The Snowflake Challenge, Day 2

[scripsi]

Day 2

In your own space, share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life. Something that impacted on your consciousness in a way that left its mark on your soul. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I think, if I must boil it down to just one thing, it would be Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, which I read when I for the first time when I was fourteen.

It’s a crime novel published in 1935. Sayers got famous writing about Lord Peter Wimsey, gentleman detective, but though he is in this book, the novel is really about Harriet Vane, the woman he is in love with. She gets involved in a mystery at her old college in Oxford, where someone writes poison pen letters and do other kinds of mischief. It’s not a murder mystery, though and what this book really is, is a discussion of women’s role in society. Basically every conversation in this book is about that, and so is the mystery. Being more than 80 years old, some of those discussions are dated, other parts are depressingly still relevant.

When I first read it, a lot of it went over my head, but I still loved it and felt I would understand more eventually. And I did, because I have re-read this book every two or third year for the past 30. But most of all I fell in love with Harriet Vane. I admired her objectivity and her determination to keep to the point and tell the truth. And I admired her struggle to be a person in her own rights and not one to define herself through someone else. She’s certainly not without faults, but I felt then that those qualities were something to strife for. More than anyone else, Harriet Vane has been my role model in life.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thanks for sharing. :-)

Gaudy Night was my first Sayers novel, too - I never quite forgave the rest for not being about Harriet Vane at Oxford; what was the point of that Wimsey person?

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I very quickly developed a crush on Lord Peter, so I didn't mind. :) It was quite intriguing readong Gaudy Night- who was hear dead lover? Why was he murdered? And so on. Being a teenage I also found it strange that Harriet hadn't fallen in love with him at an earlier date. Now I don't Think it's so strange. :)