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The Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane Mysteries, book 1
Walsh, Jill Paton and Sayers, Dorothy L. - Thrones, Dominations
(Unabridged)
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Artist...............: Walsh, Jill Paton and Sayers, Dorothy L.
Album................: Thrones, Dominations
Genre................: Mystery
Reader...............: Ian Carmichael
Year.................: 1998
Quality..............: Good, (avg. bitrate: 32kbps)
Channels.............: Mono / 22050 hz
Playing Time.........: 10:04:51
Total Size...........: 138.64 MB
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Sayers charted the developing relationship between Lord Peter Wimsey and
Harriet Vane over four published novels, culminating in Busman's Honeymoon,
the action of which takes place immediately following the couple's marriage.
The characters appeared thereafter only in a few short stories and other
published pieces, revealing only glimpses of their married life. However,
according to Sayers' friend and biographer Barbara Reynolds, Sayers had
begun work in 1936 on Thrones, Dominations, a murder mystery novel in
which the Wimsey marriage was to be contrasted with those of two other
couples. She apparently worked on it for some months during 1936 but does
not appear to have done so thereafter; it has been suggested that this is
due at least in part to the constitutional crisis of that year surrounding
Edward VIII and his relationship with Wallis Simpson. The events of December
1936 onwards overtook the story, with the abdication altering how Sayers'
potential audience would interpret a tale of contrasting marriages. In 1938
she declared in a letter that she had come to dislike the book, and had "great
difficulty doing anything about it".
Sayers's notes for the work were found among her papers after her death in
1957, and were acquired in 1976 by the Wade Center at Wheaton College,
Illinois. They consisted of a number of complete scenes from the beginning of
the story and a few diagrams, including a multi-coloured representation of
the interactions of the characters. By 1985 there were plans to publish the
manuscript as it stood, together with some of the other short Wimsey pieces,
both published and unpublished, but these failed due to the death of Sayers'
son and heir Anthony Fleming in that year. In 1996 the literary trustees of
the estate approached novelist Jill Paton Walsh and asked her to look at the
material with a view to completing the novel. She was also able to refer to a
typescript which had been found in a safe at Sayers' former literary agents
and which differed in some respects from the manuscript version.
The scenes were not ordered or numbered, and had to be arranged in logical
order by Paton Walsh to constitute the first six chapters of the book. The
remainder of the story had to be constructed from almost no data, based on
what had already been written (compare The Floating Admiral), but Paton
Walsh has said that Sayers' notes make it clear who the murderer would be.
They also include a scene, omitted from the book, in which Uncle Paul tells
Harriet of his part in Peter's early erotic education.
The book was published in February 1998. Jill Paton Walsh followed it in 2002
with another Wimsey/Vane novel, A Presumption of Death, set during World
War II and based on some short wartime writings of Sayers known as "the
Wimsey papers".
Plot introduction
It is 1936. Lord and Lady Peter Wimsey, returned from a European
honeymoon, are settling into their new home in London, where daily life is
affected by the illness and then death of the king. The couple are personally
happy, having resolved many of the problems in their relationship caused by
character and circumstance, but must now tackle the practical details of
bringing their lives together, including domestic and working arrangements,
and social and family obligations.
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