Book Review | Gaudy Night

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers

Series: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery #10
Published by Hodder & Stoughton on 1935
Genres: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / General, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Traditional
Pages: 576
Format: Paperback

Harriet Vane has never dared to return to her old Oxford college. Now, despite her scandalous life, she has been summoned back . . .

At first she thinks her worst fears have been fulfilled, as she encounters obscene graffiti, poison pen letters and a disgusting effigy when she arrives at sedate Shrewsbury College for the 'Gaudy' celebrations.

But soon, Harriet realises that she is not the only target of this murderous malice - and asks Lord Peter Wimsey to help.

ISBN: 9780060923921

Before starting the review of this book, some background is needed. I first learned about Ms. Sayers through the undergrad class “The Oxford Christians.” The course covered material from G.K. Chesterson, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, and other contemporaries. I was super excited for the class mostly because we would be reading Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and I was interested to learning more about him and his contemporaries. After only a few class periods, I was done with this class. It was frustrating and horrible due to the professor who no matter what I said, would make fun of me and want the rest of the class to tell me why I was wrong. I’m not saying that every time I said something it was brilliant and absolutely correct. Most of what I said couldn’t actually be proven but was meant to have a discussion, which is what I love about the humanities is the rich discussions that can happen. I do want to say that most of the students didn’t rise to the professor’s bait and would actually engage in discussion or agree with what I said. But after about a month, I just didn’t care and gave the bare minimum in the class. What does this have to do with Gaudy Night? Well, one of the assignments was to chose a novel that we weren’t going to read for class (off a list) and had a project associated with said book we chose (I don’t remember if this was a project, a paper, a book review, but it has been ten years so). I did want to chose Sayers because she was the only woman and the book on the list was Gaudy Night, but again, at this point, I was investing the minimum amount in class. I skimmed most of the novel and used online resources to find detailed summaries online.

When this was the book for one of my book clubs for the summer, I was actually excited to revisit Gaudy Night and maybe even go read other Peter Wimsey books. One of the people in the book club loves Sayers and the Peter Wimsey series (and doesn’t understand how Harriet held out on Peter’s marriage proposal for so long) and sent the rest of us a PowerPoint on Dorothy L. Sayers, the Peter Wimsey novels, and some background that would be helpful before reading Gaudy Night. (Sidenote: our book club loves sending each other random PowerPoints, so this isn’t as weird as it sounds). After seeing the PowerPoint, I was even more excited to read the book.

First off, this isn’t a typical mystery, detective novel. This is one where you’ll just need to empty your brain of every detective novel you’ve previously read and how the genre is formatted. This wouldn’t necessarily deter from the novel, but it would set better expectations.

As someone who has read many Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes, I wasn’t expecting the character development that happened in Gaudy Night. With other detective novels of the early 1900s, the mystery is the focus and there is a set formula for how the novel progresses. Dorothy L. Sayers sat down and said nope, I’m going to write my own thing, which is fun and makes for much deeper characters.

The book itself opens on Harriet debating if she’ll go to her college’s Gaudy Night (a reunion type party) before making the decision to go. Once arriving she finds some poison pen letters on the quad and in her college regalia gown. Since she was recently found not guilty of her previous boyfriend’s murder, Harriet dismissed this as someone upset about the outcome and didn’t think much of it. Months later the Dean of Shrewsbury College contacts her for help on more vandalism that has happened. Harriet agrees to lend her help to find out what’s going on.

Throughout the course of the novel much is discussed about women in academia and the woman’s place in the world. This was printed in 1935, and for the most part, it’s assumed that the novel takes place in the 1930s as well with our same history with women having the vote and the ability to run for parliament, along with other reforms that have happened in the post WWI years. But this doesn’t mean there isn’t detractors of these social movements and it can affect places such as a woman’s college at Oxford. As a side note, Sayers had been one of the first women to obtain an Oxford University degree, having been awarded first-class honors in medieval literature in 1915. As I read this in 2024, it still feels apropos considering the current political climate. I know many people back where I used to live who believe women should not be working and stay at home raising babies. It was fascinating to read about this discussion when at the time women were just getting reforms passed contrast that against a time when women (disproportionately BIPOC women) are getting their rights rolled back.

Now, while my academic mind enjoyed reading the discussions the characters were having, the mystery itself was a bit of a let down. I wasn’t surprised by who was the one behind the poison pen letters and vandalism, but I also was ready to be done with the novel. When Harriet or another member of the college brought up evidence to the crime, I realized that I had forgotten I was reading a detective novel. It felt more like a social commentary or slice of life book, maybe even a drama, then a detective story. I understand that it falls into the Peter Wimsey series, who is a gentleman detective but still it’s not really a detective story. While I appreciate the more developed characters and the social commentary, at the end of the day, a detective story it supposed to follow a mystery with the characters figuring out what happened to the victim(s). That didn’t happen here. It felt more like everything fell into place for them and the mystery was more of an afterthought. I don’t know if this was Sayers intentions or not (and I can’t ask her), but even so, the marketing for the novel could be better. However, this is an issue that is not only a problem back then but today as well. I understand writing across genres is common, and becoming more common, but there could still be better ways to prepare readers for what they’re reading.

I definitely want to read more Peter Wimsey novels and plan to start from the beginning. Hopefully, that will also make me more interested in the characters if I know more about their background.