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Revisiting the greats, and they let you down

edited October 2013 in - Reading
At a loss as to what to read next, I downloaded a copy of Dorothy L Sayers' The Nine Tailors.
This starts with a huge amount of bell-ringing, spelt out and enumerated, which I have skipped over through sheer lack of will.
Lord Peter Wimsey is stranded in a Fenland village when he prangs his motor in the snow on New Year's Eve. Taken in at the Rectory, he is invited to take part in a marathon nine hour bell-ring as one of the team has the flu. Lord P hasn't done any ringing for years, but is soon happily bonging along in the most complicated peal ever, with never a wrong note. He takes a break three hours in, and walks round the churchyard for a cigarette. He spots a light in the distance, as at a cottage, and wonders at who is still up at 3am on New Year's Day.
The church bells have been ringing for 3 solid hours. They will be going on for another 6. It's obvious why they can't sleep.
Lord P, however, is super-human - he not only spends the night on the end of a bell rope, in the freezing cold, but he gets his car fixed and gets back behind the wheel and drives off in the afternoon with no mention of feeling remotely sleepy, just a little muscular tiredness.
Oh dear. This isn't looking good.

Comments

  • Mrs B, read 'The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint' by Brady Udall, or ... I've read a few I really enjoyed lately. One of the Booker shortlist, cheap in paperback and on 'e', A Tale for the Time Being, is excellent.
  • edited October 2013
    [quote=Mrs Bear] Lord P hasn't done any ringing for years,[/quote]

    I haven't rung any bells for a while, either. Bloody hormone injections.

    If you want a real page turner by a noted writer, try 'The Silmarillion' by Tolkien. I've grappled with this several times and never got past Chapter 3. And I'm a guy who's got through 'War and Peace' and 'Ulysses'.
  • Ok ,had breakfast... not all the greats by the greats are great. But many are. Have to admit, I've always found DLS to be tedious.
  • [quote=snailmale]'The Silmarillion' by Tolkien[/quote] He never finished it, did he? I think he knew it wasn't up to it and decided for himself, i don't think he had it published it was posthumous wasn't it? I'm not sure, this is amy dusty memory.
  • [quote=Liz]He never finished it, did he?[/quote]

    Didn't realise that. That's him and me both, then.
  • I may be wrong, SM. Haven't got time to check today...
  • [quote=Mrs Bear]Oh dear. This isn't looking good.[/quote]

    I don't think ' The Nine Tailors' is one of her better ones...And it was published in the 1930's.

    We do need to remember that the accepted styles of novels in the early 20th century was different. And that they just wouldn't make it with publishers nowadays.
  • Something weird just happened.

    About ten minutes ago I received an email from a friend who is a bell-ringer. He wanted to know if butterflies were deaf as he found them living happily in the tower. I was reminded of the Dorothy L Sayers story and was about to reply about the Nine Tailors. Before I did I logged on to TalkBack and low and behold there is the mention of that book. And I hadn't thought about it for years.
  • I think The Wimsey books are/were being done in episodes on R4 extra [Ian Carmichael]
  • [quote=Liz]I may be wrong, SM. Haven't got time to check today...[/quote]

    I think you're right, Liz. Only because it rings a bell. I think it was on a documentary, and I recall Tolkien's son finished it. But sometimes there are reasons projects are left in the dust.
  • [quote=Spiresgate]Something weird just happened.

    About ten minutes ago I received an email from a friend who is a bell-ringer. He wanted to know if butterflies were deaf as he found them living happily in the tower. I was reminded of the Dorothy L Sayers story and was about to reply about the Nine Tailors. Before I did I logged on to TalkBack and low and behold there is the mention of that book. And I hadn't thought about it for years. [/quote]

    Ooh. Now, I wonder if that portends something exciting, Spiresgate? Any horses running today with bells in their names? The OWC word this month is bell, I think.

    Elizabeth George says reading the Lord PW books inspired her to writer her Inspector Linley books. I always found they had had a sense of humour bypass, so not sure that's a recommendation.
  • The Wimsey stories now work better abridged for radio, or full length audio book.
  • [quote=snailmale] 'The Silmarillion' by Tolkien[/quote] [quote=Liz] He never finished it, did he? I think he knew it wasn't up to it and decided for himself, i don't think he had it published[/quote] It was his first attempt at writing in the genre that became The Hobbit then Lord of the Rings trilogy.

    Apparently, J.R.R. worked on the story throughout his life. As Liz suggests, he was never satisfied with the numerous edits. It is thought his son {Christoper?] found the manuscript when rooting through his father's belongings in search of continuing the monetary incomes the famous works were generating. Guy Gavriel Kay was commissioned to assist production of the version published years later.
    They failed {in my opinion} in same manner of the life's work, to reproduce quality perfected in J.R.R.'s later works, my vote joins Snailmale's.
  • [quote=Tristram_Shandy]Only because it rings a bell.[/quote]

    YAY!

    I agree with Carol. Some books date and we find our reading tastes have changed as we come to like and expect more contemporary stuff.

    I discovered this re-reading some sf classics a few months back, which seem very wordy compared to when I first read them.
  • Yes, it's true - I daren't re-read any of the books I read at uni for fear of disappointment. It's hard to choose things on Amazon, so I gave up and thought I'd try a DLS.
    Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton were just as snobbish to the Lower Orders - just a sign of the times in which they lived. DLS has a character say that 'all country women {of a certain class} lose their teeth' - not something I've come across before!
    I will persevere (I've paid for the darned thing).
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