Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is arguably one of the greatest characters to grace the pages of twentieth century detective fiction. For some reason, he tends to be somewhat overlooked, although most lists should rate him right up there with Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, Father Brown, and the other great luminaries of early twentieth century detective fiction. He is the quintessential English gentleman detective, the one who set the stereotype for the lordly, amateur sleuth. You know the type. But now you know why you know the type.An Eton and Oxford educated, cricket playin', g-dropping, fop-about-town who conceals a tremendous and even ruthless intellect behind a facade of affable facetiousness. He plays cricket like one born to it, excels at the piano, and in one particular book (Murder Must Advertise), creates an extremely successful campaign for advertising cigarettes. He also excels with children, by the simple dint of treating them with the same courtesy and attention one would extent to an adult. He is both an expert sommelier and a consummate bibliophile, both of which avocations are showcased in brilliant form in two of the stories in this book (The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste and The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head). He appears impetuous, but is actually ruthless, and is a master manipulator, using surface emotions to befuddle others into dismissing him as an irritating wasp in a top hat and monocle. Only Sergeant (and later inspector) Parker and his faithful valet Bunter really know what Wimsey is capable of. The ironic thing though, is that he actually is annoyingly and insatiably curious, often to the point of apparent lunacy, but there is always method behind the madness. Like the time when he pestered the station announcers so much about the mechanics of their system that he accidentally discovered a code bookies were using to send results back and forth. He looks like you would expect him to, a sort of (in the author's own words) cross between Bertie Wooster and Fred Astaire with blonde hair, a beakish nose, and a vaguely foolish face. Personally, I think Lord Peter Wimsey is a lot more like Psmith. To look at him, you wouldn't think he served on the Western Front during the Great War and attained the rank of major, or was appointed an Intelligence Officer, and successfully infiltrated the staff room of a German Officer. He was that rare breed of staff officer, one extremely popular with his men. Indeed, his faithful amanuensis, one Mervyn Bunter, shares with Wimsey the experience of shell shock and being seriously wounded and whilst in military service.During that time, they arrange for Bunter to become Wimsey's valet, assuming they both survive the war. Which, of course, they do, and Bunter becomes Wimsey's valet and investigative assistant, while maintaining absolute decorum despite the fact that they are extremely close friends. One of the many wonderful features of Sayer's writing is the sometimes gentle, sometimes searing indictment of the British class system as it operated then. More on the author later though, right now I'd like to stick with Wimsey and the book itself.Wimsey is a gloriously whimsical and lackadaisical polymath, capable of many feats, each of which is showcased in the short stories that make up this book. In one of my favorite stories (The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba), he stages his own death and works undercover for over a year, creating,, donning, and living an entirely new identity in order to infiltrate and break the most prolific gang of thieves ever to operate in London. Quintessential upper class cloak-and-dagger stuff, one of the best examples there is. His linguistic skills also shine through in 'The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question", wherein the whole case is solved because of a tiny French grammatical error on the part of the thief. To quote the thief directly, "Once more I must congratulate my lord. He is the only Englishman I know with the ability to truly appreciate our beautiful language.". If you're smart enough, you should have figured out what the twist is. Incidentally, he speaks fluent German too.In The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste, possibly my favorite story in the book, Wimsey successfully guesses the names and years of a series of particular vintages in order to obtain war-time intelligence. He doesn't get it, but it doesn't matter. The only other story I've read which comes even close in using blind wine taste-testing with such verve and savoir-faire as the plot mechanism is Roald Dahl's Taste. Which is one story in another absolutely brilliant collection, and one I will definitely review subsequently. There's also a Jeffrey Archer story in one of his books which revolves around wine tasting, but it doesn't match up to either of these.The rest of the stories are pretty fascinating too, with motifs ranging from solving life-size crossword puzzles to an iron plated mistress, the latter of which added whole new dimensions to the term 'iron maiden'. In some senses, the Wimsey short stories are better than the novels, and in this day and age particularly so, as it provides the reader with nice, bite sized readings, perfect for a metro journey or to idle away sometime in a car or plane. I would highly recommend all of Sayers' work, but Lord Peter Views the Body is probably the best one to start with. The Lord Peter Wimsey books have also been adapted for the stage (in 1947 and 1957) as well as the screen, the most recent being the BBC adaptation in 1987. I'd say it's long overdue for another re-haul, and Benedict Cumberbatch would make a terrific Lord Peter Wimsey. Before winding up, I'd just like to natter on about Dorothy Sayers for a bit, because, much like her own creation, she was a fascinatingly intelligent person with a varied multitude of talents.Dorothy Sayers worked in the Benson Advertising Bureau as a copywriter for many years, and was responsible for coining the "Guinness Is Good For You" jingle, as well as the slogan"It Pays To Advertise". Hence the setting of Murder Must Advertise is completely authentic. In fact, that is probably the best thing about the books, they offer a real window of British society in the early twentieth century, The realism is palpable, and forms a great contrast to some of the other authors of the time, who tended to create very idealized world with stereotypical characters, like Agatha Christie or P.G Wodehouse. Sayers' books are also a lot more political, the Wimsey books tackle the great issues of the time - Nazism, the ethics of advertising, and the modern feminist movement, among others. She also said she only wrote the Lord Peter Wimsey books in order to make enough money to support her career as a Christian humanist classicistplaywright.She was also a great Christian humanist, and a classical scholar and her translation of Dante's Divine Comedy is largely considered to be the definitive one. In fact her translation of the famous line "Abandon hope all ye who enter here" is different; she translates it as "Lay down all hope, those of you who go by me." This, accodring to Classicists, is a muh better rendition for not only is it a better literal translation, it also fits into the Italian terza rima rhyme scheme.
Still taking a break from Middlemarch (I'm finding it a bit hard-going). I decided to read some nice classic Golden Age short stories from the hand of one of the queens of British mysteries, Dorothy L Sayers. Her collection, Lord Peter Views the Body, is a delightful gathering of stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. I have put together a brief note on each story. I enjoyed them all, but I will say that my favorites are "The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps that Ran," "The Biblulous Business of a Matter of Taste," and "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head.""The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers": A story of jealousy and a well-known sculptor's plan for revenge. Fortunately, Wimsey is on hand to prevent the artist from completing the second half of his masterpiece."The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question": Wimsey proves that a little knowledge of French can go a long way towards capturing a jewel thief."The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will": A clever old man leaves clues to his will in a crossword. Wimsey proves himself frivolous enough to decipher it."The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag": A high-speed motorcyclist gets a nasty surprise when he opens a bag picked up from a cloak room."The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker": Wimsey uses a lovely bit of sleight of hand to silence a blackmailer."The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention": Wimsey delves into the mystery of the death coach--a ghostly coach pulled by headless white horses and driven by a headless coachman."The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran": His lordship solves a murder by noticing which way the footsteps ran."The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste": Will the real Lord Peter please stand up? Or at least correctly identify six varieties of wine. A story of not one, not two, but three Wimseys."The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head": Wimsey and his nephew find an old pirate treasure. My favorite of these stories--I love the interaction between LPW and "Pickled Gherkins.""The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach": Great Uncle Joseph chooses an unusual hiding place for his wealth."The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face": Wimsey solves a murder using clues provided in the discussion amongst his fellow train travelers."The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba": Lord Peter is reported dead....and events that follow lead to the capture of a gang of criminals.The stories are fun. Not a lot of detail, but that's to be expected with short stories. Sayers does manage to pull the reader right in regardless. Four stars--but, then, I am biased. I love all things Wimsey.
Do You like book Lord Peter Views The Body (1993)?
This is a collection of short stories. Some were murders and some not, and if I remember correctly only one involved Lord Peter directly at the crime scene (most unfortunate for the murderer, choosing to kill his wife when a famous sleuth was just next door visiting his pal – bad timing man, bad timing). Why can’t there be more cases about missing fortune or missing dog or missing diamond in detective stories, instead of murders and just murders? I mean, it is not all that pleasant seeing people dropping dead every other day, what?Lord Peter was back to being the Lord Peter I first knew in the first book. His book-collector spirit and poem reciting tendency were back and I hope they were here to stay. I do not know which came after which but Lord Peter reminded me of PG Wodehouse’s men-about-town. Sense of humour and all that, kind of an intelligent version of Bertie Wooster or Reggie Pepper.I could not help feeling annoyed by the adaptations of Lord Peter’s mysteries. Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter? Are you kidding me? He was like fifty something while Lord Peter was in his thirties, how did you make up for the lost twenty years? Just film the later mysteries when the age would be appropriate if Mr Producer wanted that badly to use Carmichael. Duh!
—Norain
I did not find the characters compelling and the solutions to the mysteries were out of the blue, off the wall, illogical. I don't have to be able to figure out "who dunnit" to enjoy a mystery, but I do want to have all the information available so I COULD figure it out if I was clever enough. None of these short stories gave clues that led the the solution.I have tried Sayers a couple of times. Each time hoping THIS time I will enjoy her, because she is so popular. But, I think this is the last of my attempts to like her writing.
—Katie Graham
It hurts to give Miss Sayers and Lord Peter only three stars, but I know it's my own fault. I simply don't care for the short story format, particularly when Lord Peter is such a Deus Ex Machina in that form. In this collection, sometimes you don't know if he's a detective or a 007 wannabe. The business about his famous palate for wine, for example, made me roll my eyes. A couple of the stories, while they had some good red herrings, were bordering on the silly, and put a foot over that border more than once. We do get to see a much younger Wimsey in this collection, taking holidays for his nerves to deal with post-war shellshock (what we now call PTSD). Again, some mild racism (anti-Scots and anti-Italian particularly) is put into the mouths of Wimsey and Parker; whether this reflects the author's personal view, or simply to show ideas of the time, I don't know.I got the impression that Miss Sayers used the short stories to try out ideas that would later appear in full-length works. Some of them were awfully familiar. However, mustn't grumble, I had the treat of listening to the irreplaceable Ian Carmichael once again. (One tiny criticism of Mr Carmichael is his tendency to pronounce Wimsey's name "Death" as "dee-ath", when we are told in more than one of the novels that it is "deeth to rhyme with teeth"--unless Mr Carmichael called his own choppers tee-ath?)
—Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)
