Miss Climpson
Miss Katharine Alexandra Climpson (Alexandra Katharine Climpson in Unnatural Death; also called "Kitty") is a minor character in the Lord Peter Wimsey stories by Dorothy L. Sayers. She appears in two novels: Unnatural Death (1927) and Strong Poison (1930), and is mentioned in Gaudy Night (1935) and Busman's Honeymoon (1937).
Plot summary[edit]
Climpson is a spinster who assists Wimsey by doing inquiry and undercover work: Wimsey says she "asks questions which a young man could not put without a blush." In Unnatural Death Climpson is described as "a thin, middle-aged woman, with a sharp, sallow face and very vivacious manner".
In Strong Poison Climpson now runs an employment agency for women, nicknamed “The Cattery.”[1] She is a member of a jury in Harriet Vane's trial for murder, and holds out against a guilty verdict, creating a hung jury. She is described as having a "militant High-Church conscience of remarkable staying power." In spite of her conscience, she pretends to be a medium and holds a séance in order to obtain information.[2]
In Unnatural Death, another character describes Miss Climpson's religion in these terms:
You might find her up at the church. She often drops in there to say her prayers like. Not a respectful way to approach a place of worship to my mind…Popping in and out on a week-day, the same as if it was a friend’s house. And coming home from Communion as cheerful as anything and ready to laugh and make jokes.
Reception and analysis[edit]
According to Catherine Kenney, "Miss Climpson is one of the brighter and more believable examples of the female sleuth."[3] Other scholars have described her as a character whose modern, earnest and public devotion to Anglicanism drives her morality, a characterization unique in Sayers’ novels.[4] As a spinster who must seek work, Climpson can also be read as representative of certain socioeconomic challenges of interwar Britain, where women were still expected to marry for economic stability; however, Climpson is not belittled or depicted as pathetic, but instead as a resourceful and perceptive woman who has educated herself to keep up with changing socioeconomic realities, while remaining old-fashioned in some respects.[1][5]
Miss Climpson appears in print two years before Agatha Christie’s famed spinster detective Miss Marple, leading some scholars to see Sayers’ character as an inspiration.[6]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Conley, Alzire Stephanie (1996). Role of minor characters in Dorothy L. Sayers' fiction between the world wars (MA thesis). Iowa State University. pp. 32–7.
- ^ Martin, Jessica (2019). "Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1857): God and the Detective". Anglican Women Novelists: From Charlotte Brontë to P.D. James. pp. 99–100. ISBN 9780567665867. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
- ^ Kenney, Catherine (1991). The Remarkable Case of Dorothy L. Sayers. Kent State University Press. p. 130. ISBN 9780873384100. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
- ^ Sprague, Rosamond Kent (October 1983). "Detection & Orthodoxy: On Dorothy L. Sayers". New Oxford Review.
- ^ Scowcroft, Philip (1988). "Homosexuality in the detective fiction of Dorothy L. Sayers". Sidelights on Sayers. 27: 16–18. ISSN 0969-188X. JSTOR 45305540 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Conroy, Sarah Booth (1993-06-12). "ESSAY". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-11-08.