Thursday, March 11, 2010

P.D. James on Dorothy L. Sayers

P.D. James on my favourite Dorothy L. Sayers novel, Gaudy Night:

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:

Julie said...

Yes!!! That is EXACTLY why I love Gaudy Night so much. And also because it is so romantic... :-)

Suko said...

I may need to find a copy of Gaudy Night. :)

Anonymous said...

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.

Seachanges said...

I definitely want to get hold of the PD James book - had not come across it before reading your posts. Thanks for that.