Writing for the Masses

<p>In <i>Writing for the Masses: Dorothy L. Sayers and the Victorian Literary Tradition </i>Dr. Christine A. Colón explores how Sayers carefully negotiates the complexities of early twentieth century literary culture by embracing a specifically Victorian literary tradition of writing to engage a wide audience. Using a variety of examples from Sayers’s detective fiction essays and religious drama Dr. Colón charts Sayers’s development as a writer whose intense desire to connect with her audience eventually compels her to embrace the role of a Victorian sage for her own age. Ultimately the Victorian literary tradition not only provides her with an empowering model for her own work as she struggles as a writer of detective fiction to balance her integrity as an artist with her desire to reach a mass audience but also facilitates her growth as a public intellectual as she strives to help her nation recover from the devastation of World War II.</p>