Gaudy Night - Chapters 3--4

[antisoppist]

Brief synopsis

Chapter 3

Last day of the Gaudy. Miss Lydgate is drowning in typefaces and really really needs the invention of WYSIWYG word processing for which she will have to wait another 60 years. That said, she would be the sort to cover the final pdf with last-minute changes in electronic sticky notes and still have DTP departments everywhere

Comments

[ibmiller]

Gaudy Night was the first (I think) Harriet book I read, so I was indeed rather perplexed at Peter's non-appearance for well over half the book. However, I loved Harriet immensely, so I didn't mind at all - in fact, I read it before Strong Poison, so when I went back to read that one, I was actually annoyed that she was in it so little.

I think Harriet's intense need to protect herself from Peter - to prevent herself from going up like straw before either of them are ready - makes it quite believable that they've never seen each other's flats. She's never met his family, either.

I thought the "Peter is the diplomatic fixer/James Bond" aspect was nicely set up in the "Matter of Taste" short story. Not sure it makes as much sense without that story, but I also thought it was handled well in the book itself, with the tiny scenelets of Peter in Rome. Plus, at his advancing age and the increasing international tensions, it makes sense to me that his duties would be more essential. Not to mention his possible scoping out the nations in precursor to his SIS activities during the actual war.

There are a couple of troubles about dates for me - I'm still not entirely sure how everything that's supposed to have happened since Strong Poison is supposed to fit in the timespan, but that's mostly because I have no idea what term goes where on the calendar, being a Yank...

Last note - the incident with the married brilliant scholar really upsets me, since my mother also is highly educated and doesn't use it professionally or academically currently (other than teaching my siblings and me). She's nowhere near the kind of waste this story is, but she does tell me of the frustration that can be engendered by an education like that.

[antisoppist]

I read Gaudy Night, then Busman's Honeymoon, then Strong Poison and was also disappointed by the lack of Harriet in SP.

Thanks for reminding me of the short stories. I tend to skip them and there is more Peter information in them. I am bothered though that he expects Harriet to marry him when she still knows very little about him and it feels as though Sayers has suddenly realised this and is filling in gaps.

My mother was a teacher who married a farmer and became swallowed by the farm. This is why I am a feminist.

[littlered2]

There are a couple of troubles about dates for me - I'm still not entirely sure how everything that's supposed to have happened since Strong Poison is supposed to fit in the timespan, but that's mostly because I have no idea what term goes where on the calendar, being a Yank...

I'm not sure how much things have changed since the 30s, but currently Oxford terms are Michaelmas (early October to early December), Hilary (mid-January to mid-March) and Trinity (late April to late June). Terms are eight weeks long.

[ibmiller]

Thanks! That helps a lot, actually.

Aside from the terms, I've tried to figure out which Christmas Peter met Harriet before in SP - 1929, 1930, or 1931. Various sources say all three of those, and sometimes Sayers uses months instead of years to say how much time takes place between each book.

Plus, there's the horrible question of where Ali Baba happens - I'm inclined to say relatively shortly before SP, since that's the dating of the story I've read, and the characters talk about Peter being gone before (which is partly why Parker has gone so far after Harriet without Peter bringing him up short). But they don't quite act as if he'd been dead for a year and a half...

[antisoppist]

I did try to find a chronology online but the one I found I don't agree with. I want the New Year at the start of Nine Tailors to be the one after Christmas at Duke's Denver in Strong Poison but opinion is divided on that.

The day by day HHC dates are right for 1931 and GN definitely ends in 1935. The Dean's letter at the end of Chapter 4 is March 1935 and the Gaudy is therefore in 1934 - three years after HHC. This means Harriet is away in Europe from July/August 1931 until June 1932. I'm not sure whether Peter's being away for 6 months at some point after that fits in with a short story or not. How much time does he need for the Incredible Elopement?

I prefer not to think about Ali Baba and am not helping about when Strong Poison was.

[colonial_abroad]

There seem to be differing opinions on Sayer's timeline right about SP- I've always been a fan of setting that in 1930, myself- but regardless of what year it is she's set us a nice little mess of a time line.

So far as I can tell (and I'm by no means an authority) it goes something like this:

Ali Baba, imediately into SP. Then at the Christmas which is *never discussed* in SP he's actually down in Fenchurch St. Paul for the first part of "The Nine Tailors" Then SP wraps up. Then we get the middle part of 9T. Then Five Red Herrings in it's entirety. Then the last Christmas of 9T. Which at least means that Peter is busy while Harriet is off walking around!

[antisoppist]

I completely agree about SP happening simultaneously with the start of NT, if only because after the Christmas from hell with the woman you love about to be hanged, driving into a ditch seems the only sensible thing to do.

There's one online chronology that puts NT after HHC due to publication date. I'd disagree with that, mainly because Sayers started writing it earlier but got bogged down in the bellringing detail and had to write MMA to keep her publisher happy instead.

Does SP being published in 1929 prevent it being set in 1930? But then there's Peter's reference to "five years" at the end of GN so it can't be too much earlier.

[colonial_abroad]

You are right about that one... I don't think she ever actually wrote in the futre as it were. Hmmmm.

And poor unloved MMA - I must confess a certain fondness for it. (especially if you ignore the sillier parts)

[antisoppist]

I love MMA! Well yes, you have to ignore the harlequin and the fountain but it is such a brilliant portrayal of real office life by someone who knew it very well and enjoyed it. Also I often translate advertising for the most peculiar Scandinavian things and then I feel like Mr Copley doing corset adverts.

As Harriet was in London during MMA I am now wondering whether she ever spotted a harlequin flash by in Peter's car, particularly as Great Ormond Street is only just round the corner from her flat, and what she made of it. ("is that a penny whistle in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?")

[littlered2]

I adore MMA - I know DLS didn't like it much herself, but I think it's hilarious.