusa.

Some more reading on Byronic Heroes brought up one influential study in Mario Praz's “The Romantic Agony”(1933). Praz is interested in the erotics of the Hero and discusses him as a 'cruel and fatal lover'.

Brigid and Sam are 'fatal lovers'. A clash of two archetypal characters. I will repeat what I said above. Hammett as reader and then writer did not have to have these kinds of characters explained to him. In his writer's mind they would exist as the very stuff of Literature distilled from reading Literature, but not necessarily exist as labels such as Byronic Hero, femme fatale or vamp, and yet he did label Satan. It may be hard to think of a mystery writer sitting down with such ideas, turning out something like a 'mystery' (medieval) as well as a mystery (modern), but I think it is well worth considering that he did. His femme fatale IS archetypal, can anyone deny it? She is The Belle Dame Sans Merci, Delilah, Lilith, the Sphinx, Morgan La Fey, Brigid O'Shaugnessy, Phylis Dietrichson, and many more. Dashiell Hammett did not invent the femme fatale, nor was his the last of them. Why should he not have made an homme fatal, a 'cruel and fatal lover' for her, and for his novel? In fact he certainly did. Although I would not say that the relationship makes a unidimensional cruel and fatal lover story because of what Brigid herself is, and also for the strong, ethical man Sam is, which is what saves him and damns her to what she deserves.

It is sexistly patriarchal though, harking ultimately back to the incredible bum rap that Eve got, and even her predecessor, Lilith, in Genesis. 1928 was still VERY much a man's world.

NB: Sorry dear editors and Author of this book. I don't speak French... ( )

Documento fundamental para comprender la sensibilidad y la mentalidad europea del siglo pasado, esta obra es ya un clásico de la historiografía y la crítica literarias. En su búsqueda y fijación de los temas recurrentes, Mario Praz visita el lado más oscuro de las literaturas francesa, inglesa e italiana del Romanticismo, y determina con exactitud los medios a través de los cuales se efectuó la transmisión de esos temas tan ocultos, y a la vez tan familiares entre los artistas. En el presente libro, Praz plantea de forma muy atractiva—incluso para un lector no especializado en problemas históricos, literarios y psicológicos—esa ligazón, mostrando una sutil afinidad con las personalidades extrañas, ambiguas, visionarias o sublimes que constituyen su objeto de análisis. ( )

arena sine calce. a collection of snippets from various 19c authors very, very, very loosely arranged around the theme of horror, sadism, etc. its basic shortcoming is that if you already know the works you won't learn anything new and if you don't you won't learn anything at all as Praz's style is ellyptical to the extreme. A pity, as Praz can also be very infomative and perceptive as he shows in his book on conversation pieces. This is one of those books I forced myself to finish reading against my better judgement. ( )