Words on Wednesday: More on the Lord Peter books

  This post contains an annotated list of the Lord Peter novels.

  But first, a question for you:

  How do the Lord Peter novels and stories resemble the Big Bang Theory TV show? 

It's in the fan responses to the changes.

 i think there's a corresponding change in fan attitudes based on with or without the romantic interests. 

  People form and reform pairs.  They grow older. 

  They continue to be, yet are not, the same person.

  In the same way Boom and i differ on the best years of the TV show (he likes the young single nerds, i like the more or less settled couples approaching middle age), Wimsey fans are sharply divided on the question of, Is he better / more fun with or without Harriet?

His character does change slightly throughout the series.  This should only be expected. 

....just a little elfin charm goes a long way with me, especially when it is displayed by a presumably intelligent fully grown male well over the age of fifteen, which I would consider the extreme limit of archness. Depending on the particular novel or story, I find him by turns amusing, fatuous, tedious, or merely insufferable. In general I prefer early Wimsey to late, both on the grounds of his fallen archness and because he at least occasionally becomes an object of fun and satire in his early exploits. In the later ones he turns into the "priggish superman" that Auden finds quite unacceptable.     https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/3499

The man has grown up, matured, over the 30+ years of the stories. 

 Today's Annotated List of Lord Peter Wimsey Novels

  With the help of Wikipedia, here is a list of the Wimsey novels, along with my comments:

• Whose Body? (1923)  This is the one i want most to read, but have somehow missed it.
  
• Clouds of Witness (1926)  One of the strongest novels, we get to see a trial in the House of Lords.
  
• Unnatural Death (1927) (U.S. title originally The Dawson Pedigree)  Like Christie's And Then There Were None, i don't care for this one because of the story.  Unlike ATTWN, this is generally not recognized as one of Sayers' best Wimsey attempts.
  
• The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928)   Set in the late 1920s, for the old warriors in the Bellona Club, WWI is not over.  Heck, the Crimean War is not over.
  
• Strong Poison (1930) This is Harriet's first appearance.  She is almost a side character here, though His Lordship proclaims, in word and deed, that she is The One and Only Girl.
  
• The Five Red Herrings (1931)  It could be called, Whose Alibi will Hold Up?  This is very much about the murder and solving it, and Harriet isn't even mentioned.
  
• Have His Carcase (1932)   While Strong Poison "lives" inside Peter's head, this one "live"s in Harriet's.  The mystery may not have held up in the passage of time (a key to the solution is kinda common knowledge today), but if you like the addition of Harriet, it's essential reading.
  
• Murder Must Advertise (1933)  A peer working as coppyist in an ad agency is a novelty. You won't find Harriet here, though Sayers draws heavily on her time as copywriter to make this a strong, enjoyable mystery.
  
• The Nine Tailors (1934)  Again, no mention of Harriet, and an incredibly LONG novel, not bad as a mystery, but perhaps more interesting if you're into bell-ringing (campanology).
  
• Gaudy Night (1935)  Harriet returns to Oxford for a kind of reunion, the Gaudy of the title. 
• Busman's Honeymoon (1937) (last full Sayers novel) Both this novel and Gaudy Night are very talky.  The pair considers what being married would mean to each of them, and particularly what, if anything, Harriet would need to give up to marry.
  
• Thrones, Dominations (1998; unfinished Sayers manuscript completed by Jill Paton Walsh) Now married, Lord and Lady Peter continue discussing what marriage means.  By way of contrast, two other couples' embodiment of marriage are presented, one of which likely was the reason Sayers lost interest in this one.
  
• A Presumption of Death (2002; by Jill Paton Walsh)  This one is set during 1939, the early days of WWII. The war's presence is unmistakable.
  
• The Attenbury Emeralds (2010; by Jill Paton Walsh) This one spans from the early '20s to the early '50s.  It is interesting to have Peter commenting on the earlier times of his life.
  
• The Late Scholar (2014; by Jill Paton Walsh) Probably the last Lord Peter story we'll see, it continues the story of Peter and his wife (now Duke and Duchess). It's also on my not yet seen list (anyone else find some sort of irony about me and the first and last books?)
  

And my starting point recommendation...

  Back when, i got to choose a Lord Peter book for our book club.  Everyone refused to give me any guidance on which one, so i selected Gaudy Night, my favorite and personal choice for best.

 https://crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/tuesday-night-bloggers-why-you-should-give-dorothy-l-sayers-gaudy-night-1935-another-look/

  Bad idea.  The ladies complained about all the foreign quotations, being batted around like tennis balls. (However, few of those quotations affect the course of the tale.  You can skim them without losing anything.)

   So, at this time, i'd recommend starting with one of the early strong ones, depending on your particular interests:

• Clouds of Witness, with its parliamentary trial and up close & personal look at the peerage
• Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, in the club of old warriors and a bigger generation gap than i've ever known
• Murder Must Advertise, a biting satire of the industry
  

  The Attenbury Emeralds might also be a good choice, if you're pretty sure you won't be put off by the talkiness, the cozy marriage, or the flashbacks taking up a third of the book.

  But Gaudy Night is still my favorite.