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Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories
All the Lord Peter Wimsey stories are here, in a single volume, including the one about Harriet, Peter and their three sons!
489 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
About the author
Dorothy L. Sayers
663 books2,772 followersThe detective stories of well-known British writer Dorothy Leigh Sayers mostly feature the amateur investigator Lord Peter Wimsey; she also translated the
Divine Comedy
of Dante Alighieri.
This renowned author and Christian humanist studied classical and modern languages.
Her best known mysteries, a series of short novels, set between World War I and World War II, feature an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. She is also known for her plays and essays.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...
This renowned author and Christian humanist studied classical and modern languages.
Her best known mysteries, a series of short novels, set between World War I and World War II, feature an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. She is also known for her plays and essays.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 316 reviews
January 6, 2023
Overall, 4.5★
I've found most of Sayer's work very hard to acquire second hand. This book & The Nine Tailors turned up at a book fair, so I snapped them up!
I've only read a little of James Sandoe's introduction, as it moved into spoiler territory quite quickly for me - I haven't read all of Sayer's novels.
I've read the first four stories so far & enjoyed all of them, but I have decided just to write reviews for the ones that were 5★ or 4.5★ reads for me.
The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will Meleager - what a name! This story was everything I hope for from a Sayer - engaging characters, witty dialogue & a baffling mystery. A bonus was the new fangled thing called a I'm going to have another attempt at solving it, later on. 5★ Such an outstanding story that I don't know if any of the others will be able to top it!
The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps that Ran Can I say I'm really loving the titles? This was really ingenious & I loved the byplay between Wimsey & his butler, Bunter. 4.5★
The Bibulous Nature of a Matter of Taste This was funny & silly & I really enjoyed it. 5★
The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head What a wonderful Boys Own Adventure! I can't get over the witty charm of this one. 5★
The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey With strong echoes of Poe & Conan Doyle, this was melodramatic, OTT & I absolutely loved it. Took a writer of skill to pull this one off! 5★
In the Teeth of the Evidence Very witty title - & a very witty story. Dastardly dentistry. 5★
The Haunted Policeman This one didn't make much sense to me - but it is so wonderfully witty at the start that I'm going to give it 4.5★ anyway!
Talboys What does this title mean? (seriously, someone please tell me!) More a study of family life (& very funny) & Sayers gets a couple of good shots in at an opiniated busybody. 5★
So there you have it. Sayers is my favourite Golden Age writer. La Christie has far more ingenious plots, but I think Sayers is a writer's writer. If I could write a hundredth as well as her, I would be one happy woman.
I would love to give this collection 5★because some of it was sublime, but unfortunately (as is usual in short story collections) there was one real turkey in The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba. No book that contains this ridiculousness can possibly get a 5★. Christie & Patricia Wentworth also didn't do well with these secret society stories & I had to give this story 2★. It will indeed be a miracle if I can ever give a short story collection 5★ (unless it is written by Katherine Mansfield.)
The afterword by John Curran is illuminating. If I reread the whole collection, I will read it in tandem with this afterword.
But while I'm getting rid of most of my books, this one is a keeper which I'm sure I'll read again & again.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
I've found most of Sayer's work very hard to acquire second hand. This book & The Nine Tailors turned up at a book fair, so I snapped them up!
I've only read a little of James Sandoe's introduction, as it moved into spoiler territory quite quickly for me - I haven't read all of Sayer's novels.
I've read the first four stories so far & enjoyed all of them, but I have decided just to write reviews for the ones that were 5★ or 4.5★ reads for me.
The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will Meleager - what a name! This story was everything I hope for from a Sayer - engaging characters, witty dialogue & a baffling mystery. A bonus was the new fangled thing called a I'm going to have another attempt at solving it, later on. 5★ Such an outstanding story that I don't know if any of the others will be able to top it!
The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps that Ran Can I say I'm really loving the titles? This was really ingenious & I loved the byplay between Wimsey & his butler, Bunter. 4.5★
The Bibulous Nature of a Matter of Taste This was funny & silly & I really enjoyed it. 5★
The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head What a wonderful Boys Own Adventure! I can't get over the witty charm of this one. 5★
The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey With strong echoes of Poe & Conan Doyle, this was melodramatic, OTT & I absolutely loved it. Took a writer of skill to pull this one off! 5★
In the Teeth of the Evidence Very witty title - & a very witty story. Dastardly dentistry. 5★
The Haunted Policeman This one didn't make much sense to me - but it is so wonderfully witty at the start that I'm going to give it 4.5★ anyway!
Talboys What does this title mean? (seriously, someone please tell me!) More a study of family life (& very funny) & Sayers gets a couple of good shots in at an opiniated busybody. 5★
So there you have it. Sayers is my favourite Golden Age writer. La Christie has far more ingenious plots, but I think Sayers is a writer's writer. If I could write a hundredth as well as her, I would be one happy woman.
I would love to give this collection 5★because some of it was sublime, but unfortunately (as is usual in short story collections) there was one real turkey in The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba. No book that contains this ridiculousness can possibly get a 5★. Christie & Patricia Wentworth also didn't do well with these secret society stories & I had to give this story 2★. It will indeed be a miracle if I can ever give a short story collection 5★ (unless it is written by Katherine Mansfield.)
The afterword by John Curran is illuminating. If I reread the whole collection, I will read it in tandem with this afterword.
But while I'm getting rid of most of my books, this one is a keeper which I'm sure I'll read again & again.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
August 21, 2022
Besides her 11 novels featuring her aristocratic amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, "Golden Age" mystery-genre luminary Dorothy Sayers wrote a total of 21 short stories featuring this popular series character, most of them published in four different collections during her lifetime. Editor James Sandoe (whose background isn't described here) has collected all 21 of these into a single volume, including the last one, "Talboys," which though written in 1942 was published here for the first time. He supplies a short Introduction (a bit over five pages long) which gives a basic description of the Wimsey novels in chronological order, plus a brief description of Sayers' writing activity after she moved on from the series. This is my first book-length read in the Wimsey canon; but I encountered the character for the first time in my high school days in "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" (though I don't remember the name of the anthology I read it in), which I still consider one of the best "find the hidden treasure" mysteries that I've ever read. It took me quite a while to read more Sayers (I did also read "The Queen's Square" earlier this year in English Country House Murders, and commented on it favorably in my review of that book); but I always intended to, and am glad to have finally gotten around to it!
Over the course of a fairly extensive corpus, Lord Peter's character was developed by the author in some detail. Born in 1890 (the books and stories were written from 1921-1942, so the character ages in "real time"), he's the younger son of a deceased duke, and quite wealthy. (Strictly speaking, he's not a peer, since his older brother has the dukedom; but as my Goodreads friend Bionic Jean helpfully explained, younger children of a Duke or Marquess are allowed to be addressed as "Lord" or "Lady" as a courtesy title.) A graduate of Oxford, he's well-educated and urbane, with extensive reading under his belt (he likes to collect old books) and quite a store of eclectic knowledge. He's also in good physical shape (he served as an officer in the Great War), and handy with a pistol if he has to be --though, in the British mystery tradition, usually much less violent than its American cousin, he very seldom has to demonstrate that. Like most members of his class, he doesn't need to work for a living (which leaves him free to indulge his liking for exploring intriguing mysteries, criminal and otherwise --"I'm interested in queer things," he observes at one point). But he's no snob; he's courteous and generous to all, including his multi-talented sidekick and valet, Mervyn Bunter. Not imposing physically, and needing a monocle for a weak eye, he has a rather boyish, ingenuous expression that often leads strangers to believe he's not very smart (and he shrewdly uses that impression to his advantage).
Sayers' writing style is eminently readable and not at all stilted, but it is literate and stylish, with a good vocabulary and an affinity for the occasional literary allusion (and at times also for untranslated bits of French, Latin or Greek text). She has a dry, witty and very British style of humor (and endows Lord Peter with the same). Herself a committed Christian, she created a non-Christian protagonist for these stories, and religious themes aren't noticeable here; "my religious beliefs are a little ill-defined," our hero comments in one story. Nonetheless, he firmly believes that "some power beyond our puny human wills arranges the affairs of men." (And the frequent felicitous role of "coincidence" in these stories, which I readily ascribed to Divine providence, would give him good grounds for that view.)
The stories themselves (19 of them new to me!) are arranged chronologically. Counting "The Queen's Square," nine of them involve murder. Jewel thefts figure in several other stories; "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" is far from the only hidden/missing treasure puzzle here, and other adventures are sui generis. (Not all of them involve actual crimes.) All of the mysteries are well-constructed and challenging, a very diverse mix of premises and situations, every one of them original and distinctive. Surprises galore can be expected in the ingenious denouements. In some cases, the solutions turn on little-known facts of medicine or genetics (I definitely learned things here that I didn't know). Lord Peter is observant, deductive-minded, and a cynical but compassionate student of human psychology and behavior; his crime-solving abilities rest on those foundations. England is the usual setting for the tales, but our protagonist's travels also take him to other parts of Europe, and to America. Concealed identity will sometimes play a significant role.
A short review can't offer comments on all of the stories, so brief comments on a few of the more notable will have to suffice. The last two are set after Lord Peter's marriage, "The Haunted Policeman" on the occasion of the birth of his first son, and "Talboys" years later, when he and his wife are rearing three boys. Although the former story is marred by the title character's repeated use of the n-word for blacks and expression of hatred for them (there's no indication that this represents Lord Peter's or Sayers' attitude, however), "Talboys" was one of my favorites here. Two other personal favorites were "The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention" and "The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey," both with their pseudo-supernatural elements and evocation of spooky atmosphere. In "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will," the crossword-puzzle element (the solution to which is provided on a later page) was too complicated for me, but I liked the story nonetheless. Perhaps the most thought-provoking was "The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face" (which is also the only story that, IMO, has a logical slip).
Sandoe concludes the book with two bonus features: the 1968 article "Sayers, Lord Peter, and God" by academic literary scholar Carolyn Heilbrun, from The American Scholar, and a 1942 parody of the Wimsey canon by E. C. Bentley, "Greedy Night, A Parody." The latter references two of the Wimsey novels, Gaudy Night and Strong Poison and features Lord Peter and Bunter with exaggerated eccentricities and a similarly-exaggerated imitation of some features of Sayers' prose. It came across to me as strained, I guessed the "surprise" ending as soon as the body was introduced, and I thought the repeated "Heil Hitler!" interjections Bentley put in the protagonist's mouth when he was talking to the German ambassador were in poor taste. (Neither the stories nor Sayers' life suggest any sympathy with Nazism on her part or Lord Peter's.) Heilbrun's article (a bit over 15 pages long), though, is a perceptive and sympathetic bio-critical survey of Sayer's writing life, with particular emphasis on the Wimsey canon. It's jargon-free, insightful (and educational to me!), and well worth a read.
There are no real content issues here. Bad language is minimal; and though the novels apparently indicate that, in his single days, Lord Peter was something of a ladies' man and not always strictly chaste, there's no suggestion of that in these stories. I'd heartily recommend the collection to anyone who reads well and appreciates short fiction in the traditional mystery genre. It's definitely made me even more interested in dipping into the Wimsey novels!
Over the course of a fairly extensive corpus, Lord Peter's character was developed by the author in some detail. Born in 1890 (the books and stories were written from 1921-1942, so the character ages in "real time"), he's the younger son of a deceased duke, and quite wealthy. (Strictly speaking, he's not a peer, since his older brother has the dukedom; but as my Goodreads friend Bionic Jean helpfully explained, younger children of a Duke or Marquess are allowed to be addressed as "Lord" or "Lady" as a courtesy title.) A graduate of Oxford, he's well-educated and urbane, with extensive reading under his belt (he likes to collect old books) and quite a store of eclectic knowledge. He's also in good physical shape (he served as an officer in the Great War), and handy with a pistol if he has to be --though, in the British mystery tradition, usually much less violent than its American cousin, he very seldom has to demonstrate that. Like most members of his class, he doesn't need to work for a living (which leaves him free to indulge his liking for exploring intriguing mysteries, criminal and otherwise --"I'm interested in queer things," he observes at one point). But he's no snob; he's courteous and generous to all, including his multi-talented sidekick and valet, Mervyn Bunter. Not imposing physically, and needing a monocle for a weak eye, he has a rather boyish, ingenuous expression that often leads strangers to believe he's not very smart (and he shrewdly uses that impression to his advantage).
Sayers' writing style is eminently readable and not at all stilted, but it is literate and stylish, with a good vocabulary and an affinity for the occasional literary allusion (and at times also for untranslated bits of French, Latin or Greek text). She has a dry, witty and very British style of humor (and endows Lord Peter with the same). Herself a committed Christian, she created a non-Christian protagonist for these stories, and religious themes aren't noticeable here; "my religious beliefs are a little ill-defined," our hero comments in one story. Nonetheless, he firmly believes that "some power beyond our puny human wills arranges the affairs of men." (And the frequent felicitous role of "coincidence" in these stories, which I readily ascribed to Divine providence, would give him good grounds for that view.)
The stories themselves (19 of them new to me!) are arranged chronologically. Counting "The Queen's Square," nine of them involve murder. Jewel thefts figure in several other stories; "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" is far from the only hidden/missing treasure puzzle here, and other adventures are sui generis. (Not all of them involve actual crimes.) All of the mysteries are well-constructed and challenging, a very diverse mix of premises and situations, every one of them original and distinctive. Surprises galore can be expected in the ingenious denouements. In some cases, the solutions turn on little-known facts of medicine or genetics (I definitely learned things here that I didn't know). Lord Peter is observant, deductive-minded, and a cynical but compassionate student of human psychology and behavior; his crime-solving abilities rest on those foundations. England is the usual setting for the tales, but our protagonist's travels also take him to other parts of Europe, and to America. Concealed identity will sometimes play a significant role.
A short review can't offer comments on all of the stories, so brief comments on a few of the more notable will have to suffice. The last two are set after Lord Peter's marriage, "The Haunted Policeman" on the occasion of the birth of his first son, and "Talboys" years later, when he and his wife are rearing three boys. Although the former story is marred by the title character's repeated use of the n-word for blacks and expression of hatred for them (there's no indication that this represents Lord Peter's or Sayers' attitude, however), "Talboys" was one of my favorites here. Two other personal favorites were "The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention" and "The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey," both with their pseudo-supernatural elements and evocation of spooky atmosphere. In "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will," the crossword-puzzle element (the solution to which is provided on a later page) was too complicated for me, but I liked the story nonetheless. Perhaps the most thought-provoking was "The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face" (which is also the only story that, IMO, has a logical slip).
Sandoe concludes the book with two bonus features: the 1968 article "Sayers, Lord Peter, and God" by academic literary scholar Carolyn Heilbrun, from The American Scholar, and a 1942 parody of the Wimsey canon by E. C. Bentley, "Greedy Night, A Parody." The latter references two of the Wimsey novels, Gaudy Night and Strong Poison and features Lord Peter and Bunter with exaggerated eccentricities and a similarly-exaggerated imitation of some features of Sayers' prose. It came across to me as strained, I guessed the "surprise" ending as soon as the body was introduced, and I thought the repeated "Heil Hitler!" interjections Bentley put in the protagonist's mouth when he was talking to the German ambassador were in poor taste. (Neither the stories nor Sayers' life suggest any sympathy with Nazism on her part or Lord Peter's.) Heilbrun's article (a bit over 15 pages long), though, is a perceptive and sympathetic bio-critical survey of Sayer's writing life, with particular emphasis on the Wimsey canon. It's jargon-free, insightful (and educational to me!), and well worth a read.
There are no real content issues here. Bad language is minimal; and though the novels apparently indicate that, in his single days, Lord Peter was something of a ladies' man and not always strictly chaste, there's no suggestion of that in these stories. I'd heartily recommend the collection to anyone who reads well and appreciates short fiction in the traditional mystery genre. It's definitely made me even more interested in dipping into the Wimsey novels!
February 27, 2015
Since discovering Lord Peter in college, I've resisted the urge to race through all of his mysteries. There are only eleven, and I prefer to read them slowly, one every year or so, so they can last as long as possible. Knowing that I only have four left makes me sad, but this collection was a nice antidote - with twenty-one stories, it felt like at least three or four novels' worth of mysteries.
Obviously they aren't all great. "The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran" is sort of a letdown at the end, and "The Abominable History of the Man With the Copper Fingers", while suspenseful and creepy, has a pretty obvious solution that I saw from a mile away. But most of the stories are delightful - "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will" rests on the characters having to solve a crossword puzzle, and "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" features Lord Peter solving a mystery with his nephew, and it's just as adorable and charming as it sounds. Also, in case you haven't guessed, all of the mysteries have delightfully old-school melodramatic titles, which I am always a fan of. And my absolute favorite of the bunch was, of course, Talboys, which involves the entire Wimsey-Vane family and I want someone to make a TV series where Peter, Harriet, and their sons travel the country and solve mysteries. (granted, this story does feature scenes where the Wimseys are super rude to a female houseguest, but since she's the 1930's equivalent of an anti-vaccer hippie mom, their disdain is earned) Also there's a mystery that opens with the birth of Peter and Harriet's first child, which I will proceed to quote almost in its entirety because that's how well it demonstrates why I love these two:
"'Good lord!' said his lordship. 'Did I do that?'
'All evidence points that way,' replied his wife.
'Then I can only say I never knew so convincing a body of evidence produce such an inadequate result.'
The nurse appeared to take this reflection personally. She said in a tone of rebuke:
'He's a beautiful boy.'
'H'm,' said Peter. He adjusted his eyeglass more carefully. 'Well, you're the expert witness. Hand him over.'
The nurse did so with a dubious air. She was relieved to see that this disconcerting parent handled the child competently; as, in a man who was an experienced uncle, was not, after all, so very surprising. Lord Peter sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed.
'Do you feel it's up to standard?' he inquired with some anxiety. 'Of course, your workmanship's always sound - but you never know with these collaborative efforts.'
'I think it'll do,' said Harriet drowsily.
'Good.' He turned abruptly to the nurse. 'All right; we'll keep it. Take it and put it away, and tell 'em to invoice it to me. It's a very interesting addition to you, Harriet; but it would have been a hell of a rotten substitute.'"
The book also features an afterword by John Curran, who outlines Sayers' life, and it's pretty cool - she had a baby out of wedlock and successfully kept it a secret! He also goes through the trajectory of the Lord Peter novels, including the Harriet Vane romance:
"Sayers introduced Harriet Vane in Strong Poison (1930) and allowed her and Wimsey to embark on a three-book courtship culminating in marriage in Busman's Honeymoon (1937). This is the longest - and, some would argue, the most wearisome and embarrassing - courtship in the annals of detective fiction."
*record scratch*
Excuse you? No one argues that, Curran. NO ONE. If any detective courtship deserves to be called "embarrassing" and "wearisome," it's Stephen Moffat's take on Sherlock's relationship with Irene Adler (yeah, I went there - fight me, Sherlock fangirls). Don't step to me on the subject of Harriet and Peter.
"Detective-fiction purists contend that this type of romantic relationship - between detective and suspect - has no place in a detective story," Curran writes. "Other sleuths have managed to meet, court, marry, and produce children without any of the soul-searching in which Peter and Harriet indulged."
You best get out your dueling pistols and choose a second, Curran, because them's fightin' words.
(I honestly considered taking off a star for the pure dickishness of the afterword, but then I remembered that it's not Sayers' fault.)
Obviously they aren't all great. "The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran" is sort of a letdown at the end, and "The Abominable History of the Man With the Copper Fingers", while suspenseful and creepy, has a pretty obvious solution that I saw from a mile away. But most of the stories are delightful - "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will" rests on the characters having to solve a crossword puzzle, and "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" features Lord Peter solving a mystery with his nephew, and it's just as adorable and charming as it sounds. Also, in case you haven't guessed, all of the mysteries have delightfully old-school melodramatic titles, which I am always a fan of. And my absolute favorite of the bunch was, of course, Talboys, which involves the entire Wimsey-Vane family and I want someone to make a TV series where Peter, Harriet, and their sons travel the country and solve mysteries. (granted, this story does feature scenes where the Wimseys are super rude to a female houseguest, but since she's the 1930's equivalent of an anti-vaccer hippie mom, their disdain is earned) Also there's a mystery that opens with the birth of Peter and Harriet's first child, which I will proceed to quote almost in its entirety because that's how well it demonstrates why I love these two:
"'Good lord!' said his lordship. 'Did I do that?'
'All evidence points that way,' replied his wife.
'Then I can only say I never knew so convincing a body of evidence produce such an inadequate result.'
The nurse appeared to take this reflection personally. She said in a tone of rebuke:
'He's a beautiful boy.'
'H'm,' said Peter. He adjusted his eyeglass more carefully. 'Well, you're the expert witness. Hand him over.'
The nurse did so with a dubious air. She was relieved to see that this disconcerting parent handled the child competently; as, in a man who was an experienced uncle, was not, after all, so very surprising. Lord Peter sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed.
'Do you feel it's up to standard?' he inquired with some anxiety. 'Of course, your workmanship's always sound - but you never know with these collaborative efforts.'
'I think it'll do,' said Harriet drowsily.
'Good.' He turned abruptly to the nurse. 'All right; we'll keep it. Take it and put it away, and tell 'em to invoice it to me. It's a very interesting addition to you, Harriet; but it would have been a hell of a rotten substitute.'"
The book also features an afterword by John Curran, who outlines Sayers' life, and it's pretty cool - she had a baby out of wedlock and successfully kept it a secret! He also goes through the trajectory of the Lord Peter novels, including the Harriet Vane romance:
"Sayers introduced Harriet Vane in Strong Poison (1930) and allowed her and Wimsey to embark on a three-book courtship culminating in marriage in Busman's Honeymoon (1937). This is the longest - and, some would argue, the most wearisome and embarrassing - courtship in the annals of detective fiction."
*record scratch*
Excuse you? No one argues that, Curran. NO ONE. If any detective courtship deserves to be called "embarrassing" and "wearisome," it's Stephen Moffat's take on Sherlock's relationship with Irene Adler (yeah, I went there - fight me, Sherlock fangirls). Don't step to me on the subject of Harriet and Peter.
"Detective-fiction purists contend that this type of romantic relationship - between detective and suspect - has no place in a detective story," Curran writes. "Other sleuths have managed to meet, court, marry, and produce children without any of the soul-searching in which Peter and Harriet indulged."
You best get out your dueling pistols and choose a second, Curran, because them's fightin' words.
(I honestly considered taking off a star for the pure dickishness of the afterword, but then I remembered that it's not Sayers' fault.)
March 10, 2023
What better than one book containing all of the Lord Peter Wimsey short stories? I have been a fan of these classics and their somewhat different approach to detection for years and they never seem to get old.
Someone ask me once "How can you stand Lord Peter?" and maybe he is an acquired taste but you can't say that he isn't interesting.........snobbish, effete, and using that upper-class aristocratic style of speech which drops "g"s. But under that persona, he is smart as a whip and sees clues that aren't obvious to others. His personal servant, Bunter, is also a very wise assistant to him and often uses his hobby of photography to help Lord Peter solve a case.
The 20 stories are presented in chronological order (1923-39) and we see Lord Peter change over the years but frankly, not much. They are a delight to read and enjoy. Recommended.
Someone ask me once "How can you stand Lord Peter?" and maybe he is an acquired taste but you can't say that he isn't interesting.........snobbish, effete, and using that upper-class aristocratic style of speech which drops "g"s. But under that persona, he is smart as a whip and sees clues that aren't obvious to others. His personal servant, Bunter, is also a very wise assistant to him and often uses his hobby of photography to help Lord Peter solve a case.
The 20 stories are presented in chronological order (1923-39) and we see Lord Peter change over the years but frankly, not much. They are a delight to read and enjoy. Recommended.
June 2, 2018
Just fun.
March 26, 2020
This was a gift from the heavens received at just the correct juncture. A terrific couple of dozen short stories that fit like puzzle pieces of a man in his time.
All hail Dorothy Sayers!
For me to give any short stories 5 stars is an absolute first. These just are. Not all are of that level (the one with Peter living for months in the Basque country was 4 at the most)- but at least 75% are pure perfection.
Where has the glorious English language proceeded since this master whirled her quip and phrasing batons?
And most delightful of all was the quirk and pull of Lord Wimsey's personality edging to get himself in those curious cracks of "notice" in nearly infinite numbers of societal situations.
I also loved her dynamics for graphics situated "where they fit". Placements drawings, charts, sketchings or crossword boards etc.
And the FRESHNESS of plots and contrivance of insinuations!
At least 1/2 of these were new to me and never, ever read all together one after the other.
And the Talboys (final story) nearly made me fall off the treadmill. Bredon, Bredon.
In times of adversity- no better read than such a stolid and brilliant force for justice / good intent served as Lord Peter, Bunter and Parker. Most of these are pre-Harriet days but he does know his goose is cooked there regardless.
Just a couple of last over commentary musings. She has dialogue so skillful that the word "said" rarely appears. And characters are not introduced and described. They just ARE and reveal themselves by their words in conversation and their surroundings of particular physical placement. Can some modern writers of acclaim READ her and LEARN. Please! And all of that doesn't always come in the first 2 pages either.
Finally I enjoyed the style and scientific levels of that particular era to a 6 star level. Especially the dentistry and lighting/ optics "norm".
Heavily, heavily recommend.
All hail Dorothy Sayers!
For me to give any short stories 5 stars is an absolute first. These just are. Not all are of that level (the one with Peter living for months in the Basque country was 4 at the most)- but at least 75% are pure perfection.
Where has the glorious English language proceeded since this master whirled her quip and phrasing batons?
And most delightful of all was the quirk and pull of Lord Wimsey's personality edging to get himself in those curious cracks of "notice" in nearly infinite numbers of societal situations.
I also loved her dynamics for graphics situated "where they fit". Placements drawings, charts, sketchings or crossword boards etc.
And the FRESHNESS of plots and contrivance of insinuations!
At least 1/2 of these were new to me and never, ever read all together one after the other.
And the Talboys (final story) nearly made me fall off the treadmill. Bredon, Bredon.
In times of adversity- no better read than such a stolid and brilliant force for justice / good intent served as Lord Peter, Bunter and Parker. Most of these are pre-Harriet days but he does know his goose is cooked there regardless.
Just a couple of last over commentary musings. She has dialogue so skillful that the word "said" rarely appears. And characters are not introduced and described. They just ARE and reveal themselves by their words in conversation and their surroundings of particular physical placement. Can some modern writers of acclaim READ her and LEARN. Please! And all of that doesn't always come in the first 2 pages either.
Finally I enjoyed the style and scientific levels of that particular era to a 6 star level. Especially the dentistry and lighting/ optics "norm".
Heavily, heavily recommend.
February 18, 2019
In the world of Lord Peter, murder is jolly good fun! Dorothy Sayer wrote fun and interesting mysteries using the character of Lord Peter to hook her readers, and this reviewer feel right into the trap.
The reader immediately identifies with Lord Peter, we all want to be incredibly wealthy with personal man servants waiting on our needs and responsive to our every whim. The character is heroic, devil may care, handsome and eccentric. Who wouldn't want to be him?
Beyond the hero of these mysteries is an excellent writer who can create intriguing mysteries that for the reader become page turners. This series of mystery's becomes a little less interesting when our perfect man falls in love with another interesting character Harriet Vane, less interesting because we want him to be unencumbered with marriage and children in order to fulfill the readers fantasies.
This particular compilation of stories is a bed side book that can sit for a while and than can immediately bring the reader right back into the thick of it! For this reviewer, this genre is an escape from the real world and a chance to live in a fantasy world, another murder... Oh,jolly good fun!
The reader immediately identifies with Lord Peter, we all want to be incredibly wealthy with personal man servants waiting on our needs and responsive to our every whim. The character is heroic, devil may care, handsome and eccentric. Who wouldn't want to be him?
Beyond the hero of these mysteries is an excellent writer who can create intriguing mysteries that for the reader become page turners. This series of mystery's becomes a little less interesting when our perfect man falls in love with another interesting character Harriet Vane, less interesting because we want him to be unencumbered with marriage and children in order to fulfill the readers fantasies.
This particular compilation of stories is a bed side book that can sit for a while and than can immediately bring the reader right back into the thick of it! For this reviewer, this genre is an escape from the real world and a chance to live in a fantasy world, another murder... Oh,jolly good fun!
June 29, 2016
I had read the first three Lord Peter novels and fallen in love, not only with the writing and wit (Dorothy Sayers has an incredible vocabulary, rarely seen elsewhere, her Oxford education in languages shows in all sorts of glory) which grew with each new book, but also with the depiction of life and crime-solving in 1920's England, and of course, the goofy and lovably brilliant Lord Peter.
This book was sitting on my daughter's bookshelf, and, having borrowed it I was more than delighted to realize it included the complete stories in Lord Peter Views the Body- book four in the series (these are the first twelve stories in this edition)....and more. The story Talboys, being recently discovered, written in 1942, appears in this volume in print for the first time, for example.
I am not normally a fan of short stories, and while a few of them I could have skipped, I was surprised by how much I hated to lay this volume down! As I said, I do enjoy the novels quite a bit more, but this little gem is a very worthwhile read, and not just for those who enjoy the series. The names of the stories are incredible in themselves-from The Picatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach to The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question and The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention. Of course, while some stories are far more interesting than others-I particularly enjoyed The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste-I highly recommend this for the die-hard Wimsey fan as well as anyone who loves to read the English language used in such masterful and playful ways.
This book was sitting on my daughter's bookshelf, and, having borrowed it I was more than delighted to realize it included the complete stories in Lord Peter Views the Body- book four in the series (these are the first twelve stories in this edition)....and more. The story Talboys, being recently discovered, written in 1942, appears in this volume in print for the first time, for example.
I am not normally a fan of short stories, and while a few of them I could have skipped, I was surprised by how much I hated to lay this volume down! As I said, I do enjoy the novels quite a bit more, but this little gem is a very worthwhile read, and not just for those who enjoy the series. The names of the stories are incredible in themselves-from The Picatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach to The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question and The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention. Of course, while some stories are far more interesting than others-I particularly enjoyed The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste-I highly recommend this for the die-hard Wimsey fan as well as anyone who loves to read the English language used in such masterful and playful ways.
September 25, 2023
Mystery box book #28!
Oh dear. I think this was in the box because I had tried previously to get through it and failed. Now, I adore Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, so no one is more disappointed than me. But these stories simply do not do for me what the (better) novels do. I think this is because the focus of the novels is on character; here, they are on the mysteries themselves, and Sayers has a tendency to try to be too clever (with timings, crossword clues, outdated technology, evil twins, etc.). Some of these tales have an evocative gothic atmosphere, which is kind of fun, but since Peter just floats in and out of the narratives, there's rarely any emotional impact. And like, the ramifications for the overall canon: he pretended to be dead for two years??? Literally where did he find the time?
Also I have to say, Sayers is usually better than Christie in terms of letting her (generously: period typical) unpleasant views show like a sloppy slip, but there's an unusual amount of antisemitism in these pages, and some shocking uses of the n-word. I didn't care for it!
Oh dear. I think this was in the box because I had tried previously to get through it and failed. Now, I adore Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, so no one is more disappointed than me. But these stories simply do not do for me what the (better) novels do. I think this is because the focus of the novels is on character; here, they are on the mysteries themselves, and Sayers has a tendency to try to be too clever (with timings, crossword clues, outdated technology, evil twins, etc.). Some of these tales have an evocative gothic atmosphere, which is kind of fun, but since Peter just floats in and out of the narratives, there's rarely any emotional impact. And like, the ramifications for the overall canon: he pretended to be dead for two years??? Literally where did he find the time?
Also I have to say, Sayers is usually better than Christie in terms of letting her (generously: period typical) unpleasant views show like a sloppy slip, but there's an unusual amount of antisemitism in these pages, and some shocking uses of the n-word. I didn't care for it!
January 12, 2023
I've never been a particular fan of short stories, I am a Lord Peter Wimsey fan however and it was good to be back in his company. Some of the stories were quite good and some weren't, but I now want to read the novels again.
April 12, 2018
Sayers is a master of the crime genre, and these stories are absolutely wonderful examples of her sharp brain and talent for storytelling. Some of their attitudes are a little dated now, but the plots still shine. (12+)
*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. Please do not use it in any marketing material, online or in print, without asking permission from me first. Thank you!*
*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. Please do not use it in any marketing material, online or in print, without asking permission from me first. Thank you!*
Read
November 3, 2017Well, I guess I know what series I'm launching myself headlong into now. Truly - dare I say it - deuced good stuff.
August 28, 2017
Short stories that get straight to the point. I like it.
December 12, 2022
All the Lord Peter short stories in one book. This shows the range of Dorothy Sayers's imagination and writing skills.
August 31, 2024
As usual, this collection of short stories has quite a few really good ones, and some that were duds. But it's always fun to see Lord Peter in different settings, and the last story, which shows his life with Harriet and their three sons, is delightful.
December 31, 2022
This collection of the Lord Peter short stories is largely taken from other collections, but there were a few I hadn't read before. The most entertaining were those that offered a glimpse into Peter's and Harriet's married life (they have three boys). A fitting end to my Year of Sayers. While I wasn't able to read all the books I hoped to, I did make it through all of the Wimsey novels and short stories and am currently wondering just how long I should let them sit before starting over at the beginning again.
Read
December 20, 2023This is a veritable trove of amusing short stories featuring our favorite amateur sleuth!
November 21, 2016
Read The Unprincipled Practical Joker for October's Suspense Challenge for my first Dorothy Sayer. Will be reading more for November's "Thanksgiving" titles Challenge.
Letter "A" - Absolutely Elsewhere
Letter "I" - In the Teeth of the Evidence
Letter "N" - Necklace of Pearls , a Christmas read completed for the Christmas Spirit Readathon 2016
Letter "A" - Absolutely Elsewhere
Letter "I" - In the Teeth of the Evidence
Letter "N" - Necklace of Pearls , a Christmas read completed for the Christmas Spirit Readathon 2016
Read
September 10, 2008I read this for an on-line book group called "Reading Wimsey" over on LiveJournal. I've read a lot of rubbish this summer, and it was such a blissful relief to sink back into Sayers's easy, elegant prose. Sayers's short stories are very different from her novels--she really seizes the opportunity to explore different points-of-view, outrageously improbable situational constructions, her various personal fascinations (wine, printed ephemera, crosswords, etc.). (I bought my copy of this book in 1987 and I appear to have managed to struggle successfully through one entire corner of the crossword. My own marginal annotation of several years later says, "How the bloody hell did I even get this far." ALTHOUGH, I am now able to supply the word "QUAGGA" to Bunter's final query, as my children and I are very familiar with a stuffed example of said animal in the Royal Museum in Edinburgh.)
There are certain tiny details that I just adore about Sayers's writing. The way the "little pool of crimson fire like a miniature sunset," mentioned so casually in a short story in 1928, turns up again nearly ten years later on Harriet Vane's finger in Busman's Honeymoon. The way Peter is convinced that the Death Coach can't be real because his horse doesn't shy at it but she DOES shy at Dead Man's Post... it's a given that the supernatural does exist, it just doesn't exist in relation to Burdock. (And what a looooong and rambling story that is. There's a MAP. There's the implication that Peter is in the country as a convalscent. I think she's so good at background!) My favorite story is the last in this collection, "Talboys," which I appreciate so much more now that I have children and houseguests and a career than I did as a happy-go-lucky 22-year-old grad student:
"You may, by taking your husband into your own room and accommodating the two elder boys in his dressing-room, squeeze in an extra person who, like Miss Quirk, has been wished upon you; but it is scarcely possible to run after her all day to see that she is not getting into mischief. This is more particularly the case if you are a novelist by profession, and if, moreover, your idea of a hppy holiday is to dispose as completely and briskly as possible of children, book, servants, and visitor, so as to snatch all the available moments for playing the fool with a congenial, but admittedly distracting, husband."
I also find that I am mind-melding Harriet Vane with Anne Morrow Lindbergh in this story, which amuses me, since AML has replaced HV as my role model over the last ten years (most of my role models have been fictional).
There are certain tiny details that I just adore about Sayers's writing. The way the "little pool of crimson fire like a miniature sunset," mentioned so casually in a short story in 1928, turns up again nearly ten years later on Harriet Vane's finger in Busman's Honeymoon. The way Peter is convinced that the Death Coach can't be real because his horse doesn't shy at it but she DOES shy at Dead Man's Post... it's a given that the supernatural does exist, it just doesn't exist in relation to Burdock. (And what a looooong and rambling story that is. There's a MAP. There's the implication that Peter is in the country as a convalscent. I think she's so good at background!) My favorite story is the last in this collection, "Talboys," which I appreciate so much more now that I have children and houseguests and a career than I did as a happy-go-lucky 22-year-old grad student:
"You may, by taking your husband into your own room and accommodating the two elder boys in his dressing-room, squeeze in an extra person who, like Miss Quirk, has been wished upon you; but it is scarcely possible to run after her all day to see that she is not getting into mischief. This is more particularly the case if you are a novelist by profession, and if, moreover, your idea of a hppy holiday is to dispose as completely and briskly as possible of children, book, servants, and visitor, so as to snatch all the available moments for playing the fool with a congenial, but admittedly distracting, husband."
I also find that I am mind-melding Harriet Vane with Anne Morrow Lindbergh in this story, which amuses me, since AML has replaced HV as my role model over the last ten years (most of my role models have been fictional).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 21, 2017
***This massive collection of Sayers' complete output of Wimsey short stories is well-worth the investment of money and time. All the stories are strongly plotted and superbly crafted, with many of her usual characters but each has an edge to them and a sharply succinct quality that makes the reading fly along. Includes my all-time favorite Sayers story, “The adventurous exploit of the cave of Ali Baba”, and several others are quite stunning, especially the superbly paced “The unsolved puzzle of the man with no face”.
The abominable history of the man with copper fingers
— a tale told by a man in a club, after dinner, one of her best
The fantastic horror of the cat in the bag
— sleight of hand, mistaken identities, gory doings
The unprincipled affair of the practical joker
— refined blackmail leads to cheating at cards, and vice versa
The undignified melodrama of the bone of contention
— lovely lost will story, wrapped in village myths and cliches
The vindictive story of the footsteps that ran
— love can certainly be murder
The bibulous business of a matter of taste
— winetasting with a vengence, a mite “precious”, but fun
The piscatorial farce of the stolen stomach
— an odd old man, some diamonds, and a very peculiar bequest
The unsolved puzzle of the man with no face
— splendidly twisted tale of murder for an unusual reason, a zinger at the end
The adventurous exploit of the cave of Ali Baba.
— Wimsey as a “regular guy” burglar, one of the best stories
note: on checking my notes I find there should be 21 stories listed here, and I need to reread several ofthem and add them to the above list.
The abominable history of the man with copper fingers
— a tale told by a man in a club, after dinner, one of her best
The fantastic horror of the cat in the bag
— sleight of hand, mistaken identities, gory doings
The unprincipled affair of the practical joker
— refined blackmail leads to cheating at cards, and vice versa
The undignified melodrama of the bone of contention
— lovely lost will story, wrapped in village myths and cliches
The vindictive story of the footsteps that ran
— love can certainly be murder
The bibulous business of a matter of taste
— winetasting with a vengence, a mite “precious”, but fun
The piscatorial farce of the stolen stomach
— an odd old man, some diamonds, and a very peculiar bequest
The unsolved puzzle of the man with no face
— splendidly twisted tale of murder for an unusual reason, a zinger at the end
The adventurous exploit of the cave of Ali Baba.
— Wimsey as a “regular guy” burglar, one of the best stories
note: on checking my notes I find there should be 21 stories listed here, and I need to reread several ofthem and add them to the above list.
October 7, 2018
A fat volume of detective stories from the masterful hand of Dorthy L. Sayers. These range from the very slight couple of pages to some that run 20-30 pages. All are constructed with intelligence, some very highbrow indeed. One involves a crossword puzzle with esoteric clues in rhymed couplets, another hinges on a mistake in French grammar. Most are rather more down to earth--a couple can even be anticipated by the reader. All feature the dapper Lord Peter Wimsey, a member of the British aristocracy (often attended by his man Bunter), who never seems to be ruffled by any situation and who always figures out the crime. Harriet Vane, Wimsey's lady love and later wife, appears in a couple of stories. I prefer the novels, but there's a lot of enjoyable reading here. Spread it out a bit so you'll have time to savor each story.
February 6, 2010
I met Lord Peter Wimsey in the "Abominable Affair of the Copper Fingers." I was, I think, 12, and the story scared me stiff. It was a treat to reread this collection of all of the Wimsey short stories, including "Copper Fingers," which is still intensely creepy. The quality is somewhat uneven but even the lesser stories are wonderfully inventive, and there are several gems here. The collection covers a wide range of themes, ranging from puzzlings wills and apparent supernatural manifestations, to murder, espionage, jewel thieves, and even a damsel in distress. As an extra treat, this collection contains Lord Peter's last documented appearance in "Talboys," which gives the reader a sweetly humorous glimpse at the detective's life after his creator retired him. Fun stuff.
March 25, 2020
3.5 just don't love the short stories like the novels (mysteries)
September 16, 2019
The mysteries are fine, but the real draw of these stories is Lord Peter himself, and the lost culture of English manners in which his personality, wit, and humor finds context.
Want to read
September 6, 2024Sorry to bother you, if you are kind enough to answer my stupid question:
Can someone instruct me how to read a book from this site?
I want to read the text off my computer screen, but I can't see how to display the body of a book to enable reading - if that's what this site does?
Maybe I've signed up to the wrong kind of site?
Thanks
Doug
Can someone instruct me how to read a book from this site?
I want to read the text off my computer screen, but I can't see how to display the body of a book to enable reading - if that's what this site does?
Maybe I've signed up to the wrong kind of site?
Thanks
Doug
November 21, 2020
These are all the Lord Peter short stories, collected together.
Many of the stories are very good -I read them in small doses and enjoyed them very much. I liked particularly the one about the crossword puzzle.
Many of the stories are very good -I read them in small doses and enjoyed them very much. I liked particularly the one about the crossword puzzle.
December 6, 2017
This one's an old friend, and comfort reading. All the short stories in chronological order. If you haven't met Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey before, though, I'd really recommend starting with the first novel, Whose Body?
April 4, 2018
Apologies to Dorothy Sayers, but this was a great bedtime read.
April 24, 2020
I will never not love Lord Peter. That is all.
August 26, 2021
A collection of short mystery stories — pretty much my favorite thing to read
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