The Annotated Big Sleep

It is now a commonplace of Chandler criticism that Marlowe represents a knight errant, or wandering knight, archetypal hero of the medieval Arthurian romances.
--Owen Hill, Pamela Jackson, Anthony Dean Rizzuto, The Annotated Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler (Vintage, 2018)

I am something of a sucker for annotations of works I like; I own both the Baring-Gould and Klinger annotations of Sherlock Holmes.  Reading the excessive annotation of Chandler's novel, however, I wondered what the point of these annotations is and for whom are they written.  Are the readers of Sherlock Holmes ignorant of the Victoria and Edwardian eras;  if so, why are they reading Doyle in the first place and, if not, do they gain anything from annotations.  Is someone who reads The Big Sleep today unaware of what was happening in 1939, when Chandler's novel was published?  The Hill/Jackson/Rizzuto annotation finds it necessary to define prizefighter, hot toddy and double-breasted and seems to assume that the reader has little or no idea of the prohibition era.

The annotations contain a great deal of information that tries to relate this work of fiction to so-called reality:  there is a lot about Los Angeles (where the novel takes place) geography, on the order of whether such-and-such a street in LA actually existed where the novel says it existed.  There is also much about Chandler's life, including his drinking, and details of the short stories that Chandler published in Black Mask and used as the basis for The Big Sleep.  I fail to see how any of this, interesting as much of it is, enhances one's experience of reading The Big Sleep.

The annotations include a considerable amount of defensiveness in the rather foolish attempt to elevate The Big Sleep, comparing it to Morte d'Arthur, 1001 Nights and Don Quixote, possibly to raise it from a lowly genre status. The beautifully written The Big Sleep stands on its own.