Gaudy Night

Lord Peter Wimsey, Book 12

By: Dorothy L. Sayers

Narrated by: Jane McDowell

Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. The twelfth book featuring Lord Peter (the third novel to feature Harriet Vane) is set in an Oxford women's college.

Harriet Vane has never dared to return to her old Oxford college. Now, despite her scandalous life, she has been summoned back....

At first she thinks her worst fears have been fulfilled, as she encounters obscene graffiti, poison pen letters, and a disgusting effigy when she arrives at sedate Shrewsbury College for the Gaudy celebrations.

But soon Harriet realises she is not the only target of this murderous malice - and asks Lord Peter Wimsey to help.

©1935 The Trustees of Anthony Fleming (deceased) (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton

Critic reviews

"I admire her novels...she has great fertility of invention, ingenuity and a wonderful eye for detail." (P. D. James)

Love Whimsy and Harriot!

I love all Dorothy Sayers! First class performance! Thank you! Looking forward to more! Cheers!

Run to the end of the story

jane Sayers reads too quickly which detracts readers attention. Story is weakened significantly as a result

Gaudy Night

I've adored this novel for 20 years. This reading of it made me dislike Harriet and Peter.

i liked the narrator! (favorite book)

Unlike others here I thought the reader was perfect for a book set in an Oxford college in the 1930s. A more dramatic and emotional reading would have been wildly inappropriate and this gave a wonderful sense of place.
And, it's one of my favorite books ever! but if you're just picking up Sayers for the first time, start with Strong Poison at least and preferably also Have His Carcase.

This one drags a little

Got to Chapter Ten and then skipped to the last three chapters. I did go back to listen to the rest of the book and am very glad, because I would have missed some of the best bits.
Dorothy Sayers would spin in her grave at some of the mispronunciations. In particular 'mischievious' which should be spoken as mis-chef-is on both sides of the Atlantic. This one pops up in most Wimsey books and Dorothy L Sayers was a stickler. I have bought them all now but it would be nice if that could be corrected for other listeners.

Spoiled by narrator

The mystery and the progress in the relationship between Wimsey and Harriet Vane make this one of the most important and enjoyable books in the series, and always my favourite.
Unfortunately this narrator was the wrong one with no understanding of the period and the setting, with no differentiation between multiple characters and a reading style of irritable misplaced emphasis.

a murder of a lovely book by narration

This is such a beautiful text, full of humor, intelligence, period details and the loveliness of Oxford. And it was brutally murdered by a shrill, humorless, staccato narration. Nothing in the world could make me dislike the heroes and the book itself, but I have to say money was wasted on this production.

Jane McDowell did a very unpleasant narration: humorless, tactless and slap-dash.

As she already did all of the books, there is obviously no chance of another try in the nearest future with a different narrator. Such a pity.