War Veteran Lord Peter Wimsey and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

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From an Article by Monica Lott

Dorothy L. Sayers is one of the most well known writers from the golden age of detective fiction, an author whose longevity is rivaled only by that of G. K. Chesterton and Agatha Christie. Sayers's main character, the aristocratic Lord Peter Wimsey, has become a blueprint for the seemingly inane man of leisure who sharpens his intellect through detection. . . 

What truly separates Lord Peter Wimsey from his counterparts, the popular detective fiction heroes of the late Victorian and early modern period, becomes apparent in The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928) when Sayers demonstrates the effects of his war service on his psyche. As a major in the army, Wimsey saw a great deal of battle during the war; was nearly buried alive in the trenches; and suffered from flashbacks and anxiety, particularly in situations in which he was responsible for the lives of others. Sayers uses his shell shock from this incident to create a new kind of hero, not the emotionless Sherlock Holmes or the asexual Miss Marple, but a man who has known the pain of war and has been able to address the effects of it. Wimsey was a character that sought a respite in rational and logic-based detection. 

Lord Peter Makes a Discovery at the Bellona Club

Through detection, Wimsey regains the masculinity that had been wounded by his experiences in the war. Lord Peter [expresses] his frustration with authority, particularly that of the police force. . . and his nostalgia for a simpler time before his war experiences. Sayers. . . offers detection as a treatment for shell shock, making a strong claim for the power of the [detective] genre. . . Through Wimsey, Sayers creates an idealized view of a soldier who uses detection to cope with the trauma of the war. 

Source: "Dorothy L. Sayers, the Great War, and Shell Shock" by Monica Lott, Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2013