About The Book

Description

Little Caesar is W. R. Burnett's debut novel, first published in 1929 by Dial Press and widely credited as the book that launched the American gangster genre. Rico Bandello, called Little Caesar by the Chicago underworld that both fears and courts him, is a small-time hood with outsized ambition, discipline, and a coldly clear-eyed read on the men around him. As he claws his way up through the gangs, speakeasies, and rival factions of Chicago's Little Italy, his ruthlessness and self-control set him apart from the men he steps over on his way to the top. But it is that same hard-won confidence, and the arrogance it eventually breeds, that begins to work against him just as he nears the height of his power. Written by Burnett while he was working as a night clerk in a rundown Chicago hotel, drawing directly on the small-time criminals he encountered there, the novel is told with a terse, stripped-down authenticity that still reads as strikingly modern nearly a century later. Told entirely from the criminal's own point of view, an innovative choice for its time, Little Caesar became the basis for the classic 1931 film starring Edward G. Robinson and remains a foundational text of American crime fiction. This new edition has been carefully re-edited for the modern reader. Spelling, punctuation, and formatting have been corrected throughout, and the text has been cleaned of the errors and layout issues common in older public-domain reprints. It is not a facsimile. It is a readable, faithful edition of Burnett's original novel, prepared for readers who want the text itself rather than a scanned copy of it. This book will interest readers of classic crime and gangster fiction, hardboiled and noir literature, and the early history of American crime writing.