Okay, now I can see why she's considered classic

[annathepiper]

I've gotten hooked on the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy Sayers. I'd tried to start reading them some time ago, but the first one, Whose Body?, didn't quite grab me at the time.

Then kathrynt loaned me five of the series, and I cracked one open and read in a chapter or two, and realized, "Whoa... this Wimsey guy is devastatingly funny! But who's this chick he's flirting with? I didn't remember HER!" And I realized that the books Q had loaned me were scattered all throughout the series.

Forthwith I resolved to read them in sequence. And having just finished The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, I was most amused by this little tidbit:

"Lord Peter! Good lord!"
"Thank you, Marjorie," Wimsey said, gravely.

I do have to wonder whether J.D. Robb was at all inspired by that when she had this exchange of dialogue between Eve and Roarke, the heroine and hero of her ... in Death series:

"Man. God. Roarke."
"A most interesting and flattering lineup."

Comments

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes!

I prefer the ones with Harriet Vane. She's supposed to be a stand-in for Sayers herself, who had basically fallen in love with her own creation. And you can see why!
Cathy

[annathepiper]

Hee! I really was charmed by how every third or fourth paragraph Peter would ever so nonchalantly inquire whether he should go get a marriage-license. ;) But right about when he started doing that I stopped reading Have His Carcase since I want to actually read how they MEET BEFORE I read how they get romantically involved!

[clauclauclaudia]

Yes indeed. Have you made it to Gaudy Night yet? That's my fave. It was my read-aloud to Regis book for road trips for quite a while, but now we've finished it.

[annathepiper]

Not there yet, no; I've read Whose Body?, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Murder Must Advertise, and the first few chapters of Have His Carcase. I forget which is next, Unnatural Death or Strong Poison, but after I knock off both of those I'll be caught up through Murder Must Advertise; I am expecting that somewhere in there must be where Parker marries Wimsey's sister. ;)

Gaudy Night has come recommended from another source, and I'll get there soon enough! Thanks for the heads up though.