LORD PETER VIEWS THE BODY
By DOROTHY L. SAYERS
LONDON
VICTOR GOLLANCZ LIMITED
14 Henrietta Street Covent Garden
First published November 1928
Second impression December 1928
Third impression (first cheap edition) October 1929
Fourth impression February 1930
Fifth impression April 1933
Sixth impression November 1933
Seventh impression September 1934
Eighth impression September 1935
Ninth impression January 1936
Tenth impression September 1936
Eleventh impression July 1937
Twelfth impression August 1938
Thirteenth impression (two shilling edition) July 1939
Fourteenth impression March 1940
Fifteenth impression November 1940
Sixteenth impression July 1941
Seventeenth impression (reset) January 1948
Eighteenth impression April 1949
PRINTED AND BOUND IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES
THE STORIES
THE ABOMINABLE HISTORY OF THE MAN WITH COPPER FINGERS
The Egotists' Club is one of the most genial places in London. It is a place to which you may go when you want to tell that odd dream you had last night, or to announce what a good dentist you have discovered. You can write letters there if you like, and have the temperament of a Jane Austen, for there is no silence room, and it would be a breach of club manners to appear busy or absorbed when another member addresses you. You must not mention golf or fish, however, and, if the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot's motion is carried at the next committee meeting (and opinion so far appears very favourable), you will not be allowed to mention wireless either. As Lord Peter Wimsey said when the matter was mooted the other day in the smoking-room, those are things you can talk about anywhere. Otherwise the club is not specially exclusive. Nobody is ineligible per se, except strong, silent men. Nominees are, however, required to pass certain tests, whose nature is sufficiently indicated by the fact that a certain distinguished explorer came to grief through accepting, and smoking, a powerful Trichinopoly cigar as an accompaniment to a '63 port. On the other hand, dear old Sir Roger Bunt (the coster millionaire who won the £20,000 ballot offered by the Sunday Shriek, and used it to found his immense catering business in the Midlands) was highly commended and unanimously elected after declaring frankly that beer and a pipe were all he really cared for in that way. As Lord Peter said again: "Nobody minds coarseness but one must draw the line at cruelty."