Identify Books To Busman's Honeymoon (Lord Peter Wimsey #13)
| Original Title: | Busman's Honeymoon |
| ISBN: | 0061043516 (ISBN13: 9780061043512) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Lord Peter Wimsey #13, Lord Peter Wimsey Chronological, Lord Peter Wimsey & Harriet Vane (Original Series) #4 , more |
| Characters: | Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey, Mervyn Bunter, Harriet Vane, Gerald, Duke of Denver, Helen, Duchess of Denver, Chief Inspector Charles Parker, Gerald "Saint-George" Wimsey, William Noakes, Martha Ruddle, Frank Crutchley, Bert Ruddle, Joseph Sellon, Agnes Twitterton, The Reverend Simon Goodacre, Superintendent Kirk, Mrs. Goodacre, Franklin, the lady's maid, Honoria Lucasta, Dowager Duchess of Denver |
| Setting: | Hertfordshire, England(United Kingdom) Paggleham, Hertfordshire, England(United Kingdom) |
Dorothy L. Sayers
Paperback | Pages: 409 pages Rating: 4.28 | 16137 Users | 791 Reviews
Representaion Supposing Books Busman's Honeymoon (Lord Peter Wimsey #13)
While reading this, the fifth Sayers mystery I've read so far, I was finally able to figure out just why I love her novels more than any other mystery writer I've encountered so far: I love Dorothy Sayers because she does everything wrong, but it all somehow manages to work. There are some commonly accepted rules for novel-writing, and detective-novel-writing specifically, that authors have to follow in order for anyone to enjoy/buy their books. Dorothy Sayers looks at these rules, scoffs, and goes ahead and writes great detective novels that manage to break just about every commonly-accepted rule of good writing. Rules like... 1. Don't pander to your fans. It alienates new readers and there's a 95% chance your actual fans will find something to rant about in their blogs anyway. The only way I would ever recommend Busman's Honeymoon to someone is if I knew that they had already read Strong Poison AND Have His Carcase AND Gaudy Night AND loved every minute of each of those books. Because otherwise, there's no point. This book is so obviously pandering to Sayers' fans that it borders on fan fiction. The only people who are going to enjoy this book as fully as it should be enjoyed are the ones who have read all the previous Harriet/Peter mysteries, swooned over every second of their romance, and are dying for Sayers to give up the deets on their wedding night. Luckily, I am one of those people. (and an fyi to the rest of our small club: Sayers isn't explicit in her description, but rest assured that Peter and Harriet GET. IT. ON. And it is glorious.) 2. Make your writing accessible to lots of readers - if you use lots of obscure allusions and references, people will lose interest if they don't understand them. This is a rule that Sayers spits on with particular fervor. Another author might have settled for just having a Shakespeare-quoting detective, but not Sayers. She was one of the first women accepted to Oxford University and she is going to prove it, dammit. Her characters don't stop at quoting Shakespeare; they quote John Donne, TS Eliot, Lewis Carroll, Geoffry Chaucer, Christopher Marlowe...and those are the ones I could identify. About 70% of the time, a character would quote something and it would go right over my head. Be warned: you are not as smart as Dorothy Sayers, and she will make you feel illiterate for not having the entire Shakespeare canon memorized. Even the damn title of this book is an allusion to some quote, and I don't even know what. 3. Start the mystery early; developing the case should be your priority. In this book, the dead body which the case centers around isn't discovered until page 116. Before that, it's just pages and pages of character development and backstory about Peter and Harriet's wedding, and general post-wedding business and conversations. Even after the body is found, our main characters only exert about half their energy on figuring out who killed the guy, because they have other stuff to deal with. The mystery, like in Gaudy Night, is actually just a subplot, something to complement Peter and Harriet's ongoing romance. They can't worry too much about the body because they're busy grappling with the implications of their marriage and trying to figure out how to proceed from there. 4. The mystery should be complex and interesting, and your readers shouldn't be able to figure out who did it. You shouldn't read Sayers novels for the mysteries - there's so much other interesting stuff going on, it's easy to miss the fact that the mystery is often pretty simple, and doesn't require that much work to solve. Any other literary sleuth would have had the Busman's Honeymoon mystery wrapped up without breaking a sweat. Miss Marple would have figured it out after ten minutes of tea with the culprit. Hercule Poirot would take maybe a day. Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe would probably know the culprit immediately and beat a confession out of him/her. Sherlock Holmes would take one look at the crime scene and know how it was done. Peter and Harriet look at the crime scene, talk about it, take a drive, talk with some other people, have a few subplots, quote lots of stuff, and finally figure it out. And then the story keeps going, because the mystery was not the point. 5. Once the mystery is solved, the detective moves on to the next case and that's the end of it. There was something in this book that I had never seen in any other mystery novel before - the detective feeling extreme remorse over the murderer's death. In this book, the murderer is definitely guilty, confesses, shows no remorse, and is sent to prison and hanged for murder. It's all legal, it's all technically right, but Peter still visits the culprit in prison, and almost has an emotional breakdown on the morning the culprit is scheduled to be executed. In this book, Sayers deals with the psychological implications that come with catching criminals, and it's fascinating. She even delves into Peter's WWI-related trauma, which I don't think was dealt with previously. The scene where Harriet learns about Peter's experiences in WWI is very moving, especially this quote from his mother: "There were eighteen months...not that I suppose he'll ever tell you about that, at least, if he does, then you'll know he's cured...I don't mean he went out of his mind or anything, and he was always perfectly sweet about it, only he was so dreadfully afraid to go to sleep." That's why I love Dorothy Sayers' mysteries: I love Harriet and Peter, selfishness and elitism and post-traumatic stress and all. They are wonderful, fully realized characters, and I will never get tired of reading about them. Keep your Nick and Nora Charles, keep your Darcy and Elizabeth, keep your goddamn Heathcliff and Kathy; this is the only literary couple I swoon for. They are lovely people, and I want them to be happy forever, and I want to keep reading about it. To hell with the rules.
Declare Epithetical Books Busman's Honeymoon (Lord Peter Wimsey #13)
| Title | : | Busman's Honeymoon (Lord Peter Wimsey #13) |
| Author | : | Dorothy L. Sayers |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Harper Torch |
| Pages | : | Pages: 409 pages |
| Published | : | February 2006 by HarperTorch (first published 1937) |
| Categories | : | Mystery. Fiction. Crime. Classics |
Rating Epithetical Books Busman's Honeymoon (Lord Peter Wimsey #13)
Ratings: 4.28 From 16137 Users | 791 ReviewsDiscuss Epithetical Books Busman's Honeymoon (Lord Peter Wimsey #13)
When I have had a really dirty day and want to do no more than curl up with a glass of wine and a whacking good who dunnit, then it has to be Dorothy L Sayers. Ah, Lord Peter Wimsy, you either love him or loathe him! I've always loved him, and I particularly like this book because it is not your average crime novel.Oh sure, you have a pair of newly-weds, an old house in the country, a cast of eccentric characters from the bumbling vicar to the twittery spinster to the police inspector who likes2019 RereadThe Prothalamion continues to be everything I've ever wanted. The Dowager Duchess is a delight.And I just love Peter and Harriet finding their footing after the major shift in their relationship, particularly juxtaposed with how they both are in Gaudy Night.I also love how all the minor catastrophes and inconveniences really bring it home to both of them that they're actually married. 'Tis great.This one just makes me happy.2019 Reading Challenge - A book that includes a weddingThis
Flawed but fabulous. This is my favorite epistolary anything-ever-written, even beating out Sorcery and Cecelia. I love this opening so much. Helen's letter - the Dean's letter - the Duchess's diary - everything about it is perfect.The mystery, slightly less so. This is flawed. But it sets up some spectacular scenes between Harriet and Peter, and let's face it: those are the only reasons I reread this book. (I even typed the French sentences into Google Translate.)"Except to teach me for the
I'm not reading these Sayers books in any kind of rational order. Oh, I am in love with this one. I know just enough of Sayers' biography to appreciate why she would have written this. Up until the introduction of the body, it feels more like a Wodehouse, with a bit of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House thrown in. One doesn't normally say of mysteries that they are sweet, but the author has done a fabulous job of showing two people who are in love but still awkward in their marriage. And
(Before I talk about the "book", I think it is worth noting that the dramatised audiobook I listened to this morning is NOT the book, and should not really be included as an "edition" of the book. It is a BBC Radio 4 dramatised version that is only 150 minutes long, and reading some other people's reviews I realise that it does NOT include certain aspects of the book at all.I have set up dramatised versions where they did not exist but as I am not a librarian I do not have the "power" to split
After agreeing to marry Lord Peter Wimsey in Gaudy Night, this novel sees the couple marrying and embarking on their honeymoon. Having fought both herself, and her feelings, for so long, Harriet allows Peter to buy her a house Talboys a farmhouse that she admired as a child, to be a weekend cottage. Delighted to please her, Peter buys the house from the current owner, Noakes, who agrees to stay there until they move in.However, what with avoiding the press and organising the wedding, Bunter
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