I've never read any of his books :(
our stupid library has only one of his books, although he seems to be rather famous :confused:
are they worth buying?
could someone give a short description/summary of the Jeeves books?
I've never read any of his books :(
our stupid library has only one of his books, although he seems to be rather famous :confused:
are they worth buying?
could someone give a short description/summary of the Jeeves books?
Sleepy, you don't need to buy the books unless you want to. This site here has several texts of Wodehouse books already, additionally you can download quite a few for free from Project Gutenberg. Good for when you can't be online.
Lit Net's listing of P. G. Wodehouse texts online is here.
Scroll down the page a bit and you will find downloadable Wodehouse books here: Project Gutenberg.
I don't know if you will enjoy them or not...I think they are hilarious. Jeeves and Wooster are my favorites, but there are others (Wodehouse was pretty prolific) and they are also enjoyable. The humor tends to be either kind of goofy, or just very dry and witty. Very gentle...nobody is hurt (except their pride and even that isn't permanent) and I don't know....very much a reflection of a different time.
Back when I was 27, I co-read Full Moon with my then-new, now-ex husband whilst we were on our honeymoon. He was reading the book initially, but kept reading the hysterical bits to me. It got to the point that it was just easier to read the thing together. Actually, even once we made a stop at Blackwell's to stock up on Wodehouse, we still ended up reading each other the hysterical bits.
thanks Kathy :) i'll check them out when I've got some time on my handsQuote:
Originally Posted by kathycf
My brother's are quite a bit older than I am so I was reading whatever books they read and so I was 10 when I first read wodehouse and like Mrs.Dickens I loved Right Ho! Jeeves too.
I've never read his books. There's lots of others to read before I waste my time on a man with his views. Ah ha - political bias ennison. Indeed yes.
I think I first read Wodehouse in my early teens. However, not the Jeeves and Wooster books. The first two I read, and I recall them quite clearly now, were rarer offerings about schoolboy capers, The Pothunters and Mike at Wrykyn.
The name Jeeves was known to me years earlier as a very sedate young model of rectitude earned the monicker "Jeeves" from the chaps at school (I think it also had something to do with the black, long-tailed coat he was never seen without.) Don't think I read the Jeeves books until I was 15-ish.
At 65 years of age, with a doctoral degree, I humbly submit I find myself bewildered. Seeing your age ranges for beginners, my question is: how could anyone under 18 understand Wodehouse? I am struggling with Quick Service, my first Wodehouse novel, reading as slowly as I can. What am I doing that makes Wodehouse so difficult? Once in a while, yes, I get a great laugh out of it. (British humor is not impossible to master.) But I suspect I am missing 90% of the meaning. Is it illusionary to hope for an interpretational key to Wodehouse? Is there some special approach that will dispel the cloud of unknowing here? I really want to get into Wodehouse. He is bringing an untold joy into my life.
Truthlover,
I sympathise with your plight but I imagine that what you are missing in Wodehouse is the sheer, utter Englishness of the novels. Unless you have been brought up in a country which is founded on an aristocracy rather than a meritocracy, it might be difficult to empathise fully with the idiosyncrasies that Wodehouse captured so hilariously.
An interesting thing about Wodehouse is that, although he was the quintessential English gentleman, he spent some time during the 1920s in America working with George Gershwin and Jerome Kern on musicals. Some of his funniest books are set in the USA of that time and he sends up the Americans as hilariously as he does his fellow countrymen. I count Laughing Gas among the funniest books I have read.
I had the inestimable pleasure of going to Hanley Castle Grammar School on which Market Snodsbury Grammar (of Gussie Finknottle fame) was based, so obviously there was a certain bias to Wodehouse. I suspect that I had a copy of What Ho Jeeves thrust in to my hand within 5 minutes of getting there, ergo a tender 11, in baggy grey short trousers, baggy grey socks, baggy grey shirt, baggy grey jumper and baggy grey body. Oh, and spots. At least the blazer was a bright colour, green, with a huge Pelican on the breast pocket. Believe it or not, I still have the Old School Tie, which no longer goes round my Old School Neck, it having expanded somewhat in the last 44 years. My only claim to fame - sad, innit!
That's no small claim to fame. Gussie Finknottle is one of my favourite Wodehouse characters, although his propensity for keeping newts in his bath
was one of his less endearing traits. If you go to the LitNet Photo Directory and click on Dr. Hill, you will see his living image. The picture suddenly leaps into view so be prepared.
This may sound sad, but I first learnt about P. G. Wodehouse from a 1970s British TV programme 'Wodehouse Playhouse' which at the time I thought superb.
Sometime? He died an American citizen and lived the US all the time after World War Two.Quote:
Originally Posted by Emil Miller
There are few novels without Americans.
Doesn't sound at all sad to me, mate. I first got to know Wodehouse through the earlier World of Wooster series with Ian Carmichael as Bertie and Dennis Price as Jeeves, Eleanor Summerfield as Dahlia, Fabia Drake as Agatha and Derek Nimmo as Bingo. The fact I can remember all these forgotten luvvies shows it made an impression, and I bought a whole lot of Wooster books with covers from the series.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sebas. Melmoth
However I don't think I really appreciated Wodehouse at that stage. It was later I came to notice the extraordinary prose style ("He looked as though he had been stuffed in a hurry by an incompetent taxidermist.")
I don't think films versions can do him justice at all.
Yes, but prior to that he lived in France at le Touquet before it was overrun by the German army and he was interned in Germany for the duration of the war.Quote:
Originally Posted by ruggerlad
He went back to the USA because he was persona non grata in England, having made a broadcast for the Germans saying that he was being well treated.
I don't recall Americans featuring greatly in his books, although Laughing Gas is one that comes to mind.
The World of Wooster series was closer to the spirit of the novels than the later Fry and Laurie productions, which were too slick for my liking. Stephen Fry came across as supercilious; something that Dennis Price scrupulously avoided.Quote:
Originally Posted by ruggerlad
On making enquiries about the possibility of issuing the World of Wooster on DVD, I discovered that some idiot at the BBC had deleted all of the programmes with exception of the opening titles which can be accessed on Youtube.