Gaudy Night

By: Dorothy L. Sayers

Narrated by: Ian Carmichael

Length: 2 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

When Harriet Vane attends her Oxford reunion, known as the 'Gaudy', the prim academic setting is haunted by a rash of bizarre pranks: scrawled obscenities, burnt effigies and poison-pen letters - including one that says, 'Ask your boyfriend with the title if he likes arsenic in his soup.' Some of the notes threaten murder, and one of them involves a long Latin quotation, which makes Harriet suspect that the perpetrator is probably a member of the Senior Common Room. But which of the apparently rational, respectable dons could be committing such crazed acts?

When a desperate undergraduate, at her wits' end after receiving a series of particularly savage letters, attempts to drown herself, Harriet decides that it is time to ask Lord Peter Wimsey for help. And when the mystery is finally solved, she is faced with an agonising decision: should she, after five years of rejecting his proposals, finally agree to marry Lord Peter?

Also included on this release is a bonus interview with top crime novelists P. D. James and Jill Paton Walsh about Gaudy Night, conducted by Henny Fordham.

©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Fantastic

I felt like a play was happening inside my mind with all the sound effects and the many additional people speaking. This was so much fun to listen to!

A favorite book, but this is a radio play

I knew when I ordered this. The roles are handled by good actors, but they are speaking a radio script. I thought that I could appreciate an abbreviated version of my old favorite. I recognize that the original book is very long. But I was not able to enjoy this abridged version as much as I hoped. In some cases I missed scenes or events; in other cases I missed the wealth of detail about the setting.

Very good book; poorly presented.

A major disappointment. I have read everything she wrote multiple times it was f
Difficult to dispose of.

Totally agree with the prior reviewer

This is not the book, this is a play. Well done but not the book. I should have known because it is so short. I see now that there are other dramatisations like this from this series, but they are presumably not the book itself.

Abridged: DOES NOT TELL YOU ON THE BLURB

Not only is it abridged, some of the best parts are taken out, and they've just.... changed it. I'm really upset and disappointed. DO NOT BUY THIS.

Dramatisation, not Narration

Very disappointing. I thought I was buying a narration of the book. As dramatizations go, it's well-done -- excellent acting, and it captures plot and principal characters well. Some secondary characters are quite difficult to distinguish. It loses a very great deal by discarding Sayers' excellent prose. There is little left of literary merit, in my opinion. If you want dumbed-down Sayers, this is for you.

Abridged and Disappointing

The description does not disclose that this “audio dramatization” is an abridged performance, not of the entire book. While the performances are fine, much nuance is lost without Sayers’ unique language and observations. Disappointing - would not have wasted the credit if this fact had been in the product description.

Waiting for an audiobook of the actual novel as written

As far as dramatizations go, this is a good shortening of the story and enjoyable performance. But it is not the same as hearing Dorothy Sayers’ brilliant writing since none of the descriptive prose is left nor even some of the best lines. Sadly, the script writer scrapped some of the more unforgettable passages for some unfathomable reason. If you’ve read the books, you’re sure to be at least mildly irritated…

To remedy one of these, here is the full, unadapted description of Oxford at the end of the novel:
“There, eastward, within a stone’s throw, stood the twin towers of All Souls, fantastic, unreal as a house of cards, clear-cut in the sunshine, the drenched oval in the quad beneath brilliant as an emerald in the bezel of a ring. Behind them, black and grey, New College frowning like a fortress, with dark wings wheeling about her belfry louvres; and Queen’s with her dome of green copper; and, as the eye turned southward, Magdalen, yellow and slender, the tall lily of towers; the Schools and the battlemented front of University; Merton, square-pinnacled, half-hidden behind the shadowed North side and mounting spire of St. Mary’s. Westward again, Christ Church, vast between Cathedral spire and Tom Tower; Brasenose close at hand; St. Aldate’s and Carfax beyond; spire and tower and quadrangle, all Oxford springing underfoot in living leaf and enduring stone, ringed far off by her bulwark of blue hills.”

Dramatization, Abridged

I'm extremely disappointed in myself for not looking at the reviews and assuming that this story would be a narration of Dorothy Sayers' entire novel. This is NOT the book but rather a significantly abridged dramatization. So typical of modern humanity where many folk only have sound bite attention spans, making these dramatizations profitable.