Wodehouse At Work To The End

by Richard Usborne

Cover worn, page edges tanned. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Genres: Biography

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 24, 1976

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erudite, if that's the word I'm looking for, review of the Wodehouse oeuvre, grouped into batches by main character (mostly). Not necessarily the funnest approach, and at times it is a little stodgy, but the decades-spanning survey does offer insights.

The last chapter has professional as well as amateur interest for me: RU reviews in some detail a translation into French of 'Joy in the Morning', RU's favourite and unquestionably a PG peak. Although the exercise is interesting, it seems a bit gratuitous, and Usborne's judgement unreasonably harsh, given that Wodehouse is among the most self-evidently untranslatable of writers.

Obviously for fans only, but for us definitely worth reading, before returning to the inexhaustible source.

[Tim Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone once remarked that to criticise Wodehouse was like taking a spade to a soufflé and in this classic appreciation (first published in 1961 and updated on Plum's death a few years later) Richard Usborne largely and wisely lets Wodehouse's words speak for themselves.
He begins with a brief overview of Wodehouse's career and an attempt to pin down the general feel and atmosphere of Wodehouse's enchanted world before subsequent chapters dedicated to the early school stories, Ukridge, Psmith  Blandings Castle, Jeeves and Wooster and the standalone novels and stories. Usborne is a perceptive and sensitive critic and it's no reflection on him that the best bits are the lengthy quotations from the Master's oeuvre. Essential for devotees.