A Bally PG Wodehouse Thread, What?

[Rob McCow]

Si got a special deal on 10 PG Wodehouse books, Meaning that everything from The Inimitable Jeeves to Aunts Aren't Gentlemen arrived in a gigantic parcel.

At the mo I'm working through 'The Inimitable Jeeves', which as far as I can make out is the earliest book in the collection. It contains several two-chapter short stories, though not the story of how Jeeves entered the employ of Bertie Wooster.

Having recently watched and enjoyed the Fry and Laurie TV adaptation, I was ready to settle down and enjoy the book too. Unfortunately, after 200 or so pages it's failed to excite me.

The TV version drew heavily from this book for it's plots, though on TV they would run two or three stories concurrently through the course of an episode. This meant that although the episodes didn't all dovetail nicely, they had the building pressure on Bertie of a number of predicaments occuring at once. Taking them one a time makes it feel less farcical.

Although there are some wonderful linguistic flourishes, overall I felt it was written too simplistically to be involving and offer much over the TV series. I suspect that the fun of the stories lie in working out how Jeeves is going to save the day, or at least Bertie's pride. In that sense it was ruined by watching the TV show, as I know what's going to happen.

I'd like to try a full original novel that would be less familiar, to make sure of my feelings on Wodehouse - Does anyone have any recommendations?

[Lissa]

The Mating Season is good - it was adapted for TV but in a later season where they condensed a novel into a single episode and missed out much of the fun. Ditto Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves and Much Obliged Jeeves. All three will seem vaguely familiar but press on and you'll be rewarded.

The two from that set which weren't adapted - Jeeves in the Offing and Aunts Aren't Gentlemen - are thinner books (both literally and artistically). They're both fun in their own right but not as satisfying as some of the others.

Right Ho Jeeves is superb but was given a very faithful adaptation as the two-part finale to the first series of Jeeves and W. Likewise, The Code of the Woosters and Thank You Jeeves were given two episodes each of the second series and few liberties were taken.

Carry On Jeeves is another collection of short stories and includes the first meeting of gentleman and valet. It isn't the same story which launched the TV series but it was sort of incorporated into a later episode, albeit with different characters.

It sounds like one of the first three is what you're after but read all ten - your soul will thank you.

[Rob McCow]

Having failed to take good advice, I have instead plumped for the more recent acquisition 'The World of Blandings' which covers 'Something Fresh' and 'Summer Lightning' as well as two shorter stories, including 'Pig Hoo-ooo-ey!'

There were moments where I wasn't sure, but by the end I was convinced that these were brilliant. The usual pre-occupations are all present, from improper marriages to chorus girls to creeping around country houses with shotguns, but when the writing is this much fun it doesn't matter.

'Summer Lightning' was the pick of the crop with the return of The Efficient Baxter and the arrival of Galahad Threepwood, who's memoires are set to cause a bit of a stir (another standard plot device). What was great was having all these elements set off in different directions like clockwork mice and then watching them collide and run into each other. By the time the denouement arrives everything is being tied up so amusingly I was chuckling all the way through.

'Something Fresh' seemed to be a touch autobiographical, featuring the affairs of a young author from the Mammoth Publishing Company who is slowly drawn into the world of Blandings.

The names of the characters are a delight too. Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, Lady Constance, Young Millicent, Ronnie Fish, Frobisher Pilbeam... and of course Clarence Emmerson, Earl of Emsworth.

Great stuff and I'm looking forward to finding out later just what happened with those flower-pots in 'Leave it To Psmith'.