English Mysteries Club discussion
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Murder Must Advertise
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October 2014 - Murder Must Advertise
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Sandysbookaday (taking a step back for a while)
(last edited Sep 27, 2014 09:35PM)
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Sep 27, 2014 09:29PM
I just purchased Dorothy Sayer Volume II Premium Lord Wimsey Collection E-book from Amazon for 99c - it contains 4 novels including Murder Must Advertise and 18 short stories!
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Have never read! Looking forward to it!!
I love Dorothy Sayers. Lord Peter is such a great character. Can't wait to re-read this and see what everyone else thinks. This one is definitely one of her best.
I read this years ago & I'm looking forward to re-reading it! I remember really enjoying it before.
This is great one. She was writing about something she knew from personal experience since she worked in an advertising agency. I know a lot has changed but in many ways I bet the psychology of motivating people to buy things has not.
Sandra, I have searched Amazon and can't find that lord Wimsey collection. Is it a Kindle ebook?
Kay wrote: "Sandra, I have searched Amazon and can't find that lord Wimsey collection. Is it a Kindle ebook?"Yes Kay. 8:D
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Sandysbookaday (taking a step back for a while)
(last edited Sep 28, 2014 02:53PM)
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DOROTHY SAYER VOL II. PREMIUM LORD WIMSEY COLLECTION 4 NOVELS + 18 SHORT STORIES + 11 MONTAGUE EGG SHORT STORIES. Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors, ... Honeymoon (Timeless Wisdom Collection) [Kindle Edition]DOROTHY SAYERS (Author)
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Kindle Price: $0.99 includes tax, if applicable
Go To Amazon Kindle ebooks, type in "Murder Must Advertise" and this should appear as the third option.
Cheers 8:D
http://www.amazon.com/COLLECTION-MONT... I found this link, but there is no pricing information available? Mysterious! :-)
I'm looking forward to this one.
I love Dorothy Sayers too!! And Lord Peter and Harriet!!
It will be my very first Sayers....looking forward to it! 8:D
What happened to this discussion starting on the 15th? I am in another discussion on this site and probably won't get to "Advertise" till then.
Pghfan wrote: "What happened to this discussion starting on the 15th? I am in another discussion on this site and probably won't get to "Advertise" till then."I think that the 15th is still the "official" starting date for the discussion.
Loving this book - just what I needed! 8:D
Finally found a copy in my University library. My local library doesn't have this and I really didn't want to pay for a book I've read a number of times but just can't find on my own bookshelves.
My library only has one copy and it is checked out. Due the 14th.
Kay wrote: "My library only has one copy and it is checked out. Due the 14th."Ouch. But once you start it, you'll be immersed until you finish it.
Started reading it today. Can't wait to find some free time to enjoy it. It's such a good book, but I can't remember it very well.
Thank you, Jennifer, for the information about getting this book from Gutenberg.ca. I couldn't find it in my library, so this is a big help.
Have just finished it.....engrossing!
Read Murder Must Advertise 30 years ago. I will re read it now it has been bought to my attention. I love all of Dorothy Sayers
My copy is just now on the way to my library. The person who had it checked out kept it until the last day. Can't wait to get it.
I have watched the TV version with Ian Carmichael many times and also listened to the BBC version (also with Mr. Carmichael) a lot as well. This is my first time reading the book, though. Right off the bat, there seems to be either name changes for the characters or more extraneous people in the Pym's office than otherwise done.
This was my first ever Dorothy Sayers...don't know how I hadn't come across her before - really enjoyed it!
So was anyone else surprised, not with who "done it" but with the punishment solution? I thought it a horrifying suggestion by Lord Wimsey but at the same time, the guilty loved his family deeply and this did spare them a lifetime of shame.I listen to a BBC audio and I hope nothing was changed as Pghfan mentioned was done with the TV version.
Diane wrote: "I listen to a BBC audio and I hope nothing was changed as Pghfan mentioned was done with the TV version. "Where did you get that from, Diane?
I both reread this book and rewatched the Ian Carmichael TV version a few years ago. I remember as a teenager thinking it was odd that he uses the name "Death", and I still think so!
No, I listened to the correct book. So am I the only one who found the solution uncomfortable?
This is a reread for me and I'm slightly surprised at how much I still enjoy it. Usually, when I reread a book I may get slightly bored because nothing seems really new, but not with Sayers.
I realize I actually read this when I was an undergraduate, & I'm retired now, so more years have passed than I thought!I liked the character of Miss Meteyard then, & I like her now. The 20s and 30s seem to me to have been a good time to be a woman (of the "right" class, anyway).
I think, too, that there are fewer characters in the TV version, but that's understandable; it makes sense in the book to people the agency with enough characters to make it seem like a bustling, busy, successful agency, but on the TV that can be conveyed by having extras buzzing up and down the corridors without having to pay them to be speaking characters.
I really like her way of introducing the characters in the typists' room drawing lots for the Derby (or which ever race it was). It seemed very realistic, and in fact I suspect it was because Dorothy Sayers worked for a time in an advertising agency, so she knew what went on in them from direct experience. So I think we're getting a quite accurate picture of the underlying activities of an advertising agency at that time.
Diane wrote: "No, I listened to the correct book. So am I the only one who found the solution uncomfortable?"No, I also found the solution a little uncomfortable, but I had a long hard think about the concept of taking the "honorable way out" being acceptable at that time; and how very different it is now. He saw himself as sparing his wife and child from the shame of knowing what he had done, enabling them to go onwards in life holding their heads up as a widow and child, and not suffering because of his greed.
Now it seems that no-one gives a damn about how their actions affect others.
Sandra wrote: "No, I also found the solution a little uncomfortable, but I had a long hard think abou..."And of course he didn't have to take the opportunity offered.
Everyman wrote: "Sandra wrote: "No, I also found the solution a little uncomfortable, but I had a long hard think abou..."And of course he didn't have to take the opportunity offered."
Exactly....8:D
I don't want to provide any spoilers for other DLS books, but this sort of "honorable ending" does appear in another of her books.
Pghfan wrote: "I don't want to provide any spoilers for other DLS books, but this sort of "honorable ending" does appear in another of her books."Exactly what I was gonna say. I always feel a bit uncomfortable with them, but she does use it a few times and it's not like the characters are forced to do it.
Helena wrote: "Pghfan wrote: "I don't want to provide any spoilers for other DLS books, but this sort of "honorable ending" does appear in another of her books."Exactly what I was gonna say. I always feel a bit..."
I think it reflects an age in which people accepted personal responsibility much more seriously than many do today, when blaming others or suing anybody in sight to avoid personal responsibility is becoming endemic.
I admit that Dorothy Sayers manipulated me into feeling sorry for the guilty character after his confession to Lord Peter. And when he expressed his misery at bringing his family into shame, my heart wanted Lord Peter to come up with a way around the law in spite of my brain telling me no, he was a murderer, and that he murdered not out of the passion of the moment but in a premeditated, cold blooded manner.But my heart still wanted him free. Curse that Sayers!
Diane wrote: "I admit that Dorothy Sayers manipulated me into feeling sorry for the guilty character after his confession to Lord Peter. And when he expressed his misery at bringing his family into shame, my hea..."You must be a lot more charitable than I am Diane! I believe that people should think about the consequences and the effects on their nearest and dearest before they do the deed! And if they aren't prepared to suffer the consequences - don't do it.
8:D
Diane wrote: "I admit that Dorothy Sayers manipulated me into feeling sorry for the guilty character after his confession to Lord Peter. And when he expressed his misery at bringing his family into shame, my hea..."This comment is a very, very slight spoiler for other Lord Peter books, but I'll put it as a spoiler anyhow.
(view spoiler)
Everyman, this is true. I don't want to spoil things for others, but Lord Peter doesn't seem to have the conviction of the justice he has caused that, say, Miss Marple seems to have.
I just joined this group, inspired by your last two monthly reads. So I speed read Murder Must Advertise; I had seen the BBC TV program several times. I really enjoyed the snide remarks about advertising throughout the book and agree with Sayers that Whimsey would have done very well in the field.As regards the ending: the more I think about it, the less I am bothered. Although nothing was said in the book, I wonder if the current rules of insurance would apply and thus Whimsey's solution would provide for his family.
Welcome, Sandy. Yes, I noticed the plethora of snide comments on advertising in the book. More than in the TV version, by far. As far as the insurance business goes, I've no doubt his family would collect if he did indeed have any. (SPOILER)It would have been passed off as an accident for sure.
Actually, I suppose I should look up how to better hide the spoilers on this site!
