![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanWhose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
Mum thought I should read this as soon as she realised I was doing Crime Fiction. I can see why -- Lord Peter Wimsey is an interesting sort of character to choose as the centre of a crime/mystery novel, with his attitude towards what he's doing, and his backstory. It's interesting how like Holmes and Poirot he comes off at first, with his know-it-all sort of air, and then you learn more about him and begin to care more about him as a character and you find that, really, he's quite a distinct character. I want to read more of Sayers' series about him more for the sake of his character than for the sake of the crime/mystery fiction aspect. In fact, I'm interested in finding out more about most of the characters that would be likely to recur: Bunter, Wimsey's mother, Parker...
Don't get me wrong, though -- the mystery aspect is good. It isn't impossible to figure it out yourself, but it certainly keeps you guessing. The writing is good, too, although in the dialogue I sometimes thought it was getting rather off the point. There was a lot of -- don't you know -- something like this, I think -- prone to it in my own writing at times -- now realise how awfully -- yes, don't you -- it's rather like nobody ever quite finishes -- although I do think a part of that is characterisation -- and of course in reality, people do --
Alright, alright, I shall stop that now. Anyway, enjoyed this one, and while I'm not in a massive hurry to get the rest, I'm certainly planning to at some point.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I think I liked these short stories better than I liked the novels -- or novellas, or whatever you wish to call A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. I think that was partially because they suffer less from what I think is a pretty off-putting structural problem with the longer stories, and instead keep things simpler. It's also nice that they represent a wider range of cases, with some that aren't specifically crimes/don't involve death, and with Irene Adler there to put Holmes in his place -- just a little.
The stories are also amazingly easy to read. I've read modern work which is less accessible and engaging.
Mum thought I should read this as soon as she realised I was doing Crime Fiction. I can see why -- Lord Peter Wimsey is an interesting sort of character to choose as the centre of a crime/mystery novel, with his attitude towards what he's doing, and his backstory. It's interesting how like Holmes and Poirot he comes off at first, with his know-it-all sort of air, and then you learn more about him and begin to care more about him as a character and you find that, really, he's quite a distinct character. I want to read more of Sayers' series about him more for the sake of his character than for the sake of the crime/mystery fiction aspect. In fact, I'm interested in finding out more about most of the characters that would be likely to recur: Bunter, Wimsey's mother, Parker...
Don't get me wrong, though -- the mystery aspect is good. It isn't impossible to figure it out yourself, but it certainly keeps you guessing. The writing is good, too, although in the dialogue I sometimes thought it was getting rather off the point. There was a lot of -- don't you know -- something like this, I think -- prone to it in my own writing at times -- now realise how awfully -- yes, don't you -- it's rather like nobody ever quite finishes -- although I do think a part of that is characterisation -- and of course in reality, people do --
Alright, alright, I shall stop that now. Anyway, enjoyed this one, and while I'm not in a massive hurry to get the rest, I'm certainly planning to at some point.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I think I liked these short stories better than I liked the novels -- or novellas, or whatever you wish to call A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. I think that was partially because they suffer less from what I think is a pretty off-putting structural problem with the longer stories, and instead keep things simpler. It's also nice that they represent a wider range of cases, with some that aren't specifically crimes/don't involve death, and with Irene Adler there to put Holmes in his place -- just a little.
The stories are also amazingly easy to read. I've read modern work which is less accessible and engaging.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-15 06:59 pm (UTC)I think Murderer Must Advertise is my favorite pre-Strong Poison Wimsey-novel - it's very um whimsical.
Have you by chance ever read Maurice Leblanc, too? (Since you seem to be delving in the classics of crime/mystery lately.)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-15 07:02 pm (UTC)I haven't, should I look into it? I'm reading a lot of crime/mystery for my class...
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-15 08:02 pm (UTC)Leblanc was a contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle and E.W. Hornung and one of his short-story collections is, in fact, called Arsene Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes. (I see what you did there, Mister Leblanc!)
Given their age, some of the stories/novels are available for free here at Project Gutenberg - I've bought and read paperbacks myself, but I've no idea how readily they'd be found at your average library.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-15 10:15 pm (UTC)