The Nine Tailors
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season338 pages, about 7 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbThree readers report stalling or nearly stalling in the opening bell-ringing chapters, one fifty pages in.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesNo reviewer names another book that does what this one does.
The case for it
on the church bells
“an old church with ringing bells, and Peter Wimsy performing feats of deduction”
Kirkus Reviews, 1934 on the setting and characters
“the vividness of the setting and the warmth and realism of the minor characters”
a book blog on Bunter’s loyalty
“he knows random stuff, and he’s wonderfully loyal to Peter”
a Substack review on the plot structure
“applaud the author for one of the most convoluted plot structures I have ever encountered”
four stars · a book blog
The case against
on the length
“pad it out to a book of three hundred and thirty”
Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker, 1945 on the book’s structure
“forty percent mystery, forty percent bell-ringing, ten percent rural dialect, and ten percent drainage”
a book blog on the campanology detail
“the excessive amount of campanology and the sheer brainpower required to follow”
five stars · a book blog on the pacing
“it took me about a hundred pages to get used to Sayers”
a book blog
