Whose Body?
Quotes from the Book
And upon his return, Gherkins, who had always considered his uncle as a very top-hatted sort of person, actually saw him take from his handkerchief-drawer an undeniable automatic pistol. It was at this point that Lord Peter was apotheosed from the state of Quite Decent Uncle to that of Glorified Uncle
19
Nobody minds coarseness, but one must draw the line at cruelty -Lord Peter Wimsey
1
Ah! childhood! You’re living the happiest days of your life, young man. You won’t believe me, but you are.
Lord Peter gave it as his opinion that book-collecting could be a perfectly manly pursuit. Girls, he said, practically never took it up, because it meant so much learning about dates and type-faces and other technicalities which called for a masculine brain.
It is not known why motorists, who sing the joys of the open road, spend so much petrol every weekend grinding their way to Southend and Brighton and Margate, in the stench of each other’s exhausts, one hand on the horn and one foot on the brake, their eyes starting from their orbits in the nerve-racking search for cops, corners, blind turnings, and cross-road suicides. They ride in a baffled fury, hating each other. They arrive with shattered nerves and fight for parking places. They return, blinded by the headlights of fresh arrivals, whom they hate even worse than they hate each other.
I has such a sinking in my inside I has to get up and eat biscuits.
The young man, whose reddish hair, long nose, and slightly sodden eyes gave him the appearance of a dissipated fox, greeted Wimsey with a disagreeable stare.
On the morning of the wedding-day, Lord Peter emerged from Bunter's hands a marvel of sleek brilliance. His primrose-coloured hair was so exquisite a work of art that to eclipse it with his glossy hat was like shutting up the sun in a shrine of jet; his spats, light trousers, and exquisitely polished shoes formed a tone-symphony in monochrome.
In my day one had to have either brains or beauty to get on -- preferably both. Nowadays nothing seems to be required but a total lack of figure.
It was at this point that Lord Peter was apotheosed from the state of Quite Decent Uncle to that of Glorified Uncle.
Jerrykins, or Pickled Gherkins. Lord Peter was not one of those born uncles who delight old nurses by their
Watch on YouTube
About Dorothy L. Sayers
More by Dorothy L. Sayers
All books by Dorothy L. Sayers →About the book
In this delightful collection of Wimsey exploits, Dorothy L. Sayers reveals a gruesome, grotesque but absolutely bewitching side rarely shown in Lord Peter's full-length adventures.Lord Peter views the body in 12 tantalizing and bizarre ways in this outstanding collection. He deals with such marvels as the man with copper fingers, Uncle Meleager's missing will, the cat in the bag, the footsteps that ran, the stolen stomach, the man without a face...and with such clues as cyanide, jewels, a roast chicken and a classic crossword puzzle.
Book details
- First published
- 1928
- Author
- Dorothy L. Sayers
- Genre
- Mystery
- Goodreads rating
- 4.13 (16k ratings)
Keep reading
Clouds of Witness
Aunts Aren't Gentlemen
Whose Body?
Have His Carcase
The Mating Season
Framley Parsonage
Post Captain
The Complete Works of Charles Dickens
The Code of the Woosters
Lord John And The Hand Of Devils
The Line of Beauty
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Armadale
The Pickwick Papers
A Dance to the Music of Time: 1st Movement
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Zuleika Dobson
Competence
The Nonesuch
A Beautiful Blue Death
When Christ and His Saints Slept
The Invisible Man
Decline and Fall
Parade's End
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
Martin Chuzzlewit
Barchester Towers
Martin Eden
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
The Diary of Samuel Pepys
Dr. Thorne
Viscount Vagabond
The Gormenghast Novels
The Power of the Dog
The Fleet Street Murders
The Viscount Who Loved Me
The Forgotten Sister: Mary Bennet's Pride and Prejudice
New Grub Street
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
King Henry IV, Part 1
False Colours
The Clocks
The Disorderly Knights
The Surgeon's Mate
Broken Homes
H.M.S. Surprise
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
The Forsyte Saga
The Beekeeper's Apprentice
An Infamous Army
Waistcoats & Weaponry
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Penelope
Felix Holt: The Radical
Soulless
Knots and Crosses
The Man in the Brown Suit
Titus Groan
A Perilous Undertaking
Call for the Dead

