A frustrating and appallingly silly book. Gaudy Night is an interminably related love story framed by an underdone mystery- perfect if you like that sort of thing. Its one redeeming value is that it gives the kind of lift to a highball you just won't get with a coaster. ( )

Gaudy Night is set in England during the mid-1930s, an era where the education of women was still not completely accepted by society. It is one of Sayer’s last mysteries about the eccentric English aristocrat and detective, Lord Peter Wimsey and the third book to feature the successful detective novelist, Harriet Vane (who appears in Strong Poison and Have His Carcase). Unlike the other books, it revolves solely around Harriet as the main protagonist. While it makes more sense to read the books chronologically - or to have at least read either (or both) of the previous novels which feature Harriet - Gaudy Night can easily be enjoyed on its own. The relevant details of the characters past are satisfactorily explained, and the book does not spoil the whodunits of previous mysteries.

At the pleading of an old friend, Harriet Vane decides to attend the gaudy for past-students at the all-female Shrewsbury in Oxford. Harriet is apprehensive of the reception that she will receive. What would those women say to her, to Harriet Vane, who had taken her First in English, gone to London to write mystery fiction, to live with a man who was not married to her, and to be tried for his murder amid a roar of notoriety? In the decade since she had received her Master of Arts she had broken all her old ties and half the commandments, dragged her reputation in the dust and made money, had the rich and amusing Lord Peter Wimsey at her feet, to marry him if she chose, and was full of energy and bitterness and the uncertain rewards of fame…
The reunion – the Gaudy Night – is not completely an agreeable experience, and causes some painful reflection on Harriet’s part as she is confronted with the changes years and hardship have brought. Yet before long, Harriet returns to Shrewsbury - this time at the college’s request, to investigate a series of vindictive anonymous letters and pranks. To avoid the extensive and damaging media attention such news would attract, the college wishes to keep the matter quiet, but not everyone approves relying on Harriet, given with her questionable reputation.
While Harriet’s inner bitterness is partly soothed by the academic focus of life in Oxford, she becomes drawn into the lives and conflicts of students and tutors alike and tensions and suspicions are rising as the poison-pen letters become more malicious. Harriet is uncertain how to carry the investigation further.
Meanwhile, Harriet has her own struggles - with her latest novel, and with the well-known detective Lord Peter Wimsey who acquitted her of murder and who is determined to convince Harriet to marry him. As Oxford causes Harriet to learn more about Lord Peter, she finds herself having to reassess both the man and his proposals in a new light.
The crisis in the college is an opportunity for the academic women to air and argue their views on truth and honesty, marriage and professional loyalties. Harriet realises she needs to face the truth regarding more than the identity of a potentially-murderous letter-writer before it is too late.

Gaudy Night provides an interesting insight into the literary scene of London and university life of the mid-30s. Set among the highly educated and opinionated, the story explores several interesting themes concerning philosophy, nostalgia, history, marriage, equality, relationships, honesty and politics. Their discussions can be thought-provoking and quite complex. Harriet’s encounters with others in Oxford are strongly believable and often very, very amusing - particularly the dons and tutors of Shrewsbury's senior common room. One of Gaudy Night's strengths is its humour.
Although most of the out-dated expressions used in the novel are explained by their context and do not detract from the overall story, Sayers' language can be a bit frustrating, particularly the constant quotations and references to literature, and the untranslated French and Latin. Nonetheless, this shouldn't be a deterrent; Gaudy Night very well written and most definitely worth reading. (Gaudy Night annotated is very useful for explaining any unfamiliar references.)

I feel I have done a poor job of doing justice to this book, which is wonderful, amusing, insightful, quotable and rereadable. It's a mystery, a romance; it is an examination of debate surrounding educated women and about accepting one's past and one's mistakes. It's lighthearted, and it's very serious (and intellectual).
I love this book and highly recommend it. I don't know that I can say much more than that. ( )

Gaudy Night is the third book about Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, but the first one I read about both of them. I wish in some ways I'd been more careful to read the other two first, because then the way their relationship developed would have been much more satisfying. But it was still a really wonderful read, and I love where Sayers takes her characters. For the curious, you ought to read Strong Poison and Have His Carcase before starting Gaudy Night, if you wish to read them in order.

First and foremost, this is a mystery, and a very good one. Harriet returns to her college of Shrewsbury at Oxford, and is shocked when she finds a horrible drawing on the grounds. Later she finds a nasty message shoved in her pocket. Some of the professors (all female, for this is a women's college) also start finding horrible notes — one professor's work is destroyed — and eventually the students are targeted as well. Harriet is drawn into the mystery at the request of the Dean, and spends a good deal of time analyzing the notes and trying to catch the "Poison-Pen" at work. Which of the college's female professors would stoop to such low horrors and crude messages?

As usual, Sayers' characters are so well-drawn that I feel I know them in real life. This book really brings Harriet into her own as a character. She was barely in the first book, Strong Poison (though she did give a good account of herself when she was onstage), and though I'm not quite done with Have His Carcase it seems the characters' relationships are definitely secondary to the mystery. Gaudy Night is different, for although it is a cracking good mystery, it isn't just that. It's a wonderful character and relationship study.

I really have to applaud how Sayers probes Lord Peter's character as well. I knew him from several other books as ephemeral, brainy, witty, cheerful, clever — a sort of intelligent Wooster, if such a thing can be imagined. But Sayers gives him a bit of a darker edge in this story, and we begin to understand a great deal more about why Harriet has consistently refused his proposals in the other two books. Six centuries of unquestioned possession... he can't have everything for the asking. As he begins to learn this, he becomes a much more rounded character. His confession of sorts at the end had me breathless. Every note of it was true, almost painfully so.

Sayers explores a lot of things in this story, not least of which is the place of women in academia and the attitudes of their male colleagues and of other women toward them. Sayers is able to depict both sides of the prejudice realistically, describing both man-haters and domestic women who hate academic women — and academic women who look down on domestic women. It seems evident that Sayers has given a lot of thought to the problem and probably saw it in action at Oxford herself. And of course that leaves the reader puzzling out what Sayers' own attitude was about male scholars and domestic women. I think she was quite comfortable in the role she'd carved out for herself at the time of this book, though this idea isn't supported by anything other than my inferences drawn from how she portrays the more extreme characters of her story.

Sayers also raises the question of academic honesty. If you knew your work would ruin another scholar who had arrived at his/her conclusions dishonestly, would you publish it? Is it worth ruining someone else's career, to clear a statement about something that happened hundreds of years ago? Do you have a moral responsibility for the consequences of your actions?

Sayers tends to quote a lot of Latin, and while I appreciate the compliment to her readers' education, most of it went right over my head. It didn't interfere much with the story, and I thought it complemented the academic setting well. And despite all this seemingly heavy material, there is a good deal of humor in the book too, and several parts had me giggling. Lord Peter's incessant proposals are always amusing, and Mr. Pomfret's proposal was so pathetically funny. We shake with Harriet in lonely laughter.

The pace in this story is leisurely, and I love that. There's no rush, no hurry-hurry-let's-get-this-one-done-and-on-to-the-next-mystery feel to it. Sayers luxuriates in her characters and settings. In some ways this story reminded me of Josephine Tey's Miss Pym Disposes. Same sort of story, lots of women crowded together in an academic context. Secrets and lies and deceptions startled by the coming of an outsider (Harriet Vane and Miss Pym, respectively). And same surprise ending. The final scene with the Poison-Pen dragged on a bit too long, I thought, and it wasn't entirely clear what happened to her afterward. But who cares when we've got Lord Peter and Harriet onstage again? I can't recommend Sayers enough; she's brilliant. ( )

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this in the begining, but I kept going thinking that it would pay off at some point. I was right. This is a great mystery that doesn't really feel like a mystery. Sayers' style is confusing at times but hilarious and preachy too. I can't wait to read her other novels. ( )

I liked this book but didn't love it. Just like D. Sayer's other book I read, it kept me interested but I wasn't left satisfied for some reason. ( )