Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey, #12) in Reading the Detectives

Oct 20, 2016 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This year I finally decided to read all of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels. I have read the first few many times, but, for whatever reason, I never continued the series. I have always heard that “Gaudy Night” was her best novel and so I was really intrigued to read this book and was interested to see how the character of Harriet Vane would develop. Indeed, Harriet is the central character in this novel, which sees her returning to Oxford, to attend the Shrewsbury Gaudy, after being invited by a fri This year I finally decided to read all of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels. I have read the first few many times, but, for whatever reason, I never continued the series. I have always heard that “Gaudy Night” was her best novel and so I was really intrigued to read this book and was interested to see how the character of Harriet Vane would develop. Indeed, Harriet is the central character in this novel, which sees her returning to Oxford, to attend the Shrewsbury Gaudy, after being invited by a friend who was about to go abroad for an operation.

Harriet always loved her time at Oxford, but was nervous about returning, especially after events covered in a previous book, where she was accused of killing a former lover. Gathering her courage, Harriet decides to go and actually enjoys her time there, although it is marred when she discovers an anonymous note which is less than flattering. Back in London she receives a letter from the Dean, inviting her to the opening of a new library wing and mentioning that the college has had an outbreak of a poltergeist and a poison pen writer; suggesting that Harriet’s own note was not a one off.

When Harriet returns to the cloistered world of academia and the women’s college she previously studied at, it is clear that things are not well. Someone is mischief making and, before long, Harriet wishes she could consult Peter – who is away in Europe, dealing with the difficult political situation unravelling abroad. This novel reminded me a little of Nicholas Blake’s, “Malice in Wonderland,” which also involves a prankster (although set in an early holiday camp, rather than a fictitious Oxford college), whose tricks gradually gets more and more out of hand. Like this, that novel is set in the 1930’s, with the threat of war as an undercurrent and, like this, the novel also features crimes which are not the usual murders and mayhem, but are unpleasant nonetheless.

Although this is not a traditional murder mystery, I found this a really riveting read. I thought the insight into how women’s education was viewed between the wars very interesting; either the women were seen as unnatural or they were viewed with a benign tolerance. Likewise, this is the novel where the relationship between Harriet and Peter changes, which is obviously especially interesting if you have followed the books in order. I enjoyed meeting the female scholars and other characters, including Peter’s nephew. I also loved the Oxford setting and thought it worked really well. A really interesting read and, if not my favourite of the books so far, certainly among the best.
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Mar 27, 2019 Christine PNW rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2024, read-my-hoard-2024

This book is only nominally a mystery. What it really is is Dorothy Sayers's manifesto, which holds that educating women is valuable, that women can be scholars, that work is work whether it is done by men or women, that intellectual work is valuable in it's own right, and that women should have agency to do the work that they feel they are best suited to do, whether that work involves marriage or children or not.

The mystery is engaging, but it's Oxford, and intellect and the sisterhood of acade ...more

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Jul 08, 2019 Bev rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, audionovel, mystery, vintage-mystery, virtual-mount-tbr-2019

Continuing with my orgy of listening to Dorothy L. Sayers novels on audio, I've listened to the Gaudy Night (1935), the penultimate book in the Wimsey/Vane mystery cycle. As with the other audio reviews, I am not focusing so much on the whole story here. If you'd like to see my thoughts on the novel, please see my review on a print edition.

Ian Carmichael gives another fine narrating performance, giving voice to a full range of characters from dons and students at Oxford to American visitors to ...more

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Dec 11, 2021 Lady Wesley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-golden-age-or-similar, listened, 2021-faves

A masterpiece, just as I remembered. I first read Gaudy Night thirty years ago, so it was pure joy to listen to the book narrated by Ian Carmichael (for me, the one and only Lord Peter Wimsey).

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