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Lord Peter Wimsey #5
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.
A wealthy general dies in his club, surrounded by fellow veterans—and Lord Peter must battle to solve the case
Even the Bellona Club’s most devoted members would never call it lively. Its atmosphere is that of a morgue—or, at best, a funeral parlor—and on Armistice Day the gloom is only heightened. Veterans of the Great War gather at the Bellona not to hash over old victories, but to stare into their whiskies and complain about old injuries, shrinking pensions, and the lingering effects of shell shock. Though he acts jolly, Lord Peter Wimsey finds the holiday grim. And this Armistice Day, death has come to join the festivities.
The aged General Fentiman—a hero of the Crimean War—expires sitting up in his favorite chair. Across town, his sister dies on the same day, throwing the General’s half-million-pound inheritance into turmoil. As the nation celebrates and suspicions run riot, Lord Peter must discover what kind of soldier would have the nerve to murder a general.
A wealthy general dies in his club, surrounded by fellow veterans—and Lord Peter must battle to solve the case
Even the Bellona Club’s most devoted members would never call it lively. Its atmosphere is that of a morgue—or, at best, a funeral parlor—and on Armistice Day the gloom is only heightened. Veterans of the Great War gather at the Bellona not to hash over old victories, but to stare into their whiskies and complain about old injuries, shrinking pensions, and the lingering effects of shell shock. Though he acts jolly, Lord Peter Wimsey finds the holiday grim. And this Armistice Day, death has come to join the festivities.
The aged General Fentiman—a hero of the Crimean War—expires sitting up in his favorite chair. Across town, his sister dies on the same day, throwing the General’s half-million-pound inheritance into turmoil. As the nation celebrates and suspicions run riot, Lord Peter must discover what kind of soldier would have the nerve to murder a general.
413 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1928
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About the author
Dorothy L. Sayers
703 books2,985 followersThe 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,107 reviews
September 13, 2022
Lord Peter Group Read September 2022
After this last re-read I am very tempted to up my review to 5 stars. The writing is excellent, the characters very lifelike albeit from almost 100 years ago and the story is just such a great detective mystery novel.
Lord Peter gets involved quite early on as a dead body is found in one of his clubs. However despite everyone thinking the old gentleman had died a natural death , Lord Peter is concerned about one aspect, and from there all th rest of the story follows. Through twists and turns, even arguments with his friend Inspector Parker, Lord Peter battles with the intricacies of the case to come up with not only the correct solution but also the morally right one.
Buddy Read May 2020
A really good novel, with an interesting story. The strange thing is that there is no real murder until a man's (General Fentiman) death is discovered to be murder and not natural causes. Lord Peter has been intrinsic in the investigation from the beginning as it occurred in the Belladonna club where he was a member.
Was it George Fentiman, an ex soldier suffering from PTSD after the war or his elder brother Robert. Did they know that his sister was dying and was leaving the General a fortune, if she died before her brother, if not it was all left to an aspiring but awful artist.
Into the mix enters Lord Peter, who knowing the Fentiman brothers wants to get to the bottom of where the General was prior to his death. How did he get into his favourite chair at the Belladonna club ?.
Ultimately murder is discovered and Scotland Yard in the Form of Inspector Parker, Lord Peter's friend, is called in to catch the murderer. Despite many discussions and working together LP and Parker disagree on the solution to the crime, and it is only LP playing an almighty bluff that allows Parker to claim the credit for solving the crime.
An excellent detective story that I had not planned at all to read. It was only because a fellow member of one of my groups is reading all the LP novels, that I tagged along. So thanks to Leslie for allowing me to piggy back on her re-read of the Lord Peter novels and short stories. I shall probably call it a day now till I get more time to factor in a read of all of the Sayers books. Bon Voyage Leslie.
After this last re-read I am very tempted to up my review to 5 stars. The writing is excellent, the characters very lifelike albeit from almost 100 years ago and the story is just such a great detective mystery novel.
Lord Peter gets involved quite early on as a dead body is found in one of his clubs. However despite everyone thinking the old gentleman had died a natural death , Lord Peter is concerned about one aspect, and from there all th rest of the story follows. Through twists and turns, even arguments with his friend Inspector Parker, Lord Peter battles with the intricacies of the case to come up with not only the correct solution but also the morally right one.
Buddy Read May 2020
A really good novel, with an interesting story. The strange thing is that there is no real murder until a man's (General Fentiman) death is discovered to be murder and not natural causes. Lord Peter has been intrinsic in the investigation from the beginning as it occurred in the Belladonna club where he was a member.
Was it George Fentiman, an ex soldier suffering from PTSD after the war or his elder brother Robert. Did they know that his sister was dying and was leaving the General a fortune, if she died before her brother, if not it was all left to an aspiring but awful artist.
Into the mix enters Lord Peter, who knowing the Fentiman brothers wants to get to the bottom of where the General was prior to his death. How did he get into his favourite chair at the Belladonna club ?.
Ultimately murder is discovered and Scotland Yard in the Form of Inspector Parker, Lord Peter's friend, is called in to catch the murderer. Despite many discussions and working together LP and Parker disagree on the solution to the crime, and it is only LP playing an almighty bluff that allows Parker to claim the credit for solving the crime.
An excellent detective story that I had not planned at all to read. It was only because a fellow member of one of my groups is reading all the LP novels, that I tagged along. So thanks to Leslie for allowing me to piggy back on her re-read of the Lord Peter novels and short stories. I shall probably call it a day now till I get more time to factor in a read of all of the Sayers books. Bon Voyage Leslie.
August 7, 2024
The Lord Peter Wimsey series almost feels like Dorothy Sayers channeled Agatha Christie and stole one of P.G. Wodehouse's characters. <--that's a compliment. I'm not trying to say Sayers plagiarized anything, for the love of god!
The aforementioned "unpleasantness" starts when an elderly gentleman at Lord Peter's club is found dead in his favorite chair - surely of natural causes!
But things get sticky when it is discovered that it is necessary to determine when exactly he died, as that means the difference between who inherits his sister's fortune.
I could try to explain it, but I'd just botch the job.
Peter tries to juggle the responsibility of being a good friend against the responsibility of finding out the truth, and ends up in what looks to be quite a pickle.
Of course, this is a cozy mystery not some dark pulp fiction novel, so you know he'll sort it all out eventually.
Also, and I say this because I thought the first book was a tad dry, every book in the this series seems to be better than the last.
Recommended for fans of the old cozy mysteries.
The aforementioned "unpleasantness" starts when an elderly gentleman at Lord Peter's club is found dead in his favorite chair - surely of natural causes!
But things get sticky when it is discovered that it is necessary to determine when exactly he died, as that means the difference between who inherits his sister's fortune.
I could try to explain it, but I'd just botch the job.
Peter tries to juggle the responsibility of being a good friend against the responsibility of finding out the truth, and ends up in what looks to be quite a pickle.
Of course, this is a cozy mystery not some dark pulp fiction novel, so you know he'll sort it all out eventually.
Also, and I say this because I thought the first book was a tad dry, every book in the this series seems to be better than the last.
Recommended for fans of the old cozy mysteries.
December 14, 2017
This is the fifth Dorothy Sayers novel I have read in her Lord Peter Wimsey series, and I continue to enjoy her writing, and Lord Peter’s character development. There is even an updated biography (by Lord Peter’s uncle) at the back of the book so we can continue to fill in the gaps of his life as the author herself discovers more about him.
The plots are growing more refined over time with lots of red herrings – and I especially like the ones that Lord Peter tosses immediately back into the sea. His intuition continues to develop – even when some of the suspects have lines of evidence with arrows at the end pointing right at them, Lord Peter finds cracks in those lines and shows how they were bent to point in the wrong direction.
These are not fast-paced, heart-racing novels by any means. In the classic style, they are superbly plotted, skillfully written, old-fashioned whodunnits – and I continue to look forward to each one!
The plots are growing more refined over time with lots of red herrings – and I especially like the ones that Lord Peter tosses immediately back into the sea. His intuition continues to develop – even when some of the suspects have lines of evidence with arrows at the end pointing right at them, Lord Peter finds cracks in those lines and shows how they were bent to point in the wrong direction.
These are not fast-paced, heart-racing novels by any means. In the classic style, they are superbly plotted, skillfully written, old-fashioned whodunnits – and I continue to look forward to each one!
September 6, 2018
EXCERPT: 'What in the world, Wimsey, are you doing in this Morgue?' demanded Captain Fentiman, flinging aside the Evening Banner with the air of a man released from an irksome duty.
'Oh, I wouldn't call it that,' retorted Wimsey amiably. 'Funeral Parlour at the very least. Look at the marble. Look at the furnishings. Look at the palms and the chaste bronze nude in the corner.'
'Yes, and look at the corpses. Place always reminds me of that old thing in Punch, you know - 'Waiter! Take away Lord Whatsisname. He's been dead two days.' Look at old Ormsby there, snoring like a hippopotamus. Look at my revered grandpa - dodders in here at ten every morning, collects the Morning Post and the armchair by the fire, and becomes part of the furniture til the evening. Poor old devil. I suppose I'll be like that one of these days. . .'
ABOUT THIS BOOK: Ninety-year old General Fentiman has been estranged for years from his sister, Lady Dormer. On the afternoon of 10 November, he is called to her deathbed for a reconciliation, and learns the terms of her will. If she dies first he will inherit a fortune, which his grandsons sorely need. But if he dies first, nearly all of the money will go to Ann Dorland, a distant relative of Lady Dormer's late husband. She is a young woman with artistic leanings who lives with Lady Dormer.
Lady Dormer dies at 10:37 AM the next day, which is 11 November—Armistice Day. That afternoon the General is found dead in his armchair at the club. This produces a hysterical outburst from his younger grandson, George Fentiman, a veteran of World War I still suffering from the effects of poison gas and shell shock. Due to the terms of Lady Dormer's will and the time of her death, it becomes necessary to establish the exact time of the General's death. Though the estate would provide amply for all three heirs, Ann Dorland refuses any compromise settlement. Wimsey is asked to help solve the puzzle by his friend Mr Murbles, the solicitor for the Fentiman family. Wimsey agrees, though he insists that he will pursue the exact truth, regardless of who benefits.
MY THOUGHTS: At the time I first read this, I wrote 'This is quite the best Lord Peter Wimsey novel I have read thus far'. I read the whole series as part of a challenge on Goodreads a few years ago, and developed a fondness for both Sayers and Lord Peter, but this remains the firm favorite.
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is #5 in the series and Lord Peter's personality is beginning to flower - he really is quite a sweetie with a kind heart, a man who likes to see people happy. He even gets to play matchmaker. I love the way his mind works, and he has quite a theatrical bent.
Lord Peter had been joking about how a body could sit in its chair in the club undetected, when one is discovered. Everyone had thought the elderly General Fendman was merely snoozing by the fire. But when it becomes imperative to ascertain the exact time of the General's death to determine the recipient of a half-million pound inheritance, Lord Peter will need to employ all his skills and those of his butler Bunter and good friend Inspector Charles Parker.
This is a true British classic and one I enjoyed immensely. Best enjoyed on a wet, wintery afternoon in front of the fire with tea and crumpets.
😍😍😍😍😍
THE AUTHOR: Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned British author, translator, student of classical and modern languages, and Christian humanist.
Dorothy L. Sayers is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between World War I and World War II that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. However, Sayers herself considered her translation of Dante's Divina Commedia to be her best work. She is also known for her plays and essays.
DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by D. L. Sayers. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.
This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
'Oh, I wouldn't call it that,' retorted Wimsey amiably. 'Funeral Parlour at the very least. Look at the marble. Look at the furnishings. Look at the palms and the chaste bronze nude in the corner.'
'Yes, and look at the corpses. Place always reminds me of that old thing in Punch, you know - 'Waiter! Take away Lord Whatsisname. He's been dead two days.' Look at old Ormsby there, snoring like a hippopotamus. Look at my revered grandpa - dodders in here at ten every morning, collects the Morning Post and the armchair by the fire, and becomes part of the furniture til the evening. Poor old devil. I suppose I'll be like that one of these days. . .'
ABOUT THIS BOOK: Ninety-year old General Fentiman has been estranged for years from his sister, Lady Dormer. On the afternoon of 10 November, he is called to her deathbed for a reconciliation, and learns the terms of her will. If she dies first he will inherit a fortune, which his grandsons sorely need. But if he dies first, nearly all of the money will go to Ann Dorland, a distant relative of Lady Dormer's late husband. She is a young woman with artistic leanings who lives with Lady Dormer.
Lady Dormer dies at 10:37 AM the next day, which is 11 November—Armistice Day. That afternoon the General is found dead in his armchair at the club. This produces a hysterical outburst from his younger grandson, George Fentiman, a veteran of World War I still suffering from the effects of poison gas and shell shock. Due to the terms of Lady Dormer's will and the time of her death, it becomes necessary to establish the exact time of the General's death. Though the estate would provide amply for all three heirs, Ann Dorland refuses any compromise settlement. Wimsey is asked to help solve the puzzle by his friend Mr Murbles, the solicitor for the Fentiman family. Wimsey agrees, though he insists that he will pursue the exact truth, regardless of who benefits.
MY THOUGHTS: At the time I first read this, I wrote 'This is quite the best Lord Peter Wimsey novel I have read thus far'. I read the whole series as part of a challenge on Goodreads a few years ago, and developed a fondness for both Sayers and Lord Peter, but this remains the firm favorite.
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is #5 in the series and Lord Peter's personality is beginning to flower - he really is quite a sweetie with a kind heart, a man who likes to see people happy. He even gets to play matchmaker. I love the way his mind works, and he has quite a theatrical bent.
Lord Peter had been joking about how a body could sit in its chair in the club undetected, when one is discovered. Everyone had thought the elderly General Fendman was merely snoozing by the fire. But when it becomes imperative to ascertain the exact time of the General's death to determine the recipient of a half-million pound inheritance, Lord Peter will need to employ all his skills and those of his butler Bunter and good friend Inspector Charles Parker.
This is a true British classic and one I enjoyed immensely. Best enjoyed on a wet, wintery afternoon in front of the fire with tea and crumpets.
😍😍😍😍😍
THE AUTHOR: Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned British author, translator, student of classical and modern languages, and Christian humanist.
Dorothy L. Sayers is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between World War I and World War II that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. However, Sayers herself considered her translation of Dante's Divina Commedia to be her best work. She is also known for her plays and essays.
DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by D. L. Sayers. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.
This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
June 10, 2016
Published in 1928 this Lord Peter Wimsey mystery is set around Remembrance Day. When Wimsey arrives at the Bellona Club he meets up with his friend, George Fentiman, who is a victim of poison gas and shell shock during the war. He admits to Lord Peter that he is struggling financially and is upset that he is dependent upon his wife Sheila going out to work. This novel sees Lord Peter Wimsey, and author Dorothy L. Sayers, in a much more reflective mood. There is an obvious distance between the generations – as George Fentiman struggles with the post-war world, both his brother Robert and his grandfather, General Fentiman, see the war as something to be celebrated and the elderly General perceives George’s problems as weakness.
When the elderly general is found dead in his armchair at the club, there is an attempt to contact his estranged sister, Lady Dormer. However, it is discovered that, not only had she also died, but the two met on Lady Dormer’s deathbed only the evening before. Solicitor Mr Murbles asks Lord Peter to investigate which of them died first; as the terms of Lady Dormer’s will mean that if she died first, Robert and George Fentiman will inherit a fortune. However, if General Fentiman died first, the money will go to Ann Dorland, a distant relative of Lady Dormer, who acted as her companion.
Of course, what begins as a simple investigation to discover the time of General Fentiman’s death becomes a much more involved and complicated affair. There are mysterious sightings of someone who may be able to clarify the matter, chases across the Continent, wonderful detours into some of the popular fads of the period, and even an exhumation, before Lord Peter, along with his detective-inspector friend Charles Parker, discover the truth.
This is a well plotted and interesting novel – clearly showing how the WWI veterans are viewed by the older generation and highlighting the staid, unsympathetic opinions of the elderly, ex-military members who make up the majority of the gentleman’s club. They are a generation separated by a new kind of warfare and perfectly capture the truth that the generation gap is by no means a new experience. I love Dorothy L. Sayers novels and Lord Peter Wimsey is one of my favourite fictional sleuths. This is a wonderful glimpse into a vanished world, as well as a fascinating mystery.
When the elderly general is found dead in his armchair at the club, there is an attempt to contact his estranged sister, Lady Dormer. However, it is discovered that, not only had she also died, but the two met on Lady Dormer’s deathbed only the evening before. Solicitor Mr Murbles asks Lord Peter to investigate which of them died first; as the terms of Lady Dormer’s will mean that if she died first, Robert and George Fentiman will inherit a fortune. However, if General Fentiman died first, the money will go to Ann Dorland, a distant relative of Lady Dormer, who acted as her companion.
Of course, what begins as a simple investigation to discover the time of General Fentiman’s death becomes a much more involved and complicated affair. There are mysterious sightings of someone who may be able to clarify the matter, chases across the Continent, wonderful detours into some of the popular fads of the period, and even an exhumation, before Lord Peter, along with his detective-inspector friend Charles Parker, discover the truth.
This is a well plotted and interesting novel – clearly showing how the WWI veterans are viewed by the older generation and highlighting the staid, unsympathetic opinions of the elderly, ex-military members who make up the majority of the gentleman’s club. They are a generation separated by a new kind of warfare and perfectly capture the truth that the generation gap is by no means a new experience. I love Dorothy L. Sayers novels and Lord Peter Wimsey is one of my favourite fictional sleuths. This is a wonderful glimpse into a vanished world, as well as a fascinating mystery.
October 1, 2025
Some of the things to be admired about Sayers's writing are it's quality & how she does such great worldbuilding.
In this book, the 5th in the Lord Peter Wimsey detective series & first published in 1928, I learnt more about shell-shock & I was surprised how very sympathetic most of the characters were to victims of it. I've now done a bit of (superficial) reading, & eventually shell-shock victims were expected to 'snap out of it.' but certainly Sayers shows compassion through her characters.
This book gets right into the action concerning a very puzzling death in the hallowed sanctuary of the Bellona Club & has a very satisfying solution. While some of the plot rambled a bit, it never lost me completely & I think this is one of the best Wimsey books I've read so far.
I read this novel & After the Funeral very close together. As much as I love Sayers, I do think Christie at her best often has her beat, but Sayers (so far) has never got as bad as Christie at her worst.
I am enjoying this reading journey!
In this book, the 5th in the Lord Peter Wimsey detective series & first published in 1928, I learnt more about shell-shock & I was surprised how very sympathetic most of the characters were to victims of it. I've now done a bit of (superficial) reading, & eventually shell-shock victims were expected to 'snap out of it.' but certainly Sayers shows compassion through her characters.
This book gets right into the action concerning a very puzzling death in the hallowed sanctuary of the Bellona Club & has a very satisfying solution. While some of the plot rambled a bit, it never lost me completely & I think this is one of the best Wimsey books I've read so far.
I read this novel & After the Funeral very close together. As much as I love Sayers, I do think Christie at her best often has her beat, but Sayers (so far) has never got as bad as Christie at her worst.
I am enjoying this reading journey!
January 27, 2018
I should disclaim that I Iistened to the BBC radio dramatization of this on my commutes rather than read it. (For those thinking about doing the same: Each of the stories in the collection is around about three hours to listen to, so time your own commute out accordingly.)
And really, the story is pretty perfect for the medium. Sayers’ stories are generally heavy on talk anyway, and the very few action scenes that are required are amply taken care of by someone banging on the walls, creaking a door or producing a gunshot in the distance. Ian Carmichael’s voice and cheeri-frightfully-ho-and-all-that* attack at the dialogue is very much perfection, though I almost wish he went farther with it for maximum judge-me-at-your-peril effect. The story itself was compelling in that while I guessed who was guilty relatively early on, I did *not* guess who was innocent, and that was a lovely surprise. I also appreciate that Sayers found a way to structure her story so as to use it as a reminder of an ongoing issue at the time: Men living with cases of shell-shock years and years after the Great War. Listening to the way it was handled by the gruff, privileged Englishmen who populate this story was actually unexpectedly affecting.
The next in the collection is Strong Poison, and I’m very curious to see if I like it any better in radio version than I did in print.
*an excellently self-explanatory bit of throwaway of Sayers’ that I will now use as a characterization tool forever, by the way, to introduce men of a certain type.
And really, the story is pretty perfect for the medium. Sayers’ stories are generally heavy on talk anyway, and the very few action scenes that are required are amply taken care of by someone banging on the walls, creaking a door or producing a gunshot in the distance. Ian Carmichael’s voice and cheeri-frightfully-ho-and-all-that* attack at the dialogue is very much perfection, though I almost wish he went farther with it for maximum judge-me-at-your-peril effect. The story itself was compelling in that while I guessed who was guilty relatively early on, I did *not* guess who was innocent, and that was a lovely surprise. I also appreciate that Sayers found a way to structure her story so as to use it as a reminder of an ongoing issue at the time: Men living with cases of shell-shock years and years after the Great War. Listening to the way it was handled by the gruff, privileged Englishmen who populate this story was actually unexpectedly affecting.
The next in the collection is Strong Poison, and I’m very curious to see if I like it any better in radio version than I did in print.
*an excellently self-explanatory bit of throwaway of Sayers’ that I will now use as a characterization tool forever, by the way, to introduce men of a certain type.
September 17, 2017
This is the book where Sayers starts to hit her stride with Lord Peter. He is suddenly beginning to look like a fully fleshed out man, perceptive, subtly hard-edged, sometimes silly, and thoroughly likable. The mystery gives us a chance to see him puzzle out two different puzzles while watching him measure up people. I like how Sayers throws social commentary around artfully. She never preaches, but I always find myself nodding along, wondering why I didn't think of that. The reason I didn't is that I am not the inimitable Dorothy Sayers. What a class of writers those Oxford Christians were!
January 7, 2011
On the surface, a pleasant puzzle-piecey little murder mystery, with Peter bounding here and there, declaiming and detectiving his way to an answer. But under that . . . yikes. What an uncomfortable book, with people turning and twisting and snagging on each other like brambles on silk. Everyone stuck inside a little box called marriage or poverty or shell shock or police rules. This book is all tight spaces – the badly lit veteran’s club, the body crammed up tight in the phone box, the stifling social scene. There’s something bitter and angry down deep here, something peculiarly postwar and female and stuck in a way I can’t put my finger more precisely on.
And then the little cut of the title, because of course we wouldn’t want anything unpleasant to happen, no no, particularly not to the soldiers who made it home alive, the lucky ones who are clearly and absolutely fine now.
Eek.
And then the little cut of the title, because of course we wouldn’t want anything unpleasant to happen, no no, particularly not to the soldiers who made it home alive, the lucky ones who are clearly and absolutely fine now.
Eek.
March 3, 2023
I'm glad I persevered with Lord Peter Wimsey, the first three books being just so-so for me, but this one was clever and witty. I think the relationship between Charles Parker, Scotland Yard detective, and Lord Peter is developing quite nicely. There were many twists and turns, and I followed several rabbit trails, but ultimately had it figured out before the final unpleasantness. Looking forward to the next book!
May 1, 2012
Where I got the book: my bookshelf. A re-read.
I have grown to love this Lord Peter Wimsey mystery because of its somberness, although I remember that when I first read it as a teen I found it uninteresting. Amazing how history (and, therefore, literature) becomes more complex and interesting as you age. The mystery LPW is called on to investigate is the time of death of ancient, doddery General Fentiman, which will make a big financial difference to one or more of three potential heirs. Of course things turn out to be way more complicated than the natural death of a very old soldier...
This novel is set against the background of the aftermath of World War I, hence its more realistic, sober tone than the earlier novels. LPW comes very well out of this book, with far fewer fantastic speeches or superhuman feats of everything than some of the Wimsey novels are prone to. I feel, though, that the writing's a little rougher than usual, as if Sayers were on a short deadline.
Another thing that struck me this time round (and I may be completely wrong) is that Ann Dorland, one of the heirs and thus a potential suspect, was a prototype of Harriet Vane, who will turn up in the next novel as LPW's love interest. Ann is an unhappy woman because she's been crossed in love, is a murder suspect but underneath it all (as LPW tells her) is a fine person with good taste. Does that sound familiar, Wimsey fans? Can't help thinking that at some point Sayers thought "hey, there's a little spark there. I could develop it for the next novel".
A good mystery, of course: Sayers is nothing if not ingenious (although this is two times in quick succession that the victim has been an elderly person who would soon die anyway...) But it's the brooding, foggy feel of the book that really gives it its worth. Even Parker (inside whose head we dwell rather disconcertingly at times) seems to be permanently depressed, and the end of the book sort of drifts off into the mist. One to read by a cheerful log fire with a glass of old brandy...
I have grown to love this Lord Peter Wimsey mystery because of its somberness, although I remember that when I first read it as a teen I found it uninteresting. Amazing how history (and, therefore, literature) becomes more complex and interesting as you age. The mystery LPW is called on to investigate is the time of death of ancient, doddery General Fentiman, which will make a big financial difference to one or more of three potential heirs. Of course things turn out to be way more complicated than the natural death of a very old soldier...
This novel is set against the background of the aftermath of World War I, hence its more realistic, sober tone than the earlier novels. LPW comes very well out of this book, with far fewer fantastic speeches or superhuman feats of everything than some of the Wimsey novels are prone to. I feel, though, that the writing's a little rougher than usual, as if Sayers were on a short deadline.
Another thing that struck me this time round (and I may be completely wrong) is that Ann Dorland, one of the heirs and thus a potential suspect, was a prototype of Harriet Vane, who will turn up in the next novel as LPW's love interest. Ann is an unhappy woman because she's been crossed in love, is a murder suspect but underneath it all (as LPW tells her) is a fine person with good taste. Does that sound familiar, Wimsey fans? Can't help thinking that at some point Sayers thought "hey, there's a little spark there. I could develop it for the next novel".
A good mystery, of course: Sayers is nothing if not ingenious (although this is two times in quick succession that the victim has been an elderly person who would soon die anyway...) But it's the brooding, foggy feel of the book that really gives it its worth. Even Parker (inside whose head we dwell rather disconcertingly at times) seems to be permanently depressed, and the end of the book sort of drifts off into the mist. One to read by a cheerful log fire with a glass of old brandy...
May 3, 2016
3.5
I can't help but be amused by that understatement in the title. I love it.
A Crimean War veteran, General Fentiman, died in his chair at the Bellona Club. Lord Peter Wimsey is there too. Since the general was very old, nobody asks any questions. Well, not until they realize it is very important to know the exact time of the general's death because of a surprising inheritance.
Next thing you know, any other weird things pile up and Lord Wimsey is asked to find out the exact time of the man's death. It isn't as easy as it sounds though.
I can't say too much about the plot nor about the things I liked (so as not to spoil it). There are certain social issues pointed out regarding war veterans, women and their rights, desires and opportunities and so on. None of this is in your face. You have to work for it - a sentence here, a remark there.
This book never leaves the protagonist the way the third book, Unnatural Death, did (one of the reasons I disliked it so much). There are q couple of surprises too. You may think where the author is leading us, but I wouldn't count on it.
Lord Peter Wimsey is one of my favourite amateur investigators.
I can't help but be amused by that understatement in the title. I love it.
A Crimean War veteran, General Fentiman, died in his chair at the Bellona Club. Lord Peter Wimsey is there too. Since the general was very old, nobody asks any questions. Well, not until they realize it is very important to know the exact time of the general's death because of a surprising inheritance.
Next thing you know, any other weird things pile up and Lord Wimsey is asked to find out the exact time of the man's death. It isn't as easy as it sounds though.
I can't say too much about the plot nor about the things I liked (so as not to spoil it). There are certain social issues pointed out regarding war veterans, women and their rights, desires and opportunities and so on. None of this is in your face. You have to work for it - a sentence here, a remark there.
This book never leaves the protagonist the way the third book, Unnatural Death, did (one of the reasons I disliked it so much). There are q couple of surprises too. You may think where the author is leading us, but I wouldn't count on it.
Lord Peter Wimsey is one of my favourite amateur investigators.
December 7, 2022
One observation to accompany the positive rating: In contrast to most other Golden Age mystery authors, Dorothy Sayers invariably addresses some social or cultural issue in her books. In this case it is shell shock, or PTSD as we would call it today. This is not a new topic for her; Wimsey himself is periodically haunted by the echoes of trench warfare.
But in Unpleasantness, Sayers presents a more fully developed picture of the lasting impact of the horrors of WWI on one of the main characters. That element grounds this book and raises it above the level of frothy nonsense.
But in Unpleasantness, Sayers presents a more fully developed picture of the lasting impact of the horrors of WWI on one of the main characters. That element grounds this book and raises it above the level of frothy nonsense.
August 30, 2023
This is entry #5 in the Lord Peter Wimsey series and is one of my two favorites, the other being Murder Must Advertise.
It is an odd little tale of an aged brother and sister whose wills depended on who died first as to who receives their considerable fortunes.....except it appears that they died on the same day. Enter Lord Peter to try his hand at pinning down the times of death. But there is more here than meets the eye as something does not look quite right about the old gentleman's death which takes place at one of Lord Peter's club, the Bellona. Soon the police get involved and Lord Peter, working with his future brother-in-law, Parker, start putting together a scenario but don't agree on the guilty party who may have hasted the old gentleman's death. You may figure it out about 2/3 of the way through but it still holds your attention and is Sayers at her best.
It is an odd little tale of an aged brother and sister whose wills depended on who died first as to who receives their considerable fortunes.....except it appears that they died on the same day. Enter Lord Peter to try his hand at pinning down the times of death. But there is more here than meets the eye as something does not look quite right about the old gentleman's death which takes place at one of Lord Peter's club, the Bellona. Soon the police get involved and Lord Peter, working with his future brother-in-law, Parker, start putting together a scenario but don't agree on the guilty party who may have hasted the old gentleman's death. You may figure it out about 2/3 of the way through but it still holds your attention and is Sayers at her best.
August 16, 2018
Engaging and SO, SO English of this period. It's the men's club and there's an elder's death. But when did he die. It's pivotal to an inheritance to prove exactly when. Minutes may count as fortune. He was seated there for hours!
This was one of the few I read back in the day. It's just as good now. And so very, very Lord Peter Wimsey in language. Some of the conversations have the cadence of a two or three sided octave refrain chorus plus an accompanied dance.
It displays Sayers in her most discerning mood to nuance of that changing time after a type of war that never was before. Incredible that she grasped so many men's cognition and feeling for "then". It's a glimpse into a world that no longer exists too.
This was one of the few I read back in the day. It's just as good now. And so very, very Lord Peter Wimsey in language. Some of the conversations have the cadence of a two or three sided octave refrain chorus plus an accompanied dance.
It displays Sayers in her most discerning mood to nuance of that changing time after a type of war that never was before. Incredible that she grasped so many men's cognition and feeling for "then". It's a glimpse into a world that no longer exists too.
March 8, 2013
Very convenient time for me to review my first novel by Dorothy Sayers. During [US] Womens History Month and on International Womens Day.
While this is not my first mystery story I ever read it is the first mystery novel. I had read some Sherlock Holmes stories in school and I was have read the Poe detective stories (which I am procrastinating on reviewing at the moment) but never a detective story in novel form. I have to say that I don't think I could have found a more interesting character than this.
Lord Peter Wimsey is a...Lord (I'm guessing hereditary peer) and WWI veteran who takes up solving crimes for a living. Not usually what early 20th century nobles did but he seems to have a knack for it. He's well aware of literary characters like Holmes and he has no trouble referencing them. But what makes Lord Peter stand apart to me is that he is more likable and cooler without seeming too obnoxious.
My trouble with mystery stories is that they always struggle to grab my attention for long. I have tried again and again to read The Hound of the Baskervilles but have never made it past the third or forth chapter. Here it is something different it is a setting that is aware but not overly smug. There is a humor and emotional depth to Peter Wimsey and his allies...
That is another thing that I like. Unlike in other detective stories, the main protagonist isn't the only character that is allowed to be right or competent or even semi-literate and that really pleased me. I get tired of an author trying to show that their pet character is so great by making all the side characters and friends of the [main] character functionally retarded. Sayers takes great pain not to do that and this adds a realism to the characters and a humanity to the plot [and author]. Many of the co-protagonists, but especially Charles Parker the inspector-general, are actually really good at their job and accomplish a lot in helping solve the mystery. They might not always be 100% right (and this case they're not) but they are respectable characters.
Now of course what makes Lord Peter Wimsey the main protagonist is that he is ALWAYS two moves ahead of everyone else in the story. At times it feels like even the narrator is trying to catch up with him and it makes for good reading as you are trying to guess ahead of the protagonists only to find out that Lord Peter is still ahead of you. This is a testament to how well Sayers wrote him and the story and when you see how well Wimsey can pull off a gambit it puts you head first in the story.
Well this is the first but not last Peter Wimsey I will be reading as I have been told that from here it really takes off into some Sayers' best mystery writing.
While this is not my first mystery story I ever read it is the first mystery novel. I had read some Sherlock Holmes stories in school and I was have read the Poe detective stories (which I am procrastinating on reviewing at the moment) but never a detective story in novel form. I have to say that I don't think I could have found a more interesting character than this.
Lord Peter Wimsey is a...Lord (I'm guessing hereditary peer) and WWI veteran who takes up solving crimes for a living. Not usually what early 20th century nobles did but he seems to have a knack for it. He's well aware of literary characters like Holmes and he has no trouble referencing them. But what makes Lord Peter stand apart to me is that he is more likable and cooler without seeming too obnoxious.
My trouble with mystery stories is that they always struggle to grab my attention for long. I have tried again and again to read The Hound of the Baskervilles but have never made it past the third or forth chapter. Here it is something different it is a setting that is aware but not overly smug. There is a humor and emotional depth to Peter Wimsey and his allies...
That is another thing that I like. Unlike in other detective stories, the main protagonist isn't the only character that is allowed to be right or competent or even semi-literate and that really pleased me. I get tired of an author trying to show that their pet character is so great by making all the side characters and friends of the [main] character functionally retarded. Sayers takes great pain not to do that and this adds a realism to the characters and a humanity to the plot [and author]. Many of the co-protagonists, but especially Charles Parker the inspector-general, are actually really good at their job and accomplish a lot in helping solve the mystery. They might not always be 100% right (and this case they're not) but they are respectable characters.
Now of course what makes Lord Peter Wimsey the main protagonist is that he is ALWAYS two moves ahead of everyone else in the story. At times it feels like even the narrator is trying to catch up with him and it makes for good reading as you are trying to guess ahead of the protagonists only to find out that Lord Peter is still ahead of you. This is a testament to how well Sayers wrote him and the story and when you see how well Wimsey can pull off a gambit it puts you head first in the story.
Well this is the first but not last Peter Wimsey I will be reading as I have been told that from here it really takes off into some Sayers' best mystery writing.
March 2, 2015
It’s fortunate for me that these books are so familiar to me by now, because I got distracted by other books in the middle of this. It’s not my favourite of the bunch, which helps to explain why; I do like the conflicts between Parker and Peter that’re brought out by the nature of the story, the awkwardness between them as Peter has to suspect one of his own friends. That’s perhaps the best part of this: the characterisations of those two as they try to balance friendship and duty; Peter’s struggle with himself and his own honesty.
The ending is one of those awfully convenient, gentlemanly ones where Peter could bring the person to trial, etc, etc, and then warns them and offers them suicide instead. I can never quite decide what I think about those endings: they give Peter a kind of out, so that he doesn’t have to do the ungentlemanly thing. Which is a bit unfair, really.
The ending is one of those awfully convenient, gentlemanly ones where Peter could bring the person to trial, etc, etc, and then warns them and offers them suicide instead. I can never quite decide what I think about those endings: they give Peter a kind of out, so that he doesn’t have to do the ungentlemanly thing. Which is a bit unfair, really.
March 24, 2024
Who Would Have Thought the Old Man to Have Had So Much Trouble-Making in Him?
When the nonagenarian General Fentiman is found dead in his preferred armchair in the Bellona Club, nobody is really surprised because the old man had serious heart problems. However, the exact time of his passing all of a sudden becomes an important question because his sister Lady Dormer, a wealthy widow, died on the same day, and since she had made a rather complicated will, the order of these two deaths now decides whether the bulk of her money goes to Ann Dorland, a young woman Lady Dormer had seen as a kind of daughter, or to Robert and George Fentiman, the two grand-children of General Fentiman. As George Fentiman and Lord Peter are chums, and both have seen and suffered from the atrocities of World War I, Peter gives in to the lawyer Murbles’s request to look more closely into the demise of the general and to try and get more evidence as to its exact hour.
It is then that certain inconsistencies which have been jarring on Wimsey from the start take on a more concrete shape in his mind, for example the matter of one of the old man’s knee joints, which was flexible before the effect of rigor mortis had quite passed off from the upper parts of the body. Very soon, Lord Peter also comes to the conclusion, aided on by Dr. Penberthy, who gave the certificate of death and who also has his second thoughts, that the old man was deliberately poisoned, and that things look very bad for George Fentiman. However, and here comes in my favourite quotation from the book,
In The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Dorothy L. Sayers not only lays out a very clever plot with lots of red herrings, but she also paints a colourful picture of her day and age, for example when she makes fun of peculiar theories that are fashionable in the upper classes: Here it is Dr. Penberthy who thinks that glands are the key to human behaviour and that by treating them accordingly, one could root out crime completely from society – and who has managed to collect quite a following for his theories with a view to building a clinic. What a glandiose undertaking! On a more serious note, we also get insight into the devastations the War left in even those young men who managed to survive it: Like Lord Peter, Captain George Fentiman suffers from recurrent spells of shell shock, and the experiences he had unbalanced him so much that he has not yet found his solid footing in everyday life, feeling guilty and angry because it is his wife Sheila who brings the money home whereas he himself has been a failure since the ending of the war. To make matters worse, his brother, Major Robert, who never saw the misery of the battlegrounds, and his grandfather, whose active heyday as a military man was during the Crimean War, regard George’s mental issues as a sign of the young generation’s lack of grit and gumption, which does not help improve George’s general mood at all.
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club also sheds a rather bleak light on marriage and relations between the sexes, although Sayers often does this tongue-in-cheek, as, for instance, here:
Of course, we cannot expect Lord Peter to solve every mystery there is, not even with the help of his creator.
When the nonagenarian General Fentiman is found dead in his preferred armchair in the Bellona Club, nobody is really surprised because the old man had serious heart problems. However, the exact time of his passing all of a sudden becomes an important question because his sister Lady Dormer, a wealthy widow, died on the same day, and since she had made a rather complicated will, the order of these two deaths now decides whether the bulk of her money goes to Ann Dorland, a young woman Lady Dormer had seen as a kind of daughter, or to Robert and George Fentiman, the two grand-children of General Fentiman. As George Fentiman and Lord Peter are chums, and both have seen and suffered from the atrocities of World War I, Peter gives in to the lawyer Murbles’s request to look more closely into the demise of the general and to try and get more evidence as to its exact hour.
It is then that certain inconsistencies which have been jarring on Wimsey from the start take on a more concrete shape in his mind, for example the matter of one of the old man’s knee joints, which was flexible before the effect of rigor mortis had quite passed off from the upper parts of the body. Very soon, Lord Peter also comes to the conclusion, aided on by Dr. Penberthy, who gave the certificate of death and who also has his second thoughts, that the old man was deliberately poisoned, and that things look very bad for George Fentiman. However, and here comes in my favourite quotation from the book,
”Wimsey might wash his hands, but, like Pontius Pilate, he found society irrationally determined to connect him with an irritating and unsatisfactory case.”
In The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Dorothy L. Sayers not only lays out a very clever plot with lots of red herrings, but she also paints a colourful picture of her day and age, for example when she makes fun of peculiar theories that are fashionable in the upper classes: Here it is Dr. Penberthy who thinks that glands are the key to human behaviour and that by treating them accordingly, one could root out crime completely from society – and who has managed to collect quite a following for his theories with a view to building a clinic. What a glandiose undertaking! On a more serious note, we also get insight into the devastations the War left in even those young men who managed to survive it: Like Lord Peter, Captain George Fentiman suffers from recurrent spells of shell shock, and the experiences he had unbalanced him so much that he has not yet found his solid footing in everyday life, feeling guilty and angry because it is his wife Sheila who brings the money home whereas he himself has been a failure since the ending of the war. To make matters worse, his brother, Major Robert, who never saw the misery of the battlegrounds, and his grandfather, whose active heyday as a military man was during the Crimean War, regard George’s mental issues as a sign of the young generation’s lack of grit and gumption, which does not help improve George’s general mood at all.
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club also sheds a rather bleak light on marriage and relations between the sexes, although Sayers often does this tongue-in-cheek, as, for instance, here:
”’It always gives me the pip,’ said Wimsey, ‘to see how rude people are when they’re married. I suppose it’s inevitable. Women are funny. They don’t seem to care half so much about a man’s being honest and faithful […] as for their opening doors and saying “thank you”. I’ve noticed it lots of times.’
‘A man ought to be just as courteous after marriage as he was before,’ declared Robert Fentiman virtuously.
‘So he ought, but he never is. Possibly, there’s some reason we don’t know about,’ said Wimsey. ‘I’ve asked people, you know – my usual inquisitiveness – and they generally just grunt and say that their wives are sensible and take their affection for granted. But I don’t believe women ever get sensible, not even through prolonged association with their husbands.’
The two bachelors wagged their heads solemnly.”
Of course, we cannot expect Lord Peter to solve every mystery there is, not even with the help of his creator.
Read
December 7, 20253.5 stars
as always, i am deeply fascinated by how sayers approaches her era's pressing issues through the medium of needlessly convoluted detective fiction. this time it was the double whammy of the complex aftermath of the Great War and, of course, Women These Days™.
these two topics are (in part) examined though the character of captain george fentiman, a young man who came back from the war with chronic health issues due to gas poisoning, so he was invalided out of his job, and now he and his wife live on his wife's earnings. She is A WOMAN who has to HAVE A JOB bcs her husband CAN'T PROVIDE FOR HER and they LIVE IN A HOVEL with ONLY A CHARWOMAN for domestic assistance and they have A SURLY LANDLADY!!! (the capitalization is my attempt at a george fentiman impression.) their reduced circumstances (and the emasculating indignity of having to rely on his wife for financial support) make george a terrible, belittling, endlessly berrating husband. there is one chapter in particular which is SUCH a well observed example of a marital dynamic based on strict gender roles and toxic masculinity that i lowkey had to take a break bcs it was giving me flashbacks hhhh good job dorothy i guess!!
from my point of view as a contemporary reader, there is really no nuance to be had here - trying as george's circumstances might be to someone of his station and upbringing, there is no excuse for verbal marital abuse. and reading the novel, you do get the sense that the narrator agrees...but interestingly, peter does not! that is to say, he considers george's behavior bad form and wishes that he treated his wife better, but at the end of the day he still really likes him and finds excuses for him! and i find that fascinating, bcs it's such a good illustration of a really thorny aspect of sayers' writing - her good-ish guy protagonist. by good-ish, i mean that peter (and parker, when the narrative voice is following him in close third person) *is* for the vast majority of the book a good egg. he is honest, polite, cares about justice, strives to be kind, etc. but he can at times also say things that are incredibly classist and sexist. and since one of peter's best and most entertaining qualities is that he is incredibly socially adept, it is really difficult for me to say when he MEANS it, and when he is merely angling for information or yes- anding for sheer love of the game. on the one hand this is a core character trait (peter often flippantly observes how his friends despair because he can never be completely serious), but on the other hand it makes for a very interesting reading experience, because you do find yourself loving him and fully supporting him...until he pulls you up short by saying something awful *that you can't even be sure he means*!!! like at this point i think you can go full death of the author, it doesn't really matter what dorothy sayers thought about flapper girls or premarital sex and how that bleeds into the narrative, because you can't even pin down what the protagonist thinks about these issues, even as he is discussing them on-page!
but when it comes to peter's feelings about george, i think this at least is relatively clear.
and i found this to be, again, such a brilliant observation of how people often talk about their friends who transgress, especially men about other men who have behaved poorly to women. after hearing george verbally abuse his wife, the brilliant and incisive lord peter just says "he's an awful pig, but i like him". GOD. and it really doesn't matter if you agree with peter here, or whether sayers agreed with peter. what matters is that this is actual human nature, observed in uncompromising detail, in a detective novel with at least 3 red herrings too many. and that's why dorothy sayers is a GOAT, even if i want to smack peter over the head at times.
Some other fun stuff and miscelanous impressions:
CHOICE QUOTES:
"And how are things going with you?" he asked.
"Oh, rotten as usual. Tummy all wrong and no money." - George Fentiman u r an asshole but u r so real for this.
"I find you refreshing, Wimsey," said Fentiman, languidly, "You are not in the least witty, but you have a kind of obvious facetiousness which reminds me of the less exacting class of music-hall." - it's true but you shouldn't say it!!!!
"Let us go at once. Really, this is most exciting. That is, I am profoundly grieved. I hope it is not as you say." - mr murbles ilysm
"Hallo, sir!" said his lordship, much amazed. "What's up?" - the 1920s jargon just cracks me up, especially when it turns out that some bits of it are today's jargon. and speaking of 1920s jargon...
"Oh, punk!" interrupted Robert rudely. "My old pals are none the worse because I did a little bit of self-help. I know fraud isn't altogether the clean potato, but, dash it all! surely we have a better right to the old boy's money than that girl. I bet she never did anything in the great war, Daddy." - this is adressing the family solicitor mr murbles. why he is suddenly Daddy, i do not know
"Anything does for these women, as long as it's new--especially if it's sexual. By the way, I don't intend to be sexual."
"Bless you for that."
the name "Waffles Newton"
"She was a sturdily-built girl, but moved with a langour distressing to watch--slouching, almost aggressively unalluring." - my favorite thing in the world is pulling up to the function looking aggressively unalluring
"Do you play chess?"
"No good at it. I like it--but I keep on thinking about the history of the various pieces, and the picturesqueness of the moves. So I get beaten." - Peter you are such a little guy!!! i want to keep you in a snowglobe!!
"He didn't care how I suffered."
"He was in a beast of a hole," said Wimsey, apologetically. "Mind you, it was a perfectly diabolical thing to do. I daresay he's feeling pretty rotten about it." - one thing about peter wimsey is he will be compassionate to a woman scorned and then defend the worst man in the world right to her face. incredible scenes. one does get the urge to shake the snowglobe violently. simply incredible how far his sympathy extends to men of his own social class and prior acquaintance. we are talking about a man who murdered a sickly old man over money and led a girl on for 2 years, also for money. "he was in a beast of a hole" HE JUST WANTED TO BE WEALTHY, PETER
NEW WORDS:
- parricide
- malacca
- clew as an alternate spelling for clue
- 'tec as a short form of detective
- sahib
- the submerged tenth
- epicene
- boodle
- to set the springe for one's woodcock
- acidulated
- I'll make a Martha of myself [in the Handmaid's Tale meaning of a Martha!!]
- housemaid's knee
- tippler
- paviour
- misere
- boiled shirt
RANDOM THOUGHTS:
- while i really appreciated the frank and compassionate depiction of a ptsd-related psychotic episode, it happened to george fentiman, my sworn nemesis. like i hate that the narrative made me sympathize with him, but again it is incredibly true to real life that the shittiest husband you know is going through a massive mental health crisis and really needs the support and understanding of the people around him. UGH!!
- peter visiting george and sheila fentiman and talking about his relationship to bunter as a rejoiner to their convo about their own marriage...oh how i love my ship. incredibly excited to meet harriet vane in the next book!! but peter/bunter will always have a special place in my heart
- peter and parker are kind of like psmith and mike??
- the whole convo between peter and his friend marjorie where he lets her down easy just gave of HUGE "making a pass at your gay friend" vibes. peter is just extremely bisexual to me. i can't explain it. if there is ever a new adaptation he needs to be textually bisexual. i think that would heal the world.
- mr murbles you will always be famous
- sally hardyyyyy!!! i desperately want a romance novel with salcombe hardy as the lead. he has such incredible potential!!!!
as always, i am deeply fascinated by how sayers approaches her era's pressing issues through the medium of needlessly convoluted detective fiction. this time it was the double whammy of the complex aftermath of the Great War and, of course, Women These Days™.
these two topics are (in part) examined though the character of captain george fentiman, a young man who came back from the war with chronic health issues due to gas poisoning, so he was invalided out of his job, and now he and his wife live on his wife's earnings. She is A WOMAN who has to HAVE A JOB bcs her husband CAN'T PROVIDE FOR HER and they LIVE IN A HOVEL with ONLY A CHARWOMAN for domestic assistance and they have A SURLY LANDLADY!!! (the capitalization is my attempt at a george fentiman impression.) their reduced circumstances (and the emasculating indignity of having to rely on his wife for financial support) make george a terrible, belittling, endlessly berrating husband. there is one chapter in particular which is SUCH a well observed example of a marital dynamic based on strict gender roles and toxic masculinity that i lowkey had to take a break bcs it was giving me flashbacks hhhh good job dorothy i guess!!
from my point of view as a contemporary reader, there is really no nuance to be had here - trying as george's circumstances might be to someone of his station and upbringing, there is no excuse for verbal marital abuse. and reading the novel, you do get the sense that the narrator agrees...but interestingly, peter does not! that is to say, he considers george's behavior bad form and wishes that he treated his wife better, but at the end of the day he still really likes him and finds excuses for him! and i find that fascinating, bcs it's such a good illustration of a really thorny aspect of sayers' writing - her good-ish guy protagonist. by good-ish, i mean that peter (and parker, when the narrative voice is following him in close third person) *is* for the vast majority of the book a good egg. he is honest, polite, cares about justice, strives to be kind, etc. but he can at times also say things that are incredibly classist and sexist. and since one of peter's best and most entertaining qualities is that he is incredibly socially adept, it is really difficult for me to say when he MEANS it, and when he is merely angling for information or yes- anding for sheer love of the game. on the one hand this is a core character trait (peter often flippantly observes how his friends despair because he can never be completely serious), but on the other hand it makes for a very interesting reading experience, because you do find yourself loving him and fully supporting him...until he pulls you up short by saying something awful *that you can't even be sure he means*!!! like at this point i think you can go full death of the author, it doesn't really matter what dorothy sayers thought about flapper girls or premarital sex and how that bleeds into the narrative, because you can't even pin down what the protagonist thinks about these issues, even as he is discussing them on-page!
but when it comes to peter's feelings about george, i think this at least is relatively clear.
"You've got rather a weakness for George Fentiman, have't you?"
"Yes--I like old George. He's an awful pig in some ways, but I quite like him."
and i found this to be, again, such a brilliant observation of how people often talk about their friends who transgress, especially men about other men who have behaved poorly to women. after hearing george verbally abuse his wife, the brilliant and incisive lord peter just says "he's an awful pig, but i like him". GOD. and it really doesn't matter if you agree with peter here, or whether sayers agreed with peter. what matters is that this is actual human nature, observed in uncompromising detail, in a detective novel with at least 3 red herrings too many. and that's why dorothy sayers is a GOAT, even if i want to smack peter over the head at times.
Some other fun stuff and miscelanous impressions:
CHOICE QUOTES:
"And how are things going with you?" he asked.
"Oh, rotten as usual. Tummy all wrong and no money." - George Fentiman u r an asshole but u r so real for this.
"I find you refreshing, Wimsey," said Fentiman, languidly, "You are not in the least witty, but you have a kind of obvious facetiousness which reminds me of the less exacting class of music-hall." - it's true but you shouldn't say it!!!!
"Let us go at once. Really, this is most exciting. That is, I am profoundly grieved. I hope it is not as you say." - mr murbles ilysm
"Hallo, sir!" said his lordship, much amazed. "What's up?" - the 1920s jargon just cracks me up, especially when it turns out that some bits of it are today's jargon. and speaking of 1920s jargon...
"Oh, punk!" interrupted Robert rudely. "My old pals are none the worse because I did a little bit of self-help. I know fraud isn't altogether the clean potato, but, dash it all! surely we have a better right to the old boy's money than that girl. I bet she never did anything in the great war, Daddy." - this is adressing the family solicitor mr murbles. why he is suddenly Daddy, i do not know
"Anything does for these women, as long as it's new--especially if it's sexual. By the way, I don't intend to be sexual."
"Bless you for that."
the name "Waffles Newton"
"She was a sturdily-built girl, but moved with a langour distressing to watch--slouching, almost aggressively unalluring." - my favorite thing in the world is pulling up to the function looking aggressively unalluring
"Do you play chess?"
"No good at it. I like it--but I keep on thinking about the history of the various pieces, and the picturesqueness of the moves. So I get beaten." - Peter you are such a little guy!!! i want to keep you in a snowglobe!!
"He didn't care how I suffered."
"He was in a beast of a hole," said Wimsey, apologetically. "Mind you, it was a perfectly diabolical thing to do. I daresay he's feeling pretty rotten about it." - one thing about peter wimsey is he will be compassionate to a woman scorned and then defend the worst man in the world right to her face. incredible scenes. one does get the urge to shake the snowglobe violently. simply incredible how far his sympathy extends to men of his own social class and prior acquaintance. we are talking about a man who murdered a sickly old man over money and led a girl on for 2 years, also for money. "he was in a beast of a hole" HE JUST WANTED TO BE WEALTHY, PETER
NEW WORDS:
- parricide
- malacca
- clew as an alternate spelling for clue
- 'tec as a short form of detective
- sahib
- the submerged tenth
- epicene
- boodle
- to set the springe for one's woodcock
- acidulated
- I'll make a Martha of myself [in the Handmaid's Tale meaning of a Martha!!]
- housemaid's knee
- tippler
- paviour
- misere
- boiled shirt
RANDOM THOUGHTS:
- while i really appreciated the frank and compassionate depiction of a ptsd-related psychotic episode, it happened to george fentiman, my sworn nemesis. like i hate that the narrative made me sympathize with him, but again it is incredibly true to real life that the shittiest husband you know is going through a massive mental health crisis and really needs the support and understanding of the people around him. UGH!!
- peter visiting george and sheila fentiman and talking about his relationship to bunter as a rejoiner to their convo about their own marriage...oh how i love my ship. incredibly excited to meet harriet vane in the next book!! but peter/bunter will always have a special place in my heart
- peter and parker are kind of like psmith and mike??
- the whole convo between peter and his friend marjorie where he lets her down easy just gave of HUGE "making a pass at your gay friend" vibes. peter is just extremely bisexual to me. i can't explain it. if there is ever a new adaptation he needs to be textually bisexual. i think that would heal the world.
- mr murbles you will always be famous
- sally hardyyyyy!!! i desperately want a romance novel with salcombe hardy as the lead. he has such incredible potential!!!!
August 7, 2011
Honestly, I've been reading all these Dorothy Sayers books in secret recently, but I can't hide it anymore. I have rigorously avoided mystery novels because my mother refuses to read any book that is not Jane Austen or a mystery penned by a woman. It's a family joke. We get her things outside the box: not interested. It's female flowering dogwoods, power-saws so she can do more home repair, and mystery novels by women. As a young reader I said: I will read theology, history, philosophy; I will not be pigeon-holed, so I'd better shy away from mysteries in case there's a genetic predisposition or something.
And now I've succumbed. I love Sayers. Like Tolkien, I draw the line at Harriet Vane, and yes "Wimsey" is so precious a name for a character that I feel mildly ill. Regardless of some of the adorableness, she's really a very fine writer. Her prose is marvelous and hilarious and each of the novels are distinct. Not just in plot, but in tone: from the ringing of the bells to the rapid-fire witticisms, each story seems to pull back a curtain and reveal a new aspect of Sayers. It was here, in The Unpleasantness that pity and love for ordinary messy human beings shined through. She's funny! And sort of sad! And Wimsey is an imperfect but lovable person, and damn all his detective brilliance! Sympathetic bad artists! Charming ancient assholes! Working women! I understand now. This is why my mom is so into re-reading the same mystery novels. Here is something I wanted to curl up with at night with a glass of port (and I've never had port) and yet moved me. Like an old friend with a murderous problem that I can watch with affection. I don't even know what I'm talking about now: I'm rendered inarticulate because I just want to finish up and rush back to bed with another Wimsey. Oh! Me! Dorothy! Ha!
And now I've succumbed. I love Sayers. Like Tolkien, I draw the line at Harriet Vane, and yes "Wimsey" is so precious a name for a character that I feel mildly ill. Regardless of some of the adorableness, she's really a very fine writer. Her prose is marvelous and hilarious and each of the novels are distinct. Not just in plot, but in tone: from the ringing of the bells to the rapid-fire witticisms, each story seems to pull back a curtain and reveal a new aspect of Sayers. It was here, in The Unpleasantness that pity and love for ordinary messy human beings shined through. She's funny! And sort of sad! And Wimsey is an imperfect but lovable person, and damn all his detective brilliance! Sympathetic bad artists! Charming ancient assholes! Working women! I understand now. This is why my mom is so into re-reading the same mystery novels. Here is something I wanted to curl up with at night with a glass of port (and I've never had port) and yet moved me. Like an old friend with a murderous problem that I can watch with affection. I don't even know what I'm talking about now: I'm rendered inarticulate because I just want to finish up and rush back to bed with another Wimsey. Oh! Me! Dorothy! Ha!
October 28, 2025
10/27/25;;; Yet another re-read of Bellona Club. Enjoyed it. Realized that I had forgotten much of it. Including who did what.
†*****‡*******************
This was a re-read. Not sure how many times. I couldn't locate my copy so I had .to get it from the library. When all else fails, try the library.
I remembered some of it. But definitely not the culprit.
It does involve some degree of what we now call PTSD, but was then called shell shocked, since almost everyone is a veteran of WWI. One of the suspects has a fair amount of trouble with it, can't earn a proper living for himself and has live off his wife, which kind of compunds his problems. And there is interior discussion for Wimsey, remembering when he had to check in somewhere to chill out.
As this book came out in 1928 this is something that would have spoken to the audience then. They were all getting over the war then. And the book begins on Armistice or Rememberance Day, so nerves would already have been on edge.
I haven't read any of the Wimsey stories for a while and so had forgotten how much I enjoyed them.
11/29/16 - another re-read. Very enjoyable.
†*****‡*******************
This was a re-read. Not sure how many times. I couldn't locate my copy so I had .to get it from the library. When all else fails, try the library.
I remembered some of it. But definitely not the culprit.
It does involve some degree of what we now call PTSD, but was then called shell shocked, since almost everyone is a veteran of WWI. One of the suspects has a fair amount of trouble with it, can't earn a proper living for himself and has live off his wife, which kind of compunds his problems. And there is interior discussion for Wimsey, remembering when he had to check in somewhere to chill out.
As this book came out in 1928 this is something that would have spoken to the audience then. They were all getting over the war then. And the book begins on Armistice or Rememberance Day, so nerves would already have been on edge.
I haven't read any of the Wimsey stories for a while and so had forgotten how much I enjoyed them.
11/29/16 - another re-read. Very enjoyable.
January 12, 2020
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club is a 1928 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her fourth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. This book was given a very good name for in the very first chapter of the book a dead body is found, and is found at the Bellona Club, and that makes things rather unpleasant for the club and the people in the club. We start with Lord Peter in the Club waiting to have dinner with Colonel Marchbanks, it says in the book that Colonel Marchbanks is the father of young Marchbanks who had been killed at Hill 60, and gives a small, informal dinner every Armistice night to his son's closest friends. That is why Lord Peter is there waiting for him, but what Hill 60 is, I didn't know and thought at first it must be some sort of mistake in the typing of the book. Then to solve the mystery of the hill anyway, I looked it up:
Hill 60 is a World War I battlefield memorial site and park in the Zwarteleen area of Zillebeke south of Ypres, Belgium. It is located about 4.6 kilometres (2.9 mi) from the centre of Ypres and directly on the railway line to Comines. Before World War I the hill was known locally as Côte des Amants (French for Lover's Knoll). The site comprises two areas of raised land separated by the railway line; the northern area was known by soldiers as Hill 60 while the southern part was known as The Caterpillar.
The Battle of Hill 60 (17 April – 7 May 1915) took place near Hill 60 south of Ypres on the Western Front, during the First World War. Hill 60 had been captured by the German 30th Division on 11 November 1914, during the First Battle of Ypres (19 October – 22 November 1914). Initial French preparations to raid the hill were continued by the British 28th Division, which took over the line in February 1915 and then by the 5th Division. The plan was expanded into an ambitious attempt to capture the hill, despite advice that Hill 60 could not be held unless the Caterpillar nearby was also occupied. It was found that Hill 60 was the only place in the area not waterlogged and a French 3 ft × 2 ft mine gallery was extended.
Experienced miners from Northumberland and Wales were recruited for the digging and the British attack began on 17 April 1915. The hill was captured quickly with only seven casualties but then it was found that the salient which had been created, made occupation of the hill very costly. Both sides mistakenly accused the other of using poison gas in the April fighting; German attacks on the hill in early May included the use of gas shells and the Germans recovered the ground at the second attempt on 5 May. It remained in German hands until the Battle of Messines in 1917, when two of the Mines in the Battle of Messines were detonated beneath Hill 60 and the Caterpillar.
That's the short version of the story, and that's where the make believe young Marchbanks died. So because of all this Lord Peter is in the club, this is rather important. While he waits he is talking with George Fentiman, this is also important. George has this to say about himself when asked how things are going:
‘Oh, rotten as usual. Tummy all wrong and no money. What’s the damn good of it, Wimsey? A man goes and fights for his country, gets his inside gassed out, and loses his job, and all they give him is the privilege of marching past the Cenotaph once a year and paying four shillings in the pound income tax. Sheila’s queer, too—overwork, poor girl. It’s pretty damnable for a man to have to live on his wife’s earnings, isn’t it? I can’t help it, Wimsey. I go sick and have to chuck jobs up. Money—I never thought of money before the War, but I swear nowadays I’d commit any damned crime to get hold of a decent income.’
There are an awful lot of people in these Lord Peter books who have been ruined in some way by war. Why don't we just quit having wars? I'll ponder that later. As Peter and George continue their discussion on the lack of money, the Colonel finally arrives. Before they can go have their dinner the Colonel spots George's grandfather sitting in his usual chair close to the huge fireplace. He tells them that he must go and speak to him and walks across the room. Although George continues his conversation, we're told Lord Peter is no longer listening:
He broke off. Wimsey was not paying attention. He was still watching Colonel Marchbanks.
The Colonel came back to them, walking very quietly and precisely. Wimsey rose and went to meet him.
‘I say, Peter,’ said the Colonel, his kind face gravely troubled, ‘just come over here a moment. I’m afraid something rather unpleasant has happened.’
Fentiman looked round, and something in their manner made him get up and follow them over to the fire.
Wimsey bent down over General Fentiman and drew the Morning Post gently away from the gnarled old hands, which lay clasped over the thin chest. He touched the shoulder—put his hand under the white head huddled against the side of the chair. The Colonel watched him anxiously. Then, with a quick jerk, Wimsey lifted the quiet figure. It came up all of a piece, stiff as a wooden doll.
Fentiman laughed. Peal after hysterical peal shook his throat. All round the room, scandalised Bellonians creaked to their gouty feet, shocked by the unmannerly noise.
‘Take him away!’ said Fentiman, ‘take him away. He’s been dead two days! So are you! So am I! We’re all dead and we never noticed it!’
His heart had finally "given out" of course, the man was over ninety. A natural death. Lord Peter shouldn't have given it another thought, but the next thing you know we are following him through the book trying to figure out just what did happen to the old man. Or at least what time he died which becomes very important. It appears quite the coincidence (or is it?) has occurred because when they call the poor General's sister with the news of the death, they find it impossible to deliver the news because the poor General's sister has just died that morning. So they both died the same morning which brings a mass of confusion into the story, I'll let General Fentiman's lawyer tell you and Lord Peter all about it:
‘A good many years before her death, Lady Dormer—who, as I said before, was an eminently generous-minded woman—made a will. Her husband and her daughter were then dead. Henry Dormer had few relations, and all of them were fairly wealthy people. By his own will he had sufficiently provided for these persons, and had left the remainder of his property, amounting to something like seven hundred thousand pounds, to his wife, with the express stipulation that she was to consider it as her own, to do what she liked with, without any restriction whatsoever. Accordingly, Lady Dormer’s will divided this very handsome fortune—apart from certain charitable and personal bequests with which I need not trouble you—between the people who, for one reason and another, had the greatest claims on her affection. Twelve thousand pounds were to go to Miss Ann Dorland. The whole of the remainder was to pass to her brother, General Fentiman, if he was still living at her death. If, on the other hand, he should predecease her, the conditions were reversed. In that case the bulk of the money came to Miss Dorland, and fifteen thousand pounds were to be equally divided between Major Robert Fentiman and his brother George.’
Wimsey whistled softly.
‘I quite agree with you,’ said Mr Murbles. ‘It is a most awkward situation. Lady Dormer died at precisely 10.37 a.m. on November 11th. General Fentiman died that same morning at some time, presumably after 10 o’clock, which was his usual hour for arriving at the Club, and certainly before 7 p.m., when his death was discovered. If he died immediately on his arrival, or at any time up to 10.36, then Miss Dorland is an important heiress, and my clients the Fentimans get only seven thousand pounds or so apiece. If, on the other hand, his death occurred even a few seconds after 10.37, Miss Dorland receives only twelve thousand pounds, George Fentiman is left with the small pittance bequeathed to him under his father’s will—while Robert Fentiman, the residuary legatee, inherits a very considerable fortune of well over half a million.’
‘And what,’ said Wimsey, ‘do you want me to do about it?’
He wants him to figure out who died first, that's what he wants him to do about it.
....it occurred to me that you, with your—if I may say so—remarkable powers of deduction and analysis, might be able to solve the extremely difficult and delicate problem of the precise moment of General Fentiman’s decease.
Lord Peter has to figure it out mostly because it's his story, what else would he do? It's not as easy as it sounds either. No one happened to see when the General arrived that morning, or when he left for the club, or when he left the club the night before, things like that. And who is Mr. Oliver anyway? That is where our dead General is supposed to have spent the night, but no one can find the guy to make sure. Very mysterious. And very unpleasant for the Bellona Club. And besides all this, if it was a natural death, why do they eventually dig up the body? Sounds more like a murder to me, of course anything involving Lord Peter does. I found the book quite pleasant. Happy reading.
Hill 60 is a World War I battlefield memorial site and park in the Zwarteleen area of Zillebeke south of Ypres, Belgium. It is located about 4.6 kilometres (2.9 mi) from the centre of Ypres and directly on the railway line to Comines. Before World War I the hill was known locally as Côte des Amants (French for Lover's Knoll). The site comprises two areas of raised land separated by the railway line; the northern area was known by soldiers as Hill 60 while the southern part was known as The Caterpillar.
The Battle of Hill 60 (17 April – 7 May 1915) took place near Hill 60 south of Ypres on the Western Front, during the First World War. Hill 60 had been captured by the German 30th Division on 11 November 1914, during the First Battle of Ypres (19 October – 22 November 1914). Initial French preparations to raid the hill were continued by the British 28th Division, which took over the line in February 1915 and then by the 5th Division. The plan was expanded into an ambitious attempt to capture the hill, despite advice that Hill 60 could not be held unless the Caterpillar nearby was also occupied. It was found that Hill 60 was the only place in the area not waterlogged and a French 3 ft × 2 ft mine gallery was extended.
Experienced miners from Northumberland and Wales were recruited for the digging and the British attack began on 17 April 1915. The hill was captured quickly with only seven casualties but then it was found that the salient which had been created, made occupation of the hill very costly. Both sides mistakenly accused the other of using poison gas in the April fighting; German attacks on the hill in early May included the use of gas shells and the Germans recovered the ground at the second attempt on 5 May. It remained in German hands until the Battle of Messines in 1917, when two of the Mines in the Battle of Messines were detonated beneath Hill 60 and the Caterpillar.
That's the short version of the story, and that's where the make believe young Marchbanks died. So because of all this Lord Peter is in the club, this is rather important. While he waits he is talking with George Fentiman, this is also important. George has this to say about himself when asked how things are going:
‘Oh, rotten as usual. Tummy all wrong and no money. What’s the damn good of it, Wimsey? A man goes and fights for his country, gets his inside gassed out, and loses his job, and all they give him is the privilege of marching past the Cenotaph once a year and paying four shillings in the pound income tax. Sheila’s queer, too—overwork, poor girl. It’s pretty damnable for a man to have to live on his wife’s earnings, isn’t it? I can’t help it, Wimsey. I go sick and have to chuck jobs up. Money—I never thought of money before the War, but I swear nowadays I’d commit any damned crime to get hold of a decent income.’
There are an awful lot of people in these Lord Peter books who have been ruined in some way by war. Why don't we just quit having wars? I'll ponder that later. As Peter and George continue their discussion on the lack of money, the Colonel finally arrives. Before they can go have their dinner the Colonel spots George's grandfather sitting in his usual chair close to the huge fireplace. He tells them that he must go and speak to him and walks across the room. Although George continues his conversation, we're told Lord Peter is no longer listening:
He broke off. Wimsey was not paying attention. He was still watching Colonel Marchbanks.
The Colonel came back to them, walking very quietly and precisely. Wimsey rose and went to meet him.
‘I say, Peter,’ said the Colonel, his kind face gravely troubled, ‘just come over here a moment. I’m afraid something rather unpleasant has happened.’
Fentiman looked round, and something in their manner made him get up and follow them over to the fire.
Wimsey bent down over General Fentiman and drew the Morning Post gently away from the gnarled old hands, which lay clasped over the thin chest. He touched the shoulder—put his hand under the white head huddled against the side of the chair. The Colonel watched him anxiously. Then, with a quick jerk, Wimsey lifted the quiet figure. It came up all of a piece, stiff as a wooden doll.
Fentiman laughed. Peal after hysterical peal shook his throat. All round the room, scandalised Bellonians creaked to their gouty feet, shocked by the unmannerly noise.
‘Take him away!’ said Fentiman, ‘take him away. He’s been dead two days! So are you! So am I! We’re all dead and we never noticed it!’
His heart had finally "given out" of course, the man was over ninety. A natural death. Lord Peter shouldn't have given it another thought, but the next thing you know we are following him through the book trying to figure out just what did happen to the old man. Or at least what time he died which becomes very important. It appears quite the coincidence (or is it?) has occurred because when they call the poor General's sister with the news of the death, they find it impossible to deliver the news because the poor General's sister has just died that morning. So they both died the same morning which brings a mass of confusion into the story, I'll let General Fentiman's lawyer tell you and Lord Peter all about it:
‘A good many years before her death, Lady Dormer—who, as I said before, was an eminently generous-minded woman—made a will. Her husband and her daughter were then dead. Henry Dormer had few relations, and all of them were fairly wealthy people. By his own will he had sufficiently provided for these persons, and had left the remainder of his property, amounting to something like seven hundred thousand pounds, to his wife, with the express stipulation that she was to consider it as her own, to do what she liked with, without any restriction whatsoever. Accordingly, Lady Dormer’s will divided this very handsome fortune—apart from certain charitable and personal bequests with which I need not trouble you—between the people who, for one reason and another, had the greatest claims on her affection. Twelve thousand pounds were to go to Miss Ann Dorland. The whole of the remainder was to pass to her brother, General Fentiman, if he was still living at her death. If, on the other hand, he should predecease her, the conditions were reversed. In that case the bulk of the money came to Miss Dorland, and fifteen thousand pounds were to be equally divided between Major Robert Fentiman and his brother George.’
Wimsey whistled softly.
‘I quite agree with you,’ said Mr Murbles. ‘It is a most awkward situation. Lady Dormer died at precisely 10.37 a.m. on November 11th. General Fentiman died that same morning at some time, presumably after 10 o’clock, which was his usual hour for arriving at the Club, and certainly before 7 p.m., when his death was discovered. If he died immediately on his arrival, or at any time up to 10.36, then Miss Dorland is an important heiress, and my clients the Fentimans get only seven thousand pounds or so apiece. If, on the other hand, his death occurred even a few seconds after 10.37, Miss Dorland receives only twelve thousand pounds, George Fentiman is left with the small pittance bequeathed to him under his father’s will—while Robert Fentiman, the residuary legatee, inherits a very considerable fortune of well over half a million.’
‘And what,’ said Wimsey, ‘do you want me to do about it?’
He wants him to figure out who died first, that's what he wants him to do about it.
....it occurred to me that you, with your—if I may say so—remarkable powers of deduction and analysis, might be able to solve the extremely difficult and delicate problem of the precise moment of General Fentiman’s decease.
Lord Peter has to figure it out mostly because it's his story, what else would he do? It's not as easy as it sounds either. No one happened to see when the General arrived that morning, or when he left for the club, or when he left the club the night before, things like that. And who is Mr. Oliver anyway? That is where our dead General is supposed to have spent the night, but no one can find the guy to make sure. Very mysterious. And very unpleasant for the Bellona Club. And besides all this, if it was a natural death, why do they eventually dig up the body? Sounds more like a murder to me, of course anything involving Lord Peter does. I found the book quite pleasant. Happy reading.
July 11, 2023
It's been at least several decades since I've read a Dorothy Sayers book. The yarn itself felt a little strange. There wasn't any significant foul language, the characters were well drawn, the pace was just right, and my interest never weaken. Then I realized that there was a lot more courtesy in this story than in many of the other books I've read since then. That courtesy and gentleness really surprised me.
August 6, 2011
A pretty well-done mystery, with lots of good twists and turns, but not quite up to the standard of Sayers' later novels. All the regulars are here: Mr. Murbles, Bunter, Charles Parker, and most delightfully, the man known as Waffles. As in her other early novels, the big theme of this one is post-World-War-I trauma, and the mystery centers on this concept. The body that Peter investigates was found on Armistice Day, which ends up being an important factor in the case.
Lord Peter is delightful as always, although I noted an unusually misogynist attitude in him at times. But this didn't even bother me, first because he has a very sweet conversation with a female suspect and is generally lovely, and also because this is the fifth Lord Peter mystery and that means that Harriet Vane is coming in the next book, and she is going to rock his world.
A Peter Wimsey mystery would not be complete without at least one delightfully clever exchange between two characters, and this book doesn't disappoint. Peter's artist friend Marjorie Phelps appears periodically throughout the book, and her conversations with Peter are always adorable. Here's a bit of one:
"[Marjorie]: 'What fun it will be. Where shall we run to?'
'How about starting to-night and getting as far as Oddenino's and going on to a show - if you're not doing anything?'
'You are a loveable man, and I shall call you Peter. Shall we see "Betwixt and Between"?'
'The thing they had such a job to get past the censor? Yes, if you like. Is it particularly obscene?'
'No, epicene, I fancy.'
'Oh, I see. Well, I'm quite agreeable. Only I warn you that I shall make a point of asking you the meaning of all the risky bits in a very audible voice.'
'That's your idea of amusement, is it?'
'Yes. It does make them so wild. People say "Hush!" and giggle, and if I'm lucky I end up with a gorgeous row in the bar.'"
Delightful, as always.
Lord Peter is delightful as always, although I noted an unusually misogynist attitude in him at times. But this didn't even bother me, first because he has a very sweet conversation with a female suspect and is generally lovely, and also because this is the fifth Lord Peter mystery and that means that Harriet Vane is coming in the next book, and she is going to rock his world.
A Peter Wimsey mystery would not be complete without at least one delightfully clever exchange between two characters, and this book doesn't disappoint. Peter's artist friend Marjorie Phelps appears periodically throughout the book, and her conversations with Peter are always adorable. Here's a bit of one:
"[Marjorie]: 'What fun it will be. Where shall we run to?'
'How about starting to-night and getting as far as Oddenino's and going on to a show - if you're not doing anything?'
'You are a loveable man, and I shall call you Peter. Shall we see "Betwixt and Between"?'
'The thing they had such a job to get past the censor? Yes, if you like. Is it particularly obscene?'
'No, epicene, I fancy.'
'Oh, I see. Well, I'm quite agreeable. Only I warn you that I shall make a point of asking you the meaning of all the risky bits in a very audible voice.'
'That's your idea of amusement, is it?'
'Yes. It does make them so wild. People say "Hush!" and giggle, and if I'm lucky I end up with a gorgeous row in the bar.'"
Delightful, as always.
March 21, 2013
Dorothy Sayers, in my opinion, is one of the major novelists from the golden age of detective authors in the 1920s and 1930s in the US but the best author has to be John Dickson Carr. His "Devil in Velvet" (time travel book regarding a pact with the devil) was sublime as were all of his other books, I believe that there were more than eighty, although the latter ones, in my opinion, were not so good.
Still Dorothy Sayers definitely deserves her place in history.
Still Dorothy Sayers definitely deserves her place in history.
February 12, 2020
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club was a much better installment than the preceding book in this series. Lord Peter Wimsey was getting a bit annoying in the last book but he really shined in this one - he was still witty, still irreverent but he kept his idiosyncrasies to a minimum so they were just funny and not grating. The mystery was multi-layered and kept me guessing but the ending was a bit jarring.
May 4, 2020
4.5*
2020 reread via audiobook narrated by Ian Carmichael:
Much of this 5th entry in the Lord Peter Wimsey series epitomizes Lord Peter's character and the reader sees once again the dilemma he faces between his desire to find out the truth versus his dislike of being responsible for what occurs as a result.
2020 reread via audiobook narrated by Ian Carmichael:
Much of this 5th entry in the Lord Peter Wimsey series epitomizes Lord Peter's character and the reader sees once again the dilemma he faces between his desire to find out the truth versus his dislike of being responsible for what occurs as a result.
Read
March 25, 20217.5/10
Much better than the others in the series I've read so far -- seems like it took Sayers awhile to hit her stride with Wimsey et al. It's become a good time-passer. Sometimes you just don't want to think about anything but want to watch the bouncing ball across the screen nonetheless.
Much better than the others in the series I've read so far -- seems like it took Sayers awhile to hit her stride with Wimsey et al. It's become a good time-passer. Sometimes you just don't want to think about anything but want to watch the bouncing ball across the screen nonetheless.
January 28, 2024
3.5/5
March 26, 2019
Lord Peter Whimsey is celebrating Armistice Day at the Bellona Club when an esteemed General is discovered to be quite dead in his chair; it is later revealed that his formerly estranged sister had passed earlier that day as well. Then the lawyers get involved, Peter is asked to investigate the hour of the General's death, and discovers MURDER, DUN DUN DUN.
1) This was...something. It felt slightly rote, almost? There were all these avenues that were almost introduced (Peter's reluctance to consider George as a suspect; his spats with Parker; the very real presence of shell-shock that never truly touches a character who has mentioned a history with it...) but none of them were examined or used to any great effectiveness. Everything is shallow and simple and neatly wrapped up by one tearful confession and an "honorable" confession.
It was rather dull.
2. I'm still reading the next one because rumor has it HARRIET but also because I do like Peter. I just didn't like this particular story.
3. The handling of all the primary suspects also felt more...brutish than I'm used to in these novels. I'm not sure what to make of it, but it's an observation I wanted to share?
4. Also that epilogue was something.
1) This was...something. It felt slightly rote, almost? There were all these avenues that were almost introduced (Peter's reluctance to consider George as a suspect; his spats with Parker; the very real presence of shell-shock that never truly touches a character who has mentioned a history with it...) but none of them were examined or used to any great effectiveness. Everything is shallow and simple and neatly wrapped up by one tearful confession and an "honorable" confession.
It was rather dull.
2. I'm still reading the next one because rumor has it HARRIET but also because I do like Peter. I just didn't like this particular story.
3. The handling of all the primary suspects also felt more...brutish than I'm used to in these novels. I'm not sure what to make of it, but it's an observation I wanted to share?
4. Also that epilogue was something.
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