Lord Peter Wimsey Novels - pick one for me to read please!

[HollyGoHeavily]

My book group meets pretty soon and this month's choice is to read a Lord Peter Wimsey novel. I have never heard of him not yet had the pleasure so need some pointers. Which of the novels should I read? The first one? Or is there a stand-out one in the middle of the series?

I did go to Oxford, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news for romantically inclined 17yos, but it wasn't quite like in the Wimsey/Vane books. Unfortunately I did not spend my time being pursued by rich-yet-surprisingly-feminist lords quoting poetry at me.

I was even more disappointed not to be recruited into a spy ring by a seedy tutor bearing mid-morning sherry. (I'd read my le Carre, I was prepared for this). Oxford had many good points but it didn't quite live up to the novels.

Clouds of Witness is the first Wimsey book. Murder Must Advertise is possibly my favourite.

But I'd recommend all four of the Wimsey/Vane books here: in reading order, Strong Poison, Have His Carcass, Gaudy Night, and Busman's Honeymoon.

You migut like to have a look at this thread, perhaps after you've read Gaudy Night but before the book club meets.

If you want more of Peter and Harriet in later years, try the Jill Paton Walsh sequels

Yes the first sequel (Thrones, Dominations) was very good, i think parts of it were written by DLS and it was finished by Jill Paton Walsh. The second one was also pretty good I seem to remember...maybe not quite as good as the others but still enjoyable (A Presumption Of Death). Through Googling I've just discovered there is a third JPW one I didn't know about .

I came on the thread just to say what almost everyone else has said...I love the ones with Harriet Vane in . Busman's Honeymoon is probably my favourite with Have His Carcass next (despite it's rather unbelievable murder plot). I would recommend reading them in order though.

The third JPW is a good book but I think it's quite different in tone, as it is the only one without any DLS input (A Presumption of Death was partly based on some fictional letters DLS did between Harriet and Peter).

I would actually start with Murder Must Advertise but am excited to hear how OP got on with her choice!

I liked Thrones, Dominations, but the others were much weaker. And the ones where Bunter has become a first name terms sit down at the table family friend are awful!

Have been a fan for years. If you have a Kindle there is a fully annotated version of Whose body? (pre HV book). The notes are really helpful for understanding social and literary references:

www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Annotated-Whose-Body-ebook/dp/B005HM8FAI/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1336758372&sr=1-2

Oh good, I've just bought that, thanks GnomedePlume.

I quite like the Jill Paton Walsh books but they do require some suspension of cynicism, especially - as Seeker says - the way Peter and Bunter and their families evolve from master and servant to all jolly good mates.

Oh, I do love a gentleman detective. Adam Dalgleish, Alan Grant, Roderick Alleyn, Gervase Fen- I love them all!

Lovely to see this thread. I think Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon are my favourites but I can't think of one I don't like - they're all wonderful.

I used to work at an Oxford College and it used to make me smile when I read the bits about the Fellows commenting on the students' lack of 'umpf' (as it were) as it's a discussion which was often heard at High Table now as then!

"Busmans Holiday" or "Nine Tailors"

Nice easy reads, devilish who dunnits.

I am re-reading them too and am thrilled to discover so many Wimsey fans. I still have quite a crush on him.

I got the third JPW one out of the library Saturday (The Attenbury Emeralds) and read it in a day, enjoyed it.

Some of the "matey" stuff with Bunter was a bit but the book is set in 1951 - JPW is obviously trying to acknowledge that the world was changing a lot from the 20's/30's that the original books are set in. I thought it was a bit unbelievable though that Bunter's son would be at Eton with Peter and Harriet's son. I don't think I would read the JPW ones again and again like I do with the DLS ones - they are more dialogue-based, without all the period detail and characters' internal thoughts of the originals. Though DLS's early Wimsey ones didn't really have a lot about Peter's character - it was in the later books that all the literature-quoting/music-loving/book-collecting/classically educated stuff was introduced.

The only bit I didn't like in The Attenbury Emeralds was Harriet saying about her books "I know I'm no Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers" - I know it was a bit of an in-joke but I was thinking "Nooooo! You can't have Dorothy Sayers books in your world! You'd be reading about yourself!"

My mother put me under immense pressure to go to Oxford because of her crush on Peter Wimsey. Fortunately for both of us I found a course there that I really wanted to do, got in (to DLS's college) had a fab time and met DH to whom I've been married for 19 years (he's not a fabulously wealthy aristo, but he is a willowy blond, so halfway there).

So that's a win for major life decisions based on unrealistic literary fantasy there .

OP - Gaudy Night is the best - but not first. Definitely Strong Poison.

I love Peter Wimsey. Another one who had a teenage crush - and I also went to DL's college and spent far too much time re-reading all her books as well as other college authors - PrematurelyAirconditioned - what year?

Yes, Strong Poison, or Murder Must Advertise would be my top picks, though for a book club, SP might be better

I love DLS too. There are also short stories featuring HV and PW with kids. At work now so can't go and dig them out. In fact don't know where among all the shelves they are. Does anyone have any advice on how to organise books at home!?

Are the HV/PW short stories by DLS? I would love to know what they are.

By DLS.

I read one JWP one and didn't like it. It was too easy to read and felt a bit patronising.

Damn the person to linked to that thesis. I ought to have been working. I'm firming closing this window now. Will come back this evening.

Oooh fab! Reading the one where his brother is charged with murder. I love the historical detail. He is different in the early ones compared to the later HV ones. Far more apostrophes in his speech!

I loved them as a teenager too, and still do - I like the JPW ones as well, not quite the same but she did an amazing job! My favourite has always been Murder Must Advertise.

BellaBear - there are three or four short story collections by DLS, but the LPW one with his children in is Striding Folly.

Thank you!