d_sayers+critical+reviews

 =//GAUDY NIGHT//=

Except for the play, "Busman's Honeymoon', **Gaudy Night** was the final work Dorothy Sayers wrote about Lord Peter Wimsey. //Gaudy Night// was the culmination of 14 novels about this protagonist, although three-quarters of the book is built first around Lord Peter's intended, Harriet Vane.//Gaudy Night// doesn't refer to an evening a-splash with color in the dress or environment of the characters. The Gaudy is a term used for the reunion of Oxford scholars. According to Webster, a rather archaic meaning is an annual feast at British colleges. Leave it to the English to title an event with such an inappropriate name! Don't ask me why - the British seem to respect antiquity even more than many Far Eastern societies.

At first glance, the reader may be put off by being faced with unrelenting, solid paragraphs at the beginning of this book. However, Dorothy Sayers is nothing if not a scholar herself, and simply uses those paragraphs to introduce us to Harriet Vane, her main protagonist - allowing us insight on Harriet's psychological as well as mental and physical states. We find Harriet Vane is still avoiding marriage with Lord Peter Wimsey, although it's obvious that peer desires her above all other possible choices. Alone, Harriet attends the reunion at Shrewsbury College in Oxford (no such college actually exists) at the request of an old friend and fellow student. Shrewsbury College is an all-female college from which Harriet had graduated some time ago - having since made a name for herself in the field of crime writing.

Harriet discovers the friend (Mary Stokes) no longer has anything in common with herself - then Harriet is immediately swallowed up in some very unpleasant circumstances, entailing a rather rude drawing, thievery, and malicious mischief which escalates to actual destruction. The Dean of the College, Miss Martin, convinces Harriet to stay on under the guise of research, to uncover the person behind the destructive acts. Poison pen letters are regularly being shoved under don's doors, and suspicion continually points to one or another of the women professors.

During her investigations, which result in little more than a collection of letters and other obscene epithets, Harriet encounters two young men - one another student at Oxford, a Mr. Pomfret of Queen's College, and the other Lord Saint-George, Peter Wimsey's nephew. Neither are of much help in her perusal and search for the vicious instigator of upheaval at Shrewsbury. The terms at Oxford drag on, with little or no evidence available to Harriet about who the culprit might be, while the vandalism escalates. She finally attempts to contact Peter Wimsey himself, only to find he's been sent abroad.

Lord Peter Wimsey then suddenly appears on the street at Oxford, dressed in his gown and conversing with his own Fellows from All Souls and Balliol. The explanation for his appearance in Oxford has to do with certain police machinations, and goes right over Harriet's head. All she wants is for Peter to help her find the perpetrator at Shrewsbury College. Peter is willing enough, and goes off on his own explorations, attempting to find evidence for his own suspicions while simultaneously performing his regular job, and returning to court Harriet as inconspicuously as possible.

There is no murder in //Gaudy Night//, although an effigy is hung and Harriet almost strangled. Dorothy Sayers adroitly uses suspense instead by focusing on the possibilities rampant among the women dons. When Peter Wimsey at last uncovers the individual who caused all the mayhem, the reason is enough to cause sympathetic reaction among most of those present. //Gaudy Night// closes with the definite prospect of Harriet and Peter Wimsey being married; a suitably romantic ending after all the negative excitement!

Dorothy Sayers has left us an entertaining book in //Gaudy Night//. It's obvious that here Ms. Sayers has used her own educational background and acquaintance with Oxford to advantage. All of her previous Lord Peter Wimsey novels are well worth the read, regardless of how long ago they were written; but //Gaudy Night//, with its classical quotes (and the obvious scholarly knowledge of which Dorothy Sayers was so richly familiar) is a sample of this writer at the top of her form.

Curtis, Allen Paul. "Gaudy Night". __Who Dunnit.__ 9 May 2009. []

=Unnatural Death= 

his time the amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey gets a case because of a coincidence. He and his Scotland Yard friend Charles Parker are eating in a restaurant and talking about doctors and crimes. A doctor sitting in the next table overhears them and tells them about his own mystery case which he is convinced is a murder. Unfortunately, he couldn’t prove it.

The young doctor Carr tells the duo about his patient Miss Dawson. The old lady had been suffering from cancer but despite this she had been relatively strong and the doctor had expected her to live for quite some time. Instead, she had mysteriously died. The doctor had performed an autopsy on her but in vain. The unmarried old lady had lived together with her grand-niece, a nurse, and a couple of servants. The doctor suspected that the niece had somehow killed the old lady. She was so afraid of dying that she hadn’t wanted to make a will, although she did intend for her grand-niece to inherit her. The grand-nice Miss Mary Whittaker did inherit her so there doesn’t seem to be any reason for her to kill the old lady. So, who did it and why? Lord Peter takes an interest in the case and starts to investigate. Or actually he sends Miss Climpton to the town where the suspected murder occurred. Miss Climpton is a middle-aged woman whom Lord Peter has hired to question women who might not speak as readily to men. Miss Climpton has also the freedom to investigate people without having any official status so the people don’t know that she’s investigating them. So, the perfect intelligent gatherer!

So, she travels to the town and the two men start to investigate at their own ends. Miss Climpton sends her employer letters to tell about her progress while the plot thickens…

Unnatural Death seems to have more complicated plot than the previous Sayers books and it seem also a bit contrived although as entertaining as ever. Miss Climpton is a funny new character and I hope that she’s going to be a recurring character. She’s very chatty and friendly. When things start to clear up, it came to me as a complete surprise.

Mervi. "Dorothy Sayers: Unnatural Death". __Mervi's Book Reviews.__ 9 May 2009. []


 * GAUDY NIGHT-A KELSEA WAGNER REVIEW**

Dorothy Sayers has written a story that pits Harriet Vane against an unknown person who is threatening the alumni and current students at Vane's alma matter, Oxford. The story sets up an interesting backstory invoving Vane's past and her future with Lord Peter Wimsey. Vane, who was previously tried and aquitted for murder, is at first unwilling to go back to Oxford for her Gaudy Night. Ever since the tria, Vane has been recieving threatening poison pen letters (threatening letters sent from an unknown source). Because of these and her surrounding "fame", Vane is very reluctant to go back to Oxford. However, once she arrives, Vane finds that she feels right at home at Oxford. Among her old classmates, Vane rekindles her love for learning. She decides to stay at Oxford and help a professor do research. Her stay at Oxford is not a pleasant one though. Aside from the poison pen letters, an unknown person has been torturing the past and present students This unnamed fiend has been sending poison pen letters, vandalizing school property, and other acts to drive the students away from Oxford. To help solve the case, Vane's long time beau, Lord Peter Wimsey, arrives. His arrival causes Vane to reflect on her ideas of love, marriage, and a woman's role in society. Eventually, Vane comes to the conclusion that she can be with a man and an independant woman at the same time. While she was struggling with her inner self, the attacks on Oxford and its students have gotten worse. The story comes to its climax when Harriet is physically attacked. After this, Wimsey and Vane work double time to solve the mystery. In the end, they find the true harasser (I won't give away the ending) and find his/her tragic motivation for the crimes comitted. As a final concluding piece to the story, Wimsy propses to Vane, who happily accecpts.

Overall, I found "Gaudy NIght" to be a rather enjoyable book. While there was no murder in the story, it was still a rather interesting mystery. Vane was a strong female character who took control of the situation. I did not, however, enjoy the intrusion of Lord Peter Wimsey. While the love story between himself and Vane added flavor to the story, his charcter was not needed to solve the mystery. The character that committed the crimes was almost completely unforseeable. This fact made the story both shocking and slightly annoying. Overall, I found "Gaudy Night" to be full of twists and turns that kept me guessing to the end.

In Sayer's 1927 novel, Lord Peter Wimsey explores the death of an elderly woman who had supposedly died of cancer. Her doctor hears Wimsey speaking one day and requests that he look into a patient's death that occured three years ago. As Wimsey investigates, he learns that the patient, Ms. Agatha Dawson, had a great-niece, Ms. Mary Whittaker, who would benefit from her great-aunt's death. The investegation takes Wimsey through the English countryside, and, for a short period of time, to London. Throuhgout his adventures, Wimsey is aided by his ever faithful assistant, Mervyn Bunter, and his newly made friend, Ms. Alexandra Climpson. Wimsey hits many snags along the way because of the case's age. Throughout the novel he also struggles with the fact that Ms. Dawson may not have been murdered, that her death may not have been "unnatural". In the end,Wimsey finds that the death was unnatural at a certain party's hands (again, I won't give away the ending!).
 * UNNATURAL DEATH- A KELSEA WAGNER REVIEW**

Overall, I found that "Unnatural Death" was much more upbeat than "Gaudy Night". While Wimsey digs up more and more information regarding Ms. Dawson and Ms. Whittaker, the reader is kept in constant suspense. Was Ms. Dawson's death a murder? Who had the motive to kill her? Is there any evidence left? These questions kept the reader on the edge of their seat. The absence of any love interest also kept the pace of the novel at a fast rate. "Unnatural Death" was a delightful read that I would suggest to anyone for some light summer reading.


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