Any Wodehouse fans here?

[Vindicated]

Hello.. Any Wodehouse fans here? Haven't seen any activity around this area... Light comedy and satire, anyone? :)

[kathycf]

I love Wodehouse! Yes, this post comes fairly late after your's but I just joined yesterday...Which of Wodehouse's books do you like the best? I think Jeeves and Wooster are pretty funny.

*edit* Oops, forgot Psmith!

[Book-Bee]

I had never read any PG books. However just yesterday I finished reading Damsel in distress.And I am already a PG fan. Which ones should I read next?

[kathycf]

I would suggest some from the Jeeves and Wooster series...Psmith is funny also as is the Blandings Castle ones. Hope you enjoy them. :)

[vrianto3]

I've read most of PG Wodehouse books. Personally, I like the Mulliners series best rather than Jeeves, Blanding Castle or Psmith. And the non-serials are actually more fun to read. Try Uneasy Money, Indiscretions of Archie, The Adventure of Sally.

"The poor Man's Farthing is worth more, Than all the Gold on Afric's shore"

[Mary Sue]

The Jeeves books are wonderful! Ditto for Blandings Castle. And there are crossovers, such as Leave It To Psmith in which Psmith visits Blandings, and Uncle Fred in the Springtime, in which UNCLE FRED does the same. Try The World of Mr. Mulliner, if you want to take the vintage PG wit in small doses via short stories.
Jill the Reckless is a great novel. In that one, Wodehouse gives us real insight into the New York theater life of 1920.

[Nightshade]

I love most of the ones Ive read but the jeeves series annoyed me, a bit.
There are quite a few really good novels though.
I have a q though does anyone know/ rember which book it is that starts with a quotation about golf on sundays in scotland??

[Mary Sue]

SOME WODEHOUSEAN QUOTES:

"The door behind him opened, and Beach the butler entered, a dignified procession of one."

"Brinkley was at the keyhole, begging me to come out and let him ascertain the colour of my insides; and, by Jove, what seemed to me to add the final touch to the whole unpleasantness was that he spoke in the same respectful voice he always used. Kept calling me 'Sir,' too, which struck me as dashed silly. I mean, if you're asking a fellow to come out of a room so that you can dismember him with a carving knife, it's absurd to tack a 'Sir' on to every sentence. The two things don't go together."

"...that inevitability that was such a feature of the best Greek tragedy. Aeschylus once said to Euripides 'You can't beat inevitability,' and Euripides said he often thought so, too."

"He climbed into the bed as it came round the second time."

"It is a sad but indisputable fact that in this imperfect world Genius is too often condemned to walk alone---if the earthier members of the community see it coming and have time to duck."

"He looked haggard and careworn, like a Borgia who has suddenly remembered that he has forgotten to shove cyanide in the consomme, and the dinner gong due any moment."

"The fact that he was fifty quid in the red and expecting Civilization to take a toss at any moment had caused Uncle Tom, who always looked a bit like a pterodactyl with a secret sorrow, to take on a deeper melancholy."

"You look like Helen of Troy after a good facial."

"My eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, met Aunt Dahlia's, and I saw that hers was rolling, too."

"As far as the eye could reach, I found myself gazing on a surging sea of aunts. There were tall aunts, short aunts, stout aunts, thin aunts, and an aunt who was carrying on a conversation in a low voice to which nobody seemed to be paying the slightest attention. I was to learn later that this was Miss Emmeline Deverill's habitual practice, she being the aunt of whom Corky had spoken as the dotty one. From start to finish of every meal she soliloquized. Shakespeare would have liked her."

[ProfessorWoland]

I adore Wodehouse, especially the Blandings stories.

[Jesourirai]

Hail to Wodehouse!

"A fellow of the most infinite jest of the most excellent fancy, he hath born me on his back a thousand times"

[Mary Sue]

Wodehouse is pure magic. He takes the English language and turns it on its head; he teaches it to spin and to dance and to do somersaults through a hoop and to gambol like a whatsit in springtime. His mixed metaphors and botched quotations are unique, especially when delivered in Bertie Wooster's voice. Only a great comic genius could do all that!

[Mary Sue]

"Madeline Bassett laughed the tinkling, silvery laugh that was one of the things that had got her so disliked by the better element."
- The Code of the Woosters

[Bysshe]

I'm a Wodehouse fan!

Admittedly, I haven't explored beyond the Jeeves stories, but at some point I'm hopefully going to buy some more P.G Wodehouse books. They're perfect to read if you need cheering up.

I love the TV series of Jeeves & Wooster (the one with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie), too.

[kathycf]

I was able to tape some of those shows when they showed them here in the US several years ago. Very funny.

*edit*


If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.

The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun.
P. G. Wodehouse

[Mary Sue]

Yes, the Jeeves and Wooster series is a hoot. But nothing, in my opinion, can match the books. In the books you get the wonderful, funny language that's like nothing else on earth:

" Jeeves flowed in with the tray, like some silent stream meandering over its mossy bed..."

"The voice which spoke sounded like warm treacle..."

"One of the rummy things about Jeeves is that, unless you watch like a hawk, you very seldom see him come into a room. He's like one of those weird birds in India who dissolve themselves into thin air and nip through space in a sort of disembodied way and assemble the parts again just where they want them. I've got a cousin who's what they call a Theosophist, and he says he's often nearly worked the thing himself, but couldn't quite bring it off, probably owing to having fed in his boyhood on the flesh of animals slain in anger and pie."

"There was hissing noise like a tyre bursting in a nest of cobras...."

"On the occasions when Aunt is calling to Aunt like mastodons bellowing across primeval swamps..."

"If you ask my Aunt Agatha she will tell you---in fact, she is quite likely to tell you even if you don't ask her----that I am a vapid and irreflective chump. Barely sentient was the way she once described me: and I'm not saying that in a broad, general sense she isn't right."

"What Jeeves inserts in these specials of his I have never ascertained, but their morale-building force is extraordinary. They wake the sleeping tiger in a chap. Well, to give you some idea, I remember once after a single one of them striking the table with clenched fist and telling my Aunt Agatha to stop talking rot. And I'm not so sure it wasn't 'bally rot'."

"I drew myself up to my full height; then, seeing that he wasn't looking at me, lowered myself again."

"It had been the identical look which I had observed in the eye of Honoria Glossop in the days immediately preceding our engagement----the look of a tigress that has marked down its prey."

" 'I say, Bertie, is it really true that you were once engaged to Honoria?'
'It is.'
Biffy coughed.
'How did you get out---I mean, what was the nature of the tragedy that prevented the marriage?'
'Jeeves worked it. He thought out the entire scheme.'
'I think, before I go,' said Biffy thoughtfully, 'I'll just step into the kitchen and have a word with Jeeves.' "

" 'What's to be done, Jeeves?'
'We must think, sir.'
'You think. I haven't the machinery.' "

"I don't know if you have ever leaped between the sheets, all ready for a spot of sleep, and received an unforeseen lizard up the left pyjama leg? It is an experience that puts its stamp on a man."

" My late Uncle Henry, you see, was by way of being the blot on the Wooster eschutcheon. An extremely decent chappie personally, and one who had always endeared himself to me by tipping me with considerable lavishness when I was at school; but there's no doubt he did at times do rather rummy things, notably keeping eleven pet rabbits in his bedroom; and I suppose a purist might have considered him more or less off his onion. In fact, to be perfectly frank, he wound up his career, happy to the last and completely surrounded by rabbits, in some sort of a home."

[kathycf]

You are for sure correct there, Mary Sue. Wodehouse had a real gift!

[Idril]

I've never read any Wodehouse but I've become very curious about him from all the mention of him on this site. If I were to venture into the world of Wodehouse, which book would you recommend I start with?

[Mary Sue]

When I first discovered Wodehouse I was 15 years old. And the book that I read was Thank You, Jeeves, which I would recommend to anyone as a first-rate choice. It's not the first of the Jeeves series, but the first NOVEL in that series; all earlier publications about Jeeves were anthologies of short stories. And what makes Thank You, Jeeves so good? It's funny and witty, even off the wall at times, and it establishes early on the relationship between our narrator Bertie Wooster and his bossy, manipulative servant.

In chapter one Bertie is rebelling against Jeeves' tyranny. Bertie wants to play the bajolele----it's 1934, so think loud jazz---but Jeeves, representing the older generation, demands peace and quiet. Reading this at age 15, I naturally identified with Bertie's point of view and wanted him to prevail in the conflict. Now, looking back, I see Bertie as the obnoxious adolescent and Jeeves as the voice of reason! But however you look at it, the scene is set for a great, long romp.

But if you can't find a copy of Thank You, Jeeves there are other equally good titles to start with. Right Ho, Jeeves is famous among Wodehouse fans because it delivers the funniest drunk scene, probably, in English literatuure: namely, Gussie Fink-Nottle, "tight as an owl," giving his speech to the scholars of Market Snodsbury Grammar School. Don't miss that one. And you might also try The Code of the Woosters, another gem. That one has the most convoluted plot I've ever seen, with a stolen cow-creamer and a stolen notebook and a stolen policemen's helmet. It also has the line "While not exactly disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled...." And it has an unforgettable heroine in the saucer-eyed, repulsively sentimental Madeline Bassett who thinks "that the stars are God's daisy chain"!

Oh yes, and the short stories are good too. Especially the ones in Very Good, Jeeves. And then there's the series about doddering Lord Emsworth and his splendidly dysfunctional family at Blandings Castle. Some good Blandings titles are Summer Lightning, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, and Leave It To Psmith. If you like family sagas about half-witted blue-bloods, you might actually prefer the Blandings stuff to Jeeves.

[Idril]

Thank you, Mary Sue for your very detailed suggestions, just what I wanted! I usually get all my books on amazon so I should have no trouble finding those and if the American version doesn't have them, I can always go to the UK version, I have accounts at both. :D Your descriptions have made me very anxious to read them now, they sound right up my alley. ;)

[kathycf]

Heh, I should check this thread more often. I don't think I could suggest anything better than the books Mary Sue mentioned. Jeeves is always the voice of reason in matters of music, fashion and anything else you could ever imagine...

[Mrs Dickens]

My favourite Wodehouse scene is in Right Ho, Jeeves, when Gussy Fink Nottle is drunk and he tells a ten year old boy to get married! He was pure genius old Woody.

[Mary Sue]

That scene with drunken Gussie giving away the prizes is, as you say, pure genius:

"Presently there was a musical squeaking and P.K. Purvis climbed the platform.
The spelling and dictation champ was about three foot six in his squeaking shoes, with a pink face and sandy hair. Gussie patted this hair. He seemed to have taken an immediate fancy to the lad.
'You P.K. Purvis?'
'Sir, yes, sir.'
'It's a beautiful world, P.K. Purvis.'
'Sir, yes, sir.'
'And, you've noticed it, have you? Good. You married, by any chance?'
'Sir, no, sir.'
'Get married, P.K. Purvis,' said Gussie earnestly. 'It's the only life...Well, here's your book. Looks rather bilge to me from a glance at the title page, but, such as it is, here you are.' "

AND:

"G. G. Simmons was an unpleasant, perky-looking stripling, mostly front teeth and spectacles...Gussie, I was sorry to see, didn't like him. There was in his manner, as he regarded G. G. Simmons, none of the chumminess which had marked it during his interview with P.K. Purvis. He was cold and distant.
'Well, G. G. Simmons."
'Sir, yes, sir.'
'What do you mean----sir, yes, sir? Dashed silly thing to say. So you've won the Scripture-knowledge prize, have you?'
'Sir, yes, sir.'
'Yes,' said Gussie, 'you look just the sort of little tick who would. And yet,' he said, pausing and eyeing the child keenly,'how are we to know that this has all been open and above board? Let me test you, G. G. Simmons. What was What's-His-Name----the chap who begat Thingummy? Can you answer me that, Simmons?'
'Sir, no, sir.'
Gussie turned to the bearded bloke.
'Fishy,' he said. 'Very fishy. This boy appears to be totally lacking in Scripture knowledge.' "

[Mrs Dickens]

I agree that is pure genius! And then he rails against Wooster completely accusing old Bertie of cheating on Scripture Knowledge! I'll have to read this book again, especially now that the Winter months are coming.

[zomgmouse]

Wodehouse is absolutely fantastic.

I recently bought two Wodehouse compilations using prize money from school. One one book, a quote on the dust cover by Stephen Fry states that "He exhausts superlatives". I agree to the full extent.

That also explains why I have a Wodehouse quote in my signature.

Pure brilliance. (though why it's pronounced Woodhouse I'll never know).

[Erichtho]

Some months ago I bought a second hand copy of Indiscretions of Archie and read it. It was a light and relaxing read, but seriously - I can't see what is so great about him that he is still read nowadays, decades after his death. Maybe I was missing something because I read it in a weird translation, though, but please, enlighten me!

[mona amon]

I haven't read anything about Archie or Psmith. Wodehouse was a very prolific writer and I think I haven't read quite a bit of his work. I'm a great fan of the Jeeves and Blandings stories.

It's difficult for me to say exactly why I like these books so much, but Mary Sue has done a very good job of explaining Wodehouse's genius in some of the previous posts. To quote-


Wodehouse is pure magic. He takes the English language and turns it on its head; he teaches it to spin and to dance and to do somersaults through a hoop and to gambol like a whatsit in springtime. His mixed metaphors and botched quotations are unique, especially when delivered in Bertie Wooster's voice. Only a great comic genius could do all that!