Talking Piffle Message Board

Hi, everyone! I was surprised that no Sayers or Lord Peter group existed, so I created this one.

What's your favorite one of the novels? Mine is Gaudy Night, hands down. =)

It made me smile just to see your title.

Gaudy Night is her best, but I love Murder Must Advertise, parts of Busman's Honeymoon, and some of the Wimsey stories. They're different, odd, even fantastical and macabre - but I like them. One feels more a powerful mind at play, than any sense of failure. (Though I admit there are stories that are a bit thin.)

Hi all. I did include Lord Peter in my "Baker Street and Beyond" group, but there's never enough Lord Peter anywhere, so the more the merrier! :-D

Gaudy Night is probably my favorite too, though, as Eurydice said, Murder Must Advertise is probably my favorite non-Harriet novel and Busman's Honeymoon is very nice for the Peter/Harriet interaction.

Like everyone else, Gaudy Night is my favorite. I do like Busman's Honeymoon a lot, though, especially the diary entries and letters at the beginning. My favorite without Harriet is probably The Nine Tailors.

Has anyone read The Seven Deadly Sins in the Work of Dorothy L. Sayers, by Janice Brown? A very interesting perspective on her work.

No - though I enjoyed Sayers' own essay on them, 'The Other Six Deadly Sins', which I encountered in Letters to a Diminished Church. The essays in the book seem collected from elsewhere, though to my extreme frustration there is no introduction, nor any kind of note about the sources. The deadly sin Sayers doesn't discuss is perfectly in character.

I wish The Seven Deadly Sins in the Work of Dorothy L. Sayers was available more cheaply. It's now on a wishlist, where at least I can keep an eye on the price. However, if there's anything you can share with us, I'd be delighted to hear about Brown's ideas.

Eurydice, I had the same frustration with Letters to a Diminished Church, not to mention the incredibly bad editing job. But as it's the only place to easily find those essays, I guess we'll have to live with it. It's too bad, really.

It's been a while since I read Brown's book (I don't own it, either, wish I did! I got it from the library). Brown discusses how Sayers' views of the "seven deadly sins" is reflected in her work, particularly her differing attitudes towards the "warm" and the "cold"-hearted sins.

Agreed.

"... particularly her differing attitudes towards the "warm" and the "cold"-hearted sins."

That makes excellent sense; very appropriate to her, to her work. Thank you.

Any biographies of Sayers you'd recommend? I thumbed through one at a used bookstore one day, but it's been a long time, and while I haven't forgotten most of what I read, didn't buy it.

Alzina Stone Dale's Maker and Craftsman is excellent. Barbara Reynolds has edited five volumes of Sayers' letters, available through the Dorothy L. Sayers Society, though I actually found my copy of Vol. 2 (I just have the first 2) through Bookcloseouts!

Ha yes, fantastic name! I've seen a few of you in the British/Irish Crime group as well.

Busman's Honeymoon and Gaudy Night are my favorites as well, though The Nine Tailors and Murder must Advertise are my favorite non-Harriet novels.

I am going to go out on a limb and say that Have his Carcase is my favorite Peter and Harriet book. Has anyone read the letters that Sayers published in The Times during WWII that were from/to/about various members of the Wimsey family? They are interesting, and Walsh uses them as material for Wimsey books.

Thank you, lilithcat. I'm sorry to be so long responding... but I have Maker and Craftsman on a wish-list now.

Don't know if any of you are keeping up with this group, but I would love to be a part of it. The Nine Tailors is high on my list of non-Harriet books, but I must stick with the first, Strong Poison for my Harriet books. Sets the stage, so to speak.

LibraryThing is going to make me more purposeful in my book purchasing. One can only find so much at library sales and used book stores, and my experience is that one does not find many Sayers books there. People tend to hold on to them. Thank you for the recommendations above.

One can only find so much at library sales and used book stores, and my experience is that one does not find many Sayers books there.

That's so true! A couple of mine were falling apart from having been read so often, and they were nearly impossible to find at used book stores. I was eventually able to do so, but it took a lot of searching.

I've been wondering if I will kick myself, but when I was on vacation before the holiday, I found several hardbacks of the Sayers Lord Peter mysteries. I didn't buy them. A long time ago I formed the philosophy that I would only collect mysteries in paperback, due to shelf space. Now I find myself vacillating, especially with my favorite authors. Paperbacks do age so and tend to fall apart. What to do?

I haven't seen a nice hardcover of the Lord Peter books, but I do have a boxed set of the Lord Peter - Harriet Vane novels. I admit, I'm young and therefore foolish in terms of sensible things like shelfspace (and at the moment physically limited by college accommodations) but I think for a book that would be read time and again a hardback makes so much sense.

I'm about to the point where my children need to leave to make room for my books. I think for Dorothy Sayers books that's reasonable :)

#16:
MrsLee, I do like your priorities! :-)

#1:
My favorite is The Nine Tailors.

Just found this group. Unusual to see a group in which the shared books fit the topic. Is DLS on the list of top "collected" authors on LT? Seems she would be doesn't it?

Just received my copy of The Recipe Book of the Mustard Club written by Dorothy L. Sayers when she was in advertising. Maybe it's just because I know that, but I can get a sense of her writing in it. Maybe it's just all the quotations. Thought I heard about it somewhere on LibraryThing, but now I can't remember where. I also ordered some Coleman's mustard to go with it :)

Good job, deedeeinfj. Thanks for the group.

My favorites?

With Harriet: Gaudy Night
Sans Harriet: The Nine Tailors or Murder Must Advertise. I can't decide.

Not sure if anybody is still keeping an eye on this group, but I thought I would ask - is it necessary to read the LPW books in order (those preceding Harriet Vane)? Or, which story is a good introduction, or 'hook', to the character? I have read 'Strong Poison', which I enjoyed, but I prefer Lord Peter over Harriet and would like to read more about him.

The non-Harriet books aren't quite as held to chronological order, at least in my opinion, although Clouds of Witness gives background for some of the action in Strong Poison.

I know some people think the first book is weaker, but I admit a great fondness for Whose Body?. You can find it online at Penn's Digital Library. Yes, he seems to be a bit of a fop - but even here, there are some depths to him. I next read Clouds of Witness, which I think worked well, followed by starting the Harriet novels. After that, I tend to mix up the others- though Murder Must Advertise is definitely in the upper tier, and I read it pretty soon afterwrds. I personally liked having The Nine Tailors as my last book, although it's one of my favorites.

Thanks! I love LPW as a fop; it's quite obvious there's more to him, a lot like Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel, so I find his droll humour and piffle (!) to be amusing, rather than a weakness.

Lord Peter reminds me of Sir Percy, too! In my mind he's sort of a mix between Sir Percy and Sherlock Holmes. But of course he's a character in his own right, don't get me wrong.

Murder Must Advertise is definitely my favorite non-Harriet (I love that term!) book so far. The commentary on advertising is hilarious and so deadly true, and I love all the day-to-day office drama in the background.

Some of my favorite lines:
"But in that case," objected Mr. Bredon, "what does one find to say in favour of butter? I mean, if the other stuff's as good and doesn't cost as much, what's the argument for buying butter?"
"You don't need an argument for buying butter. It's a natural, human instinct."
"Oh, I see."

Hey everybody!

I've been a serious Sayers fan since the 70s. I've re-read most of her fiction multiple times. I just joined this group, don't know why I waited.b

My favorites are Murder Must Advertise and The Nine Tailors for non-Harriet books, and Gaudy Night for Harriet.

The only book I really don't like and have never been able to re-read without putting down is Five Red Herrings. It's clever, but just doesn't do anything for me.

I'm listening to A Presumption of Death now and although it's only based on Sayers' ideas, I'm really enjoying it. I didn't like Thrones, Dominations very much, but may re-read it after I finish listening to this one.

Anybody else read Presumption? What'cha think?

Fascinating thread.

Like so many of you above, Gaudy Night is my favourite. I'd go further: I think Gaudy Night is sadly underrated and should be known well beyond the detective genre - I think it should be regarded as one of the great 20thC novels. There is so much going on in there beyond the basic story.

Like so many of you, again, I really can't decide between The Nine Tailors and Murder Must Advertise as my favourite 'non-Harriet'.

>24 karenmarie: - Interesting what you say about Five Red Herrings. I actually quite like it, but, for some reason, in my mind it's apart from her other stories - doesn't seem quite part of the Wimsey world, somehow.

I'm really posting to say thank you to >10 Katissima: (eleven years late!) I'd never heard of those letters - on Googling, I assume you mean her articles in The Spectator in 1939/40 - The Wimsey Papers. They are now downloaded and on my Kindle, so a big thank you.

Loved Gaudy Night but the earlier books were more fun with Lord Wimsey as a sleuth in Lord's clothing.

>24 karenmarie:, >25 alaudacorax:

I'd forgotten about this thread, but I've just re-read The Five Red Herrings, probably for the first time since posting above, and I have to admit I've changed my mind about it. I now think it's the poorest of Sayers' novels, by a long way. I don't know if I've done this before, but this time I found myself skipping large chunks of theorising and exposition. They were just such a drudge to read through.

I don't know if this is because I'm not really a detective story fan. Do genuine fans of the genre really enjoy all the ratiocination in this book? Or did Sayers slip up and allow the story to get really bogged-down in places; which is how it reads to me?

Incidentally, I read The Nine Tailors immediately before it and loved it as much as I always do, so it's not that I've lost my taste for DLS--it's this book.