Sayers on Holmes: Essays & Fiction on Sherlock Holmes

by Dorothy L. Sayers, Alzina Stone Dale

Sayers on Holmes collects the writings of Dorothy L. Sayers on the subject of Sherlock Holmes. In "Sherlock Holmes and His Influence," Sayers examines how the Sherlock Holmes stories affected the genre of detective fiction. In "The Dates in 'The Red-Headed League'" she discusses the contradictory dates in the Holmes story. In "Holmes' College Career" Sayers determines which university Holmes attended--Oxford or Cambridge--and speculates on a birth year for Holmes. "Dr. Watson's Christian Name" represents an effort by Sayers to solve the problem that Watson is called by different first names in different Holmesian stories. "Dr. Watson, Widower," is concerned with the speculation on Dr. Watson's possible multiple marriages. In addition, published here for the first time is the script she wrote for a radio production, "A Tribute to Sherlock Holmes on the Occasion of his 100th Birthday," in which the young Lord Peter Wimsey consults Sherlock Holmes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mystery, Essays

66 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

The detective stories of well-known British writer Dorothy Leigh Sayers mostly feature the amateur investigator Lord Peter Wimsey; she also translated the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri.

This renowned author and Christian humanist studied classical and modern languages.

Her best known mysteries, a series of short novels, set between World War I and World War II, feature an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. She is also known for her plays and essays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

The young Lord Peter, who was "rising eight at the time," has what would seem to be his first mysterious adventure when the family cat, a black kitten named Seneca, disappears from the night-nursery. Not only is this Peter's first mystery--but it is an impossible crime of sorts. The children were at their breakfast in the play-room (which held the only entrance to nursery) and they noticed that Seneca had not come out of the nursery to join them for a saucer of milk.

"Nobody had entered or left the night-nursery except the maid, who affirmed that she had not seen him, although she had done the room very thoroughly. He could not have got out the window, which was securely wired over. The whole house was searched in vain. The grown-ups, in their casual way, said 'He'll turn up all right'; but we children suspected that the maid (who disliked cats) of kidnapping and murder."

Alarmed for the safety of the kitten, he takes himself off to the celebrated detective's lodgings and presents him with the problem of the missing kitten. After listening to Wimsey's description of the room and the morning's activities, Holmes tells his young client precisely where to look for the lost Seneca. Dr. Watson accompanies him home and Lord Peter finds the cat just where Holmes said he would be.

There isn't, of course a great deal of detecting going on in this story--and what little is done is done by Sherlock Holmes. But it is a lovely little story and it does show the young Lord Peter with the sense to consult an expert. It also highlights the sensitivity of Wimsey (which will later be his undoing in the war and when helping to send murderers to the hangman) when he bursts into "unmanly tears" at the thought of poor Seneca's predicament.


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