“Gaudy Night”, by Dorothy L. Sayers

Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night. New York: Harper, 1960. Print.

This is the favourite book of a good friend, and I first read it in 2007, but I don’t seem to have recorded any thoughts on it at the time.  I think I borrowed a copy from our editor aunt and uncle in New York while visiting.

I love the feeling of being immersed in another time and place.  I’m not normally a mystery reader, and I don’t seek them out, but I do enjoy a well-written one.  In this novel Harriet Vane – already introduced in another book, although I didn’t know that on first reading – returns to her Oxford college for a kind of reunion weekend (hence the title).  Someone is distributing ‘poison pen’ letters and drawings, and causing general havoc.  Things become serious enough that Harriet consults with Lord Peter Wimsey, a recurring character in Sayers’ novels.

My minor complaint is that I sometimes found it hard to follow what was going on.  When the Dean, Warden, and Bursar are sometimes referred to by their titles and sometimes by their names, it’s as if there are three extra people (at least they weren’t normally referred to by first names as well!).  I think the entire first time I read the book, I never realized that SCR stood for ‘Senior Common Room’, meaning the people belonging to it as well as the room itself.  Oxford ways are a mystery to me in themselves, so there were inferences that were lost on me, but they didn’t hinder my enjoyment.  They might have hindered me from figuring out the mystery myself, but I never expect that I will since I’m not well-versed in mysteries.

The only other complaint I have is that to me, after two readings, it’s still firmly a “Harriet Vane” novel.  When a large part of the novel is taken up with discussions on whether women should attend colleges and put an academic career ahead of their personal life, it galls me to have the novel blazoned with “A Lord Peter Wimsey novel” at the top of the cover.  However, it was originally published in 1935, so I can’t be too hard on the novel on that account.

I suspect that with my poor memory, I can happily re-read and enjoy this book every four or five years for the rest of my life.  I have Strong Poison, the first Harriet Vane book, on hold at the library to enjoy some time in the future.