Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
As to it being implied that Lord Peter was gay ... I guess it's possible, but I'm not convinced. There's not really enough in just this one book to work out what Sayers put in place merely for a particular effect, and what was deliberate statement of character or idea. In fact, take away the belated preface and you would be left guessing about a great many things concerning Lord Peter.
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I have two words for you: "peacock bathrobe."
Actually it should be three words, "peacock dressing gown," but I went with the American term. There's other textual evidence, too. I'm not saying so much that Sayers deliberately implied that Peter was gay, but that she was suggesting it as a possibility. I think we're even dull to some of the implications that a 20s reader would have been all over in terms of coded references to homosexuality.
Of course Sayers made Lord Peter rampantly hetero in later books and (I know I've said it) I dislike that she felt it necessary to include the belated preface to explain away and retcon aspects of
Whose Body? she later regretted, especially at the price of being quite spoilery about subsequent events.