Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (Book Analysis)

This practical and insightful reading guide offers a complete summary and analysis of Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. It provides a thorough exploration of the novel’s plot, characters and main themes, as well as a useful introduction to the social context in which it was written. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.

This clear and detailed 52-page reading guide is structured as follows:

• Biography of Dashiell Hammett
• Presentation of Red Harvest
• Summary of Red Harvest
• Character study
  • The Op
  • Dinah Brand
  • Elihu Willsson
  • Chief Noonan
  • Robert Albury and Bob MacSwain
• Analysis of Red Harvest
  • Violence in 20^th-century American culture
  • Organised labour in the 1920s

About Red Harvest

Red Harvest is narrated by a man known only as the Continental Operative, or the Op, who arrives in Poisonville with the objective of bringing some order to the lawless town. In the bloodbath that ensues, a seemingly endless stream of characters are caught up in the violence, and the true extent of the corruption plaguing the town is gradually revealed. TIME magazine ranked Red Harvest among its 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005, and it has had a huge influence on American gangster films and on American crime fiction throughout the 20^th century.

About Dashiell Hammett

Dashiell Hammett was an American writer who specialised in crime fiction, and is generally considered to be the pioneer of ‘hard-boiled’ detective fiction, which explored America’s criminal underbelly with gritty, unflinching realism. Hammett also worked for a detective agency himself for a number of years, which influenced the content and tone of his work. In his later years he engaged in left-wing activism and was even elected president of the Civil Rights Congress in 1946, and was blacklisted under McCarthyism as a result.