For me Gaudy Night is one of the most successful marriages of the puzzle with the novel of social realism and serious purpose. It tells me, as a writer of today, that it is possible to construct a credible and enthralling mystery and marry it successfully to a theme of psychological subtlety, and this is perhaps the most important of Dorothy L. Sayers's legacies to writers and readers.
From P.D. James, Talking About Detective Fiction (2009).
4 comments:
Yes!!! That is EXACTLY why I love Gaudy Night so much. And also because it is so romantic... :-)
I may need to find a copy of Gaudy Night. :)
I love Gaudy Night. It's the best of my campus novel and academic mystery collection. It's one of those books that rather ruins the reads that come after--so hard to measure up to that greatness. There is a rave review of the book at "things mean a lot" this week, too.
I definitely want to get hold of the PD James book - had not come across it before reading your posts. Thanks for that.
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