Gaudy Night

Summary: Harriet reluctantly returns to Oxford after her murder trial and encounters a mystery that might end up as a murder.

I have been slowly working through the Peter Wimsey mystery series over the past several years. When I have seen people talk about the series, they generally say that either Strong Poison or Gaudy Night is their favorite book. However, since I recently reread Strong Poison to prepare to finish reading the series, I can more directly compare them.

Strong Poison introduces the character of Harriet Vane, Peter Wimsey's love interest. Harriet Vane is a mystery writer, and I think most people think she is a bit of a stand-in for Dorothy Sayers herself. Gaudy Night is the only book I have read that focuses on Harriet. Harriet is a character in the other books, but Peter is still the main focus. I believe that only Gaudy Night is told from Harriet's perspective for most of the book.

Even as it is told from Harriet's perspective, it is a lot of exploration of Harriet's lack of confidence in her ability to be a detective and her wishes for Peter. Part of the wishing for Peter is her coming to understand that she does love Peter. (Gaudy Night leads directly into Busman's Holiday, which I read out of order and know is about their honeymoon.) But apart from the romance angle of Gaudy Night, I appreciate the development of Harriet's character. Still, I wish more full novels were past Busman's Holiday because Harriet is underdeveloped. She feels to me like she was never fully the partner to Peter that she is intended to be. Peter is still the main character, who Harriet supports as the sidekick.

The story follows Harriet as she returns to Oxford. Harriet (and Dorothy) was one of the early female students at Oxford. Harriet is given a threatening note during a weekend visit to Oxford and finds a second threatening note. And eventually, the head of the school confides to her that the women's college has had a rash of minor vandalism and threats, and they seem to be increasing and have the potential for violence or at least a black eye at the women's college. Harriet returns to the college and moves in under the pretense of working on research for a book while trying to discover the perpetrator.

I will not reveal any more of the plot, but I think the book could have been trimmed a bit. It went on a little bit long for the main plot, but I think the point of the length was the character development more than the plot. That extra character development doesn't make sense to me because there was only one more full-length novel after this, and it did not fully realize Harriet's role.

After reading Gaudy Night, Strong Poison, and Busman's Holiday over the past month, I think that Busman's Holiday is probably my favorite, but that is likely because it is the furthest along in the series and the most developed with their relationship. Eventually, I will likely read the continuation of the series by Jill Paton Walsh in 2010. The first book of that series was based on a draft by Sayers that was not discovered until recently.

I liked the mystery - but as many others have said, it's really about the characters. And the characters are beautiful.

I read the very last chapter of this book on my wedding morning (it's still the morning before my wedding as I write this). Was not planned - but what a chapter to read before my wedding. Had me in tears - it was so beautiful.

Written nearly a century ago - it was tad bit difficult to follow the Oxonian customs from that time period or relate to the cultural expectations from each sex in general society. However, it was surprising how some of the underlying issues addressed in this book, circling on the role of women, remain relevant till date. I would recommend this book for the author's style of writing and the exhibition of proficiency in describing human emotions.

I read Gaudy Night, before reading the previous books of the Peter Wimsey series, which created some confusion - but it did not particularly act as an impediment for me to follow the larger plot. This book falls in the crime/ mystery genre, and is not a traditional murder mystery.