Imperial Blandings: Pigs have Wings / Full Moon / Service with a Smile

by P.G. Wodehouse

This "Blandings" omnibus, starring the further exploits of the Earl of Emsworth and his acquaintances, contains "Pigs have Wings", "Full Moon" and "Service With a Smile".

Genres: Humor, Fiction, British Literature, Comedy

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE, was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read over 40 years after his death. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained that of prewar English upper-class society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career.

An acknowledged master of English prose, Wodehouse has been admired both by contemporaries such as Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by more recent writers such as Douglas Adams, Salman Rushdie and Terry Pratchett. Sean O'Casey famously called him "English literature's performing flea", a description that Wodehouse used as the title of a collection of his letters to a friend, Bill Townend.

Best known today for the Jeeves and Blandings Castle novels and short stories, Wodehouse was also a talented playwright and lyricist who was part author and writer of fifteen plays and of 250 lyrics for some thirty musical comedies. He worked with Cole Porter on the musical Anything Goes (1934) and frequently collaborated with Jerome Kern and Guy Bolton. He wrote the lyrics for the hit song Bill in Kern's Show Boat (1927), wrote the lyrics for the Gershwin/Romberg musical Rosalie (1928), and collaborated with Rudolf Friml on a musical version of The Three Musketeers (1928).

Reviews

[Menai N · Rating 5 out of 5]

PG Wodehouse, as ever, provides a delightfully light and snort-out-loud-on-occasion read - the Psmith series are my favourites but I may head back for a Fry & Laurie rewatch now my daughters are old enough to enjoy that too.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three books in this collection are probably grouped together because they're similar, but that does not make for good, non stop Wodehouse reading. Characters, plots, even phrases repeat themselves. Probably best to read each story years apart.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A selection of stories from Blandings Castle. Some very humorous stories. Emsworth is sure obsessed by Th3 pig though, that’s his whole life.

You get the usual plots, intrigue, lies and of course, romance.

[Saumya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing like re-reading the Blandings series for an entertaining time!

[Margaret Conmey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably 3.5 rating
I have never found the Blandings books as funny as Jeeves and Wooster but pleasant reading during Covid lockdown

[Vani · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining read, almost every sentence makes you chuckle.

[Hanna Laasberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good old British humour.

[Sanjiv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omnibus with the following titles
1, Full Moon
2. Pigs Have Wings
3. Service With A Smile

[Diva · Rating 5 out of 5]

three novels in one book,all of them pretty charming- while i have to say i liked the last one the best.

funny,witty and lovable, all Wodehouse.

[Saira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think three Wodehouse stories in a row is just too much. Comic relief is just not my type of writing, at least not for more than a short story.

[Enakshi Banerjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

a most satisfactory binge!

[Meera Narayan]

Can anyone say a word about the maestro - epic. Capital!