Sign-In
Cart
Clouds of Witness
Hardcover
Publisher: Bibliotech Pr
Published: Mar 3 2023
Pages: 216
Weight: 0.95
Height: 0.69 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Clouds of Witness is a 1926 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the second in her series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. In the United States the novel was first published in 1927 under the title Clouds of Witnesses.
The book's title derives from Hebrews, Chapter 12 verse 1: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
In his 2017 overview of the classic crime genre, Martin Edwards suggests that Clouds of Witness is the work of a novelist learning her craft, but that it displays the storytelling qualities that soon made Sayers famous. While this early portrayal of Wimsey verges on a caricature, Sayers sought to characterise him in greater depth in later novels. Edwards notes that in this novel Wimsey is portrayed not only as a great detective but also as a man of action, and he quotes part of the defence counsel's speech to the House of Lords, explaining Wimsey's transatlantic dash to attend the trial:
My lords, at this moment this all-important witness is cleaving the air high above the wide Atlantic. In this wintry weather he is braving a peril which would appal any heart but his own and that of the world-famous aviator whose help he has enlisted, so that no moment may be lost in freeing his noble brother from this terrible charge. My lords, the barometer is falling.
This fictional flight was written in 1926, a year before Charles Lindbergh achieved the same feat in reality (although Alcock and Brown, flying together, had crossed the Atlantic non-stop in 1919).
A copy of Clouds of Witness was one of the volumes modified by Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell in their adulterations of library books from the Islington and Hampstead libraries in the early 1960s.
In 1972 the novel was the subject of a BBC TV mini-series starring Ian Carmichael as Wimsey and Glyn Houston as Bunter. (wikipedia.org)
About the author:
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (13 June 1893 - 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages.
She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between the First and Second World Wars that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. As a crime writer during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, Sayers was considered one of its four Queens of Crime, alongside Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh.
Sayers is also known for her plays, literary criticism, and essays. She considered her translation of Dante's Divine Comedy to be her best work. Sayers's obituarist, writing in The New York Times in 1957, noted that many critics at the time regarded her mystery The Nine Tailors as her finest literary achievement. (wikipedia.org)
8 different editions
Also available
Also from
Sayers, Dorothy L.
The Gospel in Dorothy L. Sayers: Selections from Her Novels, Plays, Letters, and Essays
Sayers, Dorothy L.
Paperback
British Women of Mystery: Three Novels Penned by Women of the Golden Age of Mysteries
Fielding, A. E.
Hamilton, Elaine
Sayers, Dorothy L.
Paperback
Whose Body?: The Singular Adventure of the Man with the Golden Pince-Nez: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery
Sayers, Dorothy L.
Paperback
Also in
Mystery & Thriller
The Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy, Volume I: American Tabloid, the Cold Six Thousand; Introduction by Thomas Mallon
Ellroy, James
Hardcover
Coffin Road: An Utterly Gripping Crime Thriller from the Author of the China Thrillers
May, Peter
Paperback
Sabine's Notebook: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Continues
Bantock, Nick
Hardcover
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Movie Tie-In Edition): Book 1 of the Millennium Trilogy
Larsson, Stieg
Paperback
The Golden Mean: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes
Bantock, Nick
Hardcover
The Pirate Queen: A Novel from the New York Times Bestselling Author of the Frozen River
Lawhon, Ariel
Hardcover