Outside of a Dog: Sayers, Dorothy L.: (11) The Nine Tailors

Jean

Jean wrote on October 27, 2006 at 10:01 AM:

I haven't re-read this in ages, but like you find Sayers infinitely re-readable.

I'd query your sense that Peter out of town is Peter out of his natural element, though. Peter is landed aristocracy, which means that though he lives in town, actually his element is the land, the family estates. Doesn't Harriet realise something of the sort in Busman's Honeymoon? (Or am I thinking of Peter in Oxford, in Gaudy Night?) It is simply one of Peter's many perfections that he seems entirely in his element wherever we see him - which is mainly in town, because as a single man he lives in town. Once he marries, he wants a real house, and it's in the country.

I may be misremembering and making some of this up, for which I apologise: but I think there's a genuine sense (and this is probably typical of Sayers' class, period, outlook) that the country is real, and that town is a thin veneer laid over it.

Kate

Kate wrote on October 27, 2006 at 12:18 PM:

What I was trying to get at is the _unsophistication_ of Peter in this book; driving his car into a ditch, the decorous/silly handbell rehearsal scene, like that. You may be right about the landed gentry--though I thought I remembered the house in the country being Harriet's idea--but the role of man-about-town is very reduced here.

E

E wrote on May 9, 2007 at 11:42 PM:

Please do comment about the obvious (which I think I know) part of the mystery. I just finished reading it for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed the book and look forward to a reread.

Kate

Kate wrote on May 10, 2007 at 6:34 AM:

E: The method of death. Was it for you, too? (Please use spoiler-protection if necessary, such as ROT13.

Glad to hear you liked it.