Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers

I don’t know the last time I’ve enjoyed a book this much. I read the whole thing with an impish grin on my face and a constant chuckle in my throat. 

At the end of the last book (Gaudy Night), Harriet Vane finally accepts Peter’s proposal of marriage. Busman’s Honeymoon begins with various letters expressing opinions on the match, which are delightful in their cattiness. Then there were darling extracts from the Duchess of Denver’s (Lord Peter’s mother) diary, which primed the pump for my continued enjoyment of the book.

If you are looking for a cracking good mystery, you may be disappointed with all the dialogue about marriage, but for me those conversations were what made the book my favorite of all the Lord Peter novels. Sayers herself described it as “a love story with detective interruptions.”

Sayer’s novel are loaded with scrumptious literary references. Lord Peter and Inspector Kirk cheerfully exchange quotes from the Bible, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Browning, Keats, etc. I wish I could find an annotated version of this novel to save me time from looking up translations of the Latin and French, but as it was, I looked up about half the references and was richly rewarded in discovering their meaning. Frankly, most of them were discreet reference to sexuality that would have made me blush considerably in my younger years.

There is a lot of (discreet) talk about previous liaisons, expectations for the wedding night, etc., which I could appreciate after my three decades of marriage because they showed Peter and Harriet wrestling with every aspect of their marriage, not sugar-coating the past, but showing their growth in understanding of what true love entails. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them come to grips with the tough realities and indescribable joys of marital commitment.

In spite of all the fancy quotes, Lord Peter finally concludes: And what do all the great words come to in the end, but that? – I love you – I am at rest with you – I have come home.

As if the love story weren’t enough, the mystery is quite good. AND BUNTER GETS HIS DUE as the devoted, unruffled servant - so much so that Harriet jokes that maybe she should have married him instead of Lord Peter. I don’t know a thing about wine, but the care with which Bunter handled the liquor in this book was laugh-out-loud hilarious.

A delightful read from start to finish. This is not a stand-alone novel. It is necessary to read the previous novels to get the full impact of how Harriet and Lord Peter are piecing their new lives together. Bravo to Dorothy Sayers for showing the beauty and complexity of it. 

Blessings,

Anthony Esolen on the Importance of Memorizing Poetry

Although I am not a Catholic, I am a fan of Anthony Esolen's insightful articles in Crisis Magazine. I recently discovered his more lighthearted weekly newsletter “Word and Song,” which is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of truth, goodness and beauty. Three times a week he writes out his thoughts on various poems, songs or movies. 

He began a recent post with this verse from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat:

A book of VERSES underneath the bough,

A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou

Beside me singing in the wilderness –

That wilderness were paradise enow!

He then goes on to elaborate on the meaning of the word “verses” and how poetry and song have been an integral part of previous civilizations because they were the best way to hide the stories & poetry & truths in one’s heart. He regrets that our present generation “no longer has the VERSES in our soul.”

He adds, “People nowadays often scoff at this sort of thing, calling it “rote memorization,” but that misses the heart of the matter entirely.  You can’t really “own” a song unless you hear it sung and you can sing it yourself, and poetry is essentially song.  When you commit a poem to heart, when you get the VERSES within you, you must engage your imagination; you see and hear things that make the VERSES fully present; you exert your voice, and you hear your voice; your body moves, and the movements have meaning; all kinds of memories, actions, emotions, thoughts, and feelings come into play and involve themselves with the poem.” (from Oct 24, 2022)

I highly recommend this brief and delightful newsletter.  

Blessings

The Valley of Vision by Arthur Bennett

The Valley of Vision is a powerful antidote to the popular teaching that Christianity is primarily about personal success and happiness. My husband and I have been reading a prayer a day for the past year and have often been overwhelmed with the beauty and clarity of each one. 

The focus is always on Christ rather than self. An example from the prayer on repose: Thou art so good, wise, just, holy, that no mistake is possible to thee... I yield to thy sovereignty all that I am and have; do thou with me as thou wilt. Thou has given me silence in my heart in place of murmurings and complaints. Keep my wishes from growing into willings, my willings from becoming fault-finding with thy providences, and have mercy on me.

I loved the book so much that I hate to mention my one quibble with it: the occasional emphasis on self-loathing. A humble recognition of our unworthiness to receive God's grace is everywhere in Scripture. Self-hatred is not. Many verses remind us that God has blotted out our transgressions to remember them no more. Who are we to undo what God has done?

That was a minor complaint. Overall, The Valley of Vision is a rich resource for godly, heartfelt prayers that point us to our heavenly Father in trust and worship. A final quote that I loved was, Give me knowledge of thy goodness that I might not be over-awed by thy greatness; give me Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God, that I might not be terrified, but be drawn near with filial love and holy boldness. 

The Gospel Coalition has an interesting post on the origin of these prayers, which were written by Arthur Bennett (1915-1994). Because Bennett uses the beautiful language of the original prayers (adapting them very slightly), it is hard to believe that this classic was first published in 1975. 

Blessings

A Small Tribute to Angela Lansbury

I have very little regard for Hollywood stars and their sordid lives, but Angela Lansbury was in a class by herself. My father loved mysteries and my mom liked good, clean entertainment so Murder, She Wrote was a staple in our home. When it would come on, my mom would call out, "Jessica's on!" and everyone would head to the living room. 

Only later did I realize she had been a successful movie actress when I saw glimpses of her in two favorite movies: The Court Jester and Dear Heart. (Both of these links have brief clips of her.)

Nostalgia led my husband and me to watch one of her films last night. The three that are on YouTube are based on books that I have read and enjoyed. I'll link to the films and to my reviews of the books in case your are interested. 

The Love She Sought is based on the book A Green Journey by John Hassler, which I reviewed here. Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris is based on Paul Gallico's novel of the same name (reviewed here) and has only a few minor changes. Because of one of those changes, though, the book comes off as less saccharine. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax is a mystery based on the novel by Dorothy Gilman.

In every case the book is better than the movie, but it was still a joy to watch these delightful performances by Lansbury. 

Any other Lansbury fans among us?

Blessings,

Hangman's Holiday by Dorothy Sayers

I loved Gaudy Night and couldn’t wait to read the next installment (Busman’s Honeymoon) in the Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane novels. Then I saw that I’d missed a book in the sequence and “had” to go back and read it, living up to my box-ticking “J” status in the Myers-Briggs world.

No one can quibble with the fact that Sayers is a master storyteller. All of the stories in Hangman's Holiday had me on the edge of my seat and quite a few were creepier than I’m used to.

It was fun to be introduced to the new-to-me protagonist of Montague Egg. He is a wine salesman who stumbles onto several crime scenes and freely shares his wisdom with the investigators. Just so you don’t take him too seriously, he often throws in some adages from the Salesman’s Handbook such as, “Whether you’re wrong or whether you’re right, it’s always better to be polite.” (These are even funnier when you remember that Dorothy Sayers worked in the advertising business and had a knack for coming up with these ditties.)

As always, I love any references to Wimsey’s love of books so I was not disappointed when in the very first chapter, a man picks up the novel that Wimsey had been reading and Wimsey waits patiently for it. When the man realizes what he has done and offers it back… “It doesn’t matter at all,” said Wimsey graciously, “I know it by heart. I only brought it along with me because its’s handy for reading a few pages when you are stuck in a place like this for the night. You can always take it up and find something entertaining.” How charming to have a book that you know so well that opening it up to random pages will always give you pleasure.

Another winner from Dorothy Sayers.

Blessings,

A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life by William Law

After 30 years of teaching Theology of John Wesley, I finally decided to read A Serious Call because apart from the Bible it was one of the books that most formed Wesley’s thinking about Christianity. Law begins this devotional classic by defining the nature and extent of Christian devotion, which holds little resemblance to what passes for Christianity today. He reminds us that it is a “serious call” after all, and requires every ounce of our being.

The first chapter goes straight to the sticky issue of how Christians should spend their money.  Using our money in any way we please, says Law, shows we lack intention to please God in all our actions. (Wesley followed Law’s advice to the letter by living frugally all of his life and giving money away as fast as possible. He felt that accumulating wealth was equivalent to holding on to hot coals.)

The next chapters encourage a wholehearted pursuit of God by rising early, reading the Scriptures and singing the Psalms. He writes: Prayer is the nearest approach to God, and the highest enjoyment of Him that we are capable of in this life. It is the noblest exercise of the soul, the most exalted use of our best faculties and the highest imitation of the blessed inhabitants of heaven.

Starting with Chapter 16 he adds suggestions for how to take advantage of certain hours of the day for specific prayers. At 9 a.m., for example, a Christian should spend a few minutes focusing on his need for humility. (He follows with a whole chapter on what true humility entails.) In Chapter 20 he recommends using the noon hour to pray for more love toward others, and follows this up with a clear explanation of  the high cost of real love. (This was my favorite chapter in the whole book and I felt it could easily have been re-titled: "How to pray for those whom you despise and learn to love them in the process.")

Chapter 22 advocates stopping at 3 p.m. to pray prayers of consecration and resignation to God’s will. The whole nature of virtue consists in conforming to, and the whole nature of vice in declining from, the will of God…. Whenever you find yourself disposed to uneasiness or murmuring at anything that is the effect of God’s providence over you, you must look upon yourself as denying either the wisdom or goodness of God. For every complaint necessarily supposes ill usage. (Ouch!)

In Chapter 23 he suggests stopping at 6 p.m. to review the day and confess any sins that were committed. Oddly, the updated version of this book removes all mentions of specific times of day (to avoid sounding too Catholic?) and thus robs the reader of a simple method for remembering when and how to pray for these needs. Tripp’s version was also jarringly anachronistic. The language was not updated very much, but the examples were, which resulted in old-fashioned English phrases next to illustrations about people playing video games, wearing yoga pants and watching movies. Halfway through the Tripp version, I switched to the original version and had no problem with the language or the original examples. And the Dover version came with very helpful footnotes.

Once I got hold of a good version (free download from my library), I couldn’t believe how much I loved this book. It is a book to be read slowly and prayerfully that will comfort and strengthen the heart of any earnest seeker.

Blessings,

You Are Not Your Own by Alan Noble

Weeks after finishing You are Not Your Own, its ideas continue to resonate with me. Noble sets out to explain how we Americans have come to the place where hyper individualism is killing us rather than fulfilling us.

He writes, If I am my own and belong to myself, then I must define who I am…. And the terrifying thing is that everyone else in society is doing the exact same thing. Everyone is on their own private journey of self-discovery and self-expression, so that at times, modern life feels like billions of people in the same room shouting their own name so that everyone else knows they exist and who they are – which is a fairly accurate description of social media.

The irony of a culture that promises that you “can be all you can be” without reference to any higher good or higher power is that no plateau is high enough. There’s always some level of perfection or self-actualization just out of reach. The freedom of sovereign individualism comes at a great price. Once I am liberated from all social, moral, natural, and religious values, I become responsible for the meaning of my own life. Hence the lie: If I am completely responsible for my life, then the greatest moral failure would be for me to fail to pursue what I desire most. I owe it to myself to be happy. The only problem with this is that unlimited desire and consumption always leave us exhausted and empty.

But there is good news, says Noble. Christ frees us from the unbearable burden of self-belonging.

An anthropology defined by our belonging to God is diametrically opposed to the contemporary belief that we are autonomous, free, atomistic individuals who find our greatest fulfillment in breaking free from all external norms. Our selves belong to God, and we are joyfully limited and restrained by the obligations, virtues, and love that naturally come from this belonging. This living before God is not easy. It requires sacrifice and humility, perpetual repentance and dependence upon Christ. In a secular age such as our own, it requires an intentional effort to remember that we belong to Christ, and that belonging is not merely a doctrine, but a reality that touches every aspect of our lives.

This is a tremendous book if you are feeling overwhelmed by breath-takingly rapid changes in our society and want to step back and see how it all happened. It is also a wonderful reminder to vigilantly resist the false promises the world offers for self-fulfillment.

Interestingly, I was primed for this book by, first, experiencing ministry burnout and, second, by reading A Gentleman in Moscow. Both experiences caused me to question the frenzy of always doing more, and to ponder ways to live more humanly within our God-given limits. 

Blessings,