If I was going to start reading the Lord Peter Wimsey novels (with intense interest in Harriet) which book should I start with? Should I start at the beginning of the series? Or later?
OK so if your interest really is Wimsey only with respect to Harriet, and not necessarily detectin’ things all on his own, then one should begin with Strong Poison (1931): it’s HV’s first appearance. Going on from there there’s a definite order, but I’ll get to that in a moment.
Strong Poison is not the official beginning of the Wimsey stories by a long shot, but finding the definitive ‘starting point’ varies depending on who you ask - reason being it’s tricky describing it as ‘a series’ as she didn’t have One Big Hit first book and then write a bunch of sequels chronologically towards an end goal in that sense: she wrote in a bunch of formats and lengths, and they can jump around a bit. In theory Whose Body? (1923) is the first published Wimsey, but some of the short story collections she did tend to jump around in time and fill in the blanks before, after, or during Wimsey’s life in the long format novels, and some novels don’t really rely on his life context, so can be read individually.
Generally if you want to be properly consistent with time, narrative and character development, and just want to focus on HV and skip unrelated cases, my advice is start with SP, and then this selection:
Strong Poison (character intro, and she’s the ‘case’. Classic golden age murder mystery. A ripping yarn.)
Have His Carcase (she’s basically the protagonist, and invites Wimsey into his own novel when crime happens)
Murder Must Advertise (ok ok it’s optional from a HV point of view, as it’s Wimsey solving crime alone, but Sayers had started to work up some nice juicy character emotional consistency at this point, and W behaves like someone who has Met Harriet Vane, if that makes sense. She’s referred to, but not strictly seen. Similarly The Nine Tailors. You could skip both if you’re in a rush, but.. love yourself: read them.)
Gaudy Night (do not read Gaudy Night unless you have AT LEAST read Strong Poison - again HV takes on the main crime-observing role, and W uhhhhh turns up shall we say, and things …develop. It’s got crime, but most people in the novel are so busy Being People sometimes they forget there’s even crime. Sayers was neck deep in integrity and emotional agency with respect to her characters at this point, and there’s essentially a crime side salad to go with it.)
Busman’s Honeymoon (do not even pick up a copy of BH unless you have read GN - it’s as close as she gets to a direct chronological sequel, basically picks up within days/weeks of GN’s last page. Plot indescribable without spoilers but it’s ..emotionally consistent. Of the lot, the least about any actual crime.)
OK so I may have overused the bold and italic, there’s nothing *strictly speaking* preventing you from just reading Gaudy Night or whatever, but it’s sort of like just watching Return of the Jedi as your first Star Wars ever - words coming out of people’s faces will technically make sense, but you won’t really know why it’s a Big Deal.
Start with Strong Poison.
