Zuleika Dobson Buddy Read-first folder

[Christopher]

I was just thinking of the French maid vs. the landlady's daughter.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

Given earlier use of a long quote, here is my reply.

This is from Wodehouse, Something to Worry About a short story from early in his carrier. I think 1914 so not that much later than Zuleinka.
Granted that no one writes more delightful drivel than Plummy, this is still early years and not the full on master literary buffoon.

I choose this because this heroine is a much funnier femme fatal. For extra credit, PG gets there without the involvement of a University full of the impressionable. :

Quote
For he was not Sally's only victim in Millbourne. That was the trouble. Her beauty was not of that elusive type which steals imperceptibly into the vision of the rare connoisseur. It was sudden and compelling. It hit you. Bright brown eyes beneath a mass of fair hair, a determined little chin, a slim figure--these are disturbing things; and the youths of peaceful Millbourne sat up and took notice as one youth. Throw your mind back to the last musical comedy you saw. Recall the leading lady's song with chorus of young men, all proffering devotion simultaneously in a neat row. Well, that was how the lads of the village comported themselves towards Sally.

Mr and Mrs Williams, till then a highly-esteemed but little-frequented couple, were astonished at the sudden influx of visitors. The cottage became practically a salon. There was not an evening when the little sitting-room looking out on the garden was not packed. It is true that the conversation lacked some of the sparkle generally found in the better class of salon. To be absolutely accurate, there was hardly any conversation. The youths of Melbourne were sturdy and honest. They were the backbone of England. England, in her hour of need, could have called upon them with the comfortable certainty that, unless they happened to be otherwise engaged, they would leap to her aid.

End quote

[Christopher]

Gosh, Phred, I thought you might be quoting it to show how much Wodehouse learned from a close study of Zuleika D., but YMMV.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

It is possible that by study PG avoided Max's comedic short comings. More likely that MB was not esp trying to be funny.

Plus Plummy does a better job with the same plot in barely 16 pages.

[Christopher]

Wodehouse:

Her beauty was not of that elusive type which steals imperceptibly into the vision of the rare connoisseur. It was sudden and compelling. It hit you. Bright brown eyes beneath a mass of fair hair, a determined little chin, a slim figure--these are disturbing things; and the youths of peaceful Millbourne sat up and took notice as one youth.

Beerbohm:

Zuleika was not strictly beautiful. Her eyes were a trifle large, and their lashes longer than they need have been. An anarchy of small curls was her chevelure, a dark upland of misrule, every hair asserting its rights over a not discreditable brow. For the rest, her features were not at all original. They seemed to have been derived rather from a gallimaufry of familiar models. From Madame la Marquise de Saint-Ouen came the shapely tilt of the nose. The mouth was a mere replica of Cupid's bow, lacquered scarlet and strung with the littlest pearls. No apple-tree, no wall of peaches, had not been robbed, nor any Tyrian rose-garden, for the glory of Miss Dobson's cheeks. Her neck was imitation-marble. Her hands and feet were of very mean proportions. She had no waist to speak of. Yet, though a Greek would have railed at her asymmetry, and an Elizabethan have called her "gipsy," Miss Dobson now, in the midst of the Edwardian Era, was the toast of two hemispheres.

end quote

Debt acknowledged? Or, more tellingly, not acknowledged?

Admittedly, P.G. is the John Chrysostom version of MB's full St. Basil.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

Given that we are talking to two widely and wildly different sets of sensitivities on this subject methins this is much ado about nothing. In 2019 we have a hyper-aggressive determination to declare plagiarism. in 1914 it was expected as everyone had the right to take on the same ideas.

We can never know.

I am aware that PG openly stole at least one plot. His was at least a 3rd variation on How to Marry a Millionaire, Such was very common and almost never noticed. Plummy owned up to that one.

I will entertain both possibilities with the comment
Yeah ok, So?

Or one of my favorite quotes-
take your pick as to the variation. Unasked is who stole which from who, and when you decide there is also a Picasso version -

“A good composer does not imitate; he steals,” Igor Stravinsky .
Faulkner allegedly “Immature artists copy, great artists steal."
Steve Jobs “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

OTOH as much as I prefer Wodehouse for his kind of humor, I would never count him as a great artist.

If we are to burn PG for this a huge amount of western lit, pre-dating William , Stafford on Avon and going forward goes up in smoke.

My point is that PG did this stuff better.
My suspicion is that Max ended his foray into the novel with this one outing because he knew he was not that good.

[Christopher]

Check it. Max B. was the kind of guy who would call his first book The Works of Max Beerbohm- that's the joke.

So, yes, maybe he did not think the novel was the best form for him.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

Christopher wrote: "Check it. Max B. was the kind of guy who would call his first book The Works of Max Beerbohm- that's the joke.

So, yes, maybe he did not think the novel was the best form for him."

This quote is neither mine nor is it in any kind of context. It is from the reviews of the book you point too.
If nothing else I feel like I know nothing about Max the essayist, the reviewer or man of letters.

All that said I have to admire this kind of direct end the conversation review:
Did I miss the irony? My mind wandered to the Goncourts. There is nothing bitchy here. He is not Wilde.

[Christopher]

You would probably like his essays better than Z to the D.
Also The Happy Hypocrite, which is to The Picture of Dorian Gray what Love among the Chickens is to ZD.

[Abigail]

It seems like Beerbohm took the germ of a common idea (let's call it the It Girl trope) and blew it up into a mock-heroic comedy. One might as easily say he plagiarized "The Rape of the Lock." I've got no problem with that!

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

Abigail wrote: "It seems like Beerbohm took the germ of a common idea (let's call it the It Girl trope) and blew it up into a mock-heroic comedy. One might as easily say he plagiarized "The Rape of the Lock." I've..."

Nope, no comment. Just Lemme ponder this one.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog]

Believe it or not I was holding back on some things.
This is my summation
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jenny]

Cogent review. Thanks for sharing!
You should visit the Secret Agent discussion. Plenty of irony over there as well.