If you want the full benefit, you should read all of the books with Harriet. Strong Poison, Have His Carcasse, and then Gaudy Night. It's a big of an investment, but you'll get so much more out of Gaudy Night that way.
Saffron: You just had a better hand of cards this time. Mal: It ain't a hand of cards. It's called a life.
'Trash'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Dana - May 25, 2008 6:08:22 pm PDT #5897 of 28359
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Steph L. - May 25, 2008 6:18:01 pm PDT #5898 of 28359
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
This is turning out like an interlocking puzzle. To get the full "crossover"-y benefit, before I read To Say Nothing, it would help to read Gaudy Night. But before I read Gaudy Night, it would help to read Strong Poison and Have His Carcasse.
Truly, I'm not going to stop reading To Say Nothing, go read 3 other books (good though they might be), and then come back to To Say Nothing.
And I *totally* realize no one is saying that I *should* or *must* or anything. I'm just amused by it. (And assuming that there's GOT to be *something* that I'd have to read before Strong Poison to get the full benefit of the Peter Wimsey novels. And THEN perhaps a foreign language.... And THEN a cookbook!)
I've often read good things about the Peter Wimsey novels, and one day I might get to them. But now is not the time. If I read Strong Poison, Have His Carcasse, and then Gaudy Night, I'd bet good money that by then I'd completely forget that I was reading them to get back to To Say Nothing.
Thanks, though, folks, for pointing out the links and stuff!
Dana - May 25, 2008 6:19:32 pm PDT #5899 of 28359
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
It helps with Gaudy Night if you speak Latin.
t runs away
t but totally not joking
Steph L. - May 25, 2008 6:28:45 pm PDT #5900 of 28359
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
I knew it!!!
t shakes fist (and lexicon) at Dana....
Connie Neil - May 25, 2008 6:36:33 pm PDT #5901 of 28359
brillig
You'll need French if you read Busman's Honeymoon, which comes after Gaudy Night. Sayers assumed her readers were as smart as her.
Jesse - May 25, 2008 6:39:18 pm PDT #5902 of 28359
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
I don't think it's about smart; I think it's about being educated in the way of her class and time.
I'm pretty fucking smart, but I took Spanish in school
Ginger - May 25, 2008 6:39:21 pm PDT #5903 of 28359
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
Latin and Oxford traditions, plus French.
They're all wonderful books, but I think there's plenty to enjoy in To Say Nothing of The Dog without them.
eta: Ha! French crosspost.
Polter-Cow - May 25, 2008 7:26:51 pm PDT #5904 of 28359
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
I'm so confused. I didn't realize To Say Nothing of the Dog required so much prior reading!
Amy - May 25, 2008 7:31:58 pm PDT #5905 of 28359
Because books.
I'm thinking I need to go back to school before I attempt to read Sayers.
Susan W. - May 25, 2008 7:40:56 pm PDT #5906 of 28359
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
I'm pretty fucking smart, but I took Spanish in school
Same here. And Sayers is far from the only British author of the slightly older school who tosses in large chunks of untranslated French. I'm always finding it in my research materials, generally when I'm on the bus or in the cafeteria at work and can't page megan or my CP who spent a semester in Paris to enlighten me.