Book Notes: "Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories," by Dorothy L. Sayers

"Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories," by Dorothy L. Sayers, was the end of my read (and, in most cases, re-read) through the Wimsey books.

And this is the point where, instead of writing a proper post, I'm tempted just to sigh the sigh of a deeply-contented reader, and let that be enough.

But, I'll resist that temptation. Here are a few notes on what I noticed this time through the collection:


-In these short stories, I kept noticing echoes of her novels. It was as if some of the short stories had bits of DNA that eventually were cultured/adapted/incorporated into larger entities. For example, the beach-and-sand-and-footprints clues in The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face felt like a bit of a trial run for some of the "how'd he do it?" questions in the novel Have His Carcase.


-In some of the stories, Lord Peter didn't really feel like Lord Peter. It felt like Sayers had an idea for a nifty little puzzle, and she had Lord Peter solve it because he was the character to hand, not because it was a puzzle he'd be naturally drawn to solving. For example, in The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba, Lord Peter goes incognito in order to infiltrate a mysterious society, but it felt like you could have substituted any other determined, well-financed, brilliant gumshoe into his place, and the story wouldn't have changed much.


-In some of the stories, Lord Peter is ABSOLUTELY Lord Peter, and couldn't be anyone else. I mean, the opening of The Haunted Policeman is not only my favorite opening of a short story ever, but no one but Lord Peter and Harriet could have ever had that conversation.


-Speaking of Lord Peter and Harriet: the domestic story of Talboys is just wonderful. I love it so much.


Should you read this? Yes, of course you should. Stop asking such silly questions.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

This post contains Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)