What ho!
I was wondering at what age everyone here began reading (and loving) Wodehouse?
Everyone I know personally who is a fan began reading him as a child. I started at 8 years old.
I would be grateful for as many answers as possible! I'm thinking of ways to increase readership, and your answers would be very helpful!
I love Wodehouse, but did not start reading him until in my mid 20's.
...age 15, when I first discovered P.G. Wodehouse. My Dad returned home from a library sale with two moth-eaten old books, "Thank You, Jeeves" and "Laughing Gas", respectively. "You might like these," he said, tossing them in my lap. "Very amusing, I think you'll find them."
I wasn't so sure. I studied the one on top, the one with "Jeeves" in the title. Externally it wasn't much to write home about. A worn and dog-eared copy. Kinda like something the cat might have discovered in Tutenkhamen's tomb. But to humor the old blood relation I went through the motions. I opened to page one...read a few lines...fell madly, hopelessly in love...and the rest is history!
Now, years later, I own well over 100 copies of the Master's books, the contents of which have seeped deep into my psyche. I mean to say, what? I have sported on the green of Valley Fields and played tennis with Rodney Spelvin. I have visited Blandings Castle many times----always under false colors---and listened to my host rhapsodize about his prize sow. I have hobnobbed with Eggs, Beans and Crumpets in the Drones smoking room. I have been hoodwinked by Ukridge and charmed by Psmith. I have even blackmailed the bigwigs at Perfecto-Zizzbaum in Hollywood, wanting them to make me the next Minna Nordstrom. And whenever the slings and arrows of o. f. threaten to get me down, I have Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo as a magic restorative.
But the place that is nearest my heart, the place to which I return many a time and oft---as the fellow said--- is 3a Berkeley Mansions, London W.1. I rate the Jeeves series as Wodehouse's highest achievement. Yet what can a girl do? After each visit I must (regretfully) tear myself away from the charming Bertie Wooster because, much as I love him, he isn't the marrying kind. And really, it seems okay to leave him in such good and capable hands---viz. Jeeves's. I only hope that if there's a heaven---and assuming that there is, and that I check in there some day---I'll find waiting for me MORE, hitherto unheard-of and unread,Jeeves books to enjoy!:
I was a fan of the BBC television series "Wooster and Jeeves" as a teenager. But I only got around to actually reading Wodehouse a couple of years ago.
I think the BBC version was excellent, but as is the case with any movie/tv program based on books, condensed and otherwise "adapted".
I really thought Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry were superb on the program though.
*edit* oops , I did go a bit offtiopic...sorry about that.
I live in Shropshire ,Wodehouses' Sinister County. Not far from Blandford Castle (site of).
I didnt realise this till my children started listening to WodehouseTapes .
Before that I thought Bertie Wooster was something my bachelor silly *** Uncle enjoyed.
Yes I listen too,but can't bear the books.Yes ,parts of Shropshire are similar and I do know lots of twits like Wooster and co. I fear my eldest son is one .
He's a Lifeguard {army officer ,not swimming saviour} I also have an Aunt Dahlia.I think we may be some sort of a throwback.
The great thing about Wodehouse is that, despite all his "escapism" and deliberately cliched characters, he does manage at times to (weirdly) mirror reality. Yes, there ARE "Bertie Wooster" types and "Aunt Dahlia types" and (I would suspect) even "Jeeves" types alive in present-day England. Because human nature is still human nature, what? And when it came to the "psychology of the individual," PGW really knew his stuff!
I started reading Wodehouse when I was about 18. My brother got out an audio of Right Ho! Jeeves, and that was it.. I was hooked. I also have read a Blandings book... but it was Right Ho! Jeeves that did it for me.
As fans of PGW, we're in very good company. Others on the list include:
Douglas Adams, Evelyn Waugh, Hillaire Belloc, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, Alistair Cook, Isaac Asimov, Peter Cannon, the Queen Mother (!), and a host of others!
That's funny; I just got into him yesterday. I am 18 and am close to finishing Right Ho, Jeeves. I cannot put the thing down. I expect I'll be reading him for the rest of my life. It really seems amusing that this story which, on the surface, is not about anything terribly important - indeed seems not to be about any one thing - still tricks me into being genuinely concerned about Tuppy and Angela's wrecked engagement, etc. Excellent.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrs Dickens
In our town, we have two public libraries, and one day when I decided the visit the one furthest from me, I came across 'Leave it to Psmith', and I was immediately charmed by Wodehouse. I was about 16 or 17, and I had the very good luck to find 'The Heart of a Goof' in the other library just recently. It's rare that I find authors whose works are so effortless to read. I can't enthuse enough how much I have enjoyed reading Wodehouse.
I've put age 13-14, which is about right though I can't remember exactly. My first book - perhaps uniquely among Wodehouse fans? - was Psmith Journalist. My father was a big Wodehouse enthusiast, starting from the day his English teacher read The Clicking of Cuthbert to his class. They don't seem to make English teachers like that any more.
I don't know the relevance of age with reading Wodehouse, but I bought my first Wodehouse's this year and have not yet able to read it. I'm 25. :)
I went on holiday with a school friend and her parents, and they were into Wodehouse, so I got into Wodehouse. Age 11. But I'd still pick up a book today and enjoy it just as much. The Blandings Castle series was my favourite with the pig farming Earl of Emsworth and his precious pig, was her name Duchess? :)
I am 18 going on 19 in August I only started reading it this year. When boredom strikes grab a good book, or in any case one that looks good and find out if it is. http://photobucket.com/albums/v504/l...anas/th_35.gif