Dorothy L. Sayers’ Gaudy Night Essay -- Gaudy Night

Dorothy L. Sayers barefaced Night When Gayle Wald wrote, Sayerss career writing detective stories effectively ends with Gaudy Night (108), she did non present a new argument, besides continued the tradition that Gaudy Night does not center on the detective theme. Barbara Harrison even labeled Dorothy Sayerss Lord Peter/Harriet weather vane books, Strong Poison, Gaudy Night, and bus drivers Honeymoon, as deliriously happy-ending romances (66). The label stretches the definition of a romance, but Gaudy Night indeed has very little to do with crime. Sayers encrypted the sure degree within her detective novel. This story behind the story narrates applaud and human relationships. In fact, the crimes in Gaudy Night only supply a convenient way for Sayers to place Lord Peter and Harriet Vane on equal footing to bring closure to their relationship. So the story does not focus on the solving of a crime, at to the lowest degree(prenominal) from Sayerss point of view. Lord Peter, however, jut outs it differently. As a character in the book, rather than the omniscient writer, Lord Peter, in fact, obsesses about solving the crime. Sayers underlines this meshing between the writer and the detective by making us see Lord Peter entirely through the eyes of another character, Harriet Vane. In Gaudy Night, Sayers also provides the reader with a weak plot, at least compared to the rest of her opus, and a lack of details concerning the mystery, especially the content of the letters. The story itself contradicts one of Sayerss long held beliefs, that mystery and love stories do not, and should never, mix. These facts, pair with the grandiose detail given to us about Peter and Harriets personal interaction, show that Sayers had her mind more on love than on crime. ... ...dy Night. London V. Gollancz, 1951. Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night. The Art of the Mystery Story A prayer of Critical Essays. Ed. Howard Haycraft. New York Simon and Schuster, 1946. 208-221. Saye rs, Dorothy L. The Omnibus of Crime. Detective Fiction A ingathering of Critical Essays. Ed. Robin W. Winks. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Prentice Hall, 1980. 53-83. Vane Dine, S. S. twenty dollar bill Rules for Writing Detective Stories. The Art of the Mystery Story A parade of Critical Essays. Ed. Howard Haycraft. New York Simon and Schuster, 1946. 189-193 Wald, Gayle F. Strong Poison Love and the Novelistic in Dorothy Sayers. The trickery Craft Original Essays on Detective Fiction and Contemporary literary Fiction. Ed. Ronald G. Walker and June M. Frazer. Western Illinois University, 1990. 98-108.