Clouds of Witness ch 13-end

Fair warning: spoilers ahead for the ending of Clouds of Witness!

I wrote the posts on sections 2 and 3 of Clouds of Witness early, as I’d been reading ahead. I continued reading to the end, but my progress was slowed considerably (one might even say “bogged down” after the events of the last section, but one would be risking at least groans, and possibly peltings of rotten veg) by the dullness of the last quarter of the book. I’ve dragged my metaphorical feet in writing this concluding post for the book and finally made it to my desk and keyboard today.

Sheesh, Dorothy. Opening with the inquest and closing with the trial, makes it hard for this 21st century reader to recommend this 2nd book as an entry to the series, even if it is, I I have argued, an improvement over the 1st Wimsey book, Whose Body?

As this was Sayers’ second novel, I can ascribe the pacing clumsiness to her wanting to play by the rules of the mystery genre: set up the puzzle with enough detail to let the reader try to puzzle it out as we go along, and enough detail at the end to tie up all the loose threads and leave the reader satisfied, if perhaps a little snoozy.

Chapter 13, Manon, illustrates one of the detriments of including timely cultural details. Wimsey knows the implications of the popular-at-the-time-but-now-obscure Manon Lascaux, in which a man is in love with a poor woman, chooses her and lets go some of his own connections, then is dumped by her when some better, richer, guy comes along. There were several mentions as the book went along of Cathcart raised in France and his “continental” ideas about marriage and sex.

In chapter 12, Peter found the letter in the window at the Grimethorpe farm, proving that Gerald was there that night and could not have killed Cathcart. He and Charles are frightfully callous and dismissive of the very real danger Mrs. G is in from her violent husband, and are all about saving Gerald, the stubborn rich Duke. Check your privilege, dudes! (I have my tongue firmly in cheek. Mostly.)

Trial begins. Blah, blah, blah. Some teasing here and there about the self importance of these old men, but in the end, what’s important is the acknowledgement that it could have been suicide. There are some fun moments: “Mademoiselle [Mary] is a charming English lady, and the man who marries her will be very happy, but the other was belle a se suicider–a woman to kill, suicide one’s self, or send all to the devil for…” (246, Bourbon Street Books) We learn Peter is flying across the ocean, a brave and or foolhardy thing to do. But given that there are 8 more books in the series as a modern reader knows, there is not the same tension as there would have been to the readers in 1927, when more books had yet to be published, and such a flight had not yet taken place. Also, Mrs. G turns up, having decided on her own that letting Gerald hang when she can provide an alibi is the right thing to do.

There are interesting contrasts to be made between Cathcart and Gerald, and Mrs G and Simone, but they’re rather rushed in this wrap up, I think. Wimsey arrives with the testimony and the other missing letter, conveniently saved by Simone’s mercenary-minded maid. Cathcart admitted to suicide in the letter, which explains his turn of mood from downstairs to upstairs on the night of his death. Gerald is acquitted in this trial by his (literal) peers. Mrs. G’s testimony and the public embarrassment that would have ensued over Gerald and her affair being made public, is narrowly avoided. Sayers gives her a “happy ending” by letting Mr. G try to murder Gerald and then kill himself. “Seldom, perhaps, has a ducal escapade resolved itself with so little embarrassment….The lady was not interested…’I am free now,’ she said.” (282)

And, in a final episode, which Sayers found significant enough to mention in the fictional Biographical Note* that leads off the next book in the series, Unnatural Death, Peter and Charles get very publicly drunk, and Inspector Suggs redeems himself by not holding a grudge for how he was treated in the last book, and makes sure they’re poured in a taxi and taken home safely, where I assume Bunter will take care that they don’t fall asleep on their backs and aspirate their vomit, which would rather spoil the comedic elements.

Thus ends Clouds of Witness, a bestseller at the time, in which Sayers attempted to combine the elements of literature and mystery, for a rollicking story that had better prose and characterizations than other examples of its time. It’s uneven, but with enough delights and memorable scenes (the bog!) that I found it a worthwhile read. But for new readers, I am becoming more convinced that having them read a later book in the series would enable them to fall in love with these characters, and then go back and seek these earlier escapades.

Which book to recommend to a new reader? That will be my question as I continue to read the novels in publication order. If you’re reading this, are you a new or re-reader of the Wimsey books? And, what did you enjoy or what were you troubled by in this reading?

*Biographical Note: After more than a superficial looking about, my spouse found this in the online Lord Peter Wimsey Companion, a publication of The Dorothy L. Sayers Society:

Unnatural Death was published by Ernest Benn in 1927 and did not include the Biographical Note (BN) there or in the first American edition. The BN appears first in the 1935 Victor Gollancz edition and covers Peter Wimsey’s life to May 1935.

https://lpwc.sayers.org.uk/Fall_in_love_with_that_girl_whom_he_cleared%E2%80%A6

The fictional biographical note, attributed to Peter’s uncle, is written from 1935, and contains spoilers for future books, so I do not recommend it for those reading the Wimsey novels for the first time.

Upcoming: I’ll do three weekly entries for Unnatural Death, as it is split conveniently into three larger parts.