Episode 8: Gaudy Night, Ch. 16-End

This week, your hosts Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins are covering the final chapters of Gaudy Night, starting with chapter 16. They also announce the opening of the Patreon community called “Friends and Fellows” where they will be offering a wealth of additional content. In this episode, Cindy and Angelina explore the ideas in these last chapters of the book, including the fact that this is more a novel of manners than it is a thriller.

Other topics of discussion include the development of Lord Peter’s character, the vampire motif present throughout the novel, and the significance of the sonnet form and musical counterpoint references in this book. Angelina wonders at the brilliance of Sayers and the way she weaves the head versus heart theme into the text. Cindy brings up the problem of principle and passion, and the loss of metaphor in our culture.

Of course, no discussion of the end of Gaudy Night would be complete without mentioning the proposal, and Angelina delves into the significance of the Latin words used by Lord Peter.

Upcoming Show Schedule:

Episode 9 (June 11): Are Women Human? by Dorothy Sayers

“The Summer of the Short Story” series

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Heureux, Qui Comme Ulysse

by Joachim du Bellay, translated by Richard Wilbur

Happy the man who, journeying far and wide
As Jason or Ulysses did, can then
Turn homeward, seasoned in the ways of men,
And claim his own, and there in peace abide!

When shall I see the chimney-smoke divide
The sky above my little town: ah, when
Stroll the small gardens of that house again
Which is my realm and crown, and more beside?

Better I love the plain, secluded home
My fathers built, than bold façades of Rome;
Slate pleases me as marble cannot do;

Better than Tiber’s flood my quiet Loire,
Those little hills than these, and dearer far
Than great sea winds the zephyrs of Anjou.

Book List:

The Defense of Poesy by Sir Philip Sydney

Mere Motherhood Newsletters by Cindy Rollins

Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

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