The Bookshelf on JKR's Website and a Request for Help

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 127819


Tamee said:
<large snip of good stuff>
> I think the strongest parallel between Sayer's detective stories and JKR
> apart from the liberal use of misdirection and the creation of some
> memorable characters is the theme of choosing what is right over what is
> easy.  Lord Peter pursues truth regardless of the personal consequences.  In
> one book, it looks like either his brother or his sister may be guilty of
> murder.  In another, he risks losing Harriet in pursuit of a deadly poison
> pen.  In another, the very act of his meddling precipitates the murderer
> into committing more crimes.  Always, there is the determination to see
> justice carried out.  It's the kind of determination I see in Dumbledore,
> and in Harry too, even when he's wrong, at least he's determined to do
> what's right despite the consequences.
> 
> Tamee
> mostly lurking nowadays and a great fan of Sayers, JKR, and Jane Austen.

Antosha:
As another fan of JKR, Jane Austen and Dorothy Sayers, I agree with everything you say 
here--all three women write compelling stories about characters who MAKE THEMSELVES. 
Peter Wimsey by all rights should be what he appears to be at first glance--a supercilious 
fop. In fact, he is a brilliant, principled, deeply interesting character.

Having just finished rereading Gaudy Nights, her second-to-last novel, I wish to propose 
another parallel between the works of Sayers and Austen: compelling, intelligent and 
independent female protagonists who manage (after much wrangling and misadventure) to 
work there way into marriage with men who the reader immediately perceives to be 
perfect for them, even if they don't themselves.  The co-protagonist of the last five or so 
Sayers novels is Harriet Vane, a... writer of mystery novels. Okay, say self-insertion if you 
must, but she's a wonderful character, as bristly and bright as Elizabeth Bennett, as quick-
witted as Emma, as proud and self-abnegating as the main characters in Mansfield Park, 
Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility. And her relationship with Lord Peter, who proposes 
marriage to her with the comic regularity of a ticking clock, brings out a depth in his 
character, in hers and in the books that is quite wonderful.

Now there are a number of possible parallels that MIGHT appear in the HP books. Certainly 
a Ron/Hermione relationship would have Austen/Sayers overtones. For that matter, so 
would a Hermione/Snape 'ship... though I really hope and trust we aren't going to see that 
one in canon. (Fun in fics, but PLEASE don't go there, JKR!) Too, I think that if/when Harry's 
love life shifts into gear, it will deepen his character, giving him a sense of the larger 
things in life--just as it does Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Harriet and Lord Peter.

Antosha, who has to run out and find a copy of Busman's Honeymoon (my old one ran off!)