Busman's Honeymoon

Another re-read, following on from Gaudy Night. Ahh, those first days of marriage, when you can't quite get used to the idea of being married, when you wander around with a daft grin on your face, when you get used the the other person being there, and when you discover that the previous owner of the house has been lying dead in your cellar. All does not go well on Harriet & Peter's wedding night. They are successfully smuggled from the wedding breakfast and into the house they've bought in the country, but from there is goes less well. The house is shut up and locked, no sign of the previous owner. The cast assembles itself, the nosy neighbour, the niece, the gardener, the sweep,the vicar - all the local characters are present and show more correct. And so the mystery is revealed. The elements are all there, they fit together neatly, but the joy of the re-read is that you can see them coming together in a way that you don't on the first time of asking. Alongside the detective side you have the ongoing relationship between Harriet & Peter, they're still finding their way together and the blossoming relationship shouldn't fit with the rather sordid murder, but it does, if only as counterpoint. This ends with an execution, but it also ends with Peter in his Harriet's arms and all will be well - possibly not without its ups and downs, but they will survive this as so much else. show less

Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers has sat on my shelf for some time but was certainly well worth the wait. This book will be remembered as my favorite of the series highlighting as it does both the author’s style and her wonderful characters. We are celebrating the marriage of Lord Peter and Harriet Vane but I have to admit I was most thrilled that Lord Peter’s manservant, Bunther, was front and center in this offering.

Instead of going somewhere exotic for their honeymoon, Peter and Harriet slip away from their wedding and go to their newly purchased country home bringing Bunther along with them. Much to their surprise and although they had sent instructions, the house was far from ready for them. When the previous owner is show more discovered dead and most likely murdered, Harriet, Peter, and of course, Bunther have a mystery to solve.

In Busman’s Honeymoon we get to really appreciate the relationship between Harriet and Peter and can see that this is going to be a very successful marriage. The mixture of romance and murder mystery was very well done, and we also got to see a softer, more sensitive side to Lord Peter than he usually shows. My favorite line of the book was when Harriet declared her love for Peter but said she could happily marry Bunther. Of course Lord Peter totally agreed with her. This is the final book in the series and I am going to miss reading about these characters. show less

Aristocratic sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey has finally married the love of his life, detective novelist Harriet Vane. Harriet has always fancied an old country house near the Hertfordshire village where she grew up as the doctor’s daughter. Lord Peter aims to please, so he sets things in motion to buy the house and prepare it for their honeymoon. The newlyweds and Lord Peter’s valet, Bunter, arrive at the deserted house to find nothing as promised. The house soon fills with charwoman, chimney sweep, gardener, vicar, and spinster organist, with each new arrival making it that much more difficult for the newlyweds to find any time to themselves. Then a body is discovered in the cellar, turning the whole adventure into a busman’s show more honeymoon. The plot is an unusual mashup of an inverted country house party and a locked room mystery, with the house party assembling after the murder instead of before.

In the author’s introduction (in the form of a letter to three women), Sayers writes:

It has been said, by myself and others, that a love-interest is only an intrusion upon a detective story. But to the characters involved, the detective-interest might well seem an irritating intrusion upon their love-story. This book deals with such a situation...If there is but a ha’porth of detection to an intolerable deal of saccharine, let the occasion be the excuse.

Sayers achieved exactly what she intended to, with intimate moments between Lord Peter and his bride interspersed with detective inquiries. Lord Peter and Harriet’s high spirits rubbed off on this reader. I laughed more through this one than in any of Lord Peter’s other adventures. show less

Dorothy L. Sayers created a memorable sleuth in the patrician Lord Peter Wimsey, whom she envisioned as a cross between the debonair Fred Astaire and the wooly-headed Bertie Wooster. Like the latter, Lord Peter's frequently rescued by his man, Bunter; unlike either, Lord Peter conceals a perspicacious mind and an overly sentimental heart underneath his frivolous exterior. Nearly a century later, mystery lovers like myself still enjoy Sayers' mystery novels.

That said, Sayers, while enjoyable, doesn't remain as sterling as Dame Agatha Christie. Modern readers will still thrill to 4:50 from Paddington, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Crooked House; Sayers' Gaudy Night, in contrast, turns so cerebral that it's nearly unreadable!

The same show more faults that plague Gaudy Night emerge here, although not to the same extent. Sayers was writing not only for her time but for her class. She peppers Busman's Honeymoon with frequent classical allusions that will be lost on most readers, who won't be classical scholars. Sayers unfurls long stretches of conversations, songs and letters in French! Both Peter and Harriet Vane, first his sidekick and eventually his love interest and bride, can descend into tedious philosophical discussions that lead nowhere. I found myself flipping through pages at a time until the narrative resumed.

Despite these annoyances, Busman's Honeymoon sports an excellent mystery; I never figured out how it was done until Lord Peter revealed it. Lord Peter's reaction to the guilty verdict seemed over the top to me, but, I guess, the aristocracy must have finer feelings than I. Don't let any of that put you off, though: The novel's still worth reading. It's just a pity that no one's updated the story for the 21st century. show less

Re-read, November 2021: I maintain my theory that reading the Lord Peter books in order is almost a mistake...I think if I had started with the very first one, I would not have felt a strong inclination to read any more. No, it's in the quartet of books featuring Harriet Vane that Peter develops into a complex human. And the process of finding his fragile, painful, extraordinary balance with Harriet is the thing that actually matters.

Busman's Honeymoon is an exquisitely written story of the beginning of a marriage of two equal minds. It's unique and it's thought-provoking.

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Original review:

This is either a love story with detective interruptions, or the other way round. Either way, one is certain to prefer one part of show more it over the other, and I definitely prefer the interludes between Lord Peter and his new bride. Not only are they very much in love, they are incredibly honest, communicative, and generous with each other about the adjustment that married life means. They have both found rest from the weary world, in each other.

Here's one of my favorite of their exchanges:

"Harriet," he said, suddenly, "what do you think about life? I mean, do you find it good on the whole. Worth living?"
(He could, at any rate, trust her not to protest, archly: "That's a nice thing to ask on one's honeymoon!")
She turned to him with a quick readiness, as though here was the opportunity to say something she had been wanting to say for a long time:
"Yes! I've always felt absolutely certain it was good--if only one could get it straightened out. I've hated almost everything that ever happened to me, but I knew all the time it was just things that were wrong, not everything....It seems like a miracle to be able to look forward--to--to see all the minutes in front of one come hopping along with something marvelous in them, instead of just saying, Well, that one didn't actually hurt and the next may be quite bearable if only something beastly doesn't come pouncing out--"
"As bad as that?"
"No, not really, because one got used to it--to being everlastingly tightened up to face things, you see. But when one doesn't have to anymore, it's different--I can't tell you what a difference it makes."

Harriet's line has stayed with me ever since I first read it years ago, and I sometimes say it to myself--"It's just things that are wrong, not everything." I find it profound.

That Dorothy Sayers really has a gift for words.

Just a note on the text: There are a ton of classical allusions here, most of which I don't get, as I'm not good on Latin and my knowledge of poetry is patchy. Doesn't affect my enjoyment. There are also a few passages in French. But that's what Google Translate is for.
On re-reading this in 2021, I found an absolutely invaluable site here where someone has done a beautiful job with annotations and translations chapter by chapter. show less

Parts of this, especially the beginning, are broad comedy, which seems a little odd except for how this one was apparently written as a stage play first and then adapted into a novel. I enjoyed it a lot, although I had a few moments of embarrassment squick and I had a great deal of impatience with the ingrained antisemitism and classism. Granted, the collapse of the aristocracy is part of what makes it interesting to read, but I'm democratic enough in my outlook that I cringe when they call Harriet Lady Peter. Fucking feudalism. Anyway, I liked that this one (again!) was as much a book about people as it was about a mystery. There's never a doubt as to where its heart is, so it succeeds even if the reader solves the puzzle fairly early show more on.

Gender politics tag because even though this was published in 1939, the women's rights issues are the same.

Disability tag in part because of how they all demean and patronize a female character who is exceptionally short, never mind that she has as much right to respect, happiness, and her own livelihood as anyone. show less

“It has been said, by myself and others, that a love-interest is only an intrusion upon a detective story,” Sayers says in the dedication. “But to the characters involved, the detective-interest might well seem an irritating intrusion upon their love-story.” And that is exactly what happens here.

Lord Peter and the new Lady Peter, previously Miss Harriet Vane, have gone off to the country on their honeymoon. Peter has purchased an old Tudor manor-house for Harriet as a wedding present, and they move in in the middle of the night, having narrowly escaped floods of newspaper reporters. The house has not been aired, food has not been brought in, the chimneys have not been swept, but they topple into bed to deal with it in the show more morning. And in the morning, they discover a body in the basement – but not before having the housekeeper and the chimneysweep in, neatly destroying most of the potential clues.

I admit, I was a little worried at about a third of the way through the book. Large portions of it are from Harriet’s point of view, and she was having a difficult time juggling the demands of honeymoon and of a detecting husband all at the same time. I was afraid she was going to go all feminine and wifely. But she recognizes the impulse and throws it away, in one of the most wonderful scenes I have ever read. (And Lord Peter, being the wonderful person that he is, recognizes her achievement and is suitably humbled.)

This is very much a book about a romance. Just because the characters are already together doesn’t mean there’s no tension — the tension they’re dealing with is how to remain true to themselves while being married and madly in love, rather than the will they/won’t they tension of most romance stories. Of course they will; they are. (There’s a hilarious scene of double entendre toward the beginning with one of the new neighbors.) The question is, though, once you’ve fallen madly in love with someone, do you continue to treat them like a person or do you start to treat them like a fragile and precious object? And what happens to you if you do?

My favorite part about this book, though, was the ending. Once the murderer has been caught, there’s still the trial and execution to deal with. We’ve seen in earlier books that Peter doesn’t deal with that part well; he likes the investigation but he hates the fact that he, personally, is responsible for people being hanged. This is just the first time that we see his reactions in detail, and it’s heartbreaking and wonderful. Wonderful, of course, because now he has Harriet for support. I know there are more books in this series, finished from Sayers’ notes by Jill Paton Walsh, but this was such a perfect end to the series I don’t know that I’ll read them. show less