The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist
by Dorothy L. Sayers
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dorothy L. SayersEditor: Barbara Reynolds
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 1996-03-15
ISBN: 0312140010
Number of pages: 421
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Book Reviews of The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist
Book Review: Too late loved, too soon gone
Summary: 5 Stars
Dorothy L. Sayers is known to many readers as the creator of the Wimsey detective novels. Written in the 1920s and 30s, these books earned Sayers a living and a great deal of respect in the genre, but they are not enough to know about this brilliant and complex woman.
Sayers was born in 1893 in Oxford, England. She was one of the first women to be granted a degree from Oxford University and earned her living at an advertising agency for some years, and then by her writing. Besides the detective novels and short stories, she wrote poetry, drama, essays and literary criticism, and translated Dante's Divina Commedia, a project which was incomplete at her death in 1957. In her late twenties she had a love affair that ended badly, and from a "rebound relationship" with another man she became pregnant; the child was raised by her cousin and the truth of his parentage was not known until after Sayers' death. In her early thirties she married a journalist who became disabled, leaving her with the ongoing responsibility of earning the family living.
Sayers was from her earliest years a prolific and entertaining correspondent. This first volume of her letters is presented by Barbara Reynolds, who is Sayers' god-daughter, literary collaborator and biographer. The annotations add enormous clarity and value to the collection so that it could be enjoyed by a reader with very little knowledge of Sayers' life and times.
From a six-year-old's domestic concerns, the letters go on to cover Dorothy's successes and enthusiasms at boarding school and Oxford. As her writing career begins to develop there is a fascinating look at the publishing world from an author's perspective. Wimsey fans: there is a wealth of background on the novels and short stories. The letters to her lover John Cournos are the most poignant, and her ongoing interest in her son is a constant theme.
Sayers' letters are breezy, literate, and ninety-miles-per-hour. While the entire book is wildly quotable, I include just a few examples of her style.
To her former lover: "I kept your letter for a week before I read it, because I do so hate getting worked up--it's such headachey work going to the office after howling all night..."
To her publisher in London: "Having first assured myself that it was NOT your offices which the crane fell through last night (which might have seemed an ill omen, had it occurred), I proceed to enclose ..."
To her publisher cataloging the renovation of her flat: "The Cat is investigating the mysterious cavities between the joists of the flooring, with a view to getting nailed down under the floor, if possible ... I am trying to look ... like Dido building Carthage, and hoping (as I daresay she did) that the hammering will soon be over. Life is very wonderful. We are doing our best."
Dorothy L. Sayers: hard-working woman in a world designed for men, passionate about education and religion, a fine writer and an inspiring correspondent, challenged in her personal life. My respect for her and her work is enormous. If you are interested in learning more about this prodigious woman, you'll find a treasure trove in this first volume of her letters.
Linda Bulger, 2008
All The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist Customer Reviews
Summary of The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1899-1936: The Making of a Detective Novelist
C.S. Lewis suggested that Dorothy Sayers's letters would one day be recognized as among the finest epistles produced in the 20th century. In fact, this first volume, covering the years from Sayers's early childhood to the later years of personal tragedy and literary triumph, shows a broad-ranging talent and reveals a rich life full of language study, poetry, and books.Barbara Reynolds, author of the celebrated Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life and Soul, has selected a cross section of letters to represent the full spectrum of Sayers's expressions and emotions. Most troubling are those desperate letters to John Cournos, the novelist's lover and the man who ultimately jilted her. Also fascinating are her notes to her illegitimate son John Anthony (fathered by Bill White, a "car salesman and motor engineer"), messages expressing deep love that are, simultaneously, touched with the restraint of a mother held distant by social convention. Beyond these very personal moments, however, one traces the budding and then flowering of a literary career. Sayers's years at Oxford and after are peppered with references to her reading, snippets of her writing, and records of her travels in France and elsewhere. As P.D. James writes in the preface to the volume: "by the end of 1936, when this volume ends ... she could look back on half-a-lifetime of courageous living and ultimate achievement.... The enjoyment with which I read this first volume of letters is matched only by my happy expectation of pleasure to come." --Patrick O'Kelley
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