WHOSE BODY [Hardcover]

DOROTHY SAYERS (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: GOLLANCZ (1940)
• ASIN: B0018L04EC
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,461,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dorothy Sayers' apprentice-work, September 13, 2000

By 

Pauline J. Alama "Fantasy author" (Rutherford, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

If "Whose Body?" is the only Lord Peter Wimsey novel you've read, don't judge the rest by it. And if, like me, you read the later ones first, you may be amused to see how different this one is. I wonder whether Dorothy L. Sayers was still unsure, when she wrote this, whether she wanted to write a detective story or a parody of a detective story. There are wonderful comic touches, oddly mixed with some fairly gruesome scenes. The characters are broadly satirical, like the caricatured upper-class twits in P.G. Wodehouse. Lord Peter is frivolous and eccentric, a sort of smarter cousin to Wodehouse's amiable fop Bertie Wooster; the Dowager Duchess, his mother, is endearingly ditsy, like Aunt Dahlia of Wodehouse fame. As a mystery, the story fails -- I knew who the murderer was at once, not because of any clues but because there wasn't any other reason to introduce that character. However, it's interesting to examine the early, rough work that preceded Dorothy L. Sayers later, more polished mysteries. In this book, she was just beginning to learn her craft. Aspiring writers can probably learn a lot by comparing this with the much more successful "Clouds of Witness," written 4 years later.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Best to meet Peter Wimsey elsewhere before you read this one, November 9, 2000

By 

Kytaline (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This was the first of Dorothy L. Sayers' detective novels, but 70-odd years after publication it's not the best introduction to Sayers or to her most successful hero, Lord Peter Wimsey. If that's what you're looking for, try Nine Tailors, Murder Must Advertise, or one of the books that include Harriet Vane (my personal favourite is Gaudy Night).

"Whose Body" is something of an apprentice work. Lord Peter is here more a bundle of characteristics than a character: a collector of rare books and incunabula, facile with quotations, fluent in French and probably in Latin, a skillful and sensitive pianist who never needs to practise, slightly built but possessed of "curious" strength and speed which he maintains without exercise. Over subsequent books, this caricature smooths and deepens into one of the most interesting and attractive detectives in fiction.

In spite of its awkwardness, Whose Body is worth reading. The plot is clever, the villain is believable and sadistic, and most of the supporting characters are a delight. Some of these characters are further developed in later novels: Bunter, Parker, the Dowager Duchess, Freddy Arbuthnot. Others fortunately are not. Sayers is much better with people she might recognise as "like us" then with people from other social groups.

Sayers developed into a powerful writer of fiction whose technique was imperceptible. Here she has less mastery of technique, so that the scenes that work have disproportionate impact. The encounter between the Dowager Duchess of Denver and the American millionaire Milligan is a tiny classic.

In summary, interesting and entertaining for existing fans, but a hurdle for newcomers to the world of Wimsey.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful book- a true kindle bargain of quality, June 1, 2010

By 

Sunnflwr - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey) (Kindle Edition)

Please publish more Sayers books on Kindle! This one is notable for being the first entry to my knowledge in the Lord Peter Wimsey series, but as soon as you finish it, you are ready for the next one. Hurry, Kindle!