Episode 243: “Murder Must Advertise” by Dorothy Sayers, Ch. 6-11

On The Literary Life podcast this week, we continue our series on Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers, covering chapters 6-11. Angelina and Thomas begin the discussion talking about authors and their own thoughts on their best books versus those which readers seem to like best. Angelina shares some of the things she has learned about the drug trade in the early 20th century and in relation to this story. Thomas points out some of the allusions and references to other literature in these chapters. Angelina also expands on Lord Peter’s disguises and the role of the harlequin in the literary tradition. For an entertaining side note, Thomas reads some bad reviews of Sayers’ novels.

In October the House of Humane Letters will be bringing you a new mini-class with Querida Thompson, “How to Read a Symphony: Revealing the Ingenuity of Haydn’s Symphony 42 in D. Major.”

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Commonplace Quotes:

Vanity, if you train it with enough devotion, can be the best defense against boredom.

Kingsley Amis, from That Uncertain Feeling

He had had a choice, after all. The army had been keen to keep him, even with half his leg missing. Friends of friends had offered everything from management roles in the close protection industry to business partnerships, but the itch to detect, solve, and reimpose order upon the moral universe could not be extinguished in him, and he doubted it ever would be.

-Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling), from Lethal White

Selection from To a Lady, on the Characters of Women

by Alexander Pope

Flavia's a wit, has too much sense to pray,
To Toast our wants and wishes, is her way;
Nor asks of God, but of her stars to give
The mighty blessing, "while we live, to live."
Then all for death, that opiate of the soul!
Lucretia's dagger, Rosamonda's bowl.
Say, what can cause such impotence of mind?
A spark too fickle, or a spouse too kind.
Wise wretch! with pleasures too refin'd to please;
With too much spirit to be e'er at ease;
With too much quickness ever to be taught;
With too much thinking to have common thought:
You purchase pain with all that joy can give,
And die of nothing but a rage to live.

Book List:

(Amazon Affiliate Links are included in this post.)

Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

Margery Allingham

Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis

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