Talk:Lord Peter Wimsey

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In all of the editions I've seen, it's been "Peter Death Bredon Wimsey", not De'ath. I think we should leave it as the publishers had it. In particular, Murder Must Advertise makes much of the visual appearance of Lord Peter's middle names (and assumed alias) as Death. -- April 09:55 Aug 15, 2002 (PDT)

My memory must be playing tricks, April, I was always under the impression that there was an apostrophe as in the prominent Essex family (who came from near Witham), De'Ath. Probably my mistake. user:sjc

• • I could of course be wrong. I think that the derivation of "Death" in the name was probably exactly as you say, a variation on the known De'Ath name; but given the nature of the novels, it wouldn't surprise me if Sayers chose to write it without the apostrophe for the sake of the irony involved. Mostly, I just have a vivid recollection of the reactions to LPW as he starts to print his name on the employee card as "Death", and their jokes about it. And if I remember right, LPW says something about, "rhymes with teeth, though I think it's more picturesque if rhymed with breath." Can you see how fond of the novels I am? ;) -- April

Yes. I have a similar problem with Lord Dunsany and the source works of Norse mythology. You know it's getting out of control when you can recite chapter and verse without recourse to the source works. user:sjc

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It might be a good idea to explain the photo with more than "The Real Lord Peter".... --Michael 04:37 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Well, there's a link to Roy Ridley, and there you can see the same image again. That should suffice. --KF 08:36 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)

It doesn't. The name "Roy Ridley" appears nowhere in the text. I don't know the name "Roy Ridley" from "John Doe". The article as-is has a pointlessly-captioned picture that has no clear relationship to the written contents. I'm putting it back the way I left it. Let's not go into a stupid WikiWar over this. --Michael 23:00 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)

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The article says that Lord Peter served in WWII. What is the source of this? The last novel appeared in 1937. Was there a short story (ies) written later that gave this information?66.1.40.242 19:51, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

In 1940 Sayers published a series of newspaper articles called "The Wimsey Papers", in which various of our favorite characters held forth on the issues of the day: letters to the press and officials, letters to each other, whatever. They didn't catch on well, apparently, and the series ended after a few weeks. In a couple of them it is clear that Lord Peter is in his country's service, in some Undiscloed Location. The novel by Jill Paton Walsh, A Presumption of Death, picks up on this. Oh, and it's clear enough in the short story "Tallboys" (not published till much later) that he's off on some official work. Dandrake 23:36, Jun 24, 2004 (UTC)

Lord Peter's WWII service is detailed in her unfinished novel, Thrones, Dominations. --Penguin020 15:56, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] WP naming conventions

If Lord Peter were non-fiction, Wikipedia's naming conventions would probably put this article at Peter Wimsey (since this is a courtesy title, and there is no full form ) - primarily to permit direct links when he is mentioned without title. Would such a move be controversial? Septentrionalis 03:09, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

On second thought, I will be bold; if anyone disagrees, it can be moved back before discussion or WP:RM. This is partly to simplify style issues at Duke of Denver. Septentrionalis 03:25, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't know where you got that idea from — we always put the sons of dukes and marquesses at Lord John Smith. For example, Lord Randolph Churchill, Lord William Bentinck, Lord Edward FitzGerald, Lord Frederick Cavendish... Proteus (Talk) 23:13, 5 May 2006 (UTC)