The young were always theoretical; only the middle-aged could realise the deadliness of principles. To subdue one’s self to one’s own ends might be dangerous, but to subdue one’s self to other people’s ends was dust and ashes. Yet there were those, still more unhappy, who envied even the ashy saltiness of those dead sea apples. [loc. 6327]
I think this might have been the first Lord Peter Wimsey novel I read, and it's still my favourite, perhaps because it's told wholly from the viewpoint of Harriet Vane. She's fragile in quite a different way to shell-shocked, upper-class Lord Peter. Harriet, who first appeared on trial in Strong Poison, is labouring under the knowledge that she owes her life to a man who's in love with her. For a weaker woman, or a more Gothic heroine, this would mean a glad surrender to marriage, but Harriet is proud and fiercely independent, and can't countenance an(other) unequal relationship.
Part of Gaudy Night is about how she and Peter come to be on a more level footing. Part of it is 'the reconciliation of heart and mind' [phrase borrowed from this splendid blog post about the novel], of Harriet's work as an author of detective fiction and her own passionate nature. And part of it is the almost claustrophobic locked-room mystery which Harriet and Peter attempt to unravel: a series of vile and well-aimed poison-pen letters and acts of vandalism, perpetrated upon the scholars and staff of the fictional Shrewsbury College.
This novel makes me nostalgic for a life I never had: my own university career was, by choice, in a more modern and less rarefied institution, and I wish now that it had been closer to what's described here. (Though 'here' is the inter-war years: and there's a heck of a lot of class-based prejudice, as well as period-typical sexism: Harriet deals admirably with the latter but is unconcerned with the former.) And, like all the best romances, it has that bittersweet air of unattainable harmony. But I still think it's delightful, and witty, and it was the novel that sprang to mind when I identified an urgent need for 'all-female college life' atmosphere.
Incidentally, several of Sayers' novels are available at Faded Page, which follows Canadian law regarding public-domain works.
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