With Gaudy Night,
Dorothy L. Sayers turned a detective story into a serious novel. A
feminist ahead of her time, Sayers anticipated issues couples would
confront in our own day: meaningful work for each partner and love
based on equality, honesty, and friendship.
In nine previous novels starring the aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter
Wimsey, Sayers developed her detective from a foppish man about town
into a sensitive, serious man capable of great understanding and love
for a woman. The particular woman, Harriet Vane, is not one whose
qualities had been considered appropriate for a heroine. She
is
plain, practical, honest, self-supporting (a mystery writer),
independent, and intelligent. She also has had a lover, whom she was
accused of murdering. In the novel in which they meet, Strong Poison, Peter
proves Harriet's innocence and saves her life. The gratitude she owes
him is a debt that gets in the way of returning his love. Until Gaudy Night.
Sayers had to find a plot that would force Harriet to confront her
feelings about Peter and marriage. Gaudy
Night
intertwines the Wimsey-Vane relationship with a mystery; the resolution
of one is the resolution of the other. Returning to her alma mater,
Oxford's Shrewsbury College, for a "gaudy" (much like American
homecomings), Harriet observes that marriage has eroded the good minds
of most of her classmates; in contrast, the unmarried dons (professors)
are completely devoted to the life of the mind. But then a poison pen
disrupts the college, leaving notes that suggest one of the dons may be
acting out of sexual repression. The case is too close to Harriet's
heart- versus-mind dilemma for her to resolve it, so she calls in
Peter, who risks losing his suit with Harriet by exposing the villain.
If your first taste of Sayers is Gaudy
Night, you
may be disappointed in the early Wimsey books because the hero is not
as deep. However, Sayers created engaging characters and tight plots,
and there are many amusing scenes between Peter and his valet Bunter,
his titled family, and his policeman friend Charles Parker. Especially
recommended are The
Nine Tailors and Murder
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