The Remarkable Case of Dorothy L. Sayers

by Catherine Kenney

One of the most fascinating comments often made about Dorothy l. Sayers is that she wrote “real” novels.  Catherine Kenney considers why Sayers mysteries tend to strike astute readers this way, and in so doing, suggests her place not only in the history of detection, but in the larger tradition of the English novel which she admired.  Gaudy Night , for example, bears striking similarities to nineteenth-century English fiction, especially the novels of Jane Austen.  The links between these authors have important implications not only for literary and social history, but also for our growing understanding of the subtle relationship between gender and genre. Unlike earlier book-length studies of Sayers, what Professor Kenney has written is not a biography or a survey, but an assessment of Dorothy Sayer’s main contributions to modern letters and culture.  Drawing upon Sayer’s novels, essays, plays, manuscripts, and letters, Kenney demonstrates the organic relationship of the parts of Sayer’s  canon and argues persuasively that all of her important themes and concerns are embedded in her best work, her fiction. Sayer’s three main accomplishments serve as the organizing principle of this first, her transformation of the modern detective story into a serious novel of social criticism and moral depth; second, her penetrating critique of the situation of modern women; and finally her compelling work as a lay theologian and interpreter of Christianity.  Thus, the book proceeds not only in roughly chronological order, but also from the work that most readers know best what they know least.  The author assumes some familiarity with Sayer’s fiction, but The Remarkable Case of Dorothy L. Sayers is not intended for specialists alone.  Indeed, it is appropriate for the same reader that DLS had in mind when she wrote.  It will appeal to those who already admire her work, and it may bring others to appreciate her as a literary figure of importance.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literature, Literary Criticism, Biography

327 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1991

Reviews

[Cindy Dyson Eitelman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a biography--as I'd thought--but something just as good. It's a scholarly review of her major works, concentrated on what they did for detective fiction in particular and fiction writing in general, then. And for her later, non-fiction works, it explained why they're so awesome. I can't speak to personal knowledge of the later works, but I think I can trust the author's honest opinion on the matter.

The only one I knew about was her translation of The Inferno. But it appears that at about the time when World War II started, she'd brought the Wimsey/Vane saga to an appropriate close and she shifted her writing efforts to nonfiction--the Dante translation, plays including a rather lengthy series dramatizing the life of Christ, and essays, including her notable The Mind of the Maker. This one compares the work of the Creator to the work of man and concludes that the highest and most fulfilling work a man can do is to imitate God--by doing creation.

The most surprising thing Ms. Kenney does is to point out the myriad ways in which Sayer's fiction is rooted in the solidity of her Christian faith. I'd never noticed it--it was just part of the scenery. But there it was, and when she points it out, you marvel at how she snuck the little gems of philosophy into her light, enjoyable froth.