History Creator / DorothyLSayers

Dorothy Leigh Sayers (13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English writer, best known for her [[MysteryFiction detective fiction]], particularly the novels and stories featuring AmateurSleuth Literature/LordPeterWimsey. Her crime fiction also included many more short stories (of which eleven featured another amateur sleuth, the contrastingly lower-class Literature/MontagueEgg) and the novel ''The Documents in the Case'', co-written with Robert Eustace. After the death of her greatly admired Creator/GKChesterton, she would herself become president of The Detection Club, an association of authors united to maintain the highest standards in the genre.

* CulturalTranslation: In her translation of ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''.

In later life, Sayers began work on a translation of Dante's ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''. She had completed ''Inferno'' and ''Purgatorio'', and was working on ''Paradiso'' when she died; the work was completed by her colleague and later biographer, Dr. Barbara Reynolds, and published posthumously. (Dr. Reynolds has also edited four volumes of selected letters by Sayers.)

She is a member of the group of female detective novelists known to readers as "The Big Four"; the other three are Creator/NgaioMarsh (who gleefully spread the "dried-up old prune in love with her creation" rumours), Creator/MargeryAllingham, and Creator/AgathaChristie. Most critics consider her the best writer of the four.

She was also a playwright, whose works frequently examined moral and theological questions. They include ''The Devil to Pay'', a retelling of the {{Faust}} legend; and the 12-play cycle ''Radio/TheManBornToBeKing'', a dramatization of the life of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} commissioned by BBC Radio. Sayers felt that religious drama was frequently undramatic, populated by flat characters who mouthed archaic dialogue while going through the overfamiliar motions, and strove to avoid this in her play cycle, presenting the characters as real people who speak in contemporary language and are motivated by everyday (and occasionally trivial) concerns. The approach was inevitably controversial, but widely regarded as a success.

** ''The Devil To Pay'' (1939) -- A pageant-play retelling the story of {{Faust}}

* RitualMagic: In ''The Devil To Pay'', Sayers' take on the {{Faust}} legend, Mephistopheles is conjured by rituals that Sayers found in actual [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance Renaissance]] [[TomeOfEldritchLore grimoires]].