ABSTRACT
Dorothy L. Sayers's transformation from detective novelist to sage was neither conscious nor deliberate. It began innocently enough when Sayers's friend Muriel St. Clare Byrne encouraged her write a detective play. As Sayers began to shift her focus to religious drama, she was besieged by fans who longed for more detective novels. Given that Sayers writes Begin Here at the end of a decade that saw the growing interest in these writers, it is perhaps no surprise that when called upon to display her own moral and social responsibility as a writer in the wake of the outbreak of war, she follows in their tradition. According to George Landow, sage writing generally consists of a four-part prophetic pattern combined with a number of specific stylistic techniques. Given that the sage is always presenting a view of life that is counter to what people generally think, definition or redefinition is essential.
