Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers

"Do you find it easy to get drunk on words?"

"So easy that, to tell you the truth, I am seldom perfectly sober." 

This is just one example of the rich dialogue between Lord Peter and Harriet Vane in their third novel together, Gaudy Night, which I enjoyed immensely.

A "Gaudy Night" is a kind of college reunion at the University of Oxford. While attending her ten year reunion, Harriet stumbles upon an obscene drawing and flushes it down the toilet in disgust. Later she learns that there have been a spate of similar incidents and is asked by the dean to stay on and help discover the culprit. 

In some ways the mystery is secondary to the main theme, which is the role of women in modern society. The story takes place in an environment where women have purposely chosen the single life in order to focus on academic pursuits, but within that environment, there are women who would rather be married. Sayers is definitely not advocating a "one size fits all" for women's roles. Harriet's own struggle with accepting Peter's proposals has to do with her fear of not being able to be fully herself while "tied down" to domestic life.  

Sayer's novels are not easy reads because of her frequent references to mythology, Shakespeare, etc. (A handy guide to many of them is found here.)  The closing lines are in Latin and I had to quickly google them to find out what had actually happened! There are several bewildering references to "Mr Jones of Jesus," who turned out to be a hypothetical rival to Wimsey's affections (a man from Jesus College in Wales). In spite of the befuddling quotations, Sayers is definitely worth the effort for her well-drawn characters and her thorough exploration of societal issues. 

Plus she's funny! I laughed out loud when one of her characters said, "It would have been such a bore to be the mother of morons." And again when Lord Peter was waxing eloquent on "How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks." After reading the lines Lord Peter added to her sonnet, Harriet, "went to bed thinking more about another person than about herself. This goes to prove that even minor poetry may have its practical uses." Ha!

This is the longest (and the most full of swearing) of the Wimsey novels I have read, but has by far the best dialogue and most endearing scenes. While I thoroughly enjoyed this book without the help of outside commentary, I greatly appreciated the insights shared on the Literary Life podcast (three episodes) that I listened to afterwards. Angelina and Cindy clarified a lot of details that I had not rightly understood, and showed what a genius Sayers was in weaving together every detail of the story. Angelina mentions that Sayer's essay "Are Women Human?" is the non-fiction version of this novel so now I need to get my hands on that.

Have you read Gaudy Night or Are Women Human? Any thoughts?

Blessings,