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Lord Peter Wimsey #13
Busman's Honeymoon
Society’s eligible women are in mourning. Lord Peter Wimsey has married at last, having finally succeeded in his ardent pursuit of the lovely mystery novelist Harriet Vane. The two depart for a tranquil honeymoon in a country farmhouse but find, instead of a well-prepared love nest, the place left in a shambles by the previous owner. His sudden appearance, dead from a broken skull in the cellar, only prompts more questions. Why would anyone have wanted to kill old Mr Noakes? What dark secrets had he to hide? The honeymoon is over, as Lord Peter and Harriet Vane start their investigations. Suspicion is rife and everyone seems to have something to hide, from the local constable to the housekeeper. Wimsey and his wife can think of plenty of theories, but it’s not until they discover a vital fact that the identity of the murderer becomes clear.
Dramatised by Alistair Beaton for BBC Radio 4 with Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, Sarah Badel as Harriet Vane and Peter Jones as Bunter. It was first broadcast from 2 January to 7 February 1983.
2 CDs. 2 hrs 25 mins.
Dramatised by Alistair Beaton for BBC Radio 4 with Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, Sarah Badel as Harriet Vane and Peter Jones as Bunter. It was first broadcast from 2 January to 7 February 1983.
2 CDs. 2 hrs 25 mins.
409 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
1185 people are currently reading
5652 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy L. Sayers
762books2,903followersThe detective stories of well-known British writer Dorothy Leigh Sayers mostly feature the amateur investigator Lord Peter Wimsey; she also translated the
Divine Comedy
of Dante Alighieri.
This renowned author and Christian humanist studied classical and modern languages.
Her best known mysteries, a series of short novels, set between World War I and World War II, feature an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. She is also known for her plays and essays.
This renowned author and Christian humanist studied classical and modern languages.
Her best known mysteries, a series of short novels, set between World War I and World War II, feature an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. She is also known for her plays and essays.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,143 reviews
May 20, 2011
While reading this, the fifth Sayers mystery I've read so far, I was finally able to figure out just why I love her novels more than any other mystery writer I've encountered so far: I love Dorothy Sayers because she does everything wrong, but it all somehow manages to work.
There are some commonly accepted rules for novel-writing, and detective-novel-writing specifically, that authors have to follow in order for anyone to enjoy/buy their books. Dorothy Sayers looks at these rules, scoffs, and goes ahead and writes great detective novels that manage to break just about every commonly-accepted rule of good writing.
Rules like...
1. Don't pander to your fans. It alienates new readers and there's a 95% chance your actual fans will find something to rant about in their blogs anyway.
The only way I would ever recommend Busman's Honeymoon to someone is if I knew that they had already read Strong Poison AND Have His Carcase AND Gaudy Night AND loved every minute of each of those books. Because otherwise, there's no point. This book is so obviously pandering to Sayers' fans that it borders on fan fiction. The only people who are going to enjoy this book as fully as it should be enjoyed are the ones who have read all the previous Harriet/Peter mysteries, swooned over every second of their romance, and are dying for Sayers to give up the deets on their wedding night. Luckily, I am one of those people. (and an fyi to the rest of our small club: Sayers isn't explicit in her description, but rest assured that Peter and Harriet GET. IT. ON. And it is glorious.)
2. Make your writing accessible to lots of readers - if you use lots of obscure allusions and references, people will lose interest if they don't understand them.
This is a rule that Sayers spits on with particular fervor. Another author might have settled for just having a Shakespeare-quoting detective, but not Sayers. She was one of the first women accepted to Oxford University and she is going to prove it, dammit. Her characters don't stop at quoting Shakespeare; they quote John Donne, TS Eliot, Lewis Carroll, Geoffry Chaucer, Christopher Marlowe...and those are the ones I could identify. About 70% of the time, a character would quote something and it would go right over my head. Be warned: you are not as smart as Dorothy Sayers, and she will make you feel illiterate for not having the entire Shakespeare canon memorized. Even the damn title of this book is an allusion to some quote, and I don't even know what.
3. Start the mystery early; developing the case should be your priority.
In this book, the dead body which the case centers around isn't discovered until page 116. Before that, it's just pages and pages of character development and backstory about Peter and Harriet's wedding, and general post-wedding business and conversations. Even after the body is found, our main characters only exert about half their energy on figuring out who killed the guy, because they have other stuff to deal with. The mystery, like in Gaudy Night, is actually just a subplot, something to complement Peter and Harriet's ongoing romance. They can't worry too much about the body because they're busy grappling with the implications of their marriage and trying to figure out how to proceed from there.
4. The mystery should be complex and interesting, and your readers shouldn't be able to figure out who did it.
You shouldn't read Sayers novels for the mysteries - there's so much other interesting stuff going on, it's easy to miss the fact that the mystery is often pretty simple, and doesn't require that much work to solve. Any other literary sleuth would have had the Busman's Honeymoon mystery wrapped up without breaking a sweat. Miss Marple would have figured it out after ten minutes of tea with the culprit. Hercule Poirot would take maybe a day. Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe would probably know the culprit immediately and beat a confession out of him/her. Sherlock Holmes would take one look at the crime scene and know how it was done. Peter and Harriet look at the crime scene, talk about it, take a drive, talk with some other people, have a few subplots, quote lots of stuff, and finally figure it out. And then the story keeps going, because the mystery was not the point.
5. Once the mystery is solved, the detective moves on to the next case and that's the end of it.
There was something in this book that I had never seen in any other mystery novel before - the detective feeling extreme remorse over the murderer's death. In this book, the murderer is definitely guilty, confesses, shows no remorse, and is sent to prison and hanged for murder. It's all legal, it's all technically right, but Peter still visits the culprit in prison, and almost has an emotional breakdown on the morning the culprit is scheduled to be executed. In this book, Sayers deals with the psychological implications that come with catching criminals, and it's fascinating.
She even delves into Peter's WWI-related trauma, which I don't think was dealt with previously. The scene where Harriet learns about Peter's experiences in WWI is very moving, especially this quote from his mother: "There were eighteen months...not that I suppose he'll ever tell you about that, at least, if he does, then you'll know he's cured...I don't mean he went out of his mind or anything, and he was always perfectly sweet about it, only he was so dreadfully afraid to go to sleep."
That's why I love Dorothy Sayers' mysteries: I love Harriet and Peter, selfishness and elitism and post-traumatic stress and all. They are wonderful, fully realized characters, and I will never get tired of reading about them. Keep your Nick and Nora Charles, keep your Darcy and Elizabeth, keep your goddamn Heathcliff and Kathy; this is the only literary couple I swoon for. They are lovely people, and I want them to be happy forever, and I want to keep reading about it. To hell with the rules.
There are some commonly accepted rules for novel-writing, and detective-novel-writing specifically, that authors have to follow in order for anyone to enjoy/buy their books. Dorothy Sayers looks at these rules, scoffs, and goes ahead and writes great detective novels that manage to break just about every commonly-accepted rule of good writing.
Rules like...
1. Don't pander to your fans. It alienates new readers and there's a 95% chance your actual fans will find something to rant about in their blogs anyway.
The only way I would ever recommend Busman's Honeymoon to someone is if I knew that they had already read Strong Poison AND Have His Carcase AND Gaudy Night AND loved every minute of each of those books. Because otherwise, there's no point. This book is so obviously pandering to Sayers' fans that it borders on fan fiction. The only people who are going to enjoy this book as fully as it should be enjoyed are the ones who have read all the previous Harriet/Peter mysteries, swooned over every second of their romance, and are dying for Sayers to give up the deets on their wedding night. Luckily, I am one of those people. (and an fyi to the rest of our small club: Sayers isn't explicit in her description, but rest assured that Peter and Harriet GET. IT. ON. And it is glorious.)
2. Make your writing accessible to lots of readers - if you use lots of obscure allusions and references, people will lose interest if they don't understand them.
This is a rule that Sayers spits on with particular fervor. Another author might have settled for just having a Shakespeare-quoting detective, but not Sayers. She was one of the first women accepted to Oxford University and she is going to prove it, dammit. Her characters don't stop at quoting Shakespeare; they quote John Donne, TS Eliot, Lewis Carroll, Geoffry Chaucer, Christopher Marlowe...and those are the ones I could identify. About 70% of the time, a character would quote something and it would go right over my head. Be warned: you are not as smart as Dorothy Sayers, and she will make you feel illiterate for not having the entire Shakespeare canon memorized. Even the damn title of this book is an allusion to some quote, and I don't even know what.
3. Start the mystery early; developing the case should be your priority.
In this book, the dead body which the case centers around isn't discovered until page 116. Before that, it's just pages and pages of character development and backstory about Peter and Harriet's wedding, and general post-wedding business and conversations. Even after the body is found, our main characters only exert about half their energy on figuring out who killed the guy, because they have other stuff to deal with. The mystery, like in Gaudy Night, is actually just a subplot, something to complement Peter and Harriet's ongoing romance. They can't worry too much about the body because they're busy grappling with the implications of their marriage and trying to figure out how to proceed from there.
4. The mystery should be complex and interesting, and your readers shouldn't be able to figure out who did it.
You shouldn't read Sayers novels for the mysteries - there's so much other interesting stuff going on, it's easy to miss the fact that the mystery is often pretty simple, and doesn't require that much work to solve. Any other literary sleuth would have had the Busman's Honeymoon mystery wrapped up without breaking a sweat. Miss Marple would have figured it out after ten minutes of tea with the culprit. Hercule Poirot would take maybe a day. Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe would probably know the culprit immediately and beat a confession out of him/her. Sherlock Holmes would take one look at the crime scene and know how it was done. Peter and Harriet look at the crime scene, talk about it, take a drive, talk with some other people, have a few subplots, quote lots of stuff, and finally figure it out. And then the story keeps going, because the mystery was not the point.
5. Once the mystery is solved, the detective moves on to the next case and that's the end of it.
There was something in this book that I had never seen in any other mystery novel before - the detective feeling extreme remorse over the murderer's death. In this book, the murderer is definitely guilty, confesses, shows no remorse, and is sent to prison and hanged for murder. It's all legal, it's all technically right, but Peter still visits the culprit in prison, and almost has an emotional breakdown on the morning the culprit is scheduled to be executed. In this book, Sayers deals with the psychological implications that come with catching criminals, and it's fascinating.
She even delves into Peter's WWI-related trauma, which I don't think was dealt with previously. The scene where Harriet learns about Peter's experiences in WWI is very moving, especially this quote from his mother: "There were eighteen months...not that I suppose he'll ever tell you about that, at least, if he does, then you'll know he's cured...I don't mean he went out of his mind or anything, and he was always perfectly sweet about it, only he was so dreadfully afraid to go to sleep."
That's why I love Dorothy Sayers' mysteries: I love Harriet and Peter, selfishness and elitism and post-traumatic stress and all. They are wonderful, fully realized characters, and I will never get tired of reading about them. Keep your Nick and Nora Charles, keep your Darcy and Elizabeth, keep your goddamn Heathcliff and Kathy; this is the only literary couple I swoon for. They are lovely people, and I want them to be happy forever, and I want to keep reading about it. To hell with the rules.
April 9, 2022
This is tedious in the beginning, because it starts with a series of letters between aristocratic ladies who have nothing better to do then trash the coming marriage of Lord Peter and Harriet. I began to think the whole thing was going to be a confusing epistolary novel, but then all that ended and the story began.
The centerpiece is lovely with Peter and Harriet discussing in their minds and between themselves what love and companionship really mean. It is really quite involved and intellectual and spiritual. I enjoyed it immensely. Their idyllic honeymoon is cut short on the second day by their murdered house seller in the cellar. The murder mystery is quite good and I thought well done in the extreme. As is the follow up. This is the first murder mystery to my mind of the cozy type that seriously considers what happens to the murderer who is to be executed and what effect that has on Peter who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder (although it is not called that) from World War I.
Again, I want to say though, this would have been completely good, except for the anti semitic and racist things that Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie can not help putting in. In fact, I believe I will stop reading both because of it. It is really a shame.
The centerpiece is lovely with Peter and Harriet discussing in their minds and between themselves what love and companionship really mean. It is really quite involved and intellectual and spiritual. I enjoyed it immensely. Their idyllic honeymoon is cut short on the second day by their murdered house seller in the cellar. The murder mystery is quite good and I thought well done in the extreme. As is the follow up. This is the first murder mystery to my mind of the cozy type that seriously considers what happens to the murderer who is to be executed and what effect that has on Peter who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder (although it is not called that) from World War I.
Again, I want to say though, this would have been completely good, except for the anti semitic and racist things that Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie can not help putting in. In fact, I believe I will stop reading both because of it. It is really a shame.
May 10, 2023
I reviewed it the first time I read it, but enjoyed it more this time because I read it in the order it was written. Gaudy Night is supposed to be read before this one and it doesn't make as much sense if you don't read them together and in the right order.
August 19, 2018
This novel opens with a series of unkind and gossipy letters, mostly among the aristocratic circles that the Wimsey family is connected to. Among the scribbling gossipers is Lord Peter’s sister-in-law, Lady Helen, the Duchess of Denver. However, neither Lord Peter nor his intended, Harriet Vane care two figs about others� opinions on their nuptials. After a courtship of almost 6 years, everything finally fell into place for them and they are deliciously happy.
One of the female dons from Harriet’s alma mater who were her bridesmaids wrote a much nicer letter to a friend who couldn’t be there:
”Yesterday she [Harriet] looked like a Renaissance portrait stepped out of its frame. I put it down first of all to the effect of gold lamé, but, on consideration, I think it was probably due to ‘lerve�. There was something rather splendid about the way those two claimed one another, as though nothing and nobody else mattered or even existed; he was the only bridegroom I have ever seen who looked as though he knew exactly what he was doing and meant to do it.�
Only Bunter (Lord Peter’s manservant) and the Dowager Duchess (Lord Peter’s mother) know all of the secrets about where their honeymoon is to be spent and for how long. Reporters were confined to a side room at the church and were not allowed out until the newlyweds had departed.
I can’t help but say that this happy event and how their relationship blossomed made this book sing. I have been cheering for Lord Peter through all the novels since he first met his intellectual match and emotional support in the person of Harriet Vane. This is also the first novel where they work together on a case without being at loggerheads with each other half the time, and I enjoyed witnessing their partnership unfold and bloom on all levels.
The secret that Bunter and the Dowager Duchess kept from everyone else was that Lord and Lady Peter (yes, ٳ’s how they are referred to) had purchased a ‘weekend cottage� in the country and would be on honeymoon there for a month. However, their cottage holds a secret of its own: a corpse!
There is so much to love about this last full-size novel that Dorothy L. Sayers wrote in the Lord Peter Wimsey series. Lord Peter and DCI Kirk work together on the case and match wits by quoting everything from Lewis Carroll to Shakespeare to Milton to Donne to Tennyson and back to Shakespeare again. I loved it!
Lord and Lady Peter entertained themselves by coming up with red herrings for each of the possible suspects � tracing their movements, tracking how each one could have committed the murder, and inventing scenarios that were ingenious and some that were ‘improbably possible�.
There are two more books that are included as part of this series, and both are short story collections that I will probably read at some point. The main series itself branches into the ‘Wimsey/Vane� series but only the first one, “Thrones, Dominations� was partially written by Dorothy L. Sayers. In 1998, Jill Patton Walsh completed that novel and wrote three more after it.
I hope to read at least the first one at some point in time. However, to appreciate it fully I will likely need to allow some space between this novel and the extended series.
Busman’s Honeymoon is Dorothy L. Sayers at her best. Her writing is extraordinary, and I can only imagine the phenomenal mind that held and shared so many facts, pieces of wisdom, and deep understanding of so many facets of our human characters.
One of the female dons from Harriet’s alma mater who were her bridesmaids wrote a much nicer letter to a friend who couldn’t be there:
”Yesterday she [Harriet] looked like a Renaissance portrait stepped out of its frame. I put it down first of all to the effect of gold lamé, but, on consideration, I think it was probably due to ‘lerve�. There was something rather splendid about the way those two claimed one another, as though nothing and nobody else mattered or even existed; he was the only bridegroom I have ever seen who looked as though he knew exactly what he was doing and meant to do it.�
Only Bunter (Lord Peter’s manservant) and the Dowager Duchess (Lord Peter’s mother) know all of the secrets about where their honeymoon is to be spent and for how long. Reporters were confined to a side room at the church and were not allowed out until the newlyweds had departed.
I can’t help but say that this happy event and how their relationship blossomed made this book sing. I have been cheering for Lord Peter through all the novels since he first met his intellectual match and emotional support in the person of Harriet Vane. This is also the first novel where they work together on a case without being at loggerheads with each other half the time, and I enjoyed witnessing their partnership unfold and bloom on all levels.
The secret that Bunter and the Dowager Duchess kept from everyone else was that Lord and Lady Peter (yes, ٳ’s how they are referred to) had purchased a ‘weekend cottage� in the country and would be on honeymoon there for a month. However, their cottage holds a secret of its own: a corpse!
There is so much to love about this last full-size novel that Dorothy L. Sayers wrote in the Lord Peter Wimsey series. Lord Peter and DCI Kirk work together on the case and match wits by quoting everything from Lewis Carroll to Shakespeare to Milton to Donne to Tennyson and back to Shakespeare again. I loved it!
Lord and Lady Peter entertained themselves by coming up with red herrings for each of the possible suspects � tracing their movements, tracking how each one could have committed the murder, and inventing scenarios that were ingenious and some that were ‘improbably possible�.
There are two more books that are included as part of this series, and both are short story collections that I will probably read at some point. The main series itself branches into the ‘Wimsey/Vane� series but only the first one, “Thrones, Dominations� was partially written by Dorothy L. Sayers. In 1998, Jill Patton Walsh completed that novel and wrote three more after it.
I hope to read at least the first one at some point in time. However, to appreciate it fully I will likely need to allow some space between this novel and the extended series.
Busman’s Honeymoon is Dorothy L. Sayers at her best. Her writing is extraordinary, and I can only imagine the phenomenal mind that held and shared so many facts, pieces of wisdom, and deep understanding of so many facets of our human characters.
July 18, 2023
Review tomorrow
Lord Peter Group Read 2022/23
Well it took me long enough to get around to this, such that at least 5 people liked my "Review Tomorrow" review !!
Anyway, this is the first of the Lord Peter novels that I have given 5 stars to, although I have been commenting that they were in my 'umble opinion getting better each time.
The wedding of Lord Peter and his long term sort of girlfriend Harriet Vane takes place in this novel, however the book starts with letters going backwards and forwards between Lord Peter, his mother, the Dowager duchess, Harriet and various other people. I found the letters from the dowager especially witty and the most interesting as they rambled all over the place. We then get the arrangements for the wedding, and the secrecy around them. Here I loved the way the real plans are kept from Lord Peter's sister in law who has been trying to organise everything and to boss everyone about.
Anyway, with the help of Bunter, everything of course goes to plan, that is Peter and Harriet's plan, much to the annoyance of his sister in law. And soon after the wedding at Oxford they are off to their secret location for their honeymoon. Peter has brought a farmhouse in a village near to where Harriet was brought up as a child and all is supposed to be ready for them to open d some idyllic time together. Of course this is not to be, as the book name suggests.
Excellent descriptions of the deductive processes of both Peter and Harriet, but also for the first time, the way that the post war issues (PTSD today) that Peter suffers affect his ability to deduce but also accuse people, and how he feels after a case has been solved, almost as if he feels guilty for finding the perpetrator.
I really liked how Harriet discovers how Bunter came into Peter's life and what he has done for his friend , colleague, his ex superior officer and ultimately his boss. Plus how Harriet starts by walking a fine line in her treatment /interaction with Bunter until they both realise they are united in their love for the flawed human being that is Lord Peter.
A truly excellent book, both as a mystery whodunnit and also as a description of two people finding their way in the first steps of marriage , knocking the rough edges off that don't fit together and finding what works and what doesn't.
As ever there are some brilliantly funny moments, Bunter coping with a nosey housekeeper who constantly tries to interfere, Bunter going apoplectic over the shaking of the Port bottles, Lord Peter and Harriet finding one of their chimney pots in a nearby village, and having to come to terms with all their furniture being removed as it turns out not to belong to them.
Lord Peter Group Read 2022/23
Well it took me long enough to get around to this, such that at least 5 people liked my "Review Tomorrow" review !!
Anyway, this is the first of the Lord Peter novels that I have given 5 stars to, although I have been commenting that they were in my 'umble opinion getting better each time.
The wedding of Lord Peter and his long term sort of girlfriend Harriet Vane takes place in this novel, however the book starts with letters going backwards and forwards between Lord Peter, his mother, the Dowager duchess, Harriet and various other people. I found the letters from the dowager especially witty and the most interesting as they rambled all over the place. We then get the arrangements for the wedding, and the secrecy around them. Here I loved the way the real plans are kept from Lord Peter's sister in law who has been trying to organise everything and to boss everyone about.
Anyway, with the help of Bunter, everything of course goes to plan, that is Peter and Harriet's plan, much to the annoyance of his sister in law. And soon after the wedding at Oxford they are off to their secret location for their honeymoon. Peter has brought a farmhouse in a village near to where Harriet was brought up as a child and all is supposed to be ready for them to open d some idyllic time together. Of course this is not to be, as the book name suggests.
Excellent descriptions of the deductive processes of both Peter and Harriet, but also for the first time, the way that the post war issues (PTSD today) that Peter suffers affect his ability to deduce but also accuse people, and how he feels after a case has been solved, almost as if he feels guilty for finding the perpetrator.
I really liked how Harriet discovers how Bunter came into Peter's life and what he has done for his friend , colleague, his ex superior officer and ultimately his boss. Plus how Harriet starts by walking a fine line in her treatment /interaction with Bunter until they both realise they are united in their love for the flawed human being that is Lord Peter.
A truly excellent book, both as a mystery whodunnit and also as a description of two people finding their way in the first steps of marriage , knocking the rough edges off that don't fit together and finding what works and what doesn't.
As ever there are some brilliantly funny moments, Bunter coping with a nosey housekeeper who constantly tries to interfere, Bunter going apoplectic over the shaking of the Port bottles, Lord Peter and Harriet finding one of their chimney pots in a nearby village, and having to come to terms with all their furniture being removed as it turns out not to belong to them.
July 7, 2015
Having never read Busman's Honeymoon, I'd still somehow managed to pick up the vague idea that: 1) it featured a married Peter and Harriet, and, because of that fact, 2) it wasn't very interesting. Right on the first count, definitely wrong on the second.
It's true that this final Sayers-penned Wimsey mystery is more a meditation on the ups and downs, joys and negotiations of new marriage (Harriet and Peter manage to sneak off for a honeymoon only to discover a corpse in the house), but the mystery is still engaging (Sayers adds some great twists to the classic "all the doors were locked from the inside" problem) and points toward the ethical dilemmas that seem to characterize the latter Wimsey books. For example, in Busman's Honeymoon, as in Nine Tailors, the murdered victim is himself an unpleasant criminal whom nobody seems to mourn or miss. And, like in Murder Must Advertise, Wimsey finds himself torn between his moral/ethical duty as a detective and his sympathies for those whose lives his detection disrupts or ends. I thought the truly masterful aspect of this book wasn't the whodunnit (or howdunnit) but rather that Sayers extends the story beyond the typical "detective explains all" closing scene and depicts the psychological toll that years of detection have taken on Peter. I can't think of any other mysteries that take up this theme so seriously or so well.
In fact, it's this theme that adds flavor and nuance to the domestic, love story aspect of the novel, rather than vice versa. While Sayers has often been accused of first creating the perfect literary man and then marrying herself to him via Harriet-as-stand-in, I thought her depiction of early married life was decidedly realistic and both universally recognizable and true to the specific two characters. There's no schmaltzy or blush-inducing wish-fulfillment fantasy here. While Sayers does depict a couple of incredibly tender scenes between Peter and Harriet, most of the focus goes to how two strongminded people must negotiate partnership. Busman's Honeymoon continues certain themes from Gaudy Night, particularly where it comes to maintaining one's identity in marriage, but doesn't retread old ground needlessly. Here, we have a Harriet who is sure in her choice, and who is instead observing and helping Peter navigating the same dilemma that she has already faced. Given how often current movies and novels (particularly YA fiction) depict true love as total self-effacement or self-abandonment, I nearly stood up and cheered when I read the following scene:
Bonus: the delightful Dowager Duchess features prominently in the prologue and epilogue, literary quotations abound, and the prologue is written entirely in the form of letters between society members, family, and friends of Harriet and Peter
It's true that this final Sayers-penned Wimsey mystery is more a meditation on the ups and downs, joys and negotiations of new marriage (Harriet and Peter manage to sneak off for a honeymoon only to discover a corpse in the house), but the mystery is still engaging (Sayers adds some great twists to the classic "all the doors were locked from the inside" problem) and points toward the ethical dilemmas that seem to characterize the latter Wimsey books. For example, in Busman's Honeymoon, as in Nine Tailors, the murdered victim is himself an unpleasant criminal whom nobody seems to mourn or miss. And, like in Murder Must Advertise, Wimsey finds himself torn between his moral/ethical duty as a detective and his sympathies for those whose lives his detection disrupts or ends. I thought the truly masterful aspect of this book wasn't the whodunnit (or howdunnit) but rather that Sayers extends the story beyond the typical "detective explains all" closing scene and depicts the psychological toll that years of detection have taken on Peter. I can't think of any other mysteries that take up this theme so seriously or so well.
In fact, it's this theme that adds flavor and nuance to the domestic, love story aspect of the novel, rather than vice versa. While Sayers has often been accused of first creating the perfect literary man and then marrying herself to him via Harriet-as-stand-in, I thought her depiction of early married life was decidedly realistic and both universally recognizable and true to the specific two characters. There's no schmaltzy or blush-inducing wish-fulfillment fantasy here. While Sayers does depict a couple of incredibly tender scenes between Peter and Harriet, most of the focus goes to how two strongminded people must negotiate partnership. Busman's Honeymoon continues certain themes from Gaudy Night, particularly where it comes to maintaining one's identity in marriage, but doesn't retread old ground needlessly. Here, we have a Harriet who is sure in her choice, and who is instead observing and helping Peter navigating the same dilemma that she has already faced. Given how often current movies and novels (particularly YA fiction) depict true love as total self-effacement or self-abandonment, I nearly stood up and cheered when I read the following scene:
"Peter, you're mad, Never dare to suggest such a thing. Whatever marriage is, it isn't that."
"Isn't what, Harriet?"
"Letting your affection corrupt your judgment. What kind of life could we have if I knew that you had become less than yourself by marrying me?"
He turned away again, and when he spoke, it was with a queerly shaken tone: "My dear girl, most women would consider it a triumph."
"I know, I've heard them." Her own scorn lashed herself -- the self she had only just seen. "They boast of it -- 'My husband would do anything for me...' It's degrading. No human being ought to have such a power over another."
"It's a very real power, Harriet."
"Then," she flung back passionately, "we won't use it. If we disagree, we'll fight it out like gentlemen. We won't stand for matrimonial blackmail."
Bonus: the delightful Dowager Duchess features prominently in the prologue and epilogue, literary quotations abound, and the prologue is written entirely in the form of letters between society members, family, and friends of Harriet and Peter
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May 24, 2025My apologies to friends who have told me that "Busman's Honeymoon" was a good mystery to read. I'm sure it is for some, but I had to stop on page 112. I just couldn't take it anymore. I had just received my first Moderna vax for Covid19 the day before; I was drowsy; and, I was satiated by two bowls of cannellini bean soup, a large helping of tortilla chips and a glass of red wine along with a thick slice of Emmenthaler cheese and two scallions.
I didn't have the stuff in me to swat away any more flying apostrophes or discern the pronunciation of English village dialects. Outside, the snow was blowing fiercely, which always makes me want to start something new or at least plan on it. There were also two stacks of unread books on my bedstand.
I did not like the opening of the novel either, which mainly consisted of aristocratic fuddy-duddies snickering through notes to each other at Lord Peter Wimsey's new bride, who was to become a main character in the novel. I was hoping that I would get to know Peter in this novel. I did but it was only an introduction, and he's a personality that I will at some time revisit but not in this novel--probably in "Gaudy Night" or "Nine Tailors".
Mysteries are not in my opinion the engines of character-building-like classic literary novels or plays. They are diversions, and when you get into a diversion, like miniature golf, where you might find yourself in the middle of a game and thinking of a secretary at the office or whether you should look into an alternate auto insurance policy, it's time to hurry it along and crack on. Something has broken in one part of my puzzle-solving brain, whereupon I don't like old mysteries anymore. I like thrillers like Highsmith and true crime as in Helter-Skelter. I can sit through a movie that's a mystery, but that's about the extent of it.
Actually, if you snag a really well written history book, you'll find that there's enough mystery in history to puzzle through that that would probably amply satisfy your thirst for detection.
I didn't have the stuff in me to swat away any more flying apostrophes or discern the pronunciation of English village dialects. Outside, the snow was blowing fiercely, which always makes me want to start something new or at least plan on it. There were also two stacks of unread books on my bedstand.
I did not like the opening of the novel either, which mainly consisted of aristocratic fuddy-duddies snickering through notes to each other at Lord Peter Wimsey's new bride, who was to become a main character in the novel. I was hoping that I would get to know Peter in this novel. I did but it was only an introduction, and he's a personality that I will at some time revisit but not in this novel--probably in "Gaudy Night" or "Nine Tailors".
Mysteries are not in my opinion the engines of character-building-like classic literary novels or plays. They are diversions, and when you get into a diversion, like miniature golf, where you might find yourself in the middle of a game and thinking of a secretary at the office or whether you should look into an alternate auto insurance policy, it's time to hurry it along and crack on. Something has broken in one part of my puzzle-solving brain, whereupon I don't like old mysteries anymore. I like thrillers like Highsmith and true crime as in Helter-Skelter. I can sit through a movie that's a mystery, but that's about the extent of it.
Actually, if you snag a really well written history book, you'll find that there's enough mystery in history to puzzle through that that would probably amply satisfy your thirst for detection.
June 22, 2019
This book has a lighter tone than Gaudy Night and it is delightful with its almost constant quoting of various works by various authors, most especially the inspector and Lord Peter. Great fun.
November 23, 2021
Re-read, November 2021: I maintain my theory that reading the Lord Peter books in order is almost a mistake...I think if I had started with the very first one, I would not have felt a strong inclination to read any more. No, it's in the quartet of books featuring Harriet Vane that Peter develops into a complex human. And the process of finding his fragile, painful, extraordinary balance with Harriet is the thing that actually matters.
Busman's Honeymoon is an exquisitely written story of the beginning of a marriage of two equal minds. It's unique and it's thought-provoking.
---------------------
Original review:
This is either a love story with detective interruptions, or the other way round. Either way, one is certain to prefer one part of it over the other, and I definitely prefer the interludes between Lord Peter and his new bride. Not only are they very much in love, they are incredibly honest, communicative, and generous with each other about the adjustment that married life means. They have both found rest from the weary world, in each other.
Here's one of my favorite of their exchanges:
"Harriet," he said, suddenly, "what do you think about life? I mean, do you find it good on the whole. Worth living?"
(He could, at any rate, trust her not to protest, archly: "That's a nice thing to ask on one's honeymoon!")
She turned to him with a quick readiness, as though here was the opportunity to say something she had been wanting to say for a long time:
"Yes! I've always felt absolutely certain it was good--if only one could get it straightened out. I've hated almost everything that ever happened to me, but I knew all the time it was just things that were wrong, not everything....It seems like a miracle to be able to look forward--to--to see all the minutes in front of one come hopping along with something marvelous in them, instead of just saying, Well, that one didn't actually hurt and the next may be quite bearable if only something beastly doesn't come pouncing out--"
"As bad as that?"
"No, not really, because one got used to it--to being everlastingly tightened up to face things, you see. But when one doesn't have to anymore, it's different--I can't tell you what a difference it makes."
Harriet's line has stayed with me ever since I first read it years ago, and I sometimes say it to myself--"It's just things that are wrong, not everything." I find it profound.
That Dorothy Sayers really has a gift for words.
Just a note on the text: There are a ton of classical allusions here, most of which I don't get, as I'm not good on Latin and my knowledge of poetry is patchy. Doesn't affect my enjoyment. There are also a few passages in French. But that's what Google Translate is for.
On re-reading this in 2021, I found an absolutely invaluable site where someone has done a beautiful job with annotations and translations chapter by chapter.
Busman's Honeymoon is an exquisitely written story of the beginning of a marriage of two equal minds. It's unique and it's thought-provoking.
---------------------
Original review:
This is either a love story with detective interruptions, or the other way round. Either way, one is certain to prefer one part of it over the other, and I definitely prefer the interludes between Lord Peter and his new bride. Not only are they very much in love, they are incredibly honest, communicative, and generous with each other about the adjustment that married life means. They have both found rest from the weary world, in each other.
Here's one of my favorite of their exchanges:
"Harriet," he said, suddenly, "what do you think about life? I mean, do you find it good on the whole. Worth living?"
(He could, at any rate, trust her not to protest, archly: "That's a nice thing to ask on one's honeymoon!")
She turned to him with a quick readiness, as though here was the opportunity to say something she had been wanting to say for a long time:
"Yes! I've always felt absolutely certain it was good--if only one could get it straightened out. I've hated almost everything that ever happened to me, but I knew all the time it was just things that were wrong, not everything....It seems like a miracle to be able to look forward--to--to see all the minutes in front of one come hopping along with something marvelous in them, instead of just saying, Well, that one didn't actually hurt and the next may be quite bearable if only something beastly doesn't come pouncing out--"
"As bad as that?"
"No, not really, because one got used to it--to being everlastingly tightened up to face things, you see. But when one doesn't have to anymore, it's different--I can't tell you what a difference it makes."
Harriet's line has stayed with me ever since I first read it years ago, and I sometimes say it to myself--"It's just things that are wrong, not everything." I find it profound.
That Dorothy Sayers really has a gift for words.
Just a note on the text: There are a ton of classical allusions here, most of which I don't get, as I'm not good on Latin and my knowledge of poetry is patchy. Doesn't affect my enjoyment. There are also a few passages in French. But that's what Google Translate is for.
On re-reading this in 2021, I found an absolutely invaluable site where someone has done a beautiful job with annotations and translations chapter by chapter.
June 11, 2021
A great book. Often funny, the most amusing and ironic of the dozen Sayers I've read. Also, the most literary in allusions not just as chapter epigraphs, but dropped in dialog, mostly by Lord Peter Wimsey, but here, uniquely, by Superintendent Kirk, a reading policeman. Although I'm an English Ph.D., some allusions, though familiar, didn't instantly claim their source, like a character called "foster-child of Silence and slow Time"(166). (That's Keats's Grecian Urn.) I do always know Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare (my specialty), and Donne, "O more than Moon, draw not up seas to drown me" (274). (D, my doctoral advisor's specialty.) Lord Peter, and his new wife, novelist Harriet Vane often quote snatches of French and Latin (my comparative lit background aiding me), Horace's "man of upright soul" I had translated, though free from the prussic acid in Lord Peter's rendering (144). Lord Peter, ignoring the barking of a dog at Bunter, reflects that he's finally got Harriet, "Da mihi basia mille, deinde centum," from Catullus, Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred.. One joyous French song Peter sings, "Auprès de ma blonde / Qu'il fait bon, fait bon, fait bon"(270) you should check on Youtube, almost a child's song, though about amour.
The plot turns on Lord Peter's buying his new wife Harriet Vane the Talboys farm she had loved since childhood; they spend their wedding night in a four-poster bed upstairs, despite remains of an egg supper on the kitchen table, before someone discovers the body of the seller Noakes, in the cellar. Who could possibly have a reason to dislike the tall owner? Maybe everybody we meet.
Among Lord Peter's myriad quotations are some of my favorites from English and Classical lit, such as a John Donne poem which he took almost word for word from Ovid. Donne, considered our most original poet, did steal from Ovid, as did Shakespeare from Plautus and others. Lord Peter says, "License my roving hands, and let them go/ before behind between [above, below]"(290). Donne's "Indifferent" he stole wholesale from Ovid, Amores II.iv, "I can love her and her, and you and you/ I can love any , so she be not true"; Ovid has, "sive es docta," if you're educated, then "tu, quia longa es," you because you're tall. Donne stole his notable shift in tone from distant connoiseur to precipitent lecher, for Ovid also has third person, "est quae."
To my personal delight, Lord Peter quotes from the subject of my doctoral dissertation, the poet-critic Andrew Marvell, "Had we but world enough and time"(214).
Lord Peter reminds me of the TV sleuth Father Brown, who solves cases by character analysis; here, Wimsey is not whimsical. He despises the Biblical Jacob, who achieves the blessing of the firstborn from his blind father Isaac, by a double deception, partly by using animal skins to suggest that he Jacob was "an hairy man," really his brother Esau, a hunter. Sayers refers to bad men like the Northerner Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby, who cheated his students' Southern parents out of money: Dickens' portrayal of such cheating helped put some boarding schools out of business. Also, later in the novel we learn that Crutchley's would-be father-in-law cuts keys (299).
One whole chapter is filled with Shakespeare quotations, though they are sprinled well throughout, as earlier, "Speak the speech, I pray you...trippingly on the tongue," Hamlet's prose advice on acting (III.ii.1) here (274).
As always in Sayers, we learn Brit words, like "settle" (a wooden bench with a back and arms) and "salver" (a small tray held with one hand,usually silver). And Brit phrases, like "in fault," rather than "at fault"(179).
Lord Peter admires his reliable Bunter (who saved his life in the war) with an accolade for overseeing chimney cleaning, "The Most Heroic Order of the Chimney, for attempting a rescue against overwhelming odds"(100). Where I live, a great restaurant had their old chimney cleaned, only to have the cleaning itself provoke a chimney fire-- and end the wood burning. As a youth I heard the roar of a chimney fire in my grandparents' 1840 farmhouse on Crockett Ridge; their old kitchen stove aways burned wood--sixteen cords a winter for the three uninsulated rooms they lived in that season.
The plot turns on Lord Peter's buying his new wife Harriet Vane the Talboys farm she had loved since childhood; they spend their wedding night in a four-poster bed upstairs, despite remains of an egg supper on the kitchen table, before someone discovers the body of the seller Noakes, in the cellar. Who could possibly have a reason to dislike the tall owner? Maybe everybody we meet.
Among Lord Peter's myriad quotations are some of my favorites from English and Classical lit, such as a John Donne poem which he took almost word for word from Ovid. Donne, considered our most original poet, did steal from Ovid, as did Shakespeare from Plautus and others. Lord Peter says, "License my roving hands, and let them go/ before behind between [above, below]"(290). Donne's "Indifferent" he stole wholesale from Ovid, Amores II.iv, "I can love her and her, and you and you/ I can love any , so she be not true"; Ovid has, "sive es docta," if you're educated, then "tu, quia longa es," you because you're tall. Donne stole his notable shift in tone from distant connoiseur to precipitent lecher, for Ovid also has third person, "est quae."
To my personal delight, Lord Peter quotes from the subject of my doctoral dissertation, the poet-critic Andrew Marvell, "Had we but world enough and time"(214).
Lord Peter reminds me of the TV sleuth Father Brown, who solves cases by character analysis; here, Wimsey is not whimsical. He despises the Biblical Jacob, who achieves the blessing of the firstborn from his blind father Isaac, by a double deception, partly by using animal skins to suggest that he Jacob was "an hairy man," really his brother Esau, a hunter. Sayers refers to bad men like the Northerner Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby, who cheated his students' Southern parents out of money: Dickens' portrayal of such cheating helped put some boarding schools out of business. Also, later in the novel we learn that Crutchley's would-be father-in-law cuts keys (299).
One whole chapter is filled with Shakespeare quotations, though they are sprinled well throughout, as earlier, "Speak the speech, I pray you...trippingly on the tongue," Hamlet's prose advice on acting (III.ii.1) here (274).
As always in Sayers, we learn Brit words, like "settle" (a wooden bench with a back and arms) and "salver" (a small tray held with one hand,usually silver). And Brit phrases, like "in fault," rather than "at fault"(179).
Lord Peter admires his reliable Bunter (who saved his life in the war) with an accolade for overseeing chimney cleaning, "The Most Heroic Order of the Chimney, for attempting a rescue against overwhelming odds"(100). Where I live, a great restaurant had their old chimney cleaned, only to have the cleaning itself provoke a chimney fire-- and end the wood burning. As a youth I heard the roar of a chimney fire in my grandparents' 1840 farmhouse on Crockett Ridge; their old kitchen stove aways burned wood--sixteen cords a winter for the three uninsulated rooms they lived in that season.
November 27, 2016
After agreeing to marry Lord Peter Wimsey in “Gaudy Night,� this novel sees the couple marrying and embarking on their honeymoon. Having fought both herself, and her feelings, for so long, Harriet allows Peter to buy her a house � Talboys � a farmhouse that she admired as a child, to be a weekend cottage. Delighted to please her, Peter buys the house from the current owner, Noakes, who agrees to stay there until they move in.
However, what with avoiding the press and organising the wedding, Bunter does not get to visit the house first to make sure all is well and that turns out to be a mistake. When they arrive at the house, nothing is prepared and, indeed, nobody even seems to be aware that Noakes had sold the house. Of course, eventually it turns out that Mr Noakes � a rather unsympathetic victim � had a good reason for not being there to welcome the couple and they find themselves rather unwillingly thrown into a murder investigation.
This is a mystery, but it is also the culmination of Peter and Harriet’s love affair and asks whether the couple will be able to make their union work. Interestingly, this novel looks at some very difficult questions; including Bunter’s role, Peter’s war experiences and the difficulty of actually solving a murder and knowing that someone faces the death penalty because of your actions.
Having now, finally, read all of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, I think was often a moving and romantic read. There is a lot of humour, especially when the Dowager Duchess appears, but mostly � despite the plot � this is about marriage and the relationship between the pair. First published in 1937, it started life as a stage play in 1936 and, indeed, much of the action takes place in Talboys, or while visiting other houses, so you can get an idea of how it would have appeared on stage. A good conclusion to the series and I am pleased I finally read the whole series.
However, what with avoiding the press and organising the wedding, Bunter does not get to visit the house first to make sure all is well and that turns out to be a mistake. When they arrive at the house, nothing is prepared and, indeed, nobody even seems to be aware that Noakes had sold the house. Of course, eventually it turns out that Mr Noakes � a rather unsympathetic victim � had a good reason for not being there to welcome the couple and they find themselves rather unwillingly thrown into a murder investigation.
This is a mystery, but it is also the culmination of Peter and Harriet’s love affair and asks whether the couple will be able to make their union work. Interestingly, this novel looks at some very difficult questions; including Bunter’s role, Peter’s war experiences and the difficulty of actually solving a murder and knowing that someone faces the death penalty because of your actions.
Having now, finally, read all of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, I think was often a moving and romantic read. There is a lot of humour, especially when the Dowager Duchess appears, but mostly � despite the plot � this is about marriage and the relationship between the pair. First published in 1937, it started life as a stage play in 1936 and, indeed, much of the action takes place in Talboys, or while visiting other houses, so you can get an idea of how it would have appeared on stage. A good conclusion to the series and I am pleased I finally read the whole series.
November 26, 2023
2023 Review
This book has no business being as heart-wrenching as it is.
Yes, on the one hand, it is the emotional conclusion to the Wimsey-Vane marriage. You can see my earlier review for the fangirling side of it all.
This re-read, however, I was more struck by what an honest look it takes at the early, awkward joining of two lives. Things don't work out with a happily ever after. There are big life sacrifices and minor jealousies and in-laws to be dealt with. You've got to find the rhythm of socializing as a couple and how the new spouse fits into old habits and patterns. Sometimes dead bodies show up in your cellar.
This book is as much about learning to live with another person ('will her ladyship mind a cold dinner?') as it is about solving a murder. Which is probably a good thing because the murderer was so obvious I kept waiting for the twist. The thing is, you almost don't need the twist because the murder isn't the point. It is these characters and the life they develop together that is the point. It is a remarkable character arc for the monocle-wearing sleuth we first met in Whose Body.
2015 Review
"Busman's Holiday: a vacation or form of recreation that involves doing the same thing that one does at work."
For once, I don't have a gut reaction for rating a book. It's...it's what every reader wants in a sequel to their favorite characters. Details. Not explicit ones, but the knowledge that they did indeed make it to the altar and survived afterwards.
It is kind of breathtaking, really. 12 books of falling in love with the characters and then BAM...book 13. With a satisfying sort of casualness you can't possibly appreciate unless you love them already.
The mystery almost felt like a distraction from the story! I was prepared for it, though. As Dorothy Sayers says in her intro, "It has been said...that a love-interest is only an intrusion upon a detective story. But to the characters involved, the detective-interest might well seem an irritating intrusion upon their love-story." That's her story and she sticks to it.
You need a course in French and Latin to get through any of Sayer's mysteries, but this book in particular flows with literary allusions.
Alas that I'm going back to school and away from my steady stock of Sayers! When I get back I'm going to have to re-read them all.
This book has no business being as heart-wrenching as it is.
Yes, on the one hand, it is the emotional conclusion to the Wimsey-Vane marriage. You can see my earlier review for the fangirling side of it all.
This re-read, however, I was more struck by what an honest look it takes at the early, awkward joining of two lives. Things don't work out with a happily ever after. There are big life sacrifices and minor jealousies and in-laws to be dealt with. You've got to find the rhythm of socializing as a couple and how the new spouse fits into old habits and patterns. Sometimes dead bodies show up in your cellar.
This book is as much about learning to live with another person ('will her ladyship mind a cold dinner?') as it is about solving a murder. Which is probably a good thing because the murderer was so obvious I kept waiting for the twist. The thing is, you almost don't need the twist because the murder isn't the point. It is these characters and the life they develop together that is the point. It is a remarkable character arc for the monocle-wearing sleuth we first met in Whose Body.
2015 Review
"Busman's Holiday: a vacation or form of recreation that involves doing the same thing that one does at work."
For once, I don't have a gut reaction for rating a book. It's...it's what every reader wants in a sequel to their favorite characters. Details. Not explicit ones, but the knowledge that they did indeed make it to the altar and survived afterwards.
It is kind of breathtaking, really. 12 books of falling in love with the characters and then BAM...book 13. With a satisfying sort of casualness you can't possibly appreciate unless you love them already.
The mystery almost felt like a distraction from the story! I was prepared for it, though. As Dorothy Sayers says in her intro, "It has been said...that a love-interest is only an intrusion upon a detective story. But to the characters involved, the detective-interest might well seem an irritating intrusion upon their love-story." That's her story and she sticks to it.
You need a course in French and Latin to get through any of Sayer's mysteries, but this book in particular flows with literary allusions.
Alas that I'm going back to school and away from my steady stock of Sayers! When I get back I'm going to have to re-read them all.
March 14, 2011
This novel is really much more of a love story than a mystery, as Dorothy L Sayers herself acknowledged. But for readers who followed the story of Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane through the three previous novels which featured both characters, it is a most satisfying love story and a welcome culmination to the years of Peter's patient courtship and Harriet's determined resistance. Tbere's enough of a mystery to make it worthy of being called a mystery novel, but no more than that. Apart from the love story and the mystery, Busman's Honeymoon is an interesting reflection of the era in which it was written, with its depiction of English attitudes to class and race (not critical, but descriptive and not the less interesting for that). There's a lot of French in it, which is ok for me because I am reasonably fluent in that language, but it must be a trial for readers who are not. I know how they feel, because there's a bit of Latin in there as well, the meaning of which I can only guess at. (I have an old edition of Busman's Honeymoon - probably printed in the 1970s - with no translations or notes: possibly more recent editions translate the bits which aren't in English?) Anyway, even if it could be considered pretentious by today's standards, I love the French and the Latin...and the poetry with which each chapter starts and which characters quote with abandon. They don't write mysteries like this anymore, more's the pity!
November 23, 2019
I'm not reading these Sayers books in any kind of rational order. Oh, I am in love with this one. I know just enough of Sayers' biography to appreciate why she would have written this. Up until the introduction of the body, it feels more like a , with a bit of thrown in. One doesn't normally say of mysteries that they are sweet, but the author has done a fabulous job of showing two people who are in love but still awkward in their marriage. And Buntner's affection for Wimsey is rather touching, in a paternal sort of way.
I like the unusual addition of finding out how the detectives in the case deal with the trial and all that afterwards. It makes for a strong and affecting ending.
I like the unusual addition of finding out how the detectives in the case deal with the trial and all that afterwards. It makes for a strong and affecting ending.
January 29, 2021
What I love about a Dorothy L Sayers book is that they are wonderfully written and take you on such a lovely journey you forget all about the murder!
As always a great plot and wonderfully written a delightful Honeymoon for Lord Peter and me, the reader.
As always a great plot and wonderfully written a delightful Honeymoon for Lord Peter and me, the reader.
November 18, 2024
My favourite Sayers so far. Unlike so many mysteries, it takes quite a long time before the author produces a corpse. The first 100+ pages give us the hot goss about the wedding, namely that of Lord Peter and Harriet Vane. They are not youngsters and they are used to being on their own, so we get to witness them finding their way towards a comfortable life together. We become acquainted with more of the Wimsey family and their quirks. Harriet learns that she has an accomplice in Peter's mother, the Dowager Duchess.
Harriet realizes that she is marrying a rich man who desperately wants to give her a substantial gift, so she suggests a house in her old environs which she has always fancied. The best laid plans o' mice and men oft go astray. On the first night of the honeymoon, the newlyweds find themselves locked out of their new home. There is much ado until keys are located, the house opened, and everything is prepared for the wedding night. Not until the next day is the former owner's body discovered in a storage room.
Of course Peter has been detecting for years and Harriet writes mysteries, so you know they will get involved. Hence the title—as when a bus driver uses their holiday to take a coach tour, this couple uses their honeymoon to figure out who dunnit. Sayers has created a fabulous cast of characters as neighbours to the new residence, entertaining this reader immensely while the investigation progresses. Sayers gives Harriet very good sense and intelligence—she is quite the equal partner and acknowledged as such. Thank you, Ms. Sayers. (Incidentally, Sayers fine education and high intelligence are also on full display. Brava!)
Fun and funny, this novel is a perfect balance between mystery and romance. I will be definitely be enjoying it again in the future.
This is book number 25 of myRead Your Hoard Challenge.
Harriet realizes that she is marrying a rich man who desperately wants to give her a substantial gift, so she suggests a house in her old environs which she has always fancied. The best laid plans o' mice and men oft go astray. On the first night of the honeymoon, the newlyweds find themselves locked out of their new home. There is much ado until keys are located, the house opened, and everything is prepared for the wedding night. Not until the next day is the former owner's body discovered in a storage room.
Of course Peter has been detecting for years and Harriet writes mysteries, so you know they will get involved. Hence the title—as when a bus driver uses their holiday to take a coach tour, this couple uses their honeymoon to figure out who dunnit. Sayers has created a fabulous cast of characters as neighbours to the new residence, entertaining this reader immensely while the investigation progresses. Sayers gives Harriet very good sense and intelligence—she is quite the equal partner and acknowledged as such. Thank you, Ms. Sayers. (Incidentally, Sayers fine education and high intelligence are also on full display. Brava!)
Fun and funny, this novel is a perfect balance between mystery and romance. I will be definitely be enjoying it again in the future.
This is book number 25 of myRead Your Hoard Challenge.
January 28, 2019
2019 Reread
The Prothalamion continues to be everything I've ever wanted. The Dowager Duchess is a delight.
And I just love Peter and Harriet finding their footing after the major shift in their relationship, particularly juxtaposed with how they both are in Gaudy Night.
I also love how all the minor catastrophes and inconveniences really bring it home to both of them that they're actually married. 'Tis great.
This one just makes me happy.
2019 Reading Challenge - A book that includes a wedding
This is fairly spectacular.
Seriously, I loved everything about this. I lost count of the number of times I realized I was sitting there grinning like a fool while reading this.
First, the epistolary-type excerpts at the start are everything I've ever wanted. The Dowager Duchess (and her relationship with Harriet) is my favourite. I love how this continues where Gaudy Night left off, and makes it really very obvious that Peter and Harriet have both made their relationship a choice.
I love the symmetry between the pair of novels. Gaudy Night focuses on Harriet's issues with the relationship, while Busman's Honeymoon is much more about Peter's. What I especially love is the difference in their reactions. Harriet is terrified of allowing herself to fall in love with Peter (or acknowledging it), but then when she chooses to do it, she goes all in (describing it as like falling down a well). And while she does have moments in this of not quite believing it's actually happened, for the most part she's serene. More serene than she's been all series. The anxiety led up to the decision, but once the decision was made, she settles.
Contrast that with Peter, who seemed to essentially make the decision the second he saw her in Strong Poison. And then he's constant from then on, and over the course of several books for the lead-up. But when it actually happens, he can't settle. He's constant in his pursuit, but when he achieves his goal, he's afraid it'll fall to pieces around him. And for the first time, Harriet is the grounding force in the relationship.
I just really like the dichotomy of their reactions.
We've also never really gotten to seem them being affectionate before, and the way they speak to each other in this is really, really well done. The dialogue is never too much, it's not too saccharine. It just works really, really well, and is very effective.
Plus, Bunter is especially awesome in this.
And the ending is fairly brilliant. So much so, that I don't even really know what to say about it.
I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long time.
The Prothalamion continues to be everything I've ever wanted. The Dowager Duchess is a delight.
And I just love Peter and Harriet finding their footing after the major shift in their relationship, particularly juxtaposed with how they both are in Gaudy Night.
I also love how all the minor catastrophes and inconveniences really bring it home to both of them that they're actually married. 'Tis great.
This one just makes me happy.
2019 Reading Challenge - A book that includes a wedding
This is fairly spectacular.
Seriously, I loved everything about this. I lost count of the number of times I realized I was sitting there grinning like a fool while reading this.
First, the epistolary-type excerpts at the start are everything I've ever wanted. The Dowager Duchess (and her relationship with Harriet) is my favourite. I love how this continues where Gaudy Night left off, and makes it really very obvious that Peter and Harriet have both made their relationship a choice.
I love the symmetry between the pair of novels. Gaudy Night focuses on Harriet's issues with the relationship, while Busman's Honeymoon is much more about Peter's. What I especially love is the difference in their reactions. Harriet is terrified of allowing herself to fall in love with Peter (or acknowledging it), but then when she chooses to do it, she goes all in (describing it as like falling down a well). And while she does have moments in this of not quite believing it's actually happened, for the most part she's serene. More serene than she's been all series. The anxiety led up to the decision, but once the decision was made, she settles.
Contrast that with Peter, who seemed to essentially make the decision the second he saw her in Strong Poison. And then he's constant from then on, and over the course of several books for the lead-up. But when it actually happens, he can't settle. He's constant in his pursuit, but when he achieves his goal, he's afraid it'll fall to pieces around him. And for the first time, Harriet is the grounding force in the relationship.
I just really like the dichotomy of their reactions.
We've also never really gotten to seem them being affectionate before, and the way they speak to each other in this is really, really well done. The dialogue is never too much, it's not too saccharine. It just works really, really well, and is very effective.
Plus, Bunter is especially awesome in this.
And the ending is fairly brilliant. So much so, that I don't even really know what to say about it.
I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long time.
October 26, 2022
For the first time in my life I finished a book and then decided to read it again right away. That is how much I loved Busman's Honeymoon, "a love story with detective interruptions".
A delightful read from start to finish. This is not a stand-alone novel. It is necessary to read the previous novels to get the full impact of how Harriet and Lord Peter are piecing their new lives together. Bravo to Dorothy Sayers for showing the beauty of complexity of it.
Note: For the second reading I listened to the audiobook read by Ian Carmichael. How lovely to hear all the beautiful dialogue! Also, there are two long letters in French in the book that were translated into English for the audiobook. They added some wonderful insights into both Harriet and Lord Peter.
A delightful read from start to finish. This is not a stand-alone novel. It is necessary to read the previous novels to get the full impact of how Harriet and Lord Peter are piecing their new lives together. Bravo to Dorothy Sayers for showing the beauty of complexity of it.
Note: For the second reading I listened to the audiobook read by Ian Carmichael. How lovely to hear all the beautiful dialogue! Also, there are two long letters in French in the book that were translated into English for the audiobook. They added some wonderful insights into both Harriet and Lord Peter.
December 30, 2019
Lord Peter Wimsey and author Harriet Vane have finally gotten themselves well and truly married. What better way to test their relationship's mettle than to put it through the crucible of solving a murder?
1. This is in many ways Bunter's book and I thank heaven for that fact every day. (I MEAN: Two minutes later, Bunter, prompted by God knows what savage libido, flung a boot from the back bedroom; and on the mere the wailing died away. and the Issue of the Port!!) He's such a present force in Peter's life, and the tiptoeing around the Question of Bunter is one I handled with much more grace than I handled the Question of Harriet in Gaudy Night, because of course Harriet will not work against Bunter; they are the two that love Peter best and of course they will join forces to protect the blond idiot from himself. Watching them find their equilibrium with one another with that final, carefully laid net for Peter on that dark, lonely night�*chef's kiss*!
2. I enjoyed Harriet settling into Married Life with that detachment she wore so well in early novels now showing itself again as a means to dealing with Peter's rambunctiousness. Now that she loves the fool, she will love him completely but that does not mean that she doesn't remain firmly herself in the midst of the nonsense:
3. Peter's vortex of emotions, on the other hand, was nicely tempered by the presence of Bunter and Harriet: he has defined himself by wanting what he could not have and now that he has it he's a bit unfixed. He doesn't necessarily show himself well, but he has, without meaning to, found two poles to offer shelter to his nervy, emotional processing of cases.
(3.5 I feel like there's something to be said about how the emotional labor of the case shakes out, but I'm still a little tender from the particular gut-punch of the ending, so I'm noting it and moving on.)
4. The ending is circuitous and lovely: what a fitting way to close the door on the silly man who opened it with "Oh, damn!" on page one of Whose Body? I only wish that more of this particular suffering had been woven into earlier novels versus shoehorned in here; I understand the reasoning but it does tip the scales a little too close to ret-conning versus a natural growth in how Peter handles these things. We're told how it's always been (and then shown how it changes now that Harriet is his partner—effective, but cobbled slightly by its own limitations.
(It doesn't change the efficacy of Harriet's shielding Peter from the 8 o'clock bells, or his weeping on his wife's knees, or the piquancy of the entire damned scene, however!)
5. SUCH HORNDOGS: SAYERS I TIP MY HAT AT YOU.
(5.5 Peter's embarrassment at getting caught making love to his wife just about everywhere I DIE.)
6. I probably have more to say but this is what I have now. 4.5 stars; rounding to be determined once my sediments have settled. (PUN INTENDED.)
1. This is in many ways Bunter's book and I thank heaven for that fact every day. (I MEAN: Two minutes later, Bunter, prompted by God knows what savage libido, flung a boot from the back bedroom; and on the mere the wailing died away. and the Issue of the Port!!) He's such a present force in Peter's life, and the tiptoeing around the Question of Bunter is one I handled with much more grace than I handled the Question of Harriet in Gaudy Night, because of course Harriet will not work against Bunter; they are the two that love Peter best and of course they will join forces to protect the blond idiot from himself. Watching them find their equilibrium with one another with that final, carefully laid net for Peter on that dark, lonely night�*chef's kiss*!
2. I enjoyed Harriet settling into Married Life with that detachment she wore so well in early novels now showing itself again as a means to dealing with Peter's rambunctiousness. Now that she loves the fool, she will love him completely but that does not mean that she doesn't remain firmly herself in the midst of the nonsense:
Peter said nothing, but whistled a couple of bars almost inaudibly. Harriet remained imperturbable; twenty-four hours of matrimony had taught her that, if one was going to be disturbed by sly allusions to Greenland's coast or anything else, one might live in a state of perpetual confusion.It's basically what I needed from the last few chapters of Gaudy Night: a settling, to let all the murkiness fall out of the thing, leaving behind the intention and the decision standing clear-cut. (I think the Port Trauma has influenced my metaphors; apologies.)
3. Peter's vortex of emotions, on the other hand, was nicely tempered by the presence of Bunter and Harriet: he has defined himself by wanting what he could not have and now that he has it he's a bit unfixed. He doesn't necessarily show himself well, but he has, without meaning to, found two poles to offer shelter to his nervy, emotional processing of cases.
(3.5 I feel like there's something to be said about how the emotional labor of the case shakes out, but I'm still a little tender from the particular gut-punch of the ending, so I'm noting it and moving on.)
4. The ending is circuitous and lovely: what a fitting way to close the door on the silly man who opened it with "Oh, damn!" on page one of Whose Body? I only wish that more of this particular suffering had been woven into earlier novels versus shoehorned in here; I understand the reasoning but it does tip the scales a little too close to ret-conning versus a natural growth in how Peter handles these things. We're told how it's always been (and then shown how it changes now that Harriet is his partner—effective, but cobbled slightly by its own limitations.
(It doesn't change the efficacy of Harriet's shielding Peter from the 8 o'clock bells, or his weeping on his wife's knees, or the piquancy of the entire damned scene, however!)
5. SUCH HORNDOGS: SAYERS I TIP MY HAT AT YOU.
(5.5 Peter's embarrassment at getting caught making love to his wife just about everywhere I DIE.)
6. I probably have more to say but this is what I have now. 4.5 stars; rounding to be determined once my sediments have settled. (PUN INTENDED.)
July 6, 2017
সুলিখি�, কিন্তু মোটে� উপ�, একরকমে� বাজে�
ডরোথ� সেয়ার্স তাঁর উইমস� থ্রিলারদের জন্য বিখ্যাতে� বাড়�, আম� অবশ্� এর আগ� তাঁর ক্লাউড� অফ উইটনেস পড়ে মোটামুটি হতাশ হইছিলাম। এইবারও তেমন কোনো ব্যত্যয় হইলো না�
পিটা� উইমসির সাথে প্রথ� নামেধামে পরিচয় ক্লা� সিক্সে কি সেভেনে থাকত�, ব্যোমকেশ বক্সী� ভূমিকায় সংসারী গোয়েন্দার কথ� বলতে গিয়� সম্পাদ� এনার ভূয়সী এক প্রশংস� ঝাড়ছিলেন। মানত� দ্বিধা না�, সেয়ার্স চমৎকার লিখতেন, তাঁর পড়াশুনা� চমৎকার� প্রত� পদ� পদ� তিনি যেভাবে অপরাপর লেখা� রেফারেন্� দে�, চসার থেকে এলিয়ট অব্দ�, ঘা� মানত� হয� তাঁর বিদ্যা� কাছে� ফরাসী-লাতি� এই দুইও তা� নখের নোয়ায�, ফল� তাঁর চরিত্রের� গলগল কর� ফরাসী উগড়ায�, আর মাঝেমাঝে� লাতিনে ফোঁড়ন কাটে� কিন্তু এইগুলি � আর একটা বইরে মহান কর� না, এইগুলি, অন্ত� আমার কাছে, একটা বইরে ভালো� কর� না� এই বইয়ের রহস্যে� সমাধাট� যে ভালো না, এম� না ব্যাপারট�, কিন্তু রহস্� এইখানে পেছনের তাকে, আর সামনের পর্দ্দায� - লোকে বল� প্রে� - কিন্তু প্রে� নয�, বর� আভিজাত্যের কচকচানি। নেস্তরের বাটলারাম� আর এই বইয়ের বান্টারে� তৎপরতায় তফাত এই যে নেস্টর গল্পের ষা� শতাং� জুড়� থাকে না - সেয়ার্সের বইয়� আভিজাত্যকে একটু হালক� কটাক্ষ করার পর তিনি যেইভাব� ঘন্টার পর ঘন্ট�, দিনে� পর দি� অভিজাতদে� সুন্দর জীবনের ছব� এঁকে যা�, বিষম লাগে বই কি�
কী অদ্ভূত তাঁর লেখাগুলি, ভারী ভারী রেফারেন্�, সুললিত গদ্য, বে� পোক্� একটা রহস্� রোমাঞ্� ছাপায়� আমার নাকে খালি বোঁটকা গন্ধ আস� অভিজাতদে� তোয়াজ করার� আগের বইয়� � টানা তি� পাতা ফরাসী উগড়� দিছিলে�, এইবা� অতটা না হইলে� কী কী পারী-দেশীয় গা� ভজ� হইলো আর কত লম্ব� পথ লর্ড গাড়� চালাইল�, কে যে জানত� চাইছ� এইসব� আর বাড়� বদলানো� এক বর্ণনা, প্রতিভ� বসুর ঘুমপাড়ানিয়� আত্মজীবনী� দ্বিতীয়ার্ধরে� অলমোষ্� পিছে ফেলে দেয়� তাছাড়াও হ্যারিয়েট ভেইন আসলে পছন্� হওয়ার মত কে� বল� মন� হইলো না আমার, বর� তা� নামে� মত� সে� নির্জল�, ভেইন�
একেবারেই ভালো কিছু না� তা বলতেছি না, এইসব চাকচিক্যের বাইর� একটা জিনি� বে� ভালো, পিটা� উইমসির ভেতরের টানাপোড়েন� খুনী ধরায়ে দিয়েই � আর দায়িত্ব শে� হয� না, মানু� হয়ে মানুষেরে � আর সবাই ফাঁসিকাষ্ঠ� ঠেলে দিতে পারে না, যেইট� হোমস পারে� শীতলতাবশ�, আর ফাদা� ব্রাউন পারে� মানু� দেখে পোক্� হয়েছে� বলে। কিন্তু উইমস� পারে� না - সঙ্গ� কারণেই লোকে এই বিষয়টার প্রশংস� কর�, যদিও আমার মন� হইছে এই বিষয়টার� যথেষ্ট পরিমাণ� ঘেটে দেখা হয� না� এইখানে� এরপর যেহেতু সেয়ার্স আর উইমসির� নিয়� কিছু� লিখে যা� না�, তা� বিষয়ট� হয়ত অধরা� থেকে গেলো�
অথ� এট� নিয়� গুতাগুতি করলে হোমস-ব্রাউন দ্বৈরথ� উইমস� একটা অন্য চেহারা হাজি� করতে পারতেন, যিনি আগ্রহে� সাথে রহস্যে� কিনারা কর� পরিণাম� ভোগে� বিবেকে� চোটে� দুঃখের বিষয�, সেয়ার্স বর� রাজবাড়ীদিগে� বর্ণনা দিতে� অধিকতর ব্যস্ত�
পরিণাম, এই আধভাঙা উপন্যাস। যদ� গ্লাশটাক� উল্ট� কর� ধরেন, আধগড়া�
ডরোথ� সেয়ার্স তাঁর উইমস� থ্রিলারদের জন্য বিখ্যাতে� বাড়�, আম� অবশ্� এর আগ� তাঁর ক্লাউড� অফ উইটনেস পড়ে মোটামুটি হতাশ হইছিলাম। এইবারও তেমন কোনো ব্যত্যয় হইলো না�
পিটা� উইমসির সাথে প্রথ� নামেধামে পরিচয় ক্লা� সিক্সে কি সেভেনে থাকত�, ব্যোমকেশ বক্সী� ভূমিকায় সংসারী গোয়েন্দার কথ� বলতে গিয়� সম্পাদ� এনার ভূয়সী এক প্রশংস� ঝাড়ছিলেন। মানত� দ্বিধা না�, সেয়ার্স চমৎকার লিখতেন, তাঁর পড়াশুনা� চমৎকার� প্রত� পদ� পদ� তিনি যেভাবে অপরাপর লেখা� রেফারেন্� দে�, চসার থেকে এলিয়ট অব্দ�, ঘা� মানত� হয� তাঁর বিদ্যা� কাছে� ফরাসী-লাতি� এই দুইও তা� নখের নোয়ায�, ফল� তাঁর চরিত্রের� গলগল কর� ফরাসী উগড়ায�, আর মাঝেমাঝে� লাতিনে ফোঁড়ন কাটে� কিন্তু এইগুলি � আর একটা বইরে মহান কর� না, এইগুলি, অন্ত� আমার কাছে, একটা বইরে ভালো� কর� না� এই বইয়ের রহস্যে� সমাধাট� যে ভালো না, এম� না ব্যাপারট�, কিন্তু রহস্� এইখানে পেছনের তাকে, আর সামনের পর্দ্দায� - লোকে বল� প্রে� - কিন্তু প্রে� নয�, বর� আভিজাত্যের কচকচানি। নেস্তরের বাটলারাম� আর এই বইয়ের বান্টারে� তৎপরতায় তফাত এই যে নেস্টর গল্পের ষা� শতাং� জুড়� থাকে না - সেয়ার্সের বইয়� আভিজাত্যকে একটু হালক� কটাক্ষ করার পর তিনি যেইভাব� ঘন্টার পর ঘন্ট�, দিনে� পর দি� অভিজাতদে� সুন্দর জীবনের ছব� এঁকে যা�, বিষম লাগে বই কি�
কী অদ্ভূত তাঁর লেখাগুলি, ভারী ভারী রেফারেন্�, সুললিত গদ্য, বে� পোক্� একটা রহস্� রোমাঞ্� ছাপায়� আমার নাকে খালি বোঁটকা গন্ধ আস� অভিজাতদে� তোয়াজ করার� আগের বইয়� � টানা তি� পাতা ফরাসী উগড়� দিছিলে�, এইবা� অতটা না হইলে� কী কী পারী-দেশীয় গা� ভজ� হইলো আর কত লম্ব� পথ লর্ড গাড়� চালাইল�, কে যে জানত� চাইছ� এইসব� আর বাড়� বদলানো� এক বর্ণনা, প্রতিভ� বসুর ঘুমপাড়ানিয়� আত্মজীবনী� দ্বিতীয়ার্ধরে� অলমোষ্� পিছে ফেলে দেয়� তাছাড়াও হ্যারিয়েট ভেইন আসলে পছন্� হওয়ার মত কে� বল� মন� হইলো না আমার, বর� তা� নামে� মত� সে� নির্জল�, ভেইন�
একেবারেই ভালো কিছু না� তা বলতেছি না, এইসব চাকচিক্যের বাইর� একটা জিনি� বে� ভালো, পিটা� উইমসির ভেতরের টানাপোড়েন� খুনী ধরায়ে দিয়েই � আর দায়িত্ব শে� হয� না, মানু� হয়ে মানুষেরে � আর সবাই ফাঁসিকাষ্ঠ� ঠেলে দিতে পারে না, যেইট� হোমস পারে� শীতলতাবশ�, আর ফাদা� ব্রাউন পারে� মানু� দেখে পোক্� হয়েছে� বলে। কিন্তু উইমস� পারে� না - সঙ্গ� কারণেই লোকে এই বিষয়টার প্রশংস� কর�, যদিও আমার মন� হইছে এই বিষয়টার� যথেষ্ট পরিমাণ� ঘেটে দেখা হয� না� এইখানে� এরপর যেহেতু সেয়ার্স আর উইমসির� নিয়� কিছু� লিখে যা� না�, তা� বিষয়ট� হয়ত অধরা� থেকে গেলো�
অথ� এট� নিয়� গুতাগুতি করলে হোমস-ব্রাউন দ্বৈরথ� উইমস� একটা অন্য চেহারা হাজি� করতে পারতেন, যিনি আগ্রহে� সাথে রহস্যে� কিনারা কর� পরিণাম� ভোগে� বিবেকে� চোটে� দুঃখের বিষয�, সেয়ার্স বর� রাজবাড়ীদিগে� বর্ণনা দিতে� অধিকতর ব্যস্ত�
পরিণাম, এই আধভাঙা উপন্যাস। যদ� গ্লাশটাক� উল্ট� কর� ধরেন, আধগড়া�
September 8, 2013
created a memorable sleuth in the patrician Lord Peter Wimsey, whom she envisioned as a cross between the debonair Fred Astaire and the wooly-headed Bertie Wooster. Like the latter, Lord Peter's frequently rescued by his man, Bunter; unlike either, Lord Peter conceals a perspicacious mind and an overly sentimental heart underneath his frivolous exterior. Nearly a century later, mystery lovers like myself still enjoy Sayers' mystery novels.
That said, Sayers, while enjoyable, doesn't remain as sterling as Dame . Modern readers will still thrill to , and ; Sayers' , in contrast, turns so cerebral that it's nearly unreadable!
The same faults that plague Gaudy Night emerge here, although not to the same extent. Sayers was writing not only for her time but for her class. She peppers Busman's Honeymoon with frequent classical allusions that will be lost on most readers, who won't be classical scholars. Sayers unfurls long stretches of conversations, songs and letters in French! Both Peter and Harriet Vane, first his sidekick and eventually his love interest and bride, can descend into tedious philosophical discussions that lead nowhere. I found myself flipping through pages at a time until the narrative resumed.
Despite these annoyances, Busman's Honeymoon sports an excellent mystery; I never figured out how it was done until Lord Peter revealed it. Lord Peter's reaction to the guilty verdict seemed over the top to me, but, I guess, the aristocracy must have finer feelings than I. Don't let any of that put you off, though: The novel's still worth reading. It's just a pity that no one's updated the story for the 21st century.
That said, Sayers, while enjoyable, doesn't remain as sterling as Dame . Modern readers will still thrill to , and ; Sayers' , in contrast, turns so cerebral that it's nearly unreadable!
The same faults that plague Gaudy Night emerge here, although not to the same extent. Sayers was writing not only for her time but for her class. She peppers Busman's Honeymoon with frequent classical allusions that will be lost on most readers, who won't be classical scholars. Sayers unfurls long stretches of conversations, songs and letters in French! Both Peter and Harriet Vane, first his sidekick and eventually his love interest and bride, can descend into tedious philosophical discussions that lead nowhere. I found myself flipping through pages at a time until the narrative resumed.
Despite these annoyances, Busman's Honeymoon sports an excellent mystery; I never figured out how it was done until Lord Peter revealed it. Lord Peter's reaction to the guilty verdict seemed over the top to me, but, I guess, the aristocracy must have finer feelings than I. Don't let any of that put you off, though: The novel's still worth reading. It's just a pity that no one's updated the story for the 21st century.
August 16, 2023
4.25*
After the brilliance of , how would Busman’s Honeymoon fare? Surprisingly well but it depends on what you’re expecting.
The novel starts with an epistolary section, collecting many different voices giving their shocked accounts of Harriet and Peter’s engagement and marriage, to great humour. Sayers must have had a whale of a time writing this. I certainly had reading it, giggling often.
Then the narration returns to our leads, right after the wedding, showing the couple 'escaping' to a hidden location in the country to have their honeymoon, Bunter in tow. Things are obviously not as they should be, their new house being locked and unwelcoming. What follows felt nearly like a comedy, some scenes very reminiscent of a play being performed. The murder case in fact does not appear until later on and is not the main focus but rather a spring board.
Sayers does something very smart by setting this mystery in the first few days of our new couple, days that will define their life together. We see how they behave towards each other in a very realistic manner, not just in a romantic way but in the routines of day-to-day living. Peter’s war PTSD also comes back and we become witness to a whole new aspect that had only been alluded to so far in the series. Fascinating!
After the brilliance of , how would Busman’s Honeymoon fare? Surprisingly well but it depends on what you’re expecting.
The novel starts with an epistolary section, collecting many different voices giving their shocked accounts of Harriet and Peter’s engagement and marriage, to great humour. Sayers must have had a whale of a time writing this. I certainly had reading it, giggling often.
Then the narration returns to our leads, right after the wedding, showing the couple 'escaping' to a hidden location in the country to have their honeymoon, Bunter in tow. Things are obviously not as they should be, their new house being locked and unwelcoming. What follows felt nearly like a comedy, some scenes very reminiscent of a play being performed. The murder case in fact does not appear until later on and is not the main focus but rather a spring board.
Sayers does something very smart by setting this mystery in the first few days of our new couple, days that will define their life together. We see how they behave towards each other in a very realistic manner, not just in a romantic way but in the routines of day-to-day living. Peter’s war PTSD also comes back and we become witness to a whole new aspect that had only been alluded to so far in the series. Fascinating!
December 28, 2018
Flawed but fabulous. This is my favorite epistolary anything-ever-written, even beating out Sorcery and Cecelia. I love this opening so much. Helen's letter - the Dean's letter - the Duchess's diary - everything about it is perfect.
The mystery, slightly less so. This is flawed. But it sets up some spectacular scenes between Harriet and Peter, and let's face it: those are the only reasons I reread this book. (I even typed the French sentences into Google Translate.)
: Wimsey's nephew died in the Second World War; necessarily, therefore, one of these small boys will become Duke of Denver.
...WHAT. I missed that somewhere!
The mystery, slightly less so. This is flawed. But it sets up some spectacular scenes between Harriet and Peter, and let's face it: those are the only reasons I reread this book. (I even typed the French sentences into Google Translate.)
"Except to teach me for the first time what they meant."Harriet is the best, and I'm so glad she gets her happy ending.
: Wimsey's nephew died in the Second World War; necessarily, therefore, one of these small boys will become Duke of Denver.
...WHAT. I missed that somewhere!
August 4, 2023
This is now one of my favourite Lord Peter mysteries.
Lord Peter and Harriet begin their married life with an unforgettable honeymoon that begins with a corpse in the basement. The cast of characters is varied and entertaining and the action is lively and non-stop.
Lord Peter and Harriet begin their married life with an unforgettable honeymoon that begins with a corpse in the basement. The cast of characters is varied and entertaining and the action is lively and non-stop.
July 15, 2018
Wimsey gets married and goes on honeymoon, but can't get away from murder. Too bad for him, but good news for us!
July 29, 2022
So...Lord Peter finally gets the girl. Well, we knew that at the end of Gaudy Night...what with them kissing madly in the middle of Oxford and all. But this one seals the deal. The book begins with the details of the months leading up to the wedding, the wedding itself, and on to the honeymoon. Not that Sayers is so gauche as to reveal ALL about the wedding night, but it's abundantly obvious that our favorite lord and his new lady have quite a nice time of it.
The mystery fun begins the next day when the body of their neglectful host is found in the basement. It soon becomes clear that the reason the honeymoon house was not prepared was because Mr. Noakes has been dead for almost a week. Harriet rather wishes that Peter need not be bothered with all this murder business while on his honeymoon--if only because it will bring the mobs of reporters descending upon them--but soon realizes that his "job" is something they will need to come to terms with if theirs is to be happy marriage.
What follows is, as Sayers notes in the subtitle, A Love Story with Detective Interruptions. We follow Peter and Harriet as they sort out how their love story will begin and in the intervals they pick up clue after clue that will ultimately lead to the discovery of the culprit. However, the point of the story is not the murder. The point is love and marriage and what Sayers thought was the ideal way for two adults to sort things out.
The mystery isn't a very deep one and it shouldn't be hard for anyone to spot the criminal. But the detective story is not the reason I can read this novel (or any of Sayers' mysteries, for that matter) over and over again. I read them for the language and the characters and their interactions. Rereading Busman's Honeymoon, I was struck once more about how delightful the opening chapter is. It is told entirely in letters and excerpts from the Dowager Duchess's diary and I chuckle over it every single time. The voices of the various characters--from Peter's insufferable sister-in-law to the irrepressible Countess of Severn and Thames--are so distinct and vibrant. And the images they convey are such a hoot--can anyone who has read the stories not snort over the picture of the "hell-hound" reporters trying bribe Bunter? Or Peter and Harriet composing rude rhymes in order to get rid of Helen (the insufferable sister-in-law)?
I love this book. And can only regret that it is the last full-length novel written entirely by Dorothy L Sayers. The books penned by Jill Paton Walsh just aren't the same.
As I say, I love Dororthy L Sayers. I can't say it any better than that. I could read her Wimsey novels any time and I've already read them many times (more than I can count). I reach for Sayers when I need a pick-me-up, a soothing read, good writing, great quotes and references, a good dose of golden age mystery, any or all of the above. My only quibble is that I have already read them all and I have no new stories to look forward to. Oh to be in the position to pick up a Sayers for the first time--that would be bliss.
I could write pages and pages...but not nearly as well as Miss Sayers. I'll just leave it at this: If you enjoy good prose by an intelligent writer then you'll want to read these stories.
The mystery fun begins the next day when the body of their neglectful host is found in the basement. It soon becomes clear that the reason the honeymoon house was not prepared was because Mr. Noakes has been dead for almost a week. Harriet rather wishes that Peter need not be bothered with all this murder business while on his honeymoon--if only because it will bring the mobs of reporters descending upon them--but soon realizes that his "job" is something they will need to come to terms with if theirs is to be happy marriage.
What follows is, as Sayers notes in the subtitle, A Love Story with Detective Interruptions. We follow Peter and Harriet as they sort out how their love story will begin and in the intervals they pick up clue after clue that will ultimately lead to the discovery of the culprit. However, the point of the story is not the murder. The point is love and marriage and what Sayers thought was the ideal way for two adults to sort things out.
The mystery isn't a very deep one and it shouldn't be hard for anyone to spot the criminal. But the detective story is not the reason I can read this novel (or any of Sayers' mysteries, for that matter) over and over again. I read them for the language and the characters and their interactions. Rereading Busman's Honeymoon, I was struck once more about how delightful the opening chapter is. It is told entirely in letters and excerpts from the Dowager Duchess's diary and I chuckle over it every single time. The voices of the various characters--from Peter's insufferable sister-in-law to the irrepressible Countess of Severn and Thames--are so distinct and vibrant. And the images they convey are such a hoot--can anyone who has read the stories not snort over the picture of the "hell-hound" reporters trying bribe Bunter? Or Peter and Harriet composing rude rhymes in order to get rid of Helen (the insufferable sister-in-law)?
I love this book. And can only regret that it is the last full-length novel written entirely by Dorothy L Sayers. The books penned by Jill Paton Walsh just aren't the same.
As I say, I love Dororthy L Sayers. I can't say it any better than that. I could read her Wimsey novels any time and I've already read them many times (more than I can count). I reach for Sayers when I need a pick-me-up, a soothing read, good writing, great quotes and references, a good dose of golden age mystery, any or all of the above. My only quibble is that I have already read them all and I have no new stories to look forward to. Oh to be in the position to pick up a Sayers for the first time--that would be bliss.
I could write pages and pages...but not nearly as well as Miss Sayers. I'll just leave it at this: If you enjoy good prose by an intelligent writer then you'll want to read these stories.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 29, 2021
Busman’s Honeymoon remains a very fine novel and a terrific read from the Golden Age. It is the fourth in the sequence featuring both Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey; it can be read as a stand-alone, but I strongly recommend that you read Strong Poison, Have His Carcase and Gaudy Night before this. (It won’t be any hardship whatsoever.)
Here, Peter and Harriet finally get married and there is a delightful epistolary opening from a wide variety of correspondents in which we get the story of the wedding and which shows Sayers’s brilliance as a writer. It then reverts to third person narrative, largely from Harriet’s point of view, in which (of course) a body is discovered at their newly-bought home in Hertfordshire and the solution of the case is intertwined with an examination of their developing relationship.
It is, for the most part, quite brilliantly done. The story is cleverly but fairly plotted and Sayers’s insight into her characters is remarkable, I think. It does have its little flaws; there is some rather annoying quotation-mongering between Peter and the police superintendent, a good deal of untranslated French in places and some of the inevitable snobbery of the period, but, at least 25 years since I last read it, it remains an immense pleasure. Very warmly recommended.
Here, Peter and Harriet finally get married and there is a delightful epistolary opening from a wide variety of correspondents in which we get the story of the wedding and which shows Sayers’s brilliance as a writer. It then reverts to third person narrative, largely from Harriet’s point of view, in which (of course) a body is discovered at their newly-bought home in Hertfordshire and the solution of the case is intertwined with an examination of their developing relationship.
It is, for the most part, quite brilliantly done. The story is cleverly but fairly plotted and Sayers’s insight into her characters is remarkable, I think. It does have its little flaws; there is some rather annoying quotation-mongering between Peter and the police superintendent, a good deal of untranslated French in places and some of the inevitable snobbery of the period, but, at least 25 years since I last read it, it remains an immense pleasure. Very warmly recommended.
January 31, 2018
I somehow managed to miss this Dorothy Sayers mystery when I read all the other Peter Wimseys fifty years ago. It strikes me as even loooonger on characters who are characters than I remember from her other books, offering unusually extended swatches of village rustic, country-bumpkinish dialogue to contrast with quicker, upper-crust wit. (What with this decidedly “pre-globalization� flavor, if Sayers were to return from the dead to write a mystery in the days of Brexit, what sounds would she put in the mouths of her less aristocratic, less educated characters, I wonder?) All this talk will likely try the patience of readers anxious to be getting on with something more criminal than violations of social proprieties. We’re about a third of the way through before a body finally turns up: it’s been right under their noses for a good while, too. Which makes one wonder if it took bodies longer to start to pong in 1937 than it does in present-day mysteries. (It can’t just have been Britain’s lack of central heating.) There’s a Clueish “the maid did it with a cricket bat in the skullery� about the mystery once it gets going. But I suspect one reads Dorothy Sayers more for the people than the plot. And the usual suspects are their customary selves, perhaps more than usually endearing.
September 29, 2021
I think I’ve read about all the Dorothy L. Sayers I will ever read. Busman’s Honeymoon, the last book in the Harriet Vane/Lord Peter Wimsey series (he has his own separate series), is exhausting. I can see why Sayers hasn’t held up over the years; she’s too contemporary (contemporary meaning 1930s England) and her novels aren’t just murder mysteries, they are weighty tomes with Lord Peter quoting and referencing classical literature in nearly every sentence. The modern equivalent is a YA novel with constant Harry Potter references. It’s difficult to connect to these intellectual and wealthy people and I don’t. This last novel featuring Harriet Vane is really more about their wedding and them starting their married life than it is the mystery—ٳ’s almost an afterthought.
So (spoiler, kind of) Harriet Vane finally accepts Lord Peter’s marriage proposal (after six years of asking) and they get married. Harriet asks her new husband to buy her this old country estate in the village where she grew up and he, having pots and pots of money, does so without even visiting the house. When they arrive, they find themselves locked out. The former owner was supposed to have the place ready for their arrival but he’s nowhere to be seen. Finally they find the former owner’s niece and she gives them the spare key. After a few days of living there and lots of people running in and out (housekeeper, annoying niece, asshole gardener, chimney sweep, vicar and Lord Peter’s faithful manservant Bunter), it’s discovered that old man Noakes is dead in the cellar near the beer barrel (no beer for them!). And guess what�.it looks like murder! Lord Peter happily sets about to solve it.
Like all of the Sayers’s novels I’ve read previously, there are a lots of extra conversations included in the book that have no bearing on the plot. Which is great if you want to listen to the housekeeper yammer on in her broad English (not sure which) regional accent but I didn’t. None of the characters/suspects are all that interesting. Frankly, I figured All the characters are rather annoying and boring and that goes for Lord Peter and his new wife Harriet. I pushed through this novel on pure will power alone.
It is difficult reading. All the classical literature references and contemporary cultural references made it slow-going. Most of the time I was familiar with the poet or author being quoted and perhaps the classic work of literature, but I wasn’t so familiar that I enjoyed or could relate to it all. Seriously, I needed a refresher course in classical literature before reading this novel. I also needed to be fairly fluent in French (or willing to spend a lot of time on Google translate) because Lord Peter and Harriet converse in French a lot and one chapter quotes whole sections of letters…in French. I skipped it all. The letters were personal and had no bearing on the whodunit so skipping them was fine.
The most interesting aspect of this novel (and her earlier one, Gaudy Night) is that they are contemporary. Sayers wrote them in the mid-1930s, after WWI and before WWII. Hitler is mentioned, but at the time she wrote the novels, he wasn’t the monster we know him as today. There’s not even worry yet about another war. In Gaudy Night, two men are conversing and they say something about how England needs a Hitler because he’ll keep everything traditional (that is, men in power and women out of university and at home). In the same novel, there’s an interesting character (a woman scholar at Oxford) writing a treatise on eugenics and how she supports the sterilization of people who possess “weaker minds.� In Busman’s Honeymoon, a character, upon hearing that Lord Peter bought the estate from Mr. Noakes, exclaims: “So ٳ’s the nigger in the woodpile. Bought the house, eh?� I have absolutely no idea what ٳ’s supposed to mean. I assume it’s racist but the meaning is unclear. And since this is 1930-whatever, no one who hears that word is shocked. Well, the vicar says, “Really, really!� and is described as being “scandalized� but I’m not sure what scandalizes him. The use of the word? The whole phrase? The idea that the house was sold and no one knew? That Mr. Noakes apparently took the money and ran off? There’s also an early discussion between Harriet and her new husband. Lord Peter is describing his real estate holdings and mentions a man he knows who is also financially successful due to real estate and he says something like, “Well, he’s a Jew, so of course he does very well.� I mean…it’s slightly shocking to read this stuff now because it’s so anti-Semitic, but at the time no one thought anything of it. This latest bit of contemporary language is just plain funny. Police superintendent Kirk is speaking with his constable and (according to the narrative) is laying down the “code of behavior for the nobility and gentry� but he calls it “pussychology.� Wtf? Which is funny, because ٳ’s not how I interpret that word!
After the mystery concludes, there are another 30+ pages of yadda yadda. Harriet and Peter go to the main estate (or whatever it’s called—the Wimsey noble estate) and she meets the family ghost (eye roll) and it’s a lot of Lord Peter angst. He enjoys solving the mysteries and identifying the murderer, but then he can’t deal with the consequence, which is the murderer is hung if found guilty. I get some of it is PTSD from his WWI experiences, but c’mon. He’s solved a lot of murders. If he is this torn up about the idea of being responsible for someone being hung as punishment (which he’s not; he didn’t commit the crime) then perhaps he should spend more time polishing his monocle and doing rich noble man things and not solving crimes. Sooo…yeah. I’m glad I read Dorothy Sayers but I can’t say I’ll read another.
So (spoiler, kind of) Harriet Vane finally accepts Lord Peter’s marriage proposal (after six years of asking) and they get married. Harriet asks her new husband to buy her this old country estate in the village where she grew up and he, having pots and pots of money, does so without even visiting the house. When they arrive, they find themselves locked out. The former owner was supposed to have the place ready for their arrival but he’s nowhere to be seen. Finally they find the former owner’s niece and she gives them the spare key. After a few days of living there and lots of people running in and out (housekeeper, annoying niece, asshole gardener, chimney sweep, vicar and Lord Peter’s faithful manservant Bunter), it’s discovered that old man Noakes is dead in the cellar near the beer barrel (no beer for them!). And guess what�.it looks like murder! Lord Peter happily sets about to solve it.
Like all of the Sayers’s novels I’ve read previously, there are a lots of extra conversations included in the book that have no bearing on the plot. Which is great if you want to listen to the housekeeper yammer on in her broad English (not sure which) regional accent but I didn’t. None of the characters/suspects are all that interesting. Frankly, I figured All the characters are rather annoying and boring and that goes for Lord Peter and his new wife Harriet. I pushed through this novel on pure will power alone.
It is difficult reading. All the classical literature references and contemporary cultural references made it slow-going. Most of the time I was familiar with the poet or author being quoted and perhaps the classic work of literature, but I wasn’t so familiar that I enjoyed or could relate to it all. Seriously, I needed a refresher course in classical literature before reading this novel. I also needed to be fairly fluent in French (or willing to spend a lot of time on Google translate) because Lord Peter and Harriet converse in French a lot and one chapter quotes whole sections of letters…in French. I skipped it all. The letters were personal and had no bearing on the whodunit so skipping them was fine.
The most interesting aspect of this novel (and her earlier one, Gaudy Night) is that they are contemporary. Sayers wrote them in the mid-1930s, after WWI and before WWII. Hitler is mentioned, but at the time she wrote the novels, he wasn’t the monster we know him as today. There’s not even worry yet about another war. In Gaudy Night, two men are conversing and they say something about how England needs a Hitler because he’ll keep everything traditional (that is, men in power and women out of university and at home). In the same novel, there’s an interesting character (a woman scholar at Oxford) writing a treatise on eugenics and how she supports the sterilization of people who possess “weaker minds.� In Busman’s Honeymoon, a character, upon hearing that Lord Peter bought the estate from Mr. Noakes, exclaims: “So ٳ’s the nigger in the woodpile. Bought the house, eh?� I have absolutely no idea what ٳ’s supposed to mean. I assume it’s racist but the meaning is unclear. And since this is 1930-whatever, no one who hears that word is shocked. Well, the vicar says, “Really, really!� and is described as being “scandalized� but I’m not sure what scandalizes him. The use of the word? The whole phrase? The idea that the house was sold and no one knew? That Mr. Noakes apparently took the money and ran off? There’s also an early discussion between Harriet and her new husband. Lord Peter is describing his real estate holdings and mentions a man he knows who is also financially successful due to real estate and he says something like, “Well, he’s a Jew, so of course he does very well.� I mean…it’s slightly shocking to read this stuff now because it’s so anti-Semitic, but at the time no one thought anything of it. This latest bit of contemporary language is just plain funny. Police superintendent Kirk is speaking with his constable and (according to the narrative) is laying down the “code of behavior for the nobility and gentry� but he calls it “pussychology.� Wtf? Which is funny, because ٳ’s not how I interpret that word!
After the mystery concludes, there are another 30+ pages of yadda yadda. Harriet and Peter go to the main estate (or whatever it’s called—the Wimsey noble estate) and she meets the family ghost (eye roll) and it’s a lot of Lord Peter angst. He enjoys solving the mysteries and identifying the murderer, but then he can’t deal with the consequence, which is the murderer is hung if found guilty. I get some of it is PTSD from his WWI experiences, but c’mon. He’s solved a lot of murders. If he is this torn up about the idea of being responsible for someone being hung as punishment (which he’s not; he didn’t commit the crime) then perhaps he should spend more time polishing his monocle and doing rich noble man things and not solving crimes. Sooo…yeah. I’m glad I read Dorothy Sayers but I can’t say I’ll read another.
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