Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s quintessential private eye, has appeared in seven novels and six of those books were made into films. Some books had multiple movie versions and a few of those films became classics of American cinema. As with any iconic figure, Marlowe’s character changes not only in how Hollywood presented him but also in how Chandler wrote him.

The essays below trace the mutations of Philip Marlowe from book to film and from book to book.