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in Four Complete Lord Peter Novels, Random House Value Publishing (1982)
Description
Harriet Vane's Oxford reunion is shadowed by a rash of bizarre pranks and malicious mischief that include beautifully worded death threats, burnt effigies and vicious poison-pen letters, and Harriet finds herself and Lord Peter Wimsey challenged by an elusive set of clues.
User reviews
LibraryThing member phoebesmum
Is this the finest Wimsey of them all? That’s a question that’s open to debate – as are most questions, that’s what makes them questions; it’s certainly a very fine Wimsey and, indeed, a very fine novel in its own right. Wimsey, in fact, is largely absent from the story: it’s Harriet
If the Bechdel test applies to literature, then 'Gaudy Night' surely passes with flying colours. Much of the story is less concerned with the mystery than with questions of female emancipation, with philosophy and with debates on religion and music. It’s unfortunate, then, that the women are unable to reveal the culprit and must depend on Wimsey to descend, deus ex machina style, and solve the mystery with one wave of his hand. On the other hand, he is Wimsey, and that’s his job, while the women are handicapped, oddly enough, by their own prejudices; they seem almost determined to blame the attacks on the cloistered mentality. Wimsey, with an outsider’s clearer view, and without these prejudices, almost immediately sees the solution. (I cannot help but feel that Miss Marple would have solved it even faster.)
And finally, of course, this is the book in which Harriet at long last abandons her own prejudices and agrees to what Wimsey has promised will be his final offer of marriage. And happily ever after they both shall live, by the grace of god and World War II.
We are currently watching the TV adaptation of this, and I am rather enjoying the thought of a casting director faced with the need to cast 20-odd middle-aged women. “Twenty what?” he must have asked. Mythical as the unicorn, the middle-aged woman is to the world of film and television.
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Vane who here takes centre stage. Nor is there a murder to solve: the mystery here is a rash of poison-pen letters, graffiti and vandalism that is plaguing Harriet’s old College. The Warden, unwilling to involve the police and open the floodgates for a wave of negative publicity, asks Harriet to investigate, on the somewhat shaky grounds that Harriet writes mysteries and may therefore be in a better position than the unworldly Dons to interpret the mind of the offender. Harriet, herself unwilling, nonetheless gives it her best shot, but finds that her surroundings lead her to re-think her own way of life and seriously contemplate a return to academia.If the Bechdel test applies to literature, then 'Gaudy Night' surely passes with flying colours. Much of the story is less concerned with the mystery than with questions of female emancipation, with philosophy and with debates on religion and music. It’s unfortunate, then, that the women are unable to reveal the culprit and must depend on Wimsey to descend, deus ex machina style, and solve the mystery with one wave of his hand. On the other hand, he is Wimsey, and that’s his job, while the women are handicapped, oddly enough, by their own prejudices; they seem almost determined to blame the attacks on the cloistered mentality. Wimsey, with an outsider’s clearer view, and without these prejudices, almost immediately sees the solution. (I cannot help but feel that Miss Marple would have solved it even faster.)
And finally, of course, this is the book in which Harriet at long last abandons her own prejudices and agrees to what Wimsey has promised will be his final offer of marriage. And happily ever after they both shall live, by the grace of god and World War II.
We are currently watching the TV adaptation of this, and I am rather enjoying the thought of a casting director faced with the need to cast 20-odd middle-aged women. “Twenty what?” he must have asked. Mythical as the unicorn, the middle-aged woman is to the world of film and television.
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LibraryThing member lilithcat
The very best of the Wimsey books! When a nasty, anonymous note is slipped into the sleeve of Harriet Vane's gown when she attends the Shrewsbury College Gaudy, she thinks it is a reference to her personal history. But it soon turns out that the animus is directed at the College, and Vane is asked
Sayers' great strength as a mystery writer, particularly apparent in the Wimsey-Vane books, was her ability to write about relationships. The working out of Harriet and Peter's relationship is crucial to this book. It is not that the mystery is secondary; indeed, it is in the unraveling of that mystery that Harriet is able to confront her concerns about Peter and also learns more about him than in all the time she knew him.
But the crux of this book is the importance of intellectual honesty in the face of personal considerations, of the need to do work that matters to you. It is about women's struggle for a recognized place in the public realm, as well as the private.
There are wonderful by-ways here as well. Harriet's life as a writer, both of mysteries and scholarly works, is described in fine detail, with the addition of a humorous description of the 30's London literary scene. Oxford itself, both town and gown, is a character in the book. How lovingly it is drawn!
This is a book I read over and over again.
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to investigate. In the course of so doing, she begins to wonder if she should return to the scholarly life.Sayers' great strength as a mystery writer, particularly apparent in the Wimsey-Vane books, was her ability to write about relationships. The working out of Harriet and Peter's relationship is crucial to this book. It is not that the mystery is secondary; indeed, it is in the unraveling of that mystery that Harriet is able to confront her concerns about Peter and also learns more about him than in all the time she knew him.
But the crux of this book is the importance of intellectual honesty in the face of personal considerations, of the need to do work that matters to you. It is about women's struggle for a recognized place in the public realm, as well as the private.
There are wonderful by-ways here as well. Harriet's life as a writer, both of mysteries and scholarly works, is described in fine detail, with the addition of a humorous description of the 30's London literary scene. Oxford itself, both town and gown, is a character in the book. How lovingly it is drawn!
This is a book I read over and over again.
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LibraryThing member sturlington
Mystery writer Harriet Vane returns to her college at Oxford and is drawn into an investigation of a spate of poison pen letters, vandalism, and other pranks; she must call on Lord Peter Wimsey to help her solve the mystery.
I am sure I first read this, along with most of the Lord Peter Wimsey
During this read, I kept looking for things to criticize, but then I realized that I was only searching for nitpicks in what is almost a perfect novel. Yes, the women who are the senior dons do tend to blend together, but the important ones are fully realized, and each one has her moment, her purpose for being there that comes clear at the appropriate time. Yes, there is no murder, but it is an insidious (and probably more interesting) crime nonetheless, and becomes more so at the final reveal. Yes, there are a lot of allusions, quotes, etc., but this is a book about academia and about educated people, particularly educated women; all the quoting is there for a reason.
And there are so many things to love about this book. First and foremost is Harriet and her constant internal (and sometimes external) monologues. Harriet's process as she writes a detective novel inside a detective novel, working out her own feelings through her character. All the conversations, the wonderful dialogue, the rich discussion that ranges over the purpose of women, whether women can have both an intellectual life and an emotional life, the ethics of the academic, the role of women in academia--and isn't it distressing that we are still arguing these things today, 80 years later? The exquisite, loving portrayal of Oxford, and along with that, capturing that sense of nostalgia for our college years that many of us have also felt, and the concurrent recognition that academia can be a retreat from the challenges of the "real world."
And of course, the romance. A review wouldn't be complete without mentioning that. Harriet and Peter's developing relationship is thrilling, maddening, and ultimately so rewarding. That final scene, with the final proposal--even though it's in Latin, who wouldn't feel their heart melt?
The title refers to a meeting, or reunion, of a college's former members. The book opens with Harriet attending such a reunion. It also is an allusion to Shakespeare: "Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me / All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more / Let's mock the midnight bell." (Antony and Cleopatra)
Rereading the classics I read in childhood (2014).
I am sure I first read this, along with most of the Lord Peter Wimsey
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series, during my mystery-reading phase as a pre-teen and teenager, and I am amazed at myself. Fully 90% of the text must have gone right over my head at that point. Conversations about the purpose of women, detailed descriptions of college life in the 1930s (mingled with a bit of history), literary allusions, and quotes in French, Latin, even Greek (I think)--I must have cheerfully ignored it all and concentrated on the mystery. Even rereading it again so many years later, a lot of it still goes over my head, and my admiration of Dorothy L. Sayers as an educated woman, a gifted writer, and someone who was clearly much smarter than me grows. (I try not to resent her for it.) Perhaps I'll read the annotated version next time.During this read, I kept looking for things to criticize, but then I realized that I was only searching for nitpicks in what is almost a perfect novel. Yes, the women who are the senior dons do tend to blend together, but the important ones are fully realized, and each one has her moment, her purpose for being there that comes clear at the appropriate time. Yes, there is no murder, but it is an insidious (and probably more interesting) crime nonetheless, and becomes more so at the final reveal. Yes, there are a lot of allusions, quotes, etc., but this is a book about academia and about educated people, particularly educated women; all the quoting is there for a reason.
And there are so many things to love about this book. First and foremost is Harriet and her constant internal (and sometimes external) monologues. Harriet's process as she writes a detective novel inside a detective novel, working out her own feelings through her character. All the conversations, the wonderful dialogue, the rich discussion that ranges over the purpose of women, whether women can have both an intellectual life and an emotional life, the ethics of the academic, the role of women in academia--and isn't it distressing that we are still arguing these things today, 80 years later? The exquisite, loving portrayal of Oxford, and along with that, capturing that sense of nostalgia for our college years that many of us have also felt, and the concurrent recognition that academia can be a retreat from the challenges of the "real world."
And of course, the romance. A review wouldn't be complete without mentioning that. Harriet and Peter's developing relationship is thrilling, maddening, and ultimately so rewarding. That final scene, with the final proposal--even though it's in Latin, who wouldn't feel their heart melt?
The title refers to a meeting, or reunion, of a college's former members. The book opens with Harriet attending such a reunion. It also is an allusion to Shakespeare: "Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me / All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more / Let's mock the midnight bell." (Antony and Cleopatra)
Rereading the classics I read in childhood (2014).
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
This was the first book I ever read by Sayers. Having read it for the second time after reading previous Wimsey novels such as the first, Whose Body and another featuring Harriet Vane, Have His Carcase as well as another without her Murder Must Advertise, I only appreciate this one the more. This
Vane's a mystery writer herself, and at one point in this book Wimsey challenges her to delve deeper into her characters, and that she can do better than just writing puzzle pieces. That made me smile the second time reading through, and after reading other Wimsey books, because I do think this is both what separates this book from books earlier in the series, and say even the best of Agatha Christie. Purely as a mystery, I find this the most satisfying Sayers I've read--it kept me guessing to the end, it wrapped up the strange goings on at an Oxford women's college very neatly, and it didn't feel at all contrived or too clever.
But it also was a lot more than a mystery. I loved the picture of Oxford in the mid-1930s. It was fascinating to read in a book published in 1936 all the hints of the war to come in references to Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy. It was amusing to hear the dons describe the generation of students in terms reminiscent discussing students of say the 1960s or today--rowdy, undisciplined, wild. The more things change... There was a feminist theme evident in Have His Carcass, but I'd say the entire theme of men, women and their relations is even more to the fore in Gaudy Night and I loved the way Sayers played with that. The novel has a richness and complexity befitting literature, and indeed even on second read I felt I hadn't peeled all layers and certainly haven't caught all the different literary and classic allusions. Wimsey is at his most appealing here, and I'd put his conversation at the end with Harriet high up in my personal list of favorite literary romantic scenes--all the more for how it fits the themes throughout the novel. Here's one bit of it I particularly loved:
"Peter--what did you mean when you said that anybody could have the harmony if they would leave us the counterpoint?"
"Why," said he, shaking his head, "that I like my music polyphonic. If you think I meant anything else, you know what I meant."
"Polyphonic music takes a lot of playing. You've got to be more than a fiddler. It needs a musician"
"In this case, two fiddlers--both musicians."
"I'm not much of a musician, Peter."
"As they used to say in my youth: 'All girls should learn a little music--enough to play a simple accompaniment.' I admit that Bach isn't a matter of an autocratic virtuoso and a meek accompanist. But do you want to be either? Here's a gentleman coming to sing a group of ballads. Pray silence for the soloist. But let him be soon over, that we may hear the great striding fugue again."
I loved that idea of a marriage of true minds--neither submitting themselves to simply accompany another life, but both playing different lines of melody that together make for complex and rich music. I finished the book wanting to cry "Bravo!"
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is the third book with Harriet Vane, Lord Peter Wimsey's romantic interest, and indeed Gaudy Night is more centered on her, with Wimsey, although often on her mind, not appearing until over half-way through the book. Vane's a mystery writer herself, and at one point in this book Wimsey challenges her to delve deeper into her characters, and that she can do better than just writing puzzle pieces. That made me smile the second time reading through, and after reading other Wimsey books, because I do think this is both what separates this book from books earlier in the series, and say even the best of Agatha Christie. Purely as a mystery, I find this the most satisfying Sayers I've read--it kept me guessing to the end, it wrapped up the strange goings on at an Oxford women's college very neatly, and it didn't feel at all contrived or too clever.
But it also was a lot more than a mystery. I loved the picture of Oxford in the mid-1930s. It was fascinating to read in a book published in 1936 all the hints of the war to come in references to Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy. It was amusing to hear the dons describe the generation of students in terms reminiscent discussing students of say the 1960s or today--rowdy, undisciplined, wild. The more things change... There was a feminist theme evident in Have His Carcass, but I'd say the entire theme of men, women and their relations is even more to the fore in Gaudy Night and I loved the way Sayers played with that. The novel has a richness and complexity befitting literature, and indeed even on second read I felt I hadn't peeled all layers and certainly haven't caught all the different literary and classic allusions. Wimsey is at his most appealing here, and I'd put his conversation at the end with Harriet high up in my personal list of favorite literary romantic scenes--all the more for how it fits the themes throughout the novel. Here's one bit of it I particularly loved:
"Peter--what did you mean when you said that anybody could have the harmony if they would leave us the counterpoint?"
"Why," said he, shaking his head, "that I like my music polyphonic. If you think I meant anything else, you know what I meant."
"Polyphonic music takes a lot of playing. You've got to be more than a fiddler. It needs a musician"
"In this case, two fiddlers--both musicians."
"I'm not much of a musician, Peter."
"As they used to say in my youth: 'All girls should learn a little music--enough to play a simple accompaniment.' I admit that Bach isn't a matter of an autocratic virtuoso and a meek accompanist. But do you want to be either? Here's a gentleman coming to sing a group of ballads. Pray silence for the soloist. But let him be soon over, that we may hear the great striding fugue again."
I loved that idea of a marriage of true minds--neither submitting themselves to simply accompany another life, but both playing different lines of melody that together make for complex and rich music. I finished the book wanting to cry "Bravo!"
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LibraryThing member iayork
A wonderful journey back to the Oxford of 1935.: About her book "Gaudy Night," Dorothy L. Sayers had this to say:
"It would be idle to deny that the city and University of Oxford (in aeternum floreant) do actually exist...." But, "Shrewsbury College, with its dons, students and scouts, is entirely
That passage will give you a feeling for Sayers' rather grand, even lofty (by detective story standards, anyway) prose style, as well as the tongue-in-cheek, in-your-eye amusement that lurks behind her formal persona.
When I first encountered Sayers and fell into a binge of reading her works, I was a teenager. With the breezy assurance of that age, I confidently ranked "Gaudy Night" as her feeblest work and "The Nine Tailors"--or maybe "Murder Must Advertise" as her best. If anyone at the time had asked me why I had done so, I would have pointed out that the mystery element was only a strand among many in "Gaudy Night," and far from the most important one. Moreover, I'd have said, it's a Lord Peter Wimsey novel and Wimsey doesn't even turn up until Chapter IV, after which he promptly disappears for a couple of hundred pages.
And yet, over the years when, for whatever reason, one of these books came to mind, I might think, "Murder Must Advertise," yes, very clever, Lord Peter writing ad copy and all that, or "The Nine Tailors," yes, very clever, those bells and all that. But for "Gaudy Night," my thoughts would more likely take this sort of turn: that Harriet Vane has some very odd ideas and notions. We certainly are beyond that sort of thing today--but I know some people who share most or all of those very some ideas and notions. They are walking anachronisms and yet, here they are, unquestionably my contemporaries. On some days, I even find myself agreeing with her and concluding that the lunatics have taken over our Twenty-first Century asylum.
Or consider Harriet Vane as a fictional character--amusing, humorless, witty, ponderous, brilliant, too often plodding Harriet. She is, of course, Dorothy L. Sayers (in every aspect that Sayers, herself, would regard as significant), pinned on the pages of the book like some strange sort of moth, a speciment preserved and displayed for the examination of the ages.
I recently encountered a 1944, wartime edition of "Gaudy Night" in a bookshop window. On its copyright page, it proudly bore the motto, "Books are weapons in the war of ideas." The book was published in an era of tight paper rationing and extreme austerity, but what a wonderfully sensuous volume it was with its thick, creamy paper, exquisite printing, wide margins and excellent commercial binding in dark blue book cloth. I snapped it up (how could I not?), and read it that evening. It was, I suppose, my fifth or sixth journey through the book.
I am no longer a teenager (alas), and I no longer consider "Gaudy Night" to be Sayers' feeblest work. It might very well be her best: better than "Murder Must Advertise," better than "The Nine Tailors" and certainly much better than the workmanlike (but no more) translation of Dante for which she abandoned her true literary vocation in her final years.
Some mystery fans downgrade "Gaudy Night" because it is a weak mystery novel. A couple of such fans are to be found right here among the Amazon reviewers of the book. They are quite right. It is a weak mystery novel. It is, in fact, just a novel, but a very good one.
The true peers of "Gaudy Night" are not such classic mysteries as Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" or Marsh's "A Man Lay Dying," but English academic novels, the likes of Amis' "Lucky Jim" or Snow's "The Masters." If the literary arena is widened to include plays, then "Gaudy Night" shares space with "The Browning Version" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
Here is Dorothy L. Sayers again, this time as Sayers the novelist:
"Harriet Vane sat at her writing-table and stared out into Mecklenburg Square.... A letter lay open on the blotting-pad before her, but its image had faded from her mind to make way for another picture. She saw a stone quadrangle, built by a modern architect in a style neither new or old, stretching out reconciling hands to past and present. Folded within its walls lay a trim grass plot, with flower-beds splashed at the angles, and surrounded by a stone plinth. Behind the level roofs of Cotswold slate rose the brick chimneys of an older and less formal pile of buildings--a quadrangle also of a kind, but still keeping a domestic remembrance of the original Victorian dwelling-houses that had sheltered the first shy students of Shrewsbury College....
"Memory peopled the quad with moving figures. Students sauntering in pairs. Students dashing to lectures, their gowns hitched hurriedly over light summer frocks, the wind jerking their flat caps into the absurd likeness of so many jesters' coxcombs. Bicycles stacked in the porters' lodge, their carriers piled with books and gowns twisted about their handle-bars. A grizzled woman don crossing the turf with vague eyes.... Tall spikes of delphiniums against the grey, quiveringly blue like flames. The college cat, preoccupied and remote, stalking with tail erect in the direction of the buttery."
Five stars (with flower-beds splashed at the angles, of course.)
"It would be idle to deny that the city and University of Oxford (in aeternum floreant) do actually exist...." But, "Shrewsbury College, with its dons, students and scouts, is entirely
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imaginary; nor are the distressing events described as taking place within its wall founded upon any events that have ever occurred anywhere. Detective-story writers are obliged by their disagreeable profession to invent startling and unpleasant incidents and people, and are (I presume) at liberty to imagine what might happen if such incidents and people were to intrude upon the life of an innocent and well-ordered community.... Certain apologies are, however, due from me: first to the University of Oxford, for having presented it ... with a college of 150 women students, in excess of the limit ordained by statute. Next, and with deep humility, to Balliol College--not only for having saddled it with so wayward an alumnus as Peter Wimsey, but also for my monstrous impertinence in having erected Shrewsbury College upon its spacious and sacred cricket-ground." That passage will give you a feeling for Sayers' rather grand, even lofty (by detective story standards, anyway) prose style, as well as the tongue-in-cheek, in-your-eye amusement that lurks behind her formal persona.
When I first encountered Sayers and fell into a binge of reading her works, I was a teenager. With the breezy assurance of that age, I confidently ranked "Gaudy Night" as her feeblest work and "The Nine Tailors"--or maybe "Murder Must Advertise" as her best. If anyone at the time had asked me why I had done so, I would have pointed out that the mystery element was only a strand among many in "Gaudy Night," and far from the most important one. Moreover, I'd have said, it's a Lord Peter Wimsey novel and Wimsey doesn't even turn up until Chapter IV, after which he promptly disappears for a couple of hundred pages.
And yet, over the years when, for whatever reason, one of these books came to mind, I might think, "Murder Must Advertise," yes, very clever, Lord Peter writing ad copy and all that, or "The Nine Tailors," yes, very clever, those bells and all that. But for "Gaudy Night," my thoughts would more likely take this sort of turn: that Harriet Vane has some very odd ideas and notions. We certainly are beyond that sort of thing today--but I know some people who share most or all of those very some ideas and notions. They are walking anachronisms and yet, here they are, unquestionably my contemporaries. On some days, I even find myself agreeing with her and concluding that the lunatics have taken over our Twenty-first Century asylum.
Or consider Harriet Vane as a fictional character--amusing, humorless, witty, ponderous, brilliant, too often plodding Harriet. She is, of course, Dorothy L. Sayers (in every aspect that Sayers, herself, would regard as significant), pinned on the pages of the book like some strange sort of moth, a speciment preserved and displayed for the examination of the ages.
I recently encountered a 1944, wartime edition of "Gaudy Night" in a bookshop window. On its copyright page, it proudly bore the motto, "Books are weapons in the war of ideas." The book was published in an era of tight paper rationing and extreme austerity, but what a wonderfully sensuous volume it was with its thick, creamy paper, exquisite printing, wide margins and excellent commercial binding in dark blue book cloth. I snapped it up (how could I not?), and read it that evening. It was, I suppose, my fifth or sixth journey through the book.
I am no longer a teenager (alas), and I no longer consider "Gaudy Night" to be Sayers' feeblest work. It might very well be her best: better than "Murder Must Advertise," better than "The Nine Tailors" and certainly much better than the workmanlike (but no more) translation of Dante for which she abandoned her true literary vocation in her final years.
Some mystery fans downgrade "Gaudy Night" because it is a weak mystery novel. A couple of such fans are to be found right here among the Amazon reviewers of the book. They are quite right. It is a weak mystery novel. It is, in fact, just a novel, but a very good one.
The true peers of "Gaudy Night" are not such classic mysteries as Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" or Marsh's "A Man Lay Dying," but English academic novels, the likes of Amis' "Lucky Jim" or Snow's "The Masters." If the literary arena is widened to include plays, then "Gaudy Night" shares space with "The Browning Version" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
Here is Dorothy L. Sayers again, this time as Sayers the novelist:
"Harriet Vane sat at her writing-table and stared out into Mecklenburg Square.... A letter lay open on the blotting-pad before her, but its image had faded from her mind to make way for another picture. She saw a stone quadrangle, built by a modern architect in a style neither new or old, stretching out reconciling hands to past and present. Folded within its walls lay a trim grass plot, with flower-beds splashed at the angles, and surrounded by a stone plinth. Behind the level roofs of Cotswold slate rose the brick chimneys of an older and less formal pile of buildings--a quadrangle also of a kind, but still keeping a domestic remembrance of the original Victorian dwelling-houses that had sheltered the first shy students of Shrewsbury College....
"Memory peopled the quad with moving figures. Students sauntering in pairs. Students dashing to lectures, their gowns hitched hurriedly over light summer frocks, the wind jerking their flat caps into the absurd likeness of so many jesters' coxcombs. Bicycles stacked in the porters' lodge, their carriers piled with books and gowns twisted about their handle-bars. A grizzled woman don crossing the turf with vague eyes.... Tall spikes of delphiniums against the grey, quiveringly blue like flames. The college cat, preoccupied and remote, stalking with tail erect in the direction of the buttery."
Five stars (with flower-beds splashed at the angles, of course.)
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LibraryThing member MrsLee
A much acclaimed favorite among Sayers fans, a good mystery, story and romance. I love it, though I also love several of her other Lord Peter novels as well.
This book is from Harriet Vane's perspective, for the most part. She is still trying to cope with the devastating events in her life, and with
This book is from Harriet Vane's perspective, for the most part. She is still trying to cope with the devastating events in her life, and with
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that persistent man who wishes to marry her. In the midst of this turmoil, she is thrown into a different sort. Her beloved college, Shrewsbury is having a Gaudy. Attending with one of her old classmates, Harriet's feelings are torn between the comfort and security of Oxford and the feeling that one can never go back. She feels safe here, but is she? Someone is causing mischief at the college. Not just harmless pranks, but twisted, cruel things. Evil is intended, but for whom? Harriet is called upon for her experience and wisdom to help sort out the trouble and as she works at the knot she worries about her own intentions and motives. When Lord Peter arrives in the story, fireworks begin, not only for them, but for the college as well. Show Less
LibraryThing member danibrecher
From a very early age, I can remember my grandmother staying up late into the night, reading Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. Much to my shame, it has taken me until now to read one, but once I did, I found myself reading until ungodly hours as well.
Gaudy Night is the third mystery featuring Lord Peter
Unlike most mystery novels, this one doesn't involve a murder (or, at least, a successful one). Instead, the mystery surrounds the identity of a "Poison Pen," who sends threatening letters to the female dons of the college and generally wreaks destruction around the quadrangles. Harriet takes on the case after she finds herself targeted during a reunion weekend (the titular Gaudy Night), staying in the college for the following year under the pretense of working on a piece on La Fanu. Only when things turn violent does Harriet call upon the debonair Lord Peter to help investigate the crimes.
The novel is infused with a wonderfully strong sense of place, making the reader feel almost as if they know the Shrewsbury campus and its inhabitants. Set pieces with Harriet punting on the river or dining with the dons in the Hall enchant. Sayers has a wonderful eye for detail and has fully imagined this all-female college (which, in the introduction, she charmingly apologizes for constructing on the Balliol fields).
To be fair, the mystery isn't the most exciting of all time, but things really perk up when Lord Peter arrives with his bon mots and sets off a more violent set of crimes. In some ways, Gaudy Night really succeeds more as a character study of the female dons and their students, who live in a world where they must decide between a intellectual career and a family. This sort of difficult choice remains familiar to career women today, and it is interesting to note how little things have changed in the last 75 years in this regard.
There are many wonderful things to be discovered in Gaudy Night, from memorable characters like Lord Peter's overly privileged nephew Saint-George to the most amazingly egalitarian proposal scene of all time (it involves Harriet and Peter speaking Latin to each other).
One word to the wise: Sayers uses the names of the female dons interchangeably with their titles, which can get awfully confusing. I found it helpful to make a list to keep track of who's who.
Gaudy Night is the third mystery featuring Lord Peter
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Wimsey and his girlfriend, the mystery writer Harriet Vane, but it is entirely possible to read without knowledge of the other books. The large majority of the novel follows Harriet as she attempts to solve a mystery at her alma mater, Shrewsbury College in Oxford. Unlike most mystery novels, this one doesn't involve a murder (or, at least, a successful one). Instead, the mystery surrounds the identity of a "Poison Pen," who sends threatening letters to the female dons of the college and generally wreaks destruction around the quadrangles. Harriet takes on the case after she finds herself targeted during a reunion weekend (the titular Gaudy Night), staying in the college for the following year under the pretense of working on a piece on La Fanu. Only when things turn violent does Harriet call upon the debonair Lord Peter to help investigate the crimes.
The novel is infused with a wonderfully strong sense of place, making the reader feel almost as if they know the Shrewsbury campus and its inhabitants. Set pieces with Harriet punting on the river or dining with the dons in the Hall enchant. Sayers has a wonderful eye for detail and has fully imagined this all-female college (which, in the introduction, she charmingly apologizes for constructing on the Balliol fields).
To be fair, the mystery isn't the most exciting of all time, but things really perk up when Lord Peter arrives with his bon mots and sets off a more violent set of crimes. In some ways, Gaudy Night really succeeds more as a character study of the female dons and their students, who live in a world where they must decide between a intellectual career and a family. This sort of difficult choice remains familiar to career women today, and it is interesting to note how little things have changed in the last 75 years in this regard.
There are many wonderful things to be discovered in Gaudy Night, from memorable characters like Lord Peter's overly privileged nephew Saint-George to the most amazingly egalitarian proposal scene of all time (it involves Harriet and Peter speaking Latin to each other).
One word to the wise: Sayers uses the names of the female dons interchangeably with their titles, which can get awfully confusing. I found it helpful to make a list to keep track of who's who.
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LibraryThing member netedt
Rather self-indulgent story. Sayers obviously loved Oxford and the scholastic life. Lots of local references and untranslated 'bon mots'. Readers who do not share her passions are in for a slow read. The book has more to do with the heart versus head tension of the heroine, Harriet, than with any
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detective work. Again, unless you already know and care about the characters involved this makes for a long, slow slog. Show Less
LibraryThing member jsburbidge
A classic, probably one of the ten classic detective novels.
It manages this because of, not despite, its departure from a number of the standard tropes of the genre. No murder occurs; for much of the book the detective is absent; it includes a direct critique of the standard jigsaw-puzzle type of
It manages this because of, not despite, its departure from a number of the standard tropes of the genre. No murder occurs; for much of the book the detective is absent; it includes a direct critique of the standard jigsaw-puzzle type of
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detective story and presents itself as representing an alternative; it raises more abstract and intractable problems related to the events of the novel and has the characters discuss them but leave them finally open for the reader. Characterization is deft and builds on the prior novels in the series. On top of this, it captures a time and a place which are now nostalgically lost (and were visibly going to be lost: like Brideshead Revisited, although earlier, this is written under the explicit shadow of coming war (building in that perspective via Peter's diplomatic tasks) and ongoing social change). Show Less
LibraryThing member abbottthomas
This multi-layered novel may easily disappoint the reader expecting the Lord Peter Wimsey by-line to produce a bloodied corpse. It is written in the literary style which attracted, unjustifiably in my view, some strong criticism when the book first appeared: Sayers was accused of pretentiousness. I
There is a mystery, if lower key than usual in the Wimsey canon. An Oxford ladies’ college, the alma mater of Harriet Vane, is beset by a writer of poison pen letters and some nocturnal vandalism. At first the worst effects of this are the insecurity engendered in the members of the Senior Common Room (SCR), most of whom are suspects, and the risk to the outside reputation of the College. As the story progresses, things become more sinister and physically threatening, and one is glad that Peter Wimsey had arrived on the scene.
Since leaving Oxford after her degree, Harriet had lived an emancipated metropolitan life but she is close enough to the pre-War (WW1) attitudes to understand the difficulties that women still faced in the academic world and particularly how professional women found it hard to reconcile their work with the demands of marriage and child-rearing. These feminist issues are much discussed but have particular relevance for Harriet in respect of her equivocal feelings for Lord Peter. He has been proposing to her regularly since they first met and she has regularly refused him, not for want of liking, affection and love, but because she fears a subservient role as his wife hampered by her gratitude to him for rescuing her from the gallows. Her intellectual life is important; not for her is the current German view of a woman’s place – “Kinde, Kuche, Kircher.”
Another topic of conversation in the SCR is intellectual honesty in academic life. The idea that truth, regardless of the consequences, is of overwhelming importance in research is held by most of the Fellows (and turns out to be central to the mystery). It is also a shared principle of Harriet and Peter and both experience some of the accompanying pain as they resolve their relationship.
So, a mystery, feminism, academic rigour and a love story – in fact two love stories, for Harriet is enamoured of Oxford as well as Lord Peter. The glowing descriptions of the city and of University life remained quite recognisable in the Oxford of the 1960s and, for all I know, still do, despite cleaner stone, more traffic management and far more girls.
This book is near the end of the Lord Peter Wimsey canon but can perfectly well be read before the earlier volumes – necessary background is provided and there are no spoilers.
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think she is just a rather better writer than most of her contemporaries in the genre.There is a mystery, if lower key than usual in the Wimsey canon. An Oxford ladies’ college, the alma mater of Harriet Vane, is beset by a writer of poison pen letters and some nocturnal vandalism. At first the worst effects of this are the insecurity engendered in the members of the Senior Common Room (SCR), most of whom are suspects, and the risk to the outside reputation of the College. As the story progresses, things become more sinister and physically threatening, and one is glad that Peter Wimsey had arrived on the scene.
Since leaving Oxford after her degree, Harriet had lived an emancipated metropolitan life but she is close enough to the pre-War (WW1) attitudes to understand the difficulties that women still faced in the academic world and particularly how professional women found it hard to reconcile their work with the demands of marriage and child-rearing. These feminist issues are much discussed but have particular relevance for Harriet in respect of her equivocal feelings for Lord Peter. He has been proposing to her regularly since they first met and she has regularly refused him, not for want of liking, affection and love, but because she fears a subservient role as his wife hampered by her gratitude to him for rescuing her from the gallows. Her intellectual life is important; not for her is the current German view of a woman’s place – “Kinde, Kuche, Kircher.”
Another topic of conversation in the SCR is intellectual honesty in academic life. The idea that truth, regardless of the consequences, is of overwhelming importance in research is held by most of the Fellows (and turns out to be central to the mystery). It is also a shared principle of Harriet and Peter and both experience some of the accompanying pain as they resolve their relationship.
So, a mystery, feminism, academic rigour and a love story – in fact two love stories, for Harriet is enamoured of Oxford as well as Lord Peter. The glowing descriptions of the city and of University life remained quite recognisable in the Oxford of the 1960s and, for all I know, still do, despite cleaner stone, more traffic management and far more girls.
This book is near the end of the Lord Peter Wimsey canon but can perfectly well be read before the earlier volumes – necessary background is provided and there are no spoilers.
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LibraryThing member dknippling
A reread.
One of my favorite love stories, even if most of the romance isn't in this book, but others. One of the things I like about romantic fiction, wherever it crops up, is that it often starts out with the main character thinking that love is on one hand, and some other important value is on
Here it is Harriet's independence and self-respect.
I know that some Whimsey fans dislike her or think her a Mary-Sue character, representing the author, but I think it works well here.
The mystery? Well, I'm less fond of that; one of those "the lady doth protest too much" things, where the author said that it must not be so too many times, so it wasn't so much a case of solving the mystery as looking at the writerly tricks and seeing where they must lead.
One of my favorite love stories, even if most of the romance isn't in this book, but others. One of the things I like about romantic fiction, wherever it crops up, is that it often starts out with the main character thinking that love is on one hand, and some other important value is on
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the other, and that in order to really commit to being in love, you have to give up this other thing. Then, of course, the main character comes to realize that no, that wasn't what was being asked (well, in the case of a book that doesn't end tragically; tragic romances are different), that love and this other thing don't conflict.Here it is Harriet's independence and self-respect.
I know that some Whimsey fans dislike her or think her a Mary-Sue character, representing the author, but I think it works well here.
The mystery? Well, I'm less fond of that; one of those "the lady doth protest too much" things, where the author said that it must not be so too many times, so it wasn't so much a case of solving the mystery as looking at the writerly tricks and seeing where they must lead.
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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
Gaudy Night is the twelfth novel in Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey mystery series. It is also the third book to feature Harriet Vane. Harriet has returned to the all-female Shrewsbury College, Oxford to attend the annual Gaudy celebrations, but things take a rather sombre turn when someone
Over and above the mystery, this was the book where Harriet finally realizes that she is in love with Peter Wimsey. He has been proposing to her on a regular basis but now she finally is able to accept. They make an interesting couple, their relationship is built on friendship, equality and mutual respect and I am looking forward to the next few books in the series. While Shrewsbury College is entirely fictional, the author’s love and knowledge of Oxford creates a wonderful academic atmosphere that works well with the subject matter.
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begins a series of malicious acts that include obscene graffiti, poison-pen letters and vandalism. Harriet eventually asks her friend and suitor, Wimsey to help her investigate.Over and above the mystery, this was the book where Harriet finally realizes that she is in love with Peter Wimsey. He has been proposing to her on a regular basis but now she finally is able to accept. They make an interesting couple, their relationship is built on friendship, equality and mutual respect and I am looking forward to the next few books in the series. While Shrewsbury College is entirely fictional, the author’s love and knowledge of Oxford creates a wonderful academic atmosphere that works well with the subject matter.
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LibraryThing member Sammelsurium
Dorothy Sayers really outdid herself with this one. In spite of the fact that Peter Wimsey is off in Europe for most of Gaudy Night, this book might give use more insight into his character than any other. Harriet Vane is a fantastic narrator. Let's speak no more on her feelings about Peter--her
Most of all, I loved coming to understand Harriet's complex feelings about marriage. The issue of marriage is everywhere in this book. She thinks about marriage a lot on the page, and we see her feelings about it change day by day--but it's much more than that making it feeling real. Harriet's feelings also make a lot of sense in consideration of her past relationships and the murder trial. And her feelings are reflected in how she responds to the women she meets throughout the books, as she notes how their relationships have changed them, or haven't, and as she responds to their perspectives on marriage and men. And of course, the issues of marriage and women's education--which are closely connected--are closely tied to the core conflict of the book. The mystery may not be the strongest one ever written, but I very much felt the stress that Harriet Vane does in solving it--because she makes you understand why the women's college matters. Harriet Vane really makes this book. She was a unique woman in fiction in 1935, and even now she still feels fresh and modern. I wrote this review after my second reading, and it definitely won't be my last.
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perspective on women and education is fascinating enough. The women's college in interwar Oxford rendered here is one of the most vibrant and interesting settings I've ever read. The faculty and students of the school are highly varied and remarkable, but even the school buildings are objects of fascination in their own right here. I could tell how many varied and conflicting feelings Harriet has about Oxford, and by the end of the book I was feeling them too.Most of all, I loved coming to understand Harriet's complex feelings about marriage. The issue of marriage is everywhere in this book. She thinks about marriage a lot on the page, and we see her feelings about it change day by day--but it's much more than that making it feeling real. Harriet's feelings also make a lot of sense in consideration of her past relationships and the murder trial. And her feelings are reflected in how she responds to the women she meets throughout the books, as she notes how their relationships have changed them, or haven't, and as she responds to their perspectives on marriage and men. And of course, the issues of marriage and women's education--which are closely connected--are closely tied to the core conflict of the book. The mystery may not be the strongest one ever written, but I very much felt the stress that Harriet Vane does in solving it--because she makes you understand why the women's college matters. Harriet Vane really makes this book. She was a unique woman in fiction in 1935, and even now she still feels fresh and modern. I wrote this review after my second reading, and it definitely won't be my last.
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LibraryThing member dbsovereign
Not so much a mystery as a long dialogue, this book is very special book about a relationship and about relationships. An exploration of what constitutes an equal relationship and a preview of what our modern day sensibility has come to say about women's liberation. A story within the mystery, a
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unique mystery novel. "To suppress a fact is to publish a falsehood." To deny an emotion is to betray oneself. An engaging, humor-filled story that nevertheless explores serious themes. Show Less
LibraryThing member KimMR
I love this novel. The mystery is well-done, but other issues take precedence. The relationship between Peter and Harriet, the role of women, the conflict between the intellectual and the emotional life are all explored with skill and passion. I have read Gaudy Night a number of times over the
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years and I have appreciated it more with each reading. This is the book (along with Jude the Obscure!!) which first made me want to visit Oxford and which never fails to make me wish that I had attended university there! Show Less
LibraryThing member JohnGray
The best of the Wimsey canon (in my opinion, of course!).
LibraryThing member rdm666
Perhaps my favorite mystery, surpassing anything else written in her times. It takes her Sherlock Holmes-caricature hero and makes him almost human, all the while revealing, perhaps, the drives that push her to deepen her later mysteries. Plus she portrays the life of the mind [in her time] in a
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very penetrating way. Amazing to anyone who isn't addicted to today's preference for gore and frenetic activity in mysteries. Show Less
LibraryThing member Figgles
My favourite Dorothy Sayers, one of my favourite books of all time. Each rereading I see something new. Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane resolve their differences against a backdrop of literature and learning and with the architecture and soul of Oxford University as a third major character. A
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treatise on love and integrity wrapped up in a mystery novel! Show Less
LibraryThing member Kaethe
Wimsey makes an appearance, but this is definitely Harriet Vane's story. She's gone to see some old classmates and attend the opening of a new building in her college at Oxford, fully prepared to have a difficult time as the graduate-who-was-on-trial-for-murder, and a notoriously "fallen" woman
If I were grading just on the mystery I wouldn't give it more than a three, but Sayers, among the first woman to receive an Oxford degree, really knows what she's writing about, and as a bit of social history this earns a 10 out of 5.
personal copy
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who's lover was murdered. Almost a hundred years later I find it hard to imagine what Vane would have been up against, thankfully, Sayers takes pains to tell the reader. The whole book is an examination as to whether it is worthwhile to educate women, whether they should remain celibate, whether it is possible for them to have careers and husbands (let alone children) without slighting either, whether there can be such a thing as a marriage of equals. There's rather too much of Freudian interpretation on personal repression, and the harm of a college full of women with pent-up passion, but only because the pendulum has swung the other way. There's also a fair amount on the business of writing and publishing, both for the bestseller and the academic markets, which hasn't changed much, really.If I were grading just on the mystery I wouldn't give it more than a three, but Sayers, among the first woman to receive an Oxford degree, really knows what she's writing about, and as a bit of social history this earns a 10 out of 5.
personal copy
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LibraryThing member nrclibn
A bit too much immersion in upper-class British academe for my tastes. After slogging through all the Latin and the jargon, I was feeling some class/education based resentment and irritation, just like the guilty party in the book.
LibraryThing member dsc73277
Gaudy Night, published in 1935, is billed as a Lord Peter Wimsey novel, but he barely makes an appearance in the first couple of hundred pages. His friend Harriet Vane is really the central character. In her early thirties, she returns to her old Oxford college for a celebration and ends up staying
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to investigate a mysterious series of events that start with poison pen-letters and become more destructive. An entertaining mystery with some interesting reflections on the academic life and whether it is of value, especially when compared with raising a family or manual labour. Show Less
LibraryThing member lilithcat
The very best of the Wimsey books! When a nasty, anonymous note is slipped into the sleeve of Harriet Vane's gown when she attends the Shrewsbury College Gaudy, she thinks it is a reference to her personal history. But it soon turns out that the animus is directed at the College, and Vane is asked
Sayers' great strength as a mystery writer, particularly apparent in the Wimsey-Vane books, was her ability to write about relationships. The working out of Harriet and Peter's relationship is crucial to this book. It is not that the mystery is secondary; indeed, it is in the unraveling of that mystery that Harriet is able to confront her concerns about Peter and also learns more about him than in all the time she knew him.
But the crux of this book is the importance of intellectual honesty in the face of personal considerations, of the need to do work that matters to you. It is about women's struggle for a recognized place in the public realm, as well as the private.
There are wonderful by-ways here as well. Harriet's life as a writer, both of mysteries and scholarly works, is described in fine detail, with the addition of a humorous description of the 30's London literary scene. Oxford itself, both town and gown, is a character in the book. How lovingly it is drawn!
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to investigate. In the course of so doing, she begins to wonder if she should return to the scholarly life.Sayers' great strength as a mystery writer, particularly apparent in the Wimsey-Vane books, was her ability to write about relationships. The working out of Harriet and Peter's relationship is crucial to this book. It is not that the mystery is secondary; indeed, it is in the unraveling of that mystery that Harriet is able to confront her concerns about Peter and also learns more about him than in all the time she knew him.
But the crux of this book is the importance of intellectual honesty in the face of personal considerations, of the need to do work that matters to you. It is about women's struggle for a recognized place in the public realm, as well as the private.
There are wonderful by-ways here as well. Harriet's life as a writer, both of mysteries and scholarly works, is described in fine detail, with the addition of a humorous description of the 30's London literary scene. Oxford itself, both town and gown, is a character in the book. How lovingly it is drawn!
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LibraryThing member ManipledMutineer
I simply love this book; I have had it in my collection since I was a teenager and come back to it again and again. As a detective story, a story of unfolding love balanced against the life of the mind, and an evocation of pre-War Oxford, it has few peers
LibraryThing member Smiley
Great Vane/Wimsey mystery with an evocative Oxford setting. Near great read for a mystery. I did figure out the villian before the end though.
Does Wimsey have any flaws? Physical, emotional. intellectual? I didn't see many in the five Sayers books I've read so far.
Sayers can set her characters in
Does Wimsey have any flaws? Physical, emotional. intellectual? I didn't see many in the five Sayers books I've read so far.
Sayers can set her characters in
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convincing and complex surroundings. I'll probably read it again. Show Less
LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
I finished Gaudy Night and would have thought it would be my favorite Dorothy Sayers due to the subject matter: feminism with a touch of anti-Nazism; but it sure wasn't. I found it severely in need of editing and overly full of exposition. Perhaps in the '30's there was a need to go into detail
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about why a woman would choose not to marry, but I would have expected anyone as talented as Sayer to be able to work her ideas into the story without having to state them so bluntly. Show Less
Awards
Anthony Award (Nominee — 2000)
Julian Symons' 100 Best Crime Stories (1935 — 1935)
Language
Original publication date
1935
Local notes
Lord Peter, 12
DDC/MDS
| Fic Mystery Sayers |