From a feministy perspective, I mean. I've just recently got into them so haven't read that many, but things keep striking me. Not just Sayers herself having a feminist perspective (though she obviously does), but also details about the time period I wouldn't have known about.
The thing that made me smile most recently was in Gaudy Night, she has a conversation between Harriet Vane and one of the dons at her fictional Oxford college, who observe that the women undergraduates have a bad habit of sunbathing in their underwear and really, this is unfair ('not on the [male] undergraduates - they're used to it') on the male dons who might wander through the quad and see them.
It just struck me that it's such a different image from the rather buttoned-up idea of attitudes towards women's bodies I'd expect from that time.
What does anyone else think?
And what do you think of Jill Paton Walsh finishing of Sayers' last unfinished draft and writing continuations? Is it a travesty, or is this the kind of collaboration that feminism ought to be supporting? There being that argument that the 'lone genius author' is a concept that's always associated more with men than with women.
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions
Does anyone want to chat about Dorothy L Sayers' books with me?
LRDtheFeministDragon · 02/06/2013 16:45
Why 
? I just meant that the amount of esoteric knowledge held by those two at the tips of their tongues was, ahem, a smidge on the smug side...
This is a great thread. I will now add Michael Innes and Lindsey Davis to my list.
Last week I finished a massive project at work, and having promised myself a solitary mini-vacation as reward, I am now sitting on a screened porch on an island off the coast of Georgia, first cup of coffee in hand, happily lost in Gaudy Night.
Thanks to all. 
LordCopper - I love your name. It's a common saying in our family, but whenever I have tried it on anyone else, including DH, I get 
.
Stealth 
DH and I both Evelyn Waugh fans. Come to think of it, have never tried thinking about his books from the feminist perspective. Probably doesn't bear thinking about ...
Ooh, scone. Niiiiice. 
That sounds perfect.
northern - at least they insisted! I was struggling with one of Peter's uncle's letters. I would be so fucked off to get to the end of a book and realize the solution was in something I'd had to skip.
I thought it was only me! I thought all British people will read enough French (!!), and I'm not from round here and they didn't think to teach us French where I come from. 
(Of course I know that not everyone who read English is British and not all British people read French. It's just one of those irrational thing. Like thinking Watership Down was written by rabbits. 
)
This is my dream thread
Absolutely agree with all the Gaudy Night love. I think the negotiation Harriet and Peter go through to find a mutually respectful way to have a relationship is one of the most fascinating, admirable pieces of writing on love I've read. Compare it with the way courtship is written in most novels, then and now, and it feels revolutionary, I think. Off to order Whose Body? which I haven't actually read. I thank you all
Oh, I am honoured, sarahMN.
I agree about the writing, too. I love how there's a bit where Peter is trying to comfort her, and at some point his voice is muffled in her hair. That's the only bit of 'physical' there. Nicely done.
I enjoyed the one I read, edam, I've just not read enough to judge.
I agree it's not in the same class as Pemberley, even a bit.
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