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Gaudy Night
by
Dorothy Sayers
vintage mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by Open Road Media on March 1, 2019 and has 591 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Thrones Dominations, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, Lord Peter Views the Body, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Strong Poison, The Five Red Herrings, Book Review: Dorothy Sayers’ Hangman's Holiday, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors, Busman's Honeymoon
Tenth in the Lord Peter Wimsey vintage mystery series revolving around Lord Peter and Harriet Vane at Oxford in 1935. It’s been five years since Strong Poison, 5.
My Take
I hate to confess that I was more wrapped up in the story and didn’t pay attention to whose POV was used, but I’d guess it was third person protagonist point-of-view from Harriet’s perspective.
I love that Harriet’s fellow scholars and teachers are not snobbish about Harriet’s using her First in English to write mysteries. It is her expertise the dons want.
It’s even more impressive that Harriet actually went to an Oxford-affiliated college and was able to earn her living through her writing, at a time when women had so few options. There’s more on women’s rights in Gaudy Night. The barriers that women continue to encounter, the anger of many about the waste of education on women as well as their taking jobs out of men’s mouths, practicality versus honor.
It’s an interesting look back for Harriet as she recollects her past and how awful Lord Peter is, badgering her.
”She resented the way in which he walked in and out of her mind as if it was his own flat.”
Harriet has some excellent advice for the reluctant Miss Cattermole. Pomfret is such a sweetie and it’s a shame about all that embarrassment about to descend on him. Poor Miss Lydgate and her paper. She’s brilliant in thinking it and a horror at writing and footnoting it.
Part of Harriet’s frustration at the Gaudy is how often Lord Peter’s name is brought up. He saved her from a shameful death, offered unswerving devotion, and, the cad, continues to propose to her. It’s a major character arc for Harriet, as she comes to terms with her past, noted with her acceptance of the doomed chess set. I can understand her crying about them!
There’s a good bit of discussion about what one ought to feel versus not trying to persuade oneself into “appropriate” feelings and the controversy over women getting an education versus being good wives. Quite a bit is spent on comparing the promise of fellow students and what they are doing now.
Lord Peter is a treat and a half. He fits in anywhere. Has the patience of Job. Is amazingly diplomatic and filled with praise for the dons. He’s honest, sensitive, respectful of women’s independence, and more intelligent than is good for him.
Sayers notes some of Lord Peter’s past cases including Murder Must Advertise, 8, and The Nine Tailors, 9. We also get some school back history about Lord Peter, and it is too funny.
The teachers and students are an eclectic bunch with some decent and others with acid tongues. On the whole, the women who administrate at the college would be perfect for ruling the world, as they constantly look after the people who attend the college and the people who work there. And then there are those poison pen letters and the animosity it finally begins to raise in those same dons.
Some of the current students who indulge in all the usual naughtiness, are causing some nasty mischief and spreading horrid gossip.
Oh, oh, Harriet learns of yet another side to Lord Peter when she encounters his nephew and a friend. So very embarrassing for her to discover how much she doesn’t know! The accident Sayers sets up gives her a chance to learn even more about Saint-George, which means she learns so much more about Peter.
While there is a good bit of action revolving around the various characters, Gaudy Night is primarily intellectual talk, i.e., women who worked hard to gain their degrees and have kept up with scholarly interests. I do envy them their knowledge and those background conversations.
This visit to Shrewsbury is fatal for Harriet, for these women are accustomed to analyzing what they see.
The Story
A desperate invitation to attend the Gaudy Night at Shrewsbury finally drags Harriet back to her alma mater with all its earnest dons and characters where she learns of the evil being perpetrated on the campus.
The excuse for being on campus that Harriet creates is a need to research the life and works of Sheridan Le Fanu and provide the help Miss Lydgate desperately needs if she is ever to publish her work.
But the investigation is taking too long and the nasty is getting worse. All Harriet can think of is asking Lord Peter for help.
The Characters
Harriet Vane is a writer of mysteries, tried for the murder of her lover Philip Boyes, and who has been turning down Lord Peter’s proposals since Strong Poison. She graduated with a First in English, and is a Scholar, a Master of Arts, a Domina, and a Senior Member of Shrewsbury. Miss Bracey is Harriet’s secretary. Dr Vane had been Harriet’s dad.
“Wilfrid” is Harriet’s primary character in her new novel. “Everard” is planned to seduce the glamorous “Sheila”.
Lord Peter Wimsey, the second son of a duke, is independently wealthy, adores books, appreciates a fine vintage, and troubleshoots for the Foreign Office. He’s also obsessed with solving crimes. Harriet is also reminded that he graduated from Baliol with a First in History (and considered one of the ablest scholars of his year — and renowned with his cricket skill) and has a Master of Arts. Mervyn Bunter is his personal manservant who also has quite the eye and brain and takes good care of Lord Peter. His mother is still alive! Mrs Merdle is the ninth Daimler of that name. Chief-Inspector Charles Parker is with Scotland Yard, one of Lord Peter’s best friends, and married to Lady Mary, Peter’s sister. The Honorable Frederick Arbuthnot (he’s married with two children) is a whiz at finance and a friend of Lord Peter’s.
Miss Katherine Climpson runs a Typing Bureau for Lord Peter, a front for an investigative office composed of women. Miss Murchison is no longer with the bureau.
Shrewsbury College is . . .
. . . a women’s college associated with Oxford University — at least in Gaudy Night. Supposedly the college was founded in honor of Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick’s daughter), who had been a great intellectual but a holy terror. The Senior Common Room (SCR) is the group name for the administrators, professors, teachers, and tutors (I think tutors is the term for the teachers).
Letitia Martin is the Dean. Mrs Goodwin, with the frail son, is the Dean’s secretary. The tactful and magnificent Dr Margaret Baring is the Warden. Miss Parsons is the Warden’s secretary. Miss Allison is the College Secretary and Treasurer and a disturber of the peace. Miss Barton is a psychologist fascinated by the sociological aspects of crime and passionate about reforming the penal code. Professors Boniface and Higgins, who is another Harriet devotee with an idea for a book. Miss Burrows is the Librarian. Miss Chilperic is the most junior of the dons and an assistant tutor in English Language and Literature; she’s mostly known for being engaged to Jacob Peppercorn. Miss de Vine is the new Research Fellow who admires Harriet’s work; she’s doing a work on National Finance Under the Tudors. Miss de Vine had been Provost of Flamborough. Joan “Teddy” Edwards is the Science Tutor. The sarcastic (and snotty) Miss Hillyard is the History tutor who’s against marriage. The sweet Miss Lydgate, a Sub-Warden, had been Harriet’s former tutor and is having rouble with her proofs. Miss Pyke is the Classical Tutor. Miss Shaw is the Modern Language Tutor. The former bursar, Straddles, had “a mind above food — she’s now the Treasurer at Bronte College”; fortunately, the new bursar, Miss Stevens, has something to do with Domestic Economy.
Fellow graduates (although not all of Harriet’s year) include Mary Stokes, a best friend to Harriet back in the day and now Mrs H Atwood more concerned with children and marriage who stopped growing; Betty Armstrong is a hard-working dog-breeder; Dorothy Collins runs a bookshop in Manchester; Trimmer is into mental healing; Sylvia Drake, who had finally taken a B.Litt; the awful, simpering Muriel Campshott; Vera Mollison is a teacher; Phoebe Tucker, another good friend and a History student, had married an archeologist with whom she happily digs up bones and stones (Richard is their oldest son — and Phoebe is thrilled that “all the children seem to be coming out intelligent”); Miss Gubbins who is an appalling bore and obsessed with the Bacon family; Miss Shaw; Miss Brodribb went potty on a new kind of religion; Miss Henderson has gone nudist; Mrs Bancroft has a slew of life-histories of Harriet’s year; Sadie Schuster-Slatt was supposed to have read Law and is now interested in sterilization of the unfit and promoting matrimony (and therefore children) of the intelligentsia (Mrs J Poppelhinken is the president of the British branch of Matrimonial Fitness); Miss Flackett had been the odd rich one; Miss Fortescue is fascinated by tropical fish; Miss Harper; Catherine Bendick, née Freemantle, a brilliant scholar who had married a farmer and gotten sidetracked on the dignity of labor; another is “Aunt Beatrice” who runs the Household Column in the Daily Mercury; and, Miss Perry.
Current students include Lilian Millbanks, who is the Senior Student; the shameful Catherine Flaxman; Miss Waters; Miss Hudson, who is taking Mods; Miss H Brown; Miss Jones; the unhappy Violet Cattermole; Miss Colburn; Miss Szleposky; Miss Isaacson; Miss Fowler, who puts down the drinking of cocoa as infantile; the forthright Miss Layton, who is a fancied favorite for the English School taking a Language Special; Haydock is considered a safe History First; Miss Blake; C.I. Briggs; Miss Wrigley; Miss Trotman has an ill father; Miss Baker has a young man; and, Miss Newland is the brilliant Latymer Scholar.
Oxford students include the fickle Lionel “Leo” Farringdon; the earnest Reggie Pomfret who is at Queen’s; Geoffrey is Miss Layton’s; Rogers; Mr Smith; Mr Banerjee; Mr Hodges; Mr Culpepper is a wart; Gerald “Jerry”, Lord Saint-George, is the Duke of Denver’s son and heir — and Lord Peter’s too-charming, too-gorgeous nephew who likes to tweak his uncle’s nose; and, Saint-George’s student friends include Mr Danvers and Lord Warboy.
Mr Jenkyn is a don and a pro-Proctor. The Bulldog is one of the Proctor’s men. Dr Noel Threep is a Fellow of a distinguished college and a member of the Council that governs Shrewsbury. Dr Armstrong will preach the University Sermon. A.L. Smith thought highly of Wimsey. Peake of Brasenose had been at school with Lord Peter and now coaches at the college. I think Jim is Peake’s son.
The scouts (staff at the college) include Annie, who has two little girls (Carola and Beatrice) boarding out with Mrs Jukes (Jukes, the mister, got into trouble and was dismissed); Carrie is the current Head-Scout (Agnes had been Head-Scout but since retired); Emily; Gertrude; Martha?; Ethel; and, Nellie.
Padgett is the current porter; he used to be an assistant camel hand at the zoo. (Corporal Padgett had also known Lord Peter as a major in the war whom the men called “Winderpane”; he was one of those who dug Peter out.) Mullins is the Jowett Lodge porter. Mr Whybrow was the physician who operated on Saint-George.
(Padgett and Wimsey have a reminiscence about Hackett (married with three kids now), Captain Sdgwick who’d gotten a dose of gas, the lost Mr Danbury, Sergeant-Major Toop who is now mastered by his tiny wife, and the disagreeable ‘Uggins.)
James is a waiter. Mrs Hermans gave a dance. Gillian appears to be dating Saint-George. Lord Gobbersleigh owns a newspaper; Mr Adrian is a reviewer for the paper. Mr Garrick Drury is an actor. Mrs Snell-Wilmington wrote the Passion-flower Pie. Miss Sugar Toobins has brought a libel action. Jacqueline Spills wrote a new novel, Gas-Filled Bulbs, about her ex-husband. Arthur Robinson (he had an M.A. from York University) had applied for the Chair of Modern History at York. He had married his landlady’s daughter, Charlotte Ann Clarke. Simpson died last year.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a light royal blue background and a collegiate look with the cream cable-knit sweater with its thin red borders on either side of the thicker blue one that spans the chest. Naturally the torso is wearing a white button-down shirt with slightly rounded collars and a turquoise-and-white vertical striped tie. At the top is the series info in black. The author’s name is in a pale blue at the bottom. The title, in white, is just above the collar with Lord Peter’s signature monocle curving up on the left to frame it.
The title is Gaudy Night, a festive reunion for Shrewsbury College graduates. Not so festive after all . . .
