Will I love Gaudy Night?

I’ve always been fascinated by the “dreaming spires” of Oxford University and enjoy Gaudy Night because it immerses me in the world of a (fictional) women’s college set in 1930s Oxford.

As a former professor, I’m intrigued by the internecine political and personal battles in the Senior Common Room (SCR), or college faculty lounge, as well as the friction between those professors devoted entirely to an academic career versus those trying to maintain the challenging balance of work and family, the same issues women struggle with today, nearly one hundred years later.

Sayers weaves together these tensions with a mysterious… show more.

Seriously? This is only my all-time favorite mystery book ever, and a major part of it is seeing Oxford through Dorothy L.’s eyes. The university and the surrounding city are just as much characters as Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey.

Whether it’s hanging after dinner in the faculty lounge or the final, gorgeous scene overlooking the university, to the wonderful antique shop, to the carelessness of undergrads, it’s got it all for atmosphere.

Harriet Vane, a thinly disguised Sayers (who it seemed had fallen in love with her fictional detective, Lord Peter Wimsey), gets her own book where she goes back to Oxford to the women’s college she graduated from, to help uncover a mystery.

There is a delight in the fact that the female can be as deadly as the male, offering up a new sort of equality. This became a lovely television series starring Harriet Walter, but the book is rich and wonderful and sprinkled with untranslated Greek. You feel smarter, just holding it; it made me really wish I’d tried… show more.

Gaudy Night is one of several books featuring Harriet Vane, a mystery writer who first meets detective Lord Peter Wimsey while on trial for allegedly poisoning her lover. Set in a fictional Oxford women’s college, the story involves threatening letters, escalating vandalism, and violence.

Harriet is an educated professional. She is notorious due to scandal. She is trying to balance her independence in the 1930s and her romance with Peter. She is conflicted about whether her future should involve marriage and children.

This book is both a detective story, and a novel about the work-life balance struggles faced by women.… show more.

Well, this is a little bit of a cheat because I re-read Gaudy Night every single fall—about the time I start to get nostalgic about going to college.

This is one of Dorothy Sayers’ “Peter Wimsey” mysteries, but it’s not centered on Lord Peter, it’s all from the viewpoint of Harriet Vane, his reluctant love-interest. She has a lot of reasons to be reluctant; a terrible experience with an ex-lover—ex, because he was murdered, and terrible because she was accused of the murder.

Reluctant because Lord Peter saved her, and she not only was not interested in having another man… show more.

My college reunion is coming round again and I usually find myself rereading Gaudy Night beforehand.

Although it was published before I was born, it speaks to the issues that bedevil educated women, maybe particularly female writers. It’s set at a women’s college in Oxford and is the only one of Sayers’ mystery novels that doesn’t have a corpse. Instead, it has a creepy, increasingly dangerous somebody with a grudge against women dons. Or maybe a woman don herself. That’s the trick, because it’s not that easy to figure out.

It’s an excellent book for those pondering whether you can… show more.

Gaudy Night was recommended to me by my Aunt many years ago. I had been reading British detective novels and she said that Gaudy Night was the sweetest love story/detective novel ever written. She was right. Lord Peter Wimsey, the famous detective, meets Harriet Vane in various friends’ salons, but comes to know her and becomes quite fascinated, after she is accused of killing her lover. (This was quite a scandal in 1930s London.) He gets her off by discovering the real killer. The romance takes place over two more books – Gaudy Night is the third.

Harriet is reluctant.… show more.

Finally, a female flawed detective! Gaudy Night was published in 1935. It’s the tenth in the series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and the third featuring the woman he loves, Harriet Vane. It’s set in a women’s college at Oxford University. The dons have called Harriet in to help find out who’s sending poison pen letters and vandalizing the college. Harriet, who was charged and acquitted of her lover’s murder (Strong Poison) feels unable to return Wimsey’s love. Nevertheless she seeks his help and together they solve the case. 

Yes, the society depicted here is outdated, and Sayers’ reverence… show more.

Dorothy L Sayers is most known for her amateur detective, Lord Peter Wimsey. In Gaudy Night, however, she hands the reins over to Harriet Vane, mystery writer and close friend of Lord Peter’s. Harriet is invited to her Alma Mater – Shrewsbury College, Oxford – and while there, is asked to investigate some recent poison pen messages and obscene vandalism. From there the mystery ramps up, eventually leading to an attack on Harriet herself.

Clues are dropped slowly throughout the book and the many threads are brought together satisfyingly at the end. Sayers also examines the challenges faced by… show more.

Gaudy Night centers around a college reunion at Oxford University, the women knowing each other and having a shared history. There is no murder, but the harassment and murderous threats are nearly as scary. Who is behind these terrifying events? Although people may come and go, thereby not technically a secluded group, they stay together due to the reunion. No outsiders are considered a suspect; therefore, the focus is narrowed to one in this group as the perpetrator. I liked this book despite there being no murder. The intensifying fright I felt as each strange event occurs makes it mysterious… show more.