As my periodic reading roundups show, I am on a serious Dorothy Sayers kick this fall.
I blame my friend Hannah.
Back in August, Hannah suggested Sayers’ Gaudy Night for our occasional book club’s September meeting. I had read and loved Gaudy Night during my first stint in Oxford in 2004 (it’s set there), so I happily agreed.
I was a bit worried I wouldn’t love the book as much the second time around, but Sayers’ intricately plotted mystery, multiple literary allusions, witty asides, and musings on the love story of two complex people were even more appealing than before. I sighed happily when detective fiction writer Harriet Vane and gentleman sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey got their happy ending – and this time, I had a much deeper appreciation of what it took to make their relationship work. (I am perhaps a little wiser than I was as a college sophomore.)
After Gaudy Night, I reread Busman’s Honeymoon, the story of Harriet and Peter’s honeymoon, which (of course) involves a murder mystery, and also contains several moving scenes of two independent people trying to adjust to marriage. Then I reread Strong Poison, in which we meet Harriet as she is on trial for poisoning her lover (she didn’t do it). Lord Peter helps get Harriet acquitted and promptly falls in love with her.
I’ve always loved Harriet: she is whip-smart, witty, independent and kind. She longs for someone to love, but she wants true love and a partnership of equals – a tall order both in 1930s England and today. I found her to be much as I remembered her, but I appreciated Lord Peter and his wry sense of humor much more this time around. So instead of completing my reread of the Harriet oeuvre right away (sadly, she appears in only four Sayers novels), I went back to the beginning of Lord Peter’s adventures, picking up Whose Body?.
Lord Peter is a World War I veteran, the second son of a duke, which means he has money, but no real responsibilities. He is tall, blond and languid, with swept-back hair, impeccably tailored clothes, and a monocle. He’s also thoughtful, curious, droll, honorable, and adept at hiding his keen intelligence under a buffoonish exterior. He and his manservant, Bunter, fought in World War I together, which bonded them for life. (Peter occasionally has flashbacks of his most traumatic war experiences.)
Peter’s hobby – indeed his vocation – is solving mysteries, often in tandem with Scotland Yard, and Sayers invents all kinds of entertaining cases for him to investigate.
I’ve worked my way through most of the series this fall, reading Lord Peter’s solo adventures for the first time, and finally rereading Have His Carcase (the other mystery featuring Harriet) when I came to it in the series’ sequence. I’ve got The Nine Tailors waiting on my bedside table, and I’ll probably pick up Sayers’ short stories featuring Lord Peter (there are lots).
I’m also curious about the continuation of Harriet and Peter’s story, picked up by Jill Paton Walsh at the request of Sayers’ estate. I’m usually skeptical of fanfiction-esque projects like that, but I love Harriet and Peter and I wish Sayers had written more books featuring them together.
I love Sayers’ mysteries because I love a good story, and the ingredients are all here. Engaging characters – Lord Peter, Bunter, Inspector Parker of Scotland Yard, Peter’s elderly undercover assistant Miss Climpson, his scatterbrained mother, and especially Harriet, who is still my favorite. Lots of action (though the endless train timetables in The Five Red Herrings were not my favorite plot device). Fascinating settings – Sayers sends her hero all over the UK, from a Scottish village to a country estate to a London advertising agency to my beloved Oxford. And most of the stories don’t wrap up right after the murderer is found, but wind down more slowly to satisfying resolutions.
Along the way, in every book, we get dozens of literary quotes and quips, lots of Lord Peter’s witty asides, colorful descriptions of local people, and a vivid portrait of life in Britain between the wars. So much fun.
Have you read any of Sayers’ novels featuring Lord Peter, and/or Harriet? (Or Jill Paton Walsh’s novels?) What did you think?
cakes, tea and dreams 
I also fell in love with Sayer in college and reread Whose Body and all the Lord Peter short stories last winter. Harriet appeared in one short story in the collection and I loved their very modern take on marriage. I think this winter I need to work my way through all the Harriet/Peter novels. Oh, and I’d never heard about Walsh’s novels! I’m very curious to hear what people thought of them!
Love Lord Peter and Harriet! “Gaudy Night” is my favorite too, although I have yet to meet a Dorothy L. Sayers book that I didn’t adore.
I too love Harriet and Lord Peter! Jill Paton Walsh’s continuations are quite well done. I think that she gets better at her portrayal of Harriet and Lord Peter with each one, though her books are never filled with quite as many literary allusions as Sayers has in her own books. Your blog inspires me to reread all the Vane/Wimsey books!
That is a beautiful stack of books.
Gaudy Night was my favorite Sayers mystery, too. It’s time for a re-read, but first I need to read Busman’s Holiday for the first time!
I’ve never ventured into Peter and Harriet territory, but I recently read Strong Poison and Have His Carcase and am now about to start Gaudy Night. I like how Sayers takes more than one novel to seal the deal on romances, be it between Peter and Harriet or Inspector Parker and Peter’s sister Mary. No neat and tidy happy endings in short order for this author. She is made of sterner stuff, and I think that is why I find her books both captivate me while I’m reading them and improve upon re-reading. I listen to an audio book every night to help me fall asleep, and I’ve listened to Unnatural Death countless times. Each time I do, I perceive a bit more nuance and get a little bit more understanding of the underpinning of the story and what it took for Sayers to write them. One more thing, I need to say for the record that I adore Miss Climpson and wish she were featured in more stories.
I adore Miss Climpson too! And yes, I agree that Sayers takes the long view on romance. I love that about her love stories.