Strong Poison [Hardcover]

Dorothy L. Sayers (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Victor Gollancz Ltd, London (1954)
• ASIN: B0017DAC2U
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love At First Sight In The Dock, January 8, 2004

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Strong Poison (Mass Market Paperback)

In public life, Dorothy L. Sayers was a scholar, writer, and woman of impeccable morals. In private life, however, she had a torrid love affair and bore a child out of wedlock. In her literature, Sayers expressed the schism between these aspects of her personality via the character of Harriet Vane, who makes her first appearance in the Lord Peter series in STRONG POISON as a fallen woman on trial for her life.

Published in 1930, the novel opens with Harriet Vane in the dock, listening as the judge presiding over trial sums up against her. She is a writer of mildly popular mysteries who has had a liaison with Philip Boyes, a rather pretentious author better know to critics than to the public. Their acrimonious separation is quickly followed by Boyes' death from arsenic--and it seems that Harriet, and Harriet only, had both motive and opportunity.

But the judge reckons without juror Miss Climpson, employee of the celebrated Lord Peter Wimsey, who derails what would seem an open and shut case--and gives Lord Peter the opportunity to unravel the crime. And, not incidentally, to fall in love with the accused. With an infamous actress of the Victorian age lurking in the background and a sizable inheritance on the line, Wimsey rushes to sort out the mystery and save the woman he loves before the case can be retried.

STRONG POISON is not really among Sayer's greatest novels, which combine a unique literary style, memorable characters, and complex plots to remarkable effect. The opening description of the trial, with its detailed account of the judge's comments, feels excessive; the solution to the crime is tricksy and relies heavily on coincidence; and Harriet Vane stands out less effectively than such supporting characters as Miss Climpson. Nonetheless, it has its charms, most particularly in Sayers' witty and highly literate style and the continued evolution of the characters she had previously created.

Most particularly, STRONG POISON sets the stage for two novels in which Harriet Vane will become one of the most memorable characters in the golden age of the English mystery: GAUDY NIGHT and BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON, both of which are regarded as high-water marks in the genre. Sayers wrote several memorable novels in which Harriet Vane does not appear at all, most notably the famous MURDER MUST ADVERTISE, but her development of the character is a remarkable process to behold, and fans will enjoy watching the process. Enjoyable, but recommended more to established Sayers readers than first time visitors.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the start of a saga, December 10, 2002

By 

Christopher G. Kenber "chris kenber" (alamo, ca USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Strong Poison (Mass Market Paperback)

Dorothy L. Sayers remains the finest of the early 20th century mystery writers: unusually erudite, she earned one of the first english degrees awarded to a woman at Oxford University. Eclectic enough to have written a definitive translation of Dante's Divina Comedia, her detective novels are shot through with quotations from a who's who of english literature.

Sayers loved language and her characters display this love with brilliance. In this novel, her favorite sleuth, the curiously human Lord Peter Wimsey, engages himself for the first time with Harriet Vane, whom he discovers on trial for her life for murdering her lover. Convinced at once of her innocence, he sets out to prove it. A hung jury gives him the opportunity, and Sayer's great skill in plotting brings Miss Vane out of prison, but unfortunately for Wimsey not (yet) into his arms. He has, of course, become hopelessly besotted with her.

Some reviewers describe Harriet Vane as unlikable -- there's little douibt that Sayers put much of her own sometimes awkward personality into Harriet. However, she is a genuinely interesting and surprisingly real character, and without question an early feminist.

The book is entirely satisfying in its own right, with particularly telling passages about spiritualism (an obsession of the time). Sayers' Miss Climpson, another fascinating character, a spinster who aids Wimsey in his detective work and philanthropy, uses spiritualism to elicit the motive for the murder and ultimately the responsible party.

It is also noteworthy for introducing the series of novels about Wimsey and Harriet Vane that includes Have His Carcase (the least satisfying), Gaudy Night (the first great feminist novel of the 20th century) and Busman's Honeymoon. Jill Paton Walsh, no mean novelist herself, completed a Sayers manuscript much more recently for Thrones and Dominations, a competent additional chapter in Peter and Harriet's lives.

Sayers was an extraordinary woman and an extraordinary writer -- in Wimsey and Harriet Vane, she connected her ideal man (Wimsey) with her alter ego, (Harriet). Strong Poison is the start of a sequence of highly intelligent, beautifully written novels that happen to be mysteries.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comparing the Petherbridge and Carmichael recordings, November 7, 2004

By 

Michele L. Worley (Kingdom of the Mouse, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strong Poison (Audio Cassette)

This review is geared more toward reviewing the quality of two audio editions of the book than the book itself (which I think highly of). First published in 1930, this book introduces Harriet Vane to Lord Peter Wimsey's life.

The abridged edition narrated by Edward Petherbridge came out when PBS first televised the BBC adaptation of the story with Petherbridge as Lord Peter. The MYSTERY! airing of the series in the U.S. was my introduction both to this book and to Dorothy L. Sayers' work. Petherbridge is the best physical match for Wimsey I've ever seen, and he's a fantastic narrator with an immense command of accents. (I highly recommend the DVD of that adaptation, in addition to the book itself.)

On the other hand, Ian Carmichael, who played Wimsey in all the BBC adaptations up to that point, narrates the unabridged edition. He specializes in Bertie Wooster-ish characters, like Wimsey's defensive public persona, and is also an excellent actor and narrator who given the chance can drop smoothly into a variety of characters with all kinds of accents. Once in a while Carmichael speaks tongue-in-cheek during 3rd-person narration where playing it deadpan straight would be more appropriate, but he generally keeps that under control.

I favor Petherbridge as Wimsey, but both recordings are worth the money.

The story begins with the judge's summation to the jury at the end of R. vs. Harriet Vane for the murder of her lover, Philip Boyes, as Lord Peter looks on. (He didn't assist with the investigation, but his attendance at the trial is perfectly plausible: his ally Miss Climpson is on the jury, and his best friend Parker handled the police case). I prefer Petherbridge's narration of judge Crossley to Carmichael's; he manages to convey Crossley's disapproval of the irregular Boyes/Vane living arrangements quite neatly.

Lord Peter is not only convinced of Harriet's innocence; he's convinced he's found the only woman he could possibly spend the rest of his life with - if she'll accept his offer of marriage, considering that they've never met before. Not to mention that her relationship with Boyes ended *very* badly (even discounting her being tried for his murder afterwards), so Peter's timing is *terrible*.

The Petherbridge audio abridgement eliminated several blind alleys from the investigation, along with much of the development of various subplots not bearing directly on the murder (Boyes' family background; his and Harriet's social circle; Parker's relationship with Lady Mary, which began in CLOUDS OF WITNESS; Christmas with the family and their maddening observations about the Vane case). The long Wrayburn and Urquhart investigations have been compressed, but both Miss Climpson and Miss Murchison's roles remained intact.