Wednesday 10 March 2010

nutrax for nerves

An example from Murder Must Advertise of why Dorothy L Sayers is better* than Agatha Christie:
All over London the lights flickered in and out, calling on the public to save its body and purse: SOPO SAVES SCRUBBING--NUTRAX FOR NERVES--CRUNCHLETS ARE CRISPER--EAT PIPER PARRITCH--DRINK POMPAYNE--ONE WHOOSH AND IT'S CLEAN--OH, BOY! IT'S TOMBOY TOFFEE--NOURISH NERVES WITH NUTRAX--FARLEY'S FOOTWEAR TAKES YOU FURTHER--IT ISN'T DEAR, IT'S DARLING--DARLING'S FOR HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES--MAKE ALL SAFE WITH SANFECT--WHIFFLETS FASCINATE. The presses, thundering and growling, ground out the same appeals by the millions: ASK YOUR GROCER--ASK YOUR DOCTOR--AS THE MAN WHO'S TRIED--MOTHERS! GIVE IT TO YOUR CHILDREN--HOUSEWIVES! SAVE MONEY--HUSBANDS! INSURE YOUR LIVES--WOMEN! DO YOU REALIZE?--DON'T SAY SOAP, SAY SOPO! Whatever you're doing, stop it and do something else! Whatever you're buying, pause and buy something different! Be hectored into health and prosperity! Never let up! Never go to sleep! Never be satisfied. If once you are satisfied, all our wheels will run down. Keep going--and if you can't, Try Nutrax for Nerves!

Lord Peter Wimsey went home and slept.


* A stupid word to use. It is shorthand for, 'a better and more interesting writer, in my opinion'

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is from what is probably one of the three best (opinions do inform against us...) mystery novels ever penned. DLS wrote one of the two remaining as well, "Busman's Honeymoon". The other, of course being either "The Moonstone" or should your taste be a bit more modern, Jane Plantagenet Corby's "The Doom Box", in which the unique murder method of murder by mouse-trap leaves the reader quite baffled and on the trail of several red herrings until the very end.