#dorothy l. sayers

[idratherdreamofjune]

We are inclined to think of peace-time as a condition in which nothing particular happens; in which we can put our feet on the mantelpiece and retire into our private lives, leaving the status quo to maintain itself. There is no surer preparation for war. The maintenance of peace requires a perpetual vigilance, because as life goes on and conditions change the balance needs ever fresh movement to keep it stable. In other words, peace is an active and not a passive condition.

Dorothy L. Sayers, in Begin Here: A War-Time Essay (1940), applying entropy to peace.

[emperornorton47]

[talkingpiffle]

So it's a tradition of mine to reread The Nine Tailors around Christmas/New Year - would anyone else be interested in joining me and sharing thoughts?

There are 20 chapters, so I propose 4 chapters per week for the month of December, ending the week of January 1.

[thesarahshay]

A man once asked me ... how I managed in my books to write such natural conversation between men when they were by themselves. Was I, by any chance, a member of a large, mixed family with a lot of male friends? I replied that, on the contrary, I was an only child and had practically never seen or spoken to any men of my own age till I was about twenty-five. “Well,” said the man, “I shouldn’t have expected a woman (meaning me) to have been able to make it so convincing.” I replied that I had coped with this difficult problem by making my men talk, as far as possible, like ordinary human beings. This aspect of the matter seemed to surprise the other speaker; he said no more, but took it away to chew it over. One of these days it may quite likely occur to him that women, when left to themselves, talk very much like human beings also.

Dorothy L. Sayers

[fictionadventurer]

There's this novel/radio play called The Man Born to be King that I meant to listen to a few Easters ago but never finished. I might next year, but I wanted to ask you does it have a companion piece for Advent, or am I confusing it with another novel/radio play?

Since the play cycle covers the entire life of Jesus, the first episode is about the Nativity and Herod's quest to destroy the Christ Child, but there's no separate show specifically for Advent.

[gwydpolls]

Lucian's Library 3

Feel free to suggest never written books you wish you could read.

Option slightly shaved to fit the format.

[hailingsweetpotatoes]

*Explanations/citations of quotes, references, and other obscure information in the books; e.g. the lists kept by Peschel Press and Dan Drake.

If you have published your list somewhere online, or know of someone who has other than Peschel and Drake, please let me know!

[valiantarcher]

I'm reading Ask a Policeman and, while I can't say I fully understand it, it's been interesting. I'm a little bit into Lord Peter Wimsey's part, which starts off with a note from the editor (for lack of a better term) saying he was fortunate enough to induce Lord Peter to provide a few comments on the narrative. Given that part of the conceit is that authors switch detectives, another author is writing Lord Peter, so I assume that Dorothy L. Sayers is adding the notes in Lord Peter's guise. The first footnote is about the descriptor "young" being applied to Peter, with "Peter Wimsey's" note saying it's an elastic term, him having been born in 1890 (making him in his early 40s when this story takes place, based on the publication date). At which point it appears that the purpose of the "Peter Wimsey" notes is to correct any minor inconsistencies on the part of the narrative author. And the second footnote just refers back to the first, which seems to confirm this.

But then the third footnote starts "I cannot account for my having used this vulgar abbreviation. . ." and then continues "But I seem to have been talking at random," with the concluding comment stating the opposite of the opinion expressed by Lord Peter in the narrative.

And I'm not sure if I should feel sorrier for Dorothy L. Sayers, who had her character so poorly interpreted, or for the author who had to tackle Lord Peter and apparently either wasn't familiar enough with the character or wasn't up to the challenge for some reason and then was publicly corrected like that.

[timotey]

"Here's a deep, damp ditch on the other side, which I shall now proceed to fall into." A slithering crash proclaimed that he had carried out his intention.

Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers

[of-a-toast-and-tea]

“No,” replied his friend, “I don’t propose violating the secrets of the confessional. Not in that quarter at any rate. I think, if you can spare a moment from your mysterious correspondent, who probably does not intend to be found, I will ask you to come and pay a visit to a friend of mine. It won’t take long. I think you’ll be interested. I—in fact, you’ll be the first person I’ve ever taken to see her. She will be very much touched and pleased.”

He laughed a little self-consciously.

“Oh,” said Parker, embarrassed. Although the men were great friends, Wimsey had always preserved a reticence about his personal affairs—not so much by concealing as by ignoring them. This revelation seemed to mark a new stage of intimacy, and Parker was not sure that he liked it. He conducted his own life with an earnest middle-class morality which he owed to his birth and up-bringing, and, while theoretically recognising that Lord Peter’s world acknowledged different standards, he had never contemplated being personally faced with any result of their application in practice.

“—rather an experiment,” Wimsey was saying a trifle shyly; “anyway, she’s quite comfortably fixed in a little flat in Pimlico. You can come, can’t you, Charles? I really should like you two to meet.”

“Oh, yes, rather,” said Parker, hastily, “I should like to very much. Er—how long—I mean—”

“Oh, the arrangement’s only been going a few months,” said Wimsey, leading the way to the lift, “but it really seems to be working out quite satisfactorily. Of course, it makes things much easier for me.”

“Just so,” said Parker.

“Of course, as you’ll understand—I won’t go into it all till we get there, and then you’ll see for yourself,” Wimsey chattered on, slamming the gates of the lift with unnecessary violence—“but, as I was saying, you’ll observe it’s quite a new departure. I don’t suppose there’s ever been anything exactly like it before. Of course, there’s nothing new under the sun, as Solomon said, but after all, I daresay all those wives and porcupines, as the child said, must have soured his disposition a little, don’t you know.”

“Quite,” said Parker. “Poor fish,” he added to himself, “they always seem to think it’s different.”

-Unnatural Death, by Dorothy L. Sayers

[mervynbunter]

MERVYN BUNTER, a man of parts

[mariacallous]

I like a nice, quiet, domestic murder myself, with the millionaire found dead in the library. The minute I open a detective story and find a Camorra in it, my interest seems to dry up and turn to dust and ashes - a sort of Sodom and Camorra, you might say.

From "The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face", a Lord Peter Wimsey short story by Dorothy L. Sayers

[talkingpiffle]

The view of Fenchurch St. Paul that appears as the frontispiece to The Nine Tailors was drawn by William John Redhead (c. 1888-1941). He worked as a tax inspector and occasional architect in Witham, Essex, where Sayers also lived from 1929. (x)

Sayers acknowledges his contribution in the foreword to the novel: "My grateful thanks are due to Mr. W. J. Redhead, who so kindly designed for me the noble Parish Church of Fenchurch St Paul and set it about with cherubims.”

[thesarahshay]

"I think Ann Dorland must have a complex of some kind. Complexes explain so much, like the blessed word hippopotamus."

Ok, Sayers fans: if you have a theory/any information about what the devil this line means, let's hear it.

[fictionadventurer]

Christ walks the world again, new-bound on high emprise, With music in His golden mouth and laughter in His eyes; The primrose springs before Him as He treads the dusty way, His singer’s crown of thorns has burst in blossom like the may, He heedeth not the morrow and He never looks behind, Singing: “Glory to the open skies and peace to all mankind.”

Singing: “Lady, lady, will you come away with Me? Was never man lived longer for the hoarding of his breath; Here be dragons to be slain, here be rich rewards to gain . . . If we perish in the seeking . . . why, how small a thing is death!”

--From "Desdichado" by Dorothy L. Sayers

[tinydooms]

File this one under “things that make me inordinately happy”: tea in a custom Dorothy L. Sayers mug.