TRAINS Archives - As My Wimsey Takes Me

In which Charis and Sharon discuss the second half of THE FIVE RED HERRINGS. We’re joined once again by our friend Angela Hines, who represents the pro-timetables point of view.

We reveal the Thing That Was Missing, briefly round up all the suspects, and re-visit our discussion of the Farren marriage as part of Sayers’ continuing theme of equality and inequality in relationships. We also discuss why Peter seems to get along well with artists, what Charis and Sharon find lacking (fraught emotions!), and what Angela finds in abundance (complex puzzle solving!) before revealing the whodunnit and outlining the final confrontation of the book.

This episode covers the second half of the novel and gives away both the vital clue and the whodunnit.

Download the episode 15 transcript.

Shownotes:

“…and in the future Bob Ross is gonna show everyone how to do it.” Bob Ross, host of the PBS show The Joy of Painting, frequently demonstrated techniques using a palette knife.
The Charlie Day meme references an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and features the character in front of a ‘conspiracy theory wall’ of images and text linked with string.
“You think a depressed person could make this?” is a quote from Parks & Recreation, Season 4, Episode 11: ‘The Comeback Kid’.

In which Charis and Sharon return from their short hiatus to talk about traaaaaiiiiinnnnssss. That’s right, this is the first of two episodes on THE FIVE RED HERRINGS! Our friend Angela Hines joined us to represent the pro-timetables point of view.

We discuss Sayers’ correspondence about the novel with her publisher, as well as how the book differs from the previous Lord Peter mysteries. We also cover the scene of the murder, discuss a depiction of marriage in THE FIVE RED HERRINGS, and get ourselves tangled up trying to distinguish which Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood version of “The Lady of Shalott” we’re respectively referring to.

This episode covers roughly the first half the novel and does not give away the whodunnit.

Download the episode 14 transcript.

Shownotes:

Excerpts from Dorothy L. Sayers’ letters taken from THE LETTERS OF DOROTHY L. SAYERS, Vol 1: 1899-1936 (edited by Barbara Reynolds)
It turns out that Victor Gollancz, Sayers’ UK publisher, did in fact come through with a very handsome and large map for the first edition indeed:
We talk about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of Victorian painters in our discussion about Mrs. Farren, whom Peter thinks could be a figure in a painting by Edward Burne-Jones. The Lady of Shalott was such a popular subject for the PRB that it turned out we were thinking of entirely different paintings for part of our conversation! Charis was thinking of the 1888 version by John William Waterhouse. (One of three studies of The Lady of Shalott painted by Waterhouse; the other two are the 1894 “The Lady of Shalott Looking at Lancelot” and the 1915 “I Am Half Sick of Shadows”) Meanwhile, Sharon was referring to the 1905 William Holman Hunt “Lady of Shalott,” which she saw on exhibit a few years ago:
When Peter tells Bunter his narrative style would do credit to THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO, he is referring to the 1764 Gothic novel by Horace Walpole. And Wilkie Collins was a Victorian writer of mystery fiction, whom Sayers greatly admired.

Tag: TRAINS

Episode 15: FIVE RED HERRINGS, part 2

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Episode 14: FIVE RED HERRINGS, part 1

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