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Blandings Castle #7
Full Moon
When the moon is full at Blandings, strange things happen: among them the commissioning of a portrait of The Empress, twice in succession winner in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. What better choice of artist, in Lord Emsworth's opinion, than Landseer. The renowned painter of The Stag at Bay may have been dead for decades, but that doesn't prevent Galahad Threepwood from introducing him to the castle - or rather introducing Bill Lister, Gally's godson, so desperately in love with Prudence that he's determined to enter Blandings in yet another imposture. Add a gaggle of fearsome aunts, uncles and millionaires, mix in Freddie Threepwood, Beach the Butler and the gardener McAllister, and the moon is full indeed.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1947
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1287 people want to read
About the author
P.G. Wodehouse
1,680 books6,925 followersSir 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).
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).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 296 reviews
May 29, 2024
This was my three star review in June 2020...
Full Moon (1947) (Blandings Castle #7) is good, and a visit to Blandings Castle is always a joy.
Full Moon is not peak PGW though. All his books are formulaic but this is just a bit too obvious, and lacks sufficient hearty guffaw inducing moments.
American millionaire Tipton Plimsoll forsaking alcohol because he sees a ghastly, leering face whenever he drinks, is consistently funny though.
One for the completist, of which I am most definitely one, rather than the casual reader.
Additional comments written in May 2024....
Having reread this in May 2024 I wonder what I was thinking. I am currently reading the Blandings books in order and filling in a few gaps. Perhaps it is this that has given me a better appreciation of this book. Either way, it is splendid. I laughed a few times and, whilst pretty predictable in the usual PGW way, it is still a complete delight from start to finish.
It abounds with new members of the Threepwood family alongside old favourites, most notably the Right Hon Galahad aka Gally, and Freddie Threepwood now a man reborn. Plotwise, it's the usual romantic misunderstanings, aligned to a portrait of the Empress, imposters at Blandings, stern and austere aunts, an American millionaire and Bill Lister's unprepossessing face scaring the life out of Tippy Plimsoll.
The plotting is fabulous, the language is divine, and the bon mots come thick and fast. It's fab.
4/5
When the moon is full at Blandings, strange things happen: among them the commissioning of a portrait of The Empress, twice in succession winner in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. What better choice of artist, in Lord Emsworth's opinion, than Landseer. The renowned painter of The Stag at Bay may have been dead for decades, but that doesn't prevent Galahad Threepwood from introducing him to the castle - or rather introducing Bill Lister, Gally's godson, so desperately in love with Prudence that he's determined to enter Blandings in yet another imposture. Add a gaggle of fearsome aunts, uncles and millionaires, mix in Freddie Threepwood, Beach the Butler and the gardener McAllister, and the moon is full indeed.
Full Moon (1947) (Blandings Castle #7) is good, and a visit to Blandings Castle is always a joy.
Full Moon is not peak PGW though. All his books are formulaic but this is just a bit too obvious, and lacks sufficient hearty guffaw inducing moments.
American millionaire Tipton Plimsoll forsaking alcohol because he sees a ghastly, leering face whenever he drinks, is consistently funny though.
One for the completist, of which I am most definitely one, rather than the casual reader.
Additional comments written in May 2024....
Having reread this in May 2024 I wonder what I was thinking. I am currently reading the Blandings books in order and filling in a few gaps. Perhaps it is this that has given me a better appreciation of this book. Either way, it is splendid. I laughed a few times and, whilst pretty predictable in the usual PGW way, it is still a complete delight from start to finish.
It abounds with new members of the Threepwood family alongside old favourites, most notably the Right Hon Galahad aka Gally, and Freddie Threepwood now a man reborn. Plotwise, it's the usual romantic misunderstanings, aligned to a portrait of the Empress, imposters at Blandings, stern and austere aunts, an American millionaire and Bill Lister's unprepossessing face scaring the life out of Tippy Plimsoll.
The plotting is fabulous, the language is divine, and the bon mots come thick and fast. It's fab.
4/5
When the moon is full at Blandings, strange things happen: among them the commissioning of a portrait of The Empress, twice in succession winner in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. What better choice of artist, in Lord Emsworth's opinion, than Landseer. The renowned painter of The Stag at Bay may have been dead for decades, but that doesn't prevent Galahad Threepwood from introducing him to the castle - or rather introducing Bill Lister, Gally's godson, so desperately in love with Prudence that he's determined to enter Blandings in yet another imposture. Add a gaggle of fearsome aunts, uncles and millionaires, mix in Freddie Threepwood, Beach the Butler and the gardener McAllister, and the moon is full indeed.
June 27, 2023
Overall: 3.5
A rare 'dissent' in my corner re: a Wodehouse novel - and even that 'dissent' is minor. Essentially it's still a cracking good tale but, esp. for P.G. aficionados, the effect can leave a fan less enthused.
An entry from the Blandings Castle series, 'FM' contains the expected trappings and trimmings of the program. But the result can feel equal parts delightful and exhausting.
The cast of characters is on the small side, so the circles they spin in can feel repetitive - since all of the personal goals seem thinner than usual. Of course, the main 'operative' (getting in gear a bit late in the story) is the dependable Hon. Galahad ('Uncle Gally') Threepwood. Gally is considerable in terms of compensation. He's one of my favorites among the P.G. regulars. Such a charmer!
But the number of complications is also low - so, again, prone to repetition. Surprisingly, this is one of the longer works from Wodehouse. It's rare for me to sense one of his books wearing out its welcome. But this one seems somewhat over-written.
All that said... there are plenty of instances where the language and wit remain glorious. A whole big bunch of wonderful jokes pour out. One of my faves here was one of the throwaways, given to the beleaguered and lovesick Bill Lister. Secretly happening upon a letter that details the depths of his intended's devotion to him, he lets go 'with swelling heart': "Woof!"
A rare 'dissent' in my corner re: a Wodehouse novel - and even that 'dissent' is minor. Essentially it's still a cracking good tale but, esp. for P.G. aficionados, the effect can leave a fan less enthused.
An entry from the Blandings Castle series, 'FM' contains the expected trappings and trimmings of the program. But the result can feel equal parts delightful and exhausting.
The cast of characters is on the small side, so the circles they spin in can feel repetitive - since all of the personal goals seem thinner than usual. Of course, the main 'operative' (getting in gear a bit late in the story) is the dependable Hon. Galahad ('Uncle Gally') Threepwood. Gally is considerable in terms of compensation. He's one of my favorites among the P.G. regulars. Such a charmer!
But the number of complications is also low - so, again, prone to repetition. Surprisingly, this is one of the longer works from Wodehouse. It's rare for me to sense one of his books wearing out its welcome. But this one seems somewhat over-written.
All that said... there are plenty of instances where the language and wit remain glorious. A whole big bunch of wonderful jokes pour out. One of my faves here was one of the throwaways, given to the beleaguered and lovesick Bill Lister. Secretly happening upon a letter that details the depths of his intended's devotion to him, he lets go 'with swelling heart': "Woof!"
October 8, 2010
You know, I never get tired of the old Wodehouse formula. His hilarious writing makes you forget you've read nearly the same story a few times before.
Full Moon is a tale of Blandings Castle and has the usual suspects. You have the Ninth Earl, Lord Emsworth, his smooth talking brother Galahad Threepwood, the overbearing aunt, Hermione this time, unrequited love, and a pignapping. Still, it's as crisp as ever.
Lord Emsworth isn't on stage as often as I'd like but he makes it count when he is. Uncle Galahad is as slippery a character as always. Bill Lister and Tippy Plimsol both do their parts as the would be suitors. Plimsol has been told to quit drinking or he'd likely start having hallucinations. Enter Bill Lister, a large man with the unfortunate resemblance to a gorilla. Hilarity ensues.
If you've read Wodehouse before, you'll belly up to the bar for this one for sure. It's a winner. If you haven't read any Wodehouse yet, rectify this problem immediately!
Full Moon is a tale of Blandings Castle and has the usual suspects. You have the Ninth Earl, Lord Emsworth, his smooth talking brother Galahad Threepwood, the overbearing aunt, Hermione this time, unrequited love, and a pignapping. Still, it's as crisp as ever.
Lord Emsworth isn't on stage as often as I'd like but he makes it count when he is. Uncle Galahad is as slippery a character as always. Bill Lister and Tippy Plimsol both do their parts as the would be suitors. Plimsol has been told to quit drinking or he'd likely start having hallucinations. Enter Bill Lister, a large man with the unfortunate resemblance to a gorilla. Hilarity ensues.
If you've read Wodehouse before, you'll belly up to the bar for this one for sure. It's a winner. If you haven't read any Wodehouse yet, rectify this problem immediately!
July 25, 2021
Wodehouse’s satire of the British aristocracy is the Spitting Images of literature in this genre. Once again we are at Blanding Castle with an array of characters.
Clarence, 9th Earl of Emsworth is still obsessed with the Empress and is search of an artist to immortalize her on canvas. His younger son Freddie is back from America flogging his companies dog biscuits to the gentry. Two of Clarence’s nieces, Prudence Garland and Veronica Wedge are staying at Blanding Castle and both are romantically entangled with, respectively, Gally's godson Bill Lister gorilla like in appearance and American millionaire Tipton Plimsoll. Veronica is staggeringly beautiful but alas as dumb as a doorpost.
Complications arise when the drunken Tipton thinks that Bill's gorilla-like face is an apparition brought about by too much drink. Lister, pretends to be a famous animal artist to paint the Empress. Veronica’s parents want her to marry Tipton. They forbid Prudence their niece to marry Lister even though he owns a pub in Oxford.
In steps Uncle Gally to assist his godson Lister and spread some sweetness and light. A mixup with Freddie’s wife’s diamond necklace, drain pipe shenanigans and hilarity endues.
Clarence, 9th Earl of Emsworth is still obsessed with the Empress and is search of an artist to immortalize her on canvas. His younger son Freddie is back from America flogging his companies dog biscuits to the gentry. Two of Clarence’s nieces, Prudence Garland and Veronica Wedge are staying at Blanding Castle and both are romantically entangled with, respectively, Gally's godson Bill Lister gorilla like in appearance and American millionaire Tipton Plimsoll. Veronica is staggeringly beautiful but alas as dumb as a doorpost.
Complications arise when the drunken Tipton thinks that Bill's gorilla-like face is an apparition brought about by too much drink. Lister, pretends to be a famous animal artist to paint the Empress. Veronica’s parents want her to marry Tipton. They forbid Prudence their niece to marry Lister even though he owns a pub in Oxford.
In steps Uncle Gally to assist his godson Lister and spread some sweetness and light. A mixup with Freddie’s wife’s diamond necklace, drain pipe shenanigans and hilarity endues.
December 13, 2018
Get a load of this first paragraph of the book:
"The refined moon which served Blandings Castle and district was nearly at its full, and the ancestral home of Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth had for some hours now been flooded by its silver rays. They shone on turret and battlement; peeped respectfully in upon Lord Emsworth's sister, Lady Hermione Wedge, as she creamed her face in the Blue Room; and stole through the open window of the Red Room next door, where there was something really worth looking at - Veronica Wedge, Lady Hermione's outstandingly beautiful daughter, who was lying in bed staring at the ceiling and wishing she had some decent jewelry to wear at the forthcoming County Ball."
Can you BUHLEEVE that? I love the feeling of peeping into one room then another, one creaming her face and one staring at the ceiling, OMGosh!!
And it's MOONLIGHT that's doing the peeping, stealing around. And since it's moonlight, as my sister (Lori McGregor) said, it's safe and gentle, giving the feeling that all's well with the world. OMG!
"The refined moon which served Blandings Castle and district was nearly at its full, and the ancestral home of Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth had for some hours now been flooded by its silver rays. They shone on turret and battlement; peeped respectfully in upon Lord Emsworth's sister, Lady Hermione Wedge, as she creamed her face in the Blue Room; and stole through the open window of the Red Room next door, where there was something really worth looking at - Veronica Wedge, Lady Hermione's outstandingly beautiful daughter, who was lying in bed staring at the ceiling and wishing she had some decent jewelry to wear at the forthcoming County Ball."
Can you BUHLEEVE that? I love the feeling of peeping into one room then another, one creaming her face and one staring at the ceiling, OMGosh!!
And it's MOONLIGHT that's doing the peeping, stealing around. And since it's moonlight, as my sister (Lori McGregor) said, it's safe and gentle, giving the feeling that all's well with the world. OMG!
March 26, 2021
More daffy shenanigans at Blandings Castle! Misunderstandings, deceptions and love quadrangles gone astray pollute the local waters with hilarious consequences in Full Moon! This has been one of the best Wodehouses I've read since discovering ol' Plum and going on a deep Jeeves and Wooster binge. The Honourable Frederick Threepwood actually has a bit of a spine in this edition. It's as if some of the better portions of good old Uncle Galahad have rubbed off on him and it is quite refreshing! If you haven't already read Full Moon and you think this sounds like the stuff to give the troops, well then, tally ho ol' bean, and get thee to a bookery!
October 25, 2015
Hilarious, laugh-out-loud, softly giggle to oneself kind of book. Most of the characters are easily identifiable and that's what makes P.G. one of the greatest writers of his time. Situational comedy is hard to depict but he seems to be a master at it.
December 9, 2024
A laugh out loud Blandings Castle adventure featuring two star-crossed couples, The Empress (oft crowned fattest pig in the county), a diamond necklace and the usual assortment of interfering aunts. Pure Wodehouse gold.
September 16, 2016
3.5 stars
A fun entry in the Blandings Castle series revolving around the love affairs of 2 of Emsworth's nieces but not the zaniest of the series. Paul Galdone's illustrations were an added bonus :)
A fun entry in the Blandings Castle series revolving around the love affairs of 2 of Emsworth's nieces but not the zaniest of the series. Paul Galdone's illustrations were an added bonus :)
October 10, 2016
Enjoyable, amusing and entertaining, a very well written story.
This is the first Wodehouse I have read (on the recommendation of a friend) and it strikes me that this is very similar in tone, nature and style to the 'Ladies' Detective Agency' series by Alexander McCall Smith (of which I have read many) - presumably McCall Smith is a fan of Wodehouse's?
Great escapism to a long gone time and place that never really existed.
This is the first Wodehouse I have read (on the recommendation of a friend) and it strikes me that this is very similar in tone, nature and style to the 'Ladies' Detective Agency' series by Alexander McCall Smith (of which I have read many) - presumably McCall Smith is a fan of Wodehouse's?
Great escapism to a long gone time and place that never really existed.
August 30, 2021
This book has many clever moments but also felt longer than the usual Wodehouse. It has Lord E. largely on the sidelines while his brother Galahad and sister Hermoine are more involved in the hijinks which, as usual, revolve around achieving the proper coupling. I was pleased to see Lord E's son Freddy portrayed as more capable than normal.
While this is not top tier Wodehouse nor top tier Blandings, it still had sufficient guffaw inducing lines and scenes to warrant a 4 star rating.
While this is not top tier Wodehouse nor top tier Blandings, it still had sufficient guffaw inducing lines and scenes to warrant a 4 star rating.
July 15, 2024
I’ve just read Dante. His Paradiso would be a dreary place, lacking drama, emotion, laughter. If there were a paradise, surely it would be much more like Blandings.
March 12, 2019
"A silence ensued. When a young man of shy disposition, accustomed to the more Bohemian society of Chelsea, finds himself alone on her home ground with the daughter of a hundred earls and cannot forget that at their last meeting he mistook her for the cook and tipped her half a crown; and when the daughter of the hundred earls, already strongly prejudiced against the young man as an intruder, has begun to suspect that he is the miscreant who recently chivvied her only child and is doing his best to marry her niece against the wishes of the family, it is almost too much to expect that the conversation will proceed from the first with an easy flow." (194)Things were getting a little heavy, so I decided to sneak in another Wodehouse (so it goes). I don't know how many of his works I have to my credit at this point, and I dare not think of what will happen when I reach the end of his oeuvre; all I know is that I love him, and I love my girlfriend even more than I already did for bringing Wodehouse into my life.
April 15, 2009
Ah, P.G. Wodehouse is good for the soul. Helps you take life less seriously. I got interrupted in my reading a little more than I'd like with this book, but still had a lot of fun. Brought me back to my younger years when my whole family would take Wodehouse on family vacations and read them and swap them around. There aren't a lot of books out there that make me laugh out loud, but Wodehouse does. If you're new to Wodehouse this probably isn't a starter book. It doesn't really matter, but there are characters from previous books and if you know them already it is funnier.
January 6, 2024
Such glorious wit! And such brilliant writing! Glad to start 2024 off with this gem.
I started Blandings Castle off mid-series (because that was the only book lying around my parents' place that I wanted to read when I visited them this holiday season), but I wasn't lost at all, and blended right in to the situations and connected right away with the characters. I guess that is another feather in the cap of the genius that is Wodehouse.
Reading PGW is indeed "in the best and deepest sense a bit of all right".
I started Blandings Castle off mid-series (because that was the only book lying around my parents' place that I wanted to read when I visited them this holiday season), but I wasn't lost at all, and blended right in to the situations and connected right away with the characters. I guess that is another feather in the cap of the genius that is Wodehouse.
Reading PGW is indeed "in the best and deepest sense a bit of all right".
May 14, 2018
Fun. Also read in September of 1982. Finished again in May of 2018.
February 11, 2025
Written in 1947, after Wodehouse's experience of being interned by the Nazis (he was living in France when it was taken over). And yet, it sparkles with all the joy of the interwar period in which it is implicitly set, like all classic Wodehouse. The only difference I can see is that the pre-war Wodehouse probably wouldn't have mentioned a character's brassiere.
Like every Blandings Castle novel, it features imposture, but in this case takes it to an extreme; Bill, the disapproved suitor of one of Lord Emsworth's nieces, comes to the castle three times under three different identities, only one of which has any form of disguise (an enormous false beard that makes him look like an Assyrian king), and all three identities talk to Lord Emsworth, but that woolen-headed peer has so poor a memory for faces that he doesn't twig that both of the artists he employs to paint his pig's portrait are actually the same person. His far more intelligent (and less moral) brother Galahad assures the young man that he can rely on Lord Emsworth's vagueness, and so it proves.
It looks for a while there as if Freddie Threepwood, Lord Emsworth's younger son, who is now a go-getting salesman for his American father-in-law's dog biscuit empire, is going to end up as the person who inevitably but reluctantly funds the deserving young couple of the moment, but this departure from the classic formula (in which the older generation, or the undeserving, do this kind of funding) is averted at the last minute through Gally's complicated manipulation of everyone in sight.
We get to meet some new members of the Threepwood clan, including the Wedges: Lady Hermione (Lord Emsworth's sister, who unfortunately looks like a cook), Colonel Egbert, and their daughter Veronica, whose outstanding qualities are a lack of intelligence and extraordinary beauty, plus a love of jewellery. It looks like Freddie's friend Tipton, a wealthy American, will be able to ignore the lack of intelligence for the sake of the beauty and supply the jewellery in bulk, but the course of true love runs very rough indeed for a while, not only for them but also for Freddie's other cousin Prue and her artist fiancé Bill.
The ups and downs and complications and farcical impostures, misunderstandings and assorted maneuverings, and the witty prose, scattered with a mixture of quotations from classic English literature and slang, are all well up to the classic Wodehouse standard. A strong entry in a delightful series.
Like every Blandings Castle novel, it features imposture, but in this case takes it to an extreme; Bill, the disapproved suitor of one of Lord Emsworth's nieces, comes to the castle three times under three different identities, only one of which has any form of disguise (an enormous false beard that makes him look like an Assyrian king), and all three identities talk to Lord Emsworth, but that woolen-headed peer has so poor a memory for faces that he doesn't twig that both of the artists he employs to paint his pig's portrait are actually the same person. His far more intelligent (and less moral) brother Galahad assures the young man that he can rely on Lord Emsworth's vagueness, and so it proves.
It looks for a while there as if Freddie Threepwood, Lord Emsworth's younger son, who is now a go-getting salesman for his American father-in-law's dog biscuit empire, is going to end up as the person who inevitably but reluctantly funds the deserving young couple of the moment, but this departure from the classic formula (in which the older generation, or the undeserving, do this kind of funding) is averted at the last minute through Gally's complicated manipulation of everyone in sight.
We get to meet some new members of the Threepwood clan, including the Wedges: Lady Hermione (Lord Emsworth's sister, who unfortunately looks like a cook), Colonel Egbert, and their daughter Veronica, whose outstanding qualities are a lack of intelligence and extraordinary beauty, plus a love of jewellery. It looks like Freddie's friend Tipton, a wealthy American, will be able to ignore the lack of intelligence for the sake of the beauty and supply the jewellery in bulk, but the course of true love runs very rough indeed for a while, not only for them but also for Freddie's other cousin Prue and her artist fiancé Bill.
The ups and downs and complications and farcical impostures, misunderstandings and assorted maneuverings, and the witty prose, scattered with a mixture of quotations from classic English literature and slang, are all well up to the classic Wodehouse standard. A strong entry in a delightful series.
October 12, 2021
I got to read the original 1947 first edition of Full Moon, complete with illustrations by Paul Galdone, a book that I handled with reverential care for wont of inflicting the smallest damage to the copy.
Full Moon is a riotously funny Blandings Castle story, what with the ninth Earl of Emsworth, Clarence Threepwood at his absentminded best, and the rich American millionaire Tipton Plimsoll seeing apparitions, when in reality, the sightings were that of the hapless Bill Lister, friend of Freddie Threepwood, and godson to the Hon. Galahad Threepwood. The story revolves around Galahad’s efforts to firm up the engagement of two of his nieces, Veronica to Plimsoll, and Prudence to Lister. A story set in Blandings cannot be without an overbearing sister of Clarence, a role played this time by Hermione Wedge. Clarence’s beloved pig, the Empress of Blandings only makes a cameo appearance.
Full Moon is yet another fine display of humorous writing, a book in which Wodehouse wields English language at his best, bending it to his will, with the delightful result of endless joy to his readers.
Full Moon is a riotously funny Blandings Castle story, what with the ninth Earl of Emsworth, Clarence Threepwood at his absentminded best, and the rich American millionaire Tipton Plimsoll seeing apparitions, when in reality, the sightings were that of the hapless Bill Lister, friend of Freddie Threepwood, and godson to the Hon. Galahad Threepwood. The story revolves around Galahad’s efforts to firm up the engagement of two of his nieces, Veronica to Plimsoll, and Prudence to Lister. A story set in Blandings cannot be without an overbearing sister of Clarence, a role played this time by Hermione Wedge. Clarence’s beloved pig, the Empress of Blandings only makes a cameo appearance.
Full Moon is yet another fine display of humorous writing, a book in which Wodehouse wields English language at his best, bending it to his will, with the delightful result of endless joy to his readers.
Read
May 23, 2016What better reading for a spring visit to the balmy country seat of the Sarlls, especially when the Moon is still pretty much full? It's the usual Blandings formula - star-crossed lovers, stern aunt, funny business involving the ancestral porker - and none the worse for that, though here the form is perhaps being refined to the point of decadence. The doubling and interweaving of the romance plots must have required the most needle-sharp planning, but it was worth it; of all Blandings' imposters, I suspect none ever got quite so many bum's rushes as poor plug-faced Bill Lister, yet never does the repetition stale. And obviously I still want to be Gally Threepwood when I grow up.
May 2, 2024
All the usual characters and the usual silliness, high jinks, mistaken/assumed identities, romantic antics, muddled messages, and, of course, The Empress of Blandings. I especially enjoyed young Freddie Threepwood, back from the USA and flexing his new sales techniques for Donaldson’s Dog Joy; and Tipton Plimsoll’s recurring “hallucination.” Plus, Galahad is at his charming, devious best. Nothing particularly new, but there’s something comforting about that.
February 11, 2023
The 3 star rating still holds good. Not one of Wodehouse's better works .
Nevertheless, gave me a few chuckles .
Star crossed lovers , a pig waiting to be painted , the earl whose mind is full of Empress of Blandings, his debonair younger brother , now well into his sixties, ans the younger son who is supposedly and thankfully well married off to a US heiress coming back. All the umpteen stern older female relatives , beautiful lovelorn younger female relatives.
It's mayhem time in Blandings castle, especially when it's fullmoon.
Nevertheless, gave me a few chuckles .
Star crossed lovers , a pig waiting to be painted , the earl whose mind is full of Empress of Blandings, his debonair younger brother , now well into his sixties, ans the younger son who is supposedly and thankfully well married off to a US heiress coming back. All the umpteen stern older female relatives , beautiful lovelorn younger female relatives.
It's mayhem time in Blandings castle, especially when it's fullmoon.
July 3, 2021
This was precisely what the doctor ordered — a tonic to leave me feeling fizzy and boomps-a-daisy after spending about 900 pages with the siege of Stalingrad. Full Moon wins the cigar AND the coconut.
October 23, 2014
Laugh out loud funny, especially enjoyed the perceived alcoholic visions of Tipton Plimsall.
December 21, 2019
Leering faces, dog biscuits and false beards. The usual mayhem at Blandings Castle.
February 23, 2022
Fun. Fun. Fun.
July 28, 2017
The omnibus has been sitting in my shelf for Lord knows however long. It is one those books, the ones that you buy but tend to forget about, because their cover lacks a certain lustre that attracts a normal casual reader.
Well mind you, I take &nbs
p;pride to call myself a very devoted and ardent reader , but I have acquired this attribute of mine only quite recently. If one goes back to say four years prior to this day, I wasn't much of a in-depth , book sniffing reader that I am today. That is perhaps why, this book which was given to me with quite good intentions by a distant cousin a good lot of 10 years ago, didnt catch my attention. To be fair, i was quite wary of it and the cover didn't interest me one bit.
And Lord why won't I be ?
I was a 4th grader, very much used to reading Blyton and dreaming about stars wars and this was a book with a picture of a pig on it !
How unbecoming ! And a inscrutable diction at that
Wretched !
Safe to say, I left the book to catch dust in that old dilapidated shelf of mine, rotting with cockroaches and all the insects familia, that happened to make the shelf their summer home for a while.
Fast forward 10 years, I am a student of literature , dancing my way through classics, that I literally stumble upon this one.
Now now ! P.G Wodehouse wasn't an unfamiliar name to me at all, but why of course I had never read a work of him !
So I took the book out, finally understanding the meaning of omnibus got on to reading it.
I read it for five straight hours.
Five hours of my otherwise boring life, in utter and rapt attention.
I laughted.
A lot.
Why you ask ?
Because Wodehouse is hilarious, his characters dumb and enigmatic.
His writing commendable and gripping.
And my God the Empress of Blandings ! What a beauty.
Right now I am ordering more Wodehouse and cursing myself for not reading it oh so many years ago.
There is a magic in him, a spell quite esoteric. A comic timing quite uncanny and characters quite brilliant.
If you haven't read him already, kindly do not stop on my account.
Go and read !
Well mind you, I take &nbs
p;pride to call myself a very devoted and ardent reader , but I have acquired this attribute of mine only quite recently. If one goes back to say four years prior to this day, I wasn't much of a in-depth , book sniffing reader that I am today. That is perhaps why, this book which was given to me with quite good intentions by a distant cousin a good lot of 10 years ago, didnt catch my attention. To be fair, i was quite wary of it and the cover didn't interest me one bit.
And Lord why won't I be ?
I was a 4th grader, very much used to reading Blyton and dreaming about stars wars and this was a book with a picture of a pig on it !
How unbecoming ! And a inscrutable diction at that
Wretched !
Safe to say, I left the book to catch dust in that old dilapidated shelf of mine, rotting with cockroaches and all the insects familia, that happened to make the shelf their summer home for a while.
Fast forward 10 years, I am a student of literature , dancing my way through classics, that I literally stumble upon this one.
Now now ! P.G Wodehouse wasn't an unfamiliar name to me at all, but why of course I had never read a work of him !
So I took the book out, finally understanding the meaning of omnibus got on to reading it.
I read it for five straight hours.
Five hours of my otherwise boring life, in utter and rapt attention.
I laughted.
A lot.
Why you ask ?
Because Wodehouse is hilarious, his characters dumb and enigmatic.
His writing commendable and gripping.
And my God the Empress of Blandings ! What a beauty.
Right now I am ordering more Wodehouse and cursing myself for not reading it oh so many years ago.
There is a magic in him, a spell quite esoteric. A comic timing quite uncanny and characters quite brilliant.
If you haven't read him already, kindly do not stop on my account.
Go and read !
March 14, 2021
As several other Goodreads reviewers have remarked, this is probably not the Wodehouse to recommend to a friend who has never read him. Galahad at Blandings, which comes a little later in the series and has more of the Wodehouse spark, might be the one for that. But this one is certainly good enough, and it cheered me up, as Wodehouse always does. His perfect rhythms and high style describing trivial things never seem to grow old.
He was feeling very low now, low and despondent, and taking all the circumstances into consideration it seemed to him that the best thing to do was to step into the park and take a look at the ducks on the Serpentine. He had often found the spectacle of these agreeable birds act as a sedative in times of mental stress, soothing the soul and bringing new life and courage. And, indeed, there is always something very restful about a duck.
Very true. But, despite the title, the full moon plays very little part. And the pig never gets its portrait painted.
He was feeling very low now, low and despondent, and taking all the circumstances into consideration it seemed to him that the best thing to do was to step into the park and take a look at the ducks on the Serpentine. He had often found the spectacle of these agreeable birds act as a sedative in times of mental stress, soothing the soul and bringing new life and courage. And, indeed, there is always something very restful about a duck.
Very true. But, despite the title, the full moon plays very little part. And the pig never gets its portrait painted.
September 17, 2020
I periodically reread Wodehouse's Blandings castle books, and every time I read them I laugh almost as much as the first time. The stories are mostly in the spirit of light operetas and involve love affairs or rivalries of the British upper class. The characters live in a perpetually care free world and the slightest cloud in their affairs causes them immense consternation. As far as their structure is concerned, the stories are merely amusing, but the way they are told makes them tremendously funny.
October 2, 2024
I think I may actually prefer the Blandings hijinks to the Jeeves / Wooster adventures. (If this be Wodehouse treason, make the most of it.) This is a laugh out loud tale of true love's course not running smooth for more than one couple. Freddie Threepwood is a joy and my favorite parts of any Blandings story are when he is on stage.
Lord Emsworth doesn't do much in this one, except muddy the water for the other characters. Galahad is the fairy god-father to several of the tangled situations with plenty of opportunity for zinging off some hilarious one liners.
Lord Emsworth doesn't do much in this one, except muddy the water for the other characters. Galahad is the fairy god-father to several of the tangled situations with plenty of opportunity for zinging off some hilarious one liners.
February 18, 2020
I mean, these books are all basically the same -- quirky characters at Blandings Castle, at least one of whom is pretending to be someone else but is inevitably found out, love affairs sidetracked by misunderstandings involving pigs or paintings or pearl necklaces, happy endings all around. But the prose stylings are fantastic and hilarious, the "plots" are tight, and they're all just deeply comfortable, comforting reads.
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