Reading the 20th Century discussion
Favourite Authors
>
P.G. Wodehouse
message 101:
by
Judy
(new)
Nov 05, 2018 08:56AM
Mod
reply
|
flag
Mod
It features Uncle Fred. I expect I am not the only one who finds this description, from Wikipedia, irresistible...
Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, 5th Earl of Ickenham, commonly known as Uncle Fred, is a fictional character who appears in short stories and novels written by P. G. Wodehouse between 1935 and 1961. An energetic and mischievous old chap, his talent for trouble is the bane of his nephew Pongo Twistleton's life.
Here's a bit more info about Cocktail Time
by P.G. Wodehouse
An Uncle Fred novel
Frederick, Earl of Ickenham, remains young at heart. So it is for him the act of a moment to lean out of the Drones Club window with a catapult and ping the silk top-hat off his grumpy in-law, the distinguished barrister Sir Raymond Bastable - but unfortunately things don't end there.
The sprightly earl finds that his action has inspired a scandalous bestseller and a film script - but this is as nothing compared with the entangled fates of the couples that surround him. In this delightful novel by the master of comic fiction, Uncle Fred will discover that only he, with his fabled sweetness and light can save the day.
According to Wikipedia the Uncle Fred stories comprise one short story and four novels, two of which are set at Blandings Castle:
"Uncle Fred Flits By" (1935) - included in the collection Young Men in Spats, (1936)
Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939) - a Blandings story
Uncle Dynamite (1948)
Cocktail Time (1958)
Service with a Smile (1961) - a Blandings story
I read Cocktail Time last year and enjoyed it
Click here to read my review
Nigeyb wrote: "Has anyone else read Cocktail Time by P.G. Wodehouse?It features Uncle Fred. I expect I am not the only one who finds this description, from Wikipedia, irresistibl..."
Not Yet- Cocktail Time and Uncle Dynamite are both books I want to read but haven't gotten down to.
Mod
Uncle Dynamite is one of the great P.G. Wodehouse book titles,
and apparently...
This is Wodehouse at his very best, with sundered lovers, explorers, broke publishers and irascible aristocrats all eventually yielding to the magic, ever-so-slightly-unscrupulous touch of Uncle Fred. It is, as Richard Usborne writes, 'a brilliantly sustained rattle of word-perfect dialogue and narrative topping a very complicated and well-controlled plot'.
Mod
Mod
Doctor Sally is a mere 130 pages and is a slight tale. It's not up to the dizzy heights of much of P.G. Wodehouse's work but it is still a charming and diverting read.
Click here to read my review
3/5
Mod
Mod
It's was serialised in four parts in a US magazine called Collier's Weekly in 1931 and was actually based on one of PGW's plays - Good Morning, Bill (1927) - which was itself based on a work by the Hungarian playwright Ladislaus Fodor.
Far from essential but I still enjoyed it.
Nigeyb wrote: "Has anyone else read Cocktail Time by P.G. Wodehouse?I read that one, but many years ago, I don't remember too much about it, but I did enjoy it. I love Uncle Fred, a great character, I should reread it sometime.
I also read Doctor Sally, again I liked it but it was many years ago. I have a large collection of P.G. Wodehouse books, I'm not too sure which ones I have read, they are all fairly similar, but they are comfort reads. Laughing Gas is there too, I shall look forward to that one.
Mod
Jeeves and the King of Clubs: A Novel in Homage to P.G. Wodehouse
What ho! A new Jeeves and Wooster novel, penned in homage to P.G. Wodehouse by bestselling author Ben Schott--in which literature's favorite gentleman and his gentleman's personal gentleman become spies in service to the Crown.
The misadventures of P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and his incomparable valet, Jeeves, have delighted audiences for nearly a century. Now, bestselling author Ben Schott brings this odd couple back to life in a madcap new adventure that is full of the hijinks, entanglements, imbroglios, and Wodehousian wordplay that readers love. And, by Jove, there's a hook!
In this escapade, the Junior Ganymede Club (Jeeves's association of butlers and valets) is revealed to be an arm of the British intelligence service. Jeeves must ferret out a Fascist spy, and only his hapless employer can help. Unfolding in the background are school-chum capers, affairs of the heart, drawing-room escapades, antics with aunts, and sartorial set-tos.
Energized by Schott's effervescent prose, Jeeves and the King of Clubs delights longtime fans and introduces a new audience to the comic joys of these beloved characters.
Mod
Here's The Guardian's review...
Ben Schott’s new ‘Wodehouse’ novel is an amusing and well written homage to the master
In a likably modest afterword to his new Jeeves and Wooster novel, Ben Schott writes that “nothing can cap perfection; my aim has been to establish base camp in the foothills of Plum’s genius and direct climbers up towards the peak”. He has certainly succeeded in this aim and a great deal besides. Although Schott, whose first novel this is, cannot compare to PG “Plum” Wodehouse’s peerless ability with comic plotting and situation, his joy in manipulating language is certainly on a par – and an unexpected but welcome topical element gives the high jinks some added bite.
Rest of the review is here....
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
Mod
...Heavy Weather (1933)
5th in the Blandings series, it follows straight on from Something Fresh which I read a few years back.
It's Heavy Weather for Lord Emsworth and the Empress, especially with the appalling Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe snooping around with designs on the prize pig.
I have to say it's an absolute corker so far.
Mod
Mod
Nigeyb wrote: "I couldn't resist yet another Wodehouse, this time it's......Heavy Weather (1933)
5th in the Blandings series, it follows straight on from Something Fresh which I rea..."
This is one I'm yet to read again. This is also the first of the Monty Bodkin books.
Mod
Heavy Weather (1933) is shaping up to be one of those classic Wodehouse books.
There's
and
The Luck of the Bodkins is another I count among my favourite Wodehouse books.
Mod
I've yet to read either Pearls, Girls And Monty Bodkin or The Luck of the Bodkins - which is a wonderful thing. So much still to look forward to.
I think I have both of those, but have yet to read them. I will try to put that right soon. I feel like a dose of Wodehouse after all this talk.
Mod
Understandably so Tania
Life is better with Wodehouse
It certainly is. He's the best pick-me-up.
Nigeyb wrote: "Thanks Lady CI've yet to read either Pearls, Girls And Monty Bodkin or The Luck of the Bodkins - which is a wonderful thing. So much still to look forward to.
"
I've read (and have) Luck of the Bodkins but am yet to read Pearls, Girls...
Mod
I'm still really enjoying Heavy Weather and want to echo my early sentiment. It's a five star Wodehouse read. Wonderfully plotted, with superlative sentence after superlative sentence.
It's still early days, but every time I listen to Jeremy Sinden's narration I am in Wodehouse heaven. No full-on belly laughs yet however I have laughed out loud on two or three occasions and have a permanent smile on my face the rest of the time.
Mod
I'm still enjoying this. Wonderful stuff.
Needless to say prize pig, The Empress of Blandings, features once again. That got me musing on just how prevalent are the pig fanciers of the world, and the extent to which there really are county awards for particularly wonderful specimens. Anyone able to shine some light on the real world reality of the pig fancier?
If you're enjoying the Empress, you might like 
I haven't read this yet, but it sounds delightful.
Mod
Lord Emsworth's Annotated Whiffle: The Care of the Pig by Augustus Whiffle is surely essential
Mod
Heavy Weather is peak Wodehouse
I enjoyed this entry on Wikipedia on the staff at Blandings Castle...
Blandings's ever-present butler is Sebastian Beach, with eighteen years service at the castle under his ample belt, and its other domestic servants have at various times included Mrs Twemlow the housekeeper, an under-butler named Merridew, and a number of footmen, such as Charles, Thomas, Stokes, James and Alfred. The chauffeurs Slingsby and Alfred Voules drive the castle's stately Hispano-Suiza, or, in an emergency, the Albatross or the Antelope (Summer Lightning).
Outside of the house, Scottish head gardeners Thorne and Angus McAllister have tended the grounds, while George Cyril Wellbeloved, James Pirbright and the Amazonian Monica Simmons have each in turn taken care of Lord Emsworth's beloved prize pig, Empress of Blandings.
Emsworth has employed a series of secretaries, most notable among them Rupert Baxter, the highly efficient young man who never seems to be able to keep away from Blandings, despite Lord Emsworth's increasingly low opinion of his sanity. He was succeeded in the post by Ronald Psmith, and later by the likes of Hugo Carmody and Monty Bodkin. The castle's splendid library was catalogued, for the first time since 1885, by Eve Halliday
It gives me a warm glow just reading some of those names. What a writer.
Mod
Another word that should be revived....
a popinjay
a conceited, foppish, or excessively talkative person
I have also just come across Ronnie's embrocation - Rigg's Golden Balm - it sounds wonderful.
Communicates an immediate warm glow to the entire system, averting catarrh, chills, rheumatism, sciatica, stiffness of the joints, and lumbago.
Marvellous - warm glows and tonings up, what cold be more pleasant?
Mod
Click here to read my spoiler-free review
5/5
Heavy Weather by P.G. Wodehouse
Mod
Hot Water by P.G. Wodehouse
It's already a lot of fun
Château Blissac, on its hill above St Roque, is in a setting where every prospect pleases. But it doesn't please its current occupier, J. Wellington Gedge. Mr Gedge wants none of it - and particularly none of the domineering Mrs Gedge's imperious wish that he should become American Ambassador to Paris. Instead he pines for the simpler life of California, where men are men and filling stations stand tall.
Mrs Gedge has powerful allies - including the prohibitionist Senator Opal. But will she get her way? And will the Senator's delightful daughter Jane get her man?
In a plot which involves safe-blowers, con men, jewel-thieves and even a Bloomsbury novelist, few are quite as they seem. But the heady atmosphere of France in the 1930s makes for one of Wodehouse's most delightful comedies.
Anyone else read it?
Nigeyb wrote: "I've just started....Hot Water by P.G. Wodehouse
It's already a lot of fun
Château Blissac, on its hill above St Roque, is in a setting where every prospect pleases...."
This is great fun too. I read it may be two years ago.
Mod
Mod
I enjoy reading about completely new (to me) Wodehouse characters. That much of Hot Water is set in the south of France gives it added intrigue and interest.
Another Wodehouse winner
Nigeyb wrote: "Hot Water is getting better and better. I enjoy reading about completely new (to me) Wodehouse characters. That much of Hot Water is set in the south of France gives it..."
Good to hear you're enjoying it.
Mod
It's a wonderful read and increasingly addictive.
Mod
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn:
God's in His heaven—
All's right with the world!
I'm going to endeavour to mention, when people ask me how I am, and when I am indeed feeling chipper, that the lark's on the wing and the snail's on the thorn, and of course all's right with the world
Mod
I’ve just got a Wodehouse book out of the library, Leave it to Psmith, for a bit of light relief. :)
Nigeyb wrote: "Always enjoy the way PG drops bits of poetry into his narratives....The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn:
God's in His heaven—
All's right with the world!
I'm going to endeavo..."
There's one (I don't remember which) in which Bertie tries to quote this as something Jeeves says- I don't remember exactly but he quotes the last two lines and then says, and there was some bosh about larks and snails that Jeeves puts in.
Mod
Finished!
Hot Water (1932) is peak P.G. Wodehouse
Click here to read my spoiler-free review
4/5
Mod
Ain't that truth Tania
Mod
Pearls, Girls And Monty Bodkin (1972) takes place one year after the events of The Luck of the Bodkins (1935).
Monty finishes his year at Llewellyn Studios to discover that J.D. Butterwick, Gertrude Butterwick's father, who insisted that Monty work for a year before he could marry Gertrude, concludes that Monty's year of employment doesn't count and he'll have to work another year before being able to marry his daughter.
Con-couple Soapy and Dolly Molloy have already made another appearance.
This is already shaping up nicely.
Just finished Leave it to Psmith last night and loved it. This is the first Psmith novel I’ve read and I’m definitely interested in reading more. Loved his character. Made me laugh quite a bit.
Mod
Mod
Pearls, Girls And Monty Bodkin (1972) takes place one year after the events of The Luck of the Bodkins (1935). "
Finished.
Pearls, Girls And Monty Bodkin is another splendid, if somewhat slight, P.G. Wodehouse life reaffirming yarn. Funny and charming in equal measure. Even in 1972, when Wodehouse was 90 years old, he could still deliver the goods.
4/5
Click here to read my review
Mod
Sadly I've just abandoned Jeeves and the King of Clubs: A Novel in Homage to P.G. Wodehouse (2018), the new Jeeves and Wooster novel, this time written by Ben Schott.
Perhaps it was because I've read so much of P.G. Wodehouse's work this year that I was feeling somewhat intolerant but to my disappointment Ben Schott's homage simply doesn't flow in the manner of PGW. It all feels too laboured, as if Mr Schott is trying far too hard to cram in the bon mots and the sparkling prose. There are some amusing lines and pleasing scenes but nowhere near enough.
Click here to read my spoiler-free review
2/5
Jeeves and the King of Clubs: A Novel in Homage to P.G. Wodehouse
Mod
Reading the 20th Century
Books mentioned in this topic
Nothing Serious (other topics)The Code of the Woosters (other topics)
The Code of the Woosters (other topics)
Very Good, Jeeves! (other topics)
Nothing Serious (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
P.G. Wodehouse (other topics)P.G. Wodehouse (other topics)
P.G. Wodehouse (other topics)
P.G. Wodehouse (other topics)
P.G. Wodehouse (other topics)
More...
