One thing that constantly disrupts the peace of life at Blandings is the constant incursion of impostors. Blandings has impostors like other houses...
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Jan 29, 2012
Sonia
rated it: 
Wodehouse never ceases to amaze me with his humor. Wit and humor abound. I laughed out loud at his intelligent discourse. Love Wodehouse. There was nothing spectacular about the story but the way he writes makes you want to read further. Simple story of cat and mouse with twists and turns. Fun read.
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Jan 29, 2012
Bev
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Something New (1915) is the first installment of P. G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle stories. This story follows Ashe Marson into the drafty halls of Blandings Castle, where he will try to make "something new" of his life by purloining a rare Egyptian scarab — all for the best motives, of course.
Ashe Marson is a hack writer who churns out pulp detective stories which involve The Adventures of Gridley Quayle. Tired of this life, but not quite knowing what to do about it, he m More...
Ashe Marson is a hack writer who churns out pulp detective stories which involve The Adventures of Gridley Quayle. Tired of this life, but not quite knowing what to do about it, he m More...
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Apr 19, 2011
Kay
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While not in the same class as later Wodehouse novels, Something Fresh has the honor of being the first Blandings Castle novel. Enter potty Lord Emsworth (minus pig), the Honorable Freddie Threepwood, and the Efficient Baxter, as well a host of querulous relatives, impulsive lovers, and shady characters. The resulting imbroglio proceeds with classic Wodehousian verve.
To sum up (briefly), Freddie has gotten engaged to an American heiress, but his father, Lord Emsworth, accidentall More...
To sum up (briefly), Freddie has gotten engaged to an American heiress, but his father, Lord Emsworth, accidentall More...
Apr 20, 2010
Bill
rated it:
This is my first Wodehouse not including Wooster and Jeeves. Written very early in his career (1915), it is a Blandings Castle story. I didn't find the characters quite as compelling as Bertie or Jeeves, but that may just be due to my familiarity with those characters from early books and the small screen. Whereas the Jeeves stories are told from inside Bertie's head, "Something Fresh" ("Something New" originally in England) Wodehouse narrates himself more traditionally an
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Jan 04, 2009
Kirsti
rated it:
Absolutely delightful. Thanks, Jen, for recommending this! I never would have picked it up otherwise.
Of course the story is arch and exaggerated, but it's incredibly entertaining, and much of the dialogue is realistic and natural-sounding without that horrible Harold Pinter quality.
I haven't read much Wodehouse, so I didn't realize how old the book is. Then I noticed that everyone takes trains everywhere, except for the trip from the train station to the castle, which tak More...
Of course the story is arch and exaggerated, but it's incredibly entertaining, and much of the dialogue is realistic and natural-sounding without that horrible Harold Pinter quality.
I haven't read much Wodehouse, so I didn't realize how old the book is. Then I noticed that everyone takes trains everywhere, except for the trip from the train station to the castle, which tak More...
Jul 22, 2008
Bruce
rated it:
Delightfully light bedtime reading, a few pages each night. No author is quite like P.G. Wodehouse; he is the master of cliche - cliche of plot, of characters, of description, of dialogue. And yet he manages to accomplish all this with lightness and freshness. Which is what makes him so very droll and delightful. His books are absolute fluff, and what wonderful fluff it is!
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Apr 07, 2010
Ideasmith
rated it:
Wodehouse continues with his wonderful recipe of decadent peerage, hopelessly-in-lovers, imposters and theft plots in another Blandings Castle book. To this delightful mix, is added an American dash in the form of Mr.Peters, a multimillionaire with poor digestion and poorer temper and his sweet wisp of a daughter Aline Peters, engaged to be married to Freddie Threepwood. Ashe Marson (author of Gridley Quayle, detective fiction and avid practicioner of the Larsen exercises) and Joan Valentine (ex
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Oct 31, 2011
Karen
rated it:
"On this particular morning, Ashe Marson skipped with even more than his usual vigour. This was because he wished to expel by means of physical fatigue a small devil of discontent of whose presence within him he had been aware ever since getting out of bed. It is in the Spring that the ache for the Larger Life comes upon us, and this was a particularly mellow Spring morning. It was the sort of morning when the air gives us a feeling of anticipation, a feeling that, on a day like this, th
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Apr 28, 2009
Wm
rated it:
Delightful. I suppose that's a cliched adjective to describe Wodehouse's work. And, you know, it wasn't quite as witty as I thought it would be. The funny comes from overblowing the mundane and tweaking the situations. But even more than that, I really enjoyed -- even when I didn't particularly like -- the major characters in the novel. Wodehouse manages to fully realize them in a way that resists literarization and genrefication. It's an accumulation of details -- mannerisms, ways of speaking,
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Jan 21, 2012
Judith
rated it:
An early PG Wodehouse, and our first introduction to Blandings. Plum is still finding his voice, and yet they are all here, perfectly formed - the efficient Baxter, the Hon Freddie, Lady Constance and, of course, the Earl himself - caught in the midst of intruders as always. A thoroughly entertaining read, the more so for the educational comments thrown in Ashe's way about the running of an English country house. No idea whether or not they are true; they are probably put in for the benefit of
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Dec 18, 2011
Ensiform
rated it:
A young man and a young woman infiltrate Blandings and compete to steal a priceless scarab Emsworth has absently walked off with, while the family conspires to marry the Hon. Freddie off. But another man loves her, and schemes to win her.
Though inchoate in ways (Emsworth is capable of a coherent speech now and then, and is utterly pigless; there's a lot of detailed class structure), this first Blandings novel starts off in fine form: The Efficient Baxter is thought mad, Emsworth is po More...
Though inchoate in ways (Emsworth is capable of a coherent speech now and then, and is utterly pigless; there's a lot of detailed class structure), this first Blandings novel starts off in fine form: The Efficient Baxter is thought mad, Emsworth is po More...
Jul 25, 2011
Missieu
rated it:
Un roman anglais trépidant du début du XXe siècle (1915), qui n'a pas pris une ride. Une des rares références à l'époque est que le récit s'inscrit en pleine période des suffragettes. Il est donc teinté d'une touche féministe qui en fait probablement un livre subversif en plus d'être drôle et grinçant.
L'aristocratie de Blandings et surtout l'aristocratie des domestiques de la grande maison anglaise est décrite de manière hilarante. Quant au mode de narration, calqué sur les romans de d More...
L'aristocratie de Blandings et surtout l'aristocratie des domestiques de la grande maison anglaise est décrite de manière hilarante. Quant au mode de narration, calqué sur les romans de d More...
Apr 04, 2011
Marfita
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Sep 09, 2011
Regan
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While I prefer Jeeves and Wooster to Blandings Castle, it's impossible to get through a Wodehouse book without laughing out loud more than once. Something Fresh comes through with the laughs and ridiculousness along with the usual Wodehouse stand-bys: Broken engagements, elopements, and upstairs, downstairs and backstairs whackiness. Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine are clever and fun, have a unusually egalitarian partnership for their era and are full of adventures and getting each other out of s
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Aug 19, 2011
AnEyeSpy
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**** "Something Fresh" (Blandings 1) by P.G. Wodehouse is the spark of spring restlessness that drive an impoverished young couple to strike an acquaintance and separately decide to icognito steal (back) a valuable scarab absentmindedly pocketed by the owner of Blandings Castle. A typical 1915 aristocratic country party is the setting for late-night escapades. Unusually for the time, pretty Miss Valentine competes in resourcefulness and determination with handsome author Ashe, whose pu
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Nov 27, 2011
Christopherseelie
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Poor Wodehouse is destined to always be compared to his own work and fall short of his best. This one, "Something Fresh" is a fine country house farce with romantic elements that belie his genuine fondness of human frailty. Far from the laugh-a-minute you get when Wooster and Jeeves are on the scene, but there are great comic moments nonetheless. The scene where Lord Emsworth lunches at his club will give you bell-laughs. I will never again be able to look at porcelain figurines and de
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Feb 09, 2012
Kyle
rated it:
I'm re-reading this for approximately the millionth time... it's the first of the Blandings novels and, sadly, does not feature Empress of Blandings, one of the great characters in 20th-century literature, but otherwise it's charming. Lord Emsworth and the Efficient Baxter are in fine form. The hero and heroine (who are reasonably charming) impersonate a lady's-maid and a valet in order to recover a stolen scarab from Emsworth's museum, for a nice Upstairs-Downstairs caper plot.
Also More...
Also More...
Aug 30, 2011
Joe
rated it:
I like P.G. Wodehouse a lot - not mentioning his perfect humor, his prose is beautiful. I started with his Bertie and Jeeves saga; this is the first Blandings Castle book I have read.
Very different (at least this one - the "first" Blandings novel). Bertie, Jeeves, & co. make me laugh out loud just about every other turn-of-the-page. Reading Something Fresh, I was amused - and swiftly carried along by the plot - but I never really guffawed.
The best way I can put it More...
Very different (at least this one - the "first" Blandings novel). Bertie, Jeeves, & co. make me laugh out loud just about every other turn-of-the-page. Reading Something Fresh, I was amused - and swiftly carried along by the plot - but I never really guffawed.
The best way I can put it More...
Mar 11, 2010
Marty
rated it:
It would be easy to say that a lot of Wodehouse novels are eerily similar. This is mostly because um, well ... it is true. The last novel I read of Wodehouse's, Leave It to Psmith, could be laid out on a piece of paper with major characters, events, plot points, and objects and it would match up almost verbatim with Something Fresh.
Is this an indictment? Not at all. I enjoyed Leave It to Psmith, and I would have no qualms with reading it twice. Yet, reading Something Fresh was not l More...
Is this an indictment? Not at all. I enjoyed Leave It to Psmith, and I would have no qualms with reading it twice. Yet, reading Something Fresh was not l More...
Sep 29, 2008
Brad
rated it: 
Imagine Oscar Wilde-lite and you've got P.G. Wodehouse.
Wodehouse isn't as political as Wilde, he isn't quite as scathing in his criticism of society, and he isn't as bitingly funny, but that makes him no less entertaining.
Wodehouse is a master of bright and breezy. Stephen Fry says that Wodehouse is "sunlit perfection," and I couldn't agree more. The first of the Blanding books, Something Fresh, fits this description like the dot on a lower case i.
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Wodehouse isn't as political as Wilde, he isn't quite as scathing in his criticism of society, and he isn't as bitingly funny, but that makes him no less entertaining.
Wodehouse is a master of bright and breezy. Stephen Fry says that Wodehouse is "sunlit perfection," and I couldn't agree more. The first of the Blanding books, Something Fresh, fits this description like the dot on a lower case i.
More...
Dec 05, 2007
Jaclyn
rated it:
"Something Fresh" is the first of the Blandings Castle series of P.G. Wodehouse novels. It is not as side-splittingly funny as his Wooster and Jeeves books, but was a fun read nonetheless.
In "Something Fresh," we meet some of the inhabitants of Blandings Castle, including the absentminded Lord Emsworth, his dimwitted son The Honorable Freddie, and his secretary The Efficient Baxter. Freddie has become engaged to marry Aline Peters, an American heiress. One day, More...
In "Something Fresh," we meet some of the inhabitants of Blandings Castle, including the absentminded Lord Emsworth, his dimwitted son The Honorable Freddie, and his secretary The Efficient Baxter. Freddie has become engaged to marry Aline Peters, an American heiress. One day, More...
Oct 18, 2007
Ian
rated it:
‘Something Fresh’ is the first book in what was to become the Blanding’s Saga, at the time it was written Wodehouse obviously had no idea how popular the Threepwood family were to become and consequently it does not really fit into the Saga as a whole. In ‘Something Fresh’ Blanding’s Castle is no more than a setting for Wodehouse’s latest farce and Lord Emsworth one of many comic characters to sit in the background to entertain whilst the romance of Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine is played out.
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Aug 15, 2011
Ruthette
rated it:
This has everything I love about Wodehouse: false identities, potty old peers, multiple people pussy-footing around an English country estate in the dead of night, an overly-starched and self-important servant class, and privileged young idiots such as Freddy Threepwood who have no idea what is actually going on. Add to that petty crime, engagements, broken engagements, elopements, cases of mistaken identity, shots fired in the dead of night, and family spats and you have the recipe for what Fre
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Jun 21, 2011
Gerry
rated it:
In the first of the Blandings books a pricelss scarab is absent-mindedly taken by Lord Emsworth and stored in his museum.
The owner, American J Preston Peters, offers £1,000 for its return and the mayhem that follows at Blandings is typical Wodehouse. In addition, as is often the case, pretty girls are involved and the romances of them and their suitors become quite complicated.
However, in the end everything is restored and the matches are well met in the usual Wodehouse h More...
The owner, American J Preston Peters, offers £1,000 for its return and the mayhem that follows at Blandings is typical Wodehouse. In addition, as is often the case, pretty girls are involved and the romances of them and their suitors become quite complicated.
However, in the end everything is restored and the matches are well met in the usual Wodehouse h More...
Aug 13, 2011
Eliz
rated it:
I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a novel this much. I giggled my way through the entire story. Wodehouse is a genius. He weaves his delightfully quirky characters' lives together in such elaborate ways, you just can't imagine what'll happen next! When I finished the last page and closed the book, I sat back with a big grin, feeling thoroughly amused and satisfied. It's a must-read!
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Nov 11, 2011
"With the creation of Bertie Wooster and his ‘gentleman's gentleman' Jeeves, [P. G. Wodehouse's] position was assured as the greatest humorous novelist of his time." - Chambers Biographical Dictionary
Listen to Something Fresh on your smartphone.
Listen to Something Fresh on your smartphone.
Mar 27, 2011
Lamplight
rated it: 
I prefer the Bertie/Jeeves series to the Blandings storylines. The slow-witted Threepwood characters drive me crazy, though the romance that grows up while trying to re-steal a scarab was entertaining, and I thoroughly enjoyed the explanation of how the cranky millionaire character developed such terrible digestion.
Jan 14, 2010
Maria
rated it:
Exceptionally funny but with a plot that isn't totally frivolous. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Joan and Ashe move delicately through the upper echelons of Blandings while working below stairs as valet and maid, not to mention undercover recovery agents. The scene at the foot of the stairs involving Ashe, Emerson, and Baxter was a highlight of the book, although the shoe scene was not far behind.
Jan 23, 2012
Devin
rated it:
As always Wodehouse provides a hilariously entertaining tale of mystery, adventure, and romance, and all within the confines of a Lord's castle. I very much enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for less serious entertainment. It is honestly a laugh-out-loud read.
