Product Description
A collection of short stories written in English during the period 1900-1939 by authors such as John Galsworthy, Somerset Maugham, Dorothy L.Sayers and H.G.Wells. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A delight for Lord Peter aficionados
Much of this inventive family history is taken from Dorothy Sayers' own notes and various publications during her "Wimsey years".This cleverly-written little volume weaves the various threads of the family background into an easily-understood and beautiful little tapestry.

The game is afoot! (sort of)
Any more-than-casual fan of Sherlock Holmes is aware of "the great game" -- the body of research and writing known as Sherlockiana or Holmesiana (depending I think on what side of the Atlantic you're on) dedicated to establishing a Sherlockian chronology, identifying disguised personages, resolving apparent inconsistencies, and generally increasing the sum of the world's knowledge about the life and work of the world's first consulting detective.

Lord Peter Wimsey, the shining light of the next generation of British detectives, has never quite been subjected to the same sort of passionate scrutiny. In part, that's because his creator, Dorothy L. Sayers, was quite explicit in dating his adventures: If she says "Unnatural Death" took place in spring, 1927, her stories have the internal evidence to prove it.

Interestingly, however, Sayers herself was a Sherlockian and an experienced player of the great game. And so when C.W. Scott-Giles contacted her in the 1930s with the mock-serious premise that the heraldic achievement of the Wimsey family suggested great antiquity deserving of further researches, Sayers joined right into the fun. This book, published many years later, is the fruit of their exchanges.

Unlike much Sherlockiana, which is meant to supplement and enhance Dr. Watson's stories, this book doesn't really add a lot to our understanding of Sayers' work. And so, it's not essential reading. It is, however, a quick and entertaining read, sure to be a worthwhile diversion for Wimsey fans.

Lord Peter's family, from the Norman Conquest to WWII
"'Now I want you to fake an answer.'
'Fake one?'
'Right. We're in a roomful of people, say, and several of 'em probably know more...than you do, but you're being billed as the resident expert...so somebody asks you, uh, "Mr. Doyle, to what extent, in your opinion, was Wordsworth influenced by the philosophy expressed in the verse plays of, I don't know, Sir Arky Malarkey?" Quick!'
Doyle cocked an eyebrow. 'Well, it's a mistake, I think, to try to simplify Malarkey's work that way; several philosophies emerge as one traces the maturing of his thought...'"
- Darrow interviewing Doyle for a job in THE ANUBIS GATES, by Tim Powers

For some strange reason the above passage comes to mind when reading THE WIMSEY FAMILY, the 1976 work resulting from Giles' collected correspondence between himself, Dorothy L. Sayers (the famed chronicler of the amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey), and a few other parties who 'discovered' much hitherto unpublished history.

It all began in February 1936, when Scott-Giles - a heraldic expert bearing the title Fitzalan Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary - wrote to Sayers about the Wimsey coat of arms, the blazon being included as part of the Who's Who-style boilerplate prefacing several editions of various Lord Peter novels. (A blazon is the formal description of a coat of arms, not necessarily including a picture; Scott-Giles has translated it into pictorial form in the book before you, along with other 'reproductions' of relevant pictorial bits of Wimsey family history.) Scott-Giles soberly noted that the elements of the blazon seemed to be of great antiquity, and the Saracen supporters of the shield hinted at a Crusading ancestor, so perhaps Sayers ought to clarify that the coat of arms is only by chance so expressive of Lord Peter's bent for investigation.

This led to a lively correspondence between Sayers, Scott-Giles, and a couple of Sayers' close friends, each 'discovering' more and more facts about the family history. Scott-Giles tended to concentrate on the medieval members of the family, and Sayers herself on the Tudor era. (Sayers' friend Helen Simpson, to whom we owe various drawings of Bredon Hall, the family seat, appears to have unearthed the 18th century marriage between the then-Lord St. George, heir to the title, and a hosier's widow, which caused something of a scandal.) They published various essays and even a pamphlet in the 1930s for interested parties, and some of the fruits of their joint efforts went into the final segment of BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON when Sayers adapted the original play, cowritten with one of her fellow 'researchers', into a novel.

Scott-Giles, assembling this material in the 1970s, notes that he has generally avoided discussing any Wimseys whose history hadn't 'turned up' in Sayers' lifetime. He did, however, address an apparent discrepancy raised by a fellow expert, noting that Lord Peter's older brother, being described as 'a peer of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland' in Sayers' canon implies that the title was created after 2 July 1800, but that the dukes (formerly earls) of Denver trace back far enough to properly be described as 'peers of England'. Scott-Giles deftly fielded this by digging up a Duke with an only daughter who married into a distant branch of the family after the heir-presumptive died at Waterloo.

And so on. Betwixt and between them, the original contributors managed to skate past several awkward points, among them the fact that for a considerable period in Tudor times, there weren't *any* dukes in England. In fact, exactly one duke - Denver - survived with his honours intact, having the family gift for withdrawing to the family seat and/or being stricken with diplomatic illness in a crisis.

Each part of the coat of arms turns out to have a story, starting with the original device of 3 silver plates on a black background. (A lord of Normandy, being eaten out of house and home by three hulking sons, presented them with three empty platters that they were henceforth to fill by their own efforts, with a strong hint that joining the Conqueror's army would be a capital idea.) How the device changed to three mice, with a domestic cat as crest, is a Crusading story illustrating the Wimsey strain of cleverness - the family for centuries has come in 2 flavors, mostly stolid like Lord Peter's elder brother Gerald, but occasionally breaking out in high-strung brilliance like Lord Peter himself.

All in all, if you like the bits of family history included in the Wimseys' visit to Duke's Denver at the end of BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON, here's more of the same, in more detail. You could get some of it out of Barbara Reynolds' edited collections of Sayers' letters, but those volumes only contain Sayers' part of the correspondence, not the intervening material from Scott-Giles, Helen Simpson, and Muriel St-Clare Byrne (those last two names grace the dedication of BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON, of course). ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

If you like BBC Radio Drama....This is for you...
Ian Carm. is great as Peter, though he was a bit old when he started to play the part. You'd not know this listening to the audio unless you've also seen the vintage videos of him playing the part. I think it is a shame he was unable to make all the volumes in this series dramatically. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Fascinating and Funny Examination of Modern Issues
I hate to admit it, but I didn't even miss Lord Peter (although I love him).This novel is full of witty and satirically ridiculous characters addressing modern gender, scientific, and philosophical-theological issues in a subtle and fascinating way, ultimately touching on the issue of eugenics that so contributed to the Nazi horror.I especially recommend the audio version, because the reader brilliantly brings to life the vapid Mrs. Harrison and the grouchy novelist Munting, as well as the no-nonsense Victorian Harrison men.One of my favorite Sayers novels so far.

Bad Reading Habits
I hope I am not holding a grudge against The Documents in the Case for not having Lord Peter Wimsey in it. As in many classic mysteries, the jacket reveals the identity of the victim and his cause of death, in this case a wild mushroom enthusiast who dies from consuming deadly Amanita mushrooms.The murder doesn't take place until more than halfway through, leaving plenty of time to set the scene.Perhaps inspired by Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone, the main part of the story is told by letters written by the different characters who are proximate to the murder.Unfortunately all the characters are very self-absorbed and long-winded in a way that I did not find engaging.For social historians, The Documents in the Case highlights 1929 attitudes toward class, feminism, and the new ideas of chemistry, biology, physics, and psychology that were beginning to gain popular currency.

Loyal Dorothy Sayers fans who find this less well-known novel after reading her other books will recognize a proto-Miss Climpson and echoes of the feckless "artistic" set that Harriet Vane ran with before her murder trial.

Hard core Sayers fans will get some pleasure from this book even without His Lordship but its main value is as a period piece and exhibit in the history of detective fiction.

No Wimsey, but plenty of good old-fashioned murder
"The Documents in the Case" is a departure from Dorothy Sayers' excellent Lord Peter Wimsey series. In the first half ("Synthesis"), the reader is introduced to the characters (married couple George and Margaret Harrison, roommates Lathom and Munting, and the disturbed Miss Milsom) through a series of letters from and to the characters. The basis for the crime is laid out early in the book, and the murder is solved in the second section ("Analysis").

(This book should be a must-read for organic chemistry students, who will appreciate the solution to the mystery.)

Besides furnishing the method of the murder, then-contemporary science plays a huge part in this book, with characters discussing the works of Einstein, Eddington and others. To the modern reader, this seems quaint and rather naive. "Glands" are discussed multiple times, with the implication that all human behavior would be explained in the near future as a result of "heredity and encrocine secretions, economics and aesthetics and so on." Another character comments that "Nature's only a rather clumsy kind of chemist . . . rather a careless and inaccurate one." This over-confidence was hardly justifies by future developments--1930s scientists could hardly have predicted the immense complication of the interactions of "heredity and endocrine secretions", and their effects on human behavior, nor the immense difficulty in organic sythesis, or the DNA revolution.

There a couple of real scientific howlers here, notably where one character describes light as a vibration in the aether, a theory that has been completely de-bunked (the "lumineferous aether" was supposed to be the propagation medium for light). Still, keeping in mind that this book was written in 1930, it's an interesting look into contemporary mindset and theories, and an absorbing mystery.

Lord Peter Wimsey is off the case
In a departure from her trademark Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane stories, Dorothy L. Sayers presents what is essentially an epistolary novel with this book. Ostensibly a collection of 40-some letters and 2 long written statements, the book details the events leading up to the murder of George Harrison (not *that* George Harrison), and the efforts of the victim's son and a reluctant ally to get to the truth of matter.

While it's not exactly Rashomon, unreliable narrators abound, and fixing just what's what as letters contradict each other is the reader's challenge in the first half of the book. In the second half, Paul Harrison details his efforts to find his father's killer and pulls in budding author John Munting to assist him. Their investigation proceeds in fits and starts until it hits the brick wall of knowing *who* committed the murder, and even *why* and *how*, but not being able to prove any of it. As the number of pages dwindles, you begin to doubt if Sayers can get out of the corner she's painted herself into. Without answering whether she does or not, I will say the ending doesn't disappoint.

One suspects that Sayers' late-1920's audience got more out of this novel than today's readers. Unless you're well versed in D.H. Lawrence, R.U.R., and other then-current artistic works, you - like me - will miss what I suspect are some rather satirical asides. Nonetheless, this remains a highly enjoyable book by one of England's best mystery writers. (Robert Eustace, Sayers' co-author, is the pseudonym of Dr. Eustace Robert Barton, who likely provided her with much of the scientific material for the story; he also collaborated with several other mystery writers in the first third of the 20th Century.)

One of Sayers Best
Documents in the Case is unlike Sayers' other mysteries. It is in the form, first of all, of documents: letters, newspaper clippings, etc. Secondly, it does not feature Lord Peter Wimsey.

It is, however, an intensely interesting book. The characters, with the exception of the femme fatale (who is convincing butentirely unlikable), are portrayed sympathetically and the reader comes away with a sense of the complexity of human nature in general and of the novel's characters specifically. No one is all good or all bad or all anything. The victim--a fussy, middle-class, conservative husband--is drawn with great insight and compassion. Equally so, the murderer, for all the cruelty of the murder, is not unlikable and even pitiable.

The main narrator has many of the same personality quirks as Lord Peter Wimsey--a reluctance to get involved, oversensitivity and feelings of self-doubt--but his motives are, I think, more convincing. His quirks are less mannerisms and more part and parcel of his character (as eventually happens with Wimsey). Like all the other characters, he is flawed but comprehensible.

In fact, the book is a most unpretentious novel. I enjoy Sayers very much and consider myself a Wimsey fan, but Documents in the Case is, to my mind, a far more realistic and thoughtful mystery than some of Sayers' better known works. The mileau is middle-class. The victim's son (who is collecting the documents) is noble-minded but imperfect: hard to like even when you want him to "win". And the characters are truly impacted by the murder.

The murder itself is interesting enough but much more interesting is the theme that runs alongside the murder: the "lop-sidedness" of life in general, the idea that living things can never achieve the cookie-cutter perfection of synthetic creations.

Recommendation: Give it a try if you are interested in Sayers' work beyond Wimsey (and if you don't mind reading books in letter or document form). ... Read more

Product Description
Twelve cases of murder, and each a mystery for Lord Peter. As he gathers his clues, he reveals a gruesome but absolutely bewitching side rarely shown to readers in his full-length adventures. Originally published in 1928. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

An Odd Viewing
Dorothy L. Sayers' sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, is a unique creation - an aristocratic gentleman turned sleuth who can always fathom the truth out of the most impossible mysteries.Sayers' wrote some great novels featuring Lord Peter at his best.Yet "Lord Peter Views the Body", s collection of a dozen short stories, is an odd conglomeration, even for one of the most unique detectives in the history of the genre.

The collection begins with an odd and disturbingly grotesque story entitled "The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers".It is the story of an artist whose latest work may be more than what initially meets the eye.Thankfully, this seeming departure from Sayers' usual ground does not set the tone for the rest of the stories.There are several stories that stand out, many which center around inheritances.One of them is "The Fascinationg Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will", where a young woman's inheritance hinges upon solving a maddening crossword puzzle created by her uncle.Sayers gives the blank crossword form and the clues, although I highly doubt any modern readers would be able to supply all of the answers (which are included at the end of the book)."The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention" is a rambling story that includes the possible phantom carriage of death and two brothers battling over the funeral rites of their dead father."The Learned Adveture of the Dragon's Head" and "The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach" both deal with the hunt for treasures secured in the oddest of places, with the former showing Wimsey in a new light, as a tender uncle to his ten-year-old nephew.

I must admit I enjoyed the majority of the stories in the selection, even the light-hearted fare like "The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question" in which Lord Peter tries to prevent a robbery and "The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker" in which he tries to recover stolen goods without police involvement."The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste" can be a particulary confounding story, since there are not one, but three Lord Peter Wimseys vying for a secret formula from a French count.All in all, "Lord Peter Views the Body" is a delightful collection of stories, some much stronger than the others.Sayers seems to have gotten caught up with the theme of contesting wills, since many of the stories focus around that.This would not be an apt collection to introduce someone to Sayers' work, making it more fitting for diehard fans of the writer and her interesting sleuth.

A collection of short stories by our favorite detective.
"Lord Peter Views the Body" Is part of the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries Series. There are twelve mysteries. I will not pull them apart as the fun is watching them unfold.
"The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers"
"The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question"
"The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Mileage's Will"
"The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag"
"The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker"
"The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention"
"The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran"
"The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste"
"The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head"
"The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach"
"The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face"
"The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba"


With the novels containing Harriet Vane [Strong Poison], the emphasis is on English life with a mystery added. This book is a series of mysteries with a little 20's and 30's England added. It may be my perception but the mysteries get better and more intriguing as the next one appears. Then it is over.

Next book is "The Nine Tailors: Changes Rung on an Old Theme in Two Short Touches and Two Full Peals."

A collection of short stories by our favorite detective.
"Lord Peter Views the Body" Is part of the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries Series. There are twelve mysteries. I will not pull them apart as the fun is watching them unfold.
"The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers"
"The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question"
"The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Mileage's Will"
"The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag"
"The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker"
"The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention"
"The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran"
"The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste"
"The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head"
"The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach"
"The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face"
"The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba"

A collection of short stories by our favorite detective.
"Lord Peter Views the Body" Is part of the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries Series. There are twelve mysteries. I will not pull them apart as the fun is watching them unfold.
"The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers"
"The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question"
"The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Mileage's Will"
"The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag"
"The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker"
"The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention"
"The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran"
"The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste"
"The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head"
"The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach"
"The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face"
"The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba"


With the novels containing Harriet Vane [Strong Poison], the emphasis is on English life with a mystery added. This book is a series of mysteries with a little 20's and 30's England added. It may be my perception but the mysteries get better and more intriguing as the next one appears. Then it is over.

Next book is "The Nine Tailors: Changes Rung on an Old Theme in Two Short Touches and Two Full Peals."

A collection of short stories by our favorite detective.
"Lord Peter Views the Body" Is part of the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries Series. There are twelve mysteries. I will not pull them apart as the fun is watching them unfold.
"The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers"
"The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question"
"The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Mileage's Will"
"The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag"
"The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker"
"The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention"
"The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran"
"The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste"
"The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head"
"The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach"
"The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face"
"The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba"


With the novels containing Harriet Vane [Strong Poison], the emphasis is on English life with a mystery added. This book is a series of mysteries with a little 20's and 30's England added. It may be my perception but the mysteries get better and more intriguing as the next one appears. Then it is over.

Next book is "The Nine Tailors: Changes Rung on an Old Theme in Two Short Touches and Two Full Peals."
... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Whose Body
The CD was wonderful I enjoyed listing to
Dorothy L. Sayers twinst and turns.
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Product Description
Victor Dean fell to his death on the stairs of Pym's Advertising Agency, but no one seems to be sorry. Until an inquesitive new copywriter joins the firm and asks some awkward questions...Disguised as his disreputable cousin Death Bredon, Lord Peter Wimsey takes a job - one that soon draws him into a vicious network of blackmailers and drug pedlers. Five people will die before Wimsey unravels a sinister and deadly plot. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"They start new copywriters at four quid a week--about enough to pay for a pair of your shoes."
When Lord Peter Death Breden Wimsey, privately investigating the "accidental" death of an employee of an advertising firm, takes a copywriting job there, in this 1933 novel, he raises curiosity among the female employees. Known on the job only as "Breden," he is regarded as "a cross between Ray Flynn and Bertie Wooster, " complete with silk socks and expensive shoes, and obviously not from the same background as the rest of the staff. Assigned to advertise Dairyfield's Margarine and "domestic" tea, he occupies the dead man's office, churning out slogans while poking into relationships and possible motivations for murder. He soon discovers that the dead man, with limited resources, actively participated in the drug culture of upperclass parties, though how he became involved is an open question.

Lord Peter, as aristocratic as his title would imply, is adventurous and imaginative, a man of action and intelligence who does not hesitate to get down and dirty if necessary (though he'd prefer not "too" dirty). With a "tongue that runs on ballbearings," he can talk his way into and out of almost any situation, and as an ad agency employee, he provides the reader with some terrific one-liners and quips as he tries to sell products. Author Dorothy Sayers, who worked in an advertising agency herself for seven years, brings the agency to life with all its petty infighting and cynicism, creating a vibrant environment in which Wimsey's familiar wordplay and cleverness can be highlighted during his investigation of the murder--and the gruesome murders which follow in its wake.

The author's total control is obvious as she carefully introduces quirky and memorable characters, provides Wimsey/Breden with a sounding board for his discoveries (his brother-in-law, a police superindendent), integrates him successfully into all levels of society, and creates a realistic picture of life in the 1930s--while keeping the reader completely engaged with the mystery and with Wimsey's shrewdness. The wordplay and dry humor throughout the novel are sheer delight, and the conclusion, in which Wimsey/Breden finds a unique way of bringing the investigation to a satisfying resolution comes as a surprise. Sometimes described as the best of the Lord Peter Wimsey series, this novel is a classic--as entertaining now as it was when it was written in 1933. n Mary Whipple

Lord Peter : The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories
Unnatural Death (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries)
Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery)
A Presumption of Death: A New Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery (Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mysteries)
Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life and Soul

... Read more