Dorothy L. In the Teeth of the Evidence and Other Stories.

by SAYERS

£2,000 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

A QUEEN OF CRIME AND TRANSLATION SAYERS, Dorothy L. In the Teeth of the Evidence and Other Stories. London: Victor Gollancz . 1939. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in red; pp. 286; slight spotting to preliminaries, dust wrapper a bit toned at the spine and a slight chipping to extremities, otherwise very good. First edition in scarce dust wrapper. Rare in this condition. Dorothy L. Sayers was a translator and crime novelist who revolutionised the genre, particularly for female readers. She was heralded as one of the "Queens of Crime" of the 1920s and 1930s 'Golden Age' of Detective Fiction, alongside personalities such as Agatha Christie. Sayers had a penchant for Christian translation and from the early 1940's, her main objective was the translation of the three books of Dante's The Divine Comedy , the third of which she was completing upon her death in 1957. Her radio play The Man Born to be King (1941-2) provoked accusations of 'blasphemy' after its airing on the BBC, with its direct portrayal of Jesus through modern speech and realism. Sayers became obsessional with the works of Dante which she first read in an air-raid shelter, believing that there were many parallels to be drawn between the state of the world and the writing of the master. Sayers was of the first generation of women to receive an Oxford education and graduated with a first-class honours BA in 1915, even an MA in 1920. Crucially, she also granted her leading female character Harriet Vane an Oxford edu

• Binding: Hardcover

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