Updates

6/8/07: "Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste" posted.
6/7/07: "Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba" posted.
6/7/07: "Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey" posted.
6/7/07: "The Necklace of Pearls" posted.
6/7/07: "The Queen's Square" posted.
6/2/07: "The Image in the Mirror" posted.
6/1/07: "Striding Folly" posted.
5/30/07: "In the Teeth of the Evidence" posted.
10/3/06: "Bellona Club" entries 6, 60, 99, 141 and 150 revised and added to.
2/25/06: "Have His Carcase" revised and added to.
2/24/06: A number of corrections have been made to the entries. Pages have been updated with fresh links. Names and some proper nouns are linked to their entries in Wikipedia. Each current entries to the Annotations has a list of quotations from the works as well.
2/14/06: The Wimsey Annotations relaunched on new and improved website.
1/13/05: First round of corrections to "Thrones, Dominations" posted.
1/11/05: "A Presumption of Death" posted.
1/6/05: "Thrones, Dominations" posted.
12/1/04: Portion of "Have His Carcase" posted.
10/31/02: "Gaudy Night," "Bellona Club," "Unnatural Death" (part 1) and numerous short stories posted.

The Wimsey Annotations

"I always have a quotation for everything -- it saves original thinking."

Welcome to one fan's attempt to understand the references -- literary, historical and otherwise -- in the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery stories by Dorothy L. Sayers.

This is a work-in-progress, so it is incomplete. Questions, suggestions and corrections are always welcome.

Readers desiring more information should hunt up "The Lord Peter Wimsey Companion." The second edition of this long out-of-print rare book was published in January 2003 by the Dorothy L. Sayers Society and is out of print, so it may be difficult to find.

The Novels

Whose Body? *(1923)
Clouds of Witness * (1926)
Unnatural Death (aka The Dawson Pedigree) (1927) (part one only)
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928)
Strong Poison (1930)
The Documents in the Case * (1930)
The Five Red Herrings (aka Suspicious Characters) (1931)
Have His Carcase (1932)
Murder Must Advertise (1933)
The Nine Tailors (1934)
Gaudy Night (1935)
Busman's Honeymoon (1937)
Thrones, Dominations (by Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh) (1998)
A Presumption of Death (by Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L. Sayers) (2002)

Links marked with a (*) will take you to Dan Drake's Wimsey Web site.

The Short Stories

The Abominable History of the Man With the Copper Fingers *
The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question
The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will
The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag
The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker
The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention
The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran *
The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste
The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head
The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach
The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face
The Adventurous Exploit of the Cave of Ali Baba
The Image in the Mirror
The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey
The Queen's Square
The Necklace of Pearls
In the Teeth of the Evidence
Absolutely Elsewhere
Striding Folly
The Haunted Policeman
Talboys