Editing Nick and Nora Charles (section)

==Novel==

The characters first appear in Dashiell Hammett's best-selling last novel ''The Thin Man'' (1934).  Nick is a former [[private detective]] of Greek ancestry who retired when he married Nora, a  wealthy [[Nob Hill, San Francisco|Nob Hill]] heiress. Hammett reportedly modeled Nora on his longtime partner [[Lillian Hellman]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QJSlHSfo2ukC&q=nora+charles+lillian+hellman&pg=PA92|title=Lillian Hellman|isbn=9781582433158|last1=Martinson|first1=Deborah|year=2005|publisher=Catapult }}</ref> and the characters' boozy, flippant dialogue on their relationship. (The novel also mentions that Nick was once a [[Pinkerton Government Services|Pinkerton]] detective, as was Hammett.) The novel is considered one of the seminal texts of the hard-boiled subgenre of mystery novels, but the chief innovation distinguishing it from previous Hammett works such as ''[[The Maltese Falcon (novel)|The Maltese Falcon]]'' or ''[[The Glass Key]]'' was its relative lightness and humor.  It is nearly as much a [[comedy of manners]] as a mystery, and the story tumbles along to the sarcastic banter of Nick and Nora as a reluctant and jaded Nick is dragged into solving a sensational murder, cheered on by the fascinated thrill-enjoying Nora.