She reveled in the limitless possibilities, and sometimes she fell victim to their hidden pitfalls. Her story in some ways encapsulates the social transformation taking place in her time. More important is the story she told of those times, an ongoing saga of crime and detection that so capably captured the energy of postwar Britain. To read the eleven completed novels and twenty short stories that Sayers devoted to the exploits of Lord Peter Wimsey is to return to the “long week-end,” when so much was possible and so much was shocking.
The war, the challenge to the Victorian tradition, the changing roles for women, the shifting perceptions of class, the function of communities, the rising influence of technology and science, the steadfastness of traditional culture—these are all themes central to this book. How did Sayers deal with these issues? How did her treatment change over time? How does her interpretation reflect the realities of her time period? To answer these questions is to gauge the process of modernization as Dorothy L. Sayers understood it.
So this is a book about Sayers as a writer and as a human being, what she saw and felt in the years between the world wars, and how she incorporated the experience into the fictional lives of her creation. It is a history of a make-believe person who lived a real life.
From Conundrums for the Long Week-end: England, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Lord Peter Wimsey by Robert Kuhn McGregor and Ethan Lewis
So excited for this book! Thanks to Mariana for suggesting it.
