IN 1944 Raymond Chandler described the ideal character of a fictional private eye as a man comfortable on mean streets, but "who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." He is: ...a relatively poor man, or he would not be a detective at all. He is a common man or he could not go among common people. He has a sense of character, or he would not know his job. He will take no man's money dishonestly and no man's insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man.
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