Spring Fever

by P.G. Wodehouse

Wealthy New York businessman G. Ellery Cobbold has sent his son Stanwood, a blundering ex-American football player, to London, to separate him from Hollywood starlet Eileen Stoker with whom he is in love. When Cobbold discovers that Stoker is also in London, making pictures, he insists that Stanwood goes to stay with a distant relation, curmudgeonly widower Lord Shortlands.

Spring Fever is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published on 20 May 1948, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States by Doubleday and Co, New York. Although not featuring any of Wodehouse's regular characters, the cast contains a typical Wodehousean selection of English aristocrats, wealthy Americans, household staff and imposters.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Comedy, Classics, 20th Century, British Literature, Novels

276 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1948

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

[Dan Schwent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lord Shortlands (aka Shorty) needs 200 pounds so he can open a pub and marry his cook but he's competing with his own butler for her affections. Mike Cardinal wants to marry Terry Cobbold, Shorty's daughter, but she thinks he's too good-looking and a player. Standwood Cobbold wants to marry the actress Eileen Stoker but his father won't hear of it. Throw in a valuable postage stamp, imposters, mistaken identity, broken engagements, and a domineering daughter and watch the chaos ensue...

I've been feeling crabby and directionless lately so I picked up a P.G. Wodehouse novel and started reading a couple days ago. While I'm still somewhat crabby and directionless, I'm also working a lot of 1930's British slang into my regular routine. The point is, I'd enjoy reading P.G. Wodehouse even if I was simultaneously hacksawing one of my own legs off.

Spring Fever was written during the apex of Wodehouse's career and it shows. Wodehouse maneuvers his characters through the story like a puppeteer. The plot twists are impeccably timed, hitting at the end of the chapters and making the book very nearly unputdownable.

Wodehouse is a writer firmly in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school. While he's worked from the same plot for nearly all of his books, it's always a pleasure to see what new wrinkles he adds to the old situations. I loved that Mike Cardinal's butler used to be a safecracker, that Shorty's butler has a gambling problem, and that Teresa Cobbold is a strong willed female cast from the same mold as a lot of other Wodehouse heroines.

The wordplay is a huge draw from me in Wodehouse books and this one was no exception, from the antiquated British slang to the insults to throwaway references to the elder Cobbold's secretary's shorthand resembling pneumonia germs, Spring Fever has a high grins per page rating.

While it's not a Jeeves or Blandings Castle book, Spring Fever is firmly a top shelf Wodehouse. If you want to see the master of the comedic novel at the top of his game, look no further.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic comedic Wodehouse. Lord Shortland aka Shorty needs £200 to marry his cook. Alas he is not a wealthy Lord so must use his wits to find the dosh. Hilarity ensues. Two Americans looking for love, crooked butlers and mistaken identity had me laughing in this little gem.

[Sketchbook · Rating 3 out of 5]

After Joan Didion (I'm resistant to her) and "Democracy," at last : a serious novel. (Joanie came on lit scene with NY lit establishment behind her...I could never deal w that 60s book jacket photo; highly neurotica. But never mind, it had to be a difficult marriage as John Gregory vaporized....(they both had a hideous time writing a moderne "Star is Born" for mentl Streisand..need one say mo?; yes, they were pd a fortune) -- You cant drive away your mentls today on LA freeways ("Play It As..."). They are clogged -- .

Back to P G, the toff. --. Here's a daffy 30s musical, published in 1948. Let's pretend: Bea Lillie as the autocratic Lady Adela who rules dada (Lord Shortlands played x Victor Moore), who has special fondness for daughter Terry (Gertie Lawrence)...while she diddles and teases two beaux (William Gaxton and Clifton Webb). It's utter nonsense, but the best quality of the Brits is their embrace of nonsense. It makes em special. Hence I call this nonsense .. serious...while the seriously dour Joan Didion is always nonsense.

There's sniff-sniff "romance" at Castle Beevor as philatelists (ssh!, dunt ask--) suffer inferior vintage as they consider the 10 Commandments and court, with distaste, nervous prostration. But, rest assured: PG is always sexless. And no bad words. The worstest: chap buries his face in a pillow and ejaculates: "Oh, gosh !"

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 3 out of 5]

"'Stanwood, old man,' said Mike in a quivering voice, 'I take back all the things I said about you. Forget that I called you a dish-faced moron.'
'You didn't.'
'Well, I meant to.'" (148)

Having by now read a great deal of Wodehouse, I am hunting down the remaining and thankfully still numerous not-yet-read works. Spring Fever (1948) was up next, and turned out to be a solid bit of fun.

[Illiterate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A meticulous study of how mid-century hardships forced the landed aristocracy to emigrate to California.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I shouldn't review any Wodehouse, for the simple reason that I am a Wodehouse harlot: any Wodehouse, anywhere, any time. That said, I enjoyed this lesser-known PGW novel. The characters were well-drawn and the plot typically complicated and hilarious.

[Balazs Almasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Az egyik legjobb könyv Wodehouse-tól, pedig már elég sokat olvastam tőle... :)
A legtöbb könyvének gyakorlatilag szinte ugyanaz az alaptörténete, és itt sincs ez másként, szokás szerint egy vidéki kastélyban játszódik a történet, szokás szerint románcok szövődnek, és szokás szerint mindenki félreért mindenkit, és persze szokás szerint működik a bevált recept!
Külön pozitívum, hogy ebben a könyvben nincs túlzottan idióta szereplő, és minden karakternek megvan a maga bája, még a megtért bűnözőnek is...
A fordító is remek munkát végzett, teljesen átjön az író stílusa, a védjegyévé vált nagydumás szereplő is teljesen hiteles tud maradni. Még az elég nehezen fordítható nyelvi poénokba se tört bele a fordító bicskája, pedig azzal nem lehetett könnyű megbirkózni...
Összességében ez egy nagyon jól olvasható, fordulatos, kacagtató könyv, ami akkor is mosolyt tud csalni az arcodra, ha épp nincs jó napod... Én legalábbis rengetegszer nem bírtam ellenállni annak, hogy vigyor üljön ki az arcomra :)
Nagy izgalmak persze nincsenek a könyvben, de itt kivételesen az utolsó oldalig nyitott marad, hogy mi lesz az egyes szálakkal, és ki örülhet, ki bánkódhat a végén...
Ez a könyv biztosan ott lesz a mindenkori kedvenc Wodehouse regényeim listáján!

[Ian Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘These times in which we live are not good times for Earls. Theirs was a great racket while it lasted, but the boom days are over.’ So says Wodehouse of Lord Shortlands living out of the carefully measured pocket of his daughter Lady Adela. If only he could raise two hundred pounds as down payment on a pub he could elope with his cook.

Lord Shortlands plan is complicated by the butler competing for the affections of the cook, Stanwood Cobbold and his ex-burglar valet, August Robb and the on-off engagement of daughter Teresa to Mike Cardinal.

Lord Shortlands other daughter Clare is also engaged to Cosmo Blair an artist of some repute, ‘Don’t call him a pot-bellied perisher!’, ‘Well, what else can you call him?’ asked Lord Shortlands, like Roget trying to collect material for his Thesaurus. Not good time for Earls but good times for readers of Wodehouse’s patented brand of comic novelette.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect Wodehouse. His uniquely humorous writing is top notch in this one. The witty banter may be slightly over the top, but also quite amusing. Lots of twists to the story to keep you engaged and entertained. One of my new favorites of his now!

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mild Wodehouse, with snappy dialogue but with no particularly memorable characters. Entertaining enough, none the less.

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a large pile of light comedic reading this man left behind him...and he never fails to bring the reader enjoyment.

In this novel, he gives us a leading lady who has to be convinced to love a rich, extremely good looking suitor, a snooping burglaratorious butler, an ex-footballer in love with a Hollywood movie star, a frustrated Earl who wishes to marry the cook, his censorious daughter who keeps him in rigid line...and of course, mix-ups and barmy plans to bring everything to a satisfactory conclusion run rampant throughout.

Wodehouse provides the occasional laugh out loud remark and general enjoyment throughout. It's delightful and frivolous fun. Pick up a copy!

[Tamsin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun. Many people want to get married. Some succeed. Great and varied set of characters. A good farce.

[Amr Moufid · Rating 4 out of 5]

" he counted his blessings one by one and found them totting up to a highly satisfactory total."

" for hers was a romantic nature.. "

" A great many prosperous fathers have this adhesive attitude towards their wealth when the issue show a disposition to declare themselves in on the gross. "

" The morning wore on, filled with its little tasks and duties. "

" He mistrusted Stanwood's ability to choose wisely in this vital matter of selecting a life partner, for though he loved his child he did not think highly of his intelligence.. he must be saved from himself. "

" It is one of the great advantages of being a tycoon that your life trains you to take decisions at the drop of the hat. Where lesser men scratch their heads and twiddle their fingers, the tycoon acts. "

" a personable young woman with large eyes, curving lips and apparently lemon-coloured hair. "

" There are certain words which at certain times seem to go straight to the foundations of the soul. "

" He was a large, spreading man with a bald forehead, small eyes, extensive ears and a pasty face. "

" A peach of a girl.. "

" She was a girl who had an annoying habit of paying no attention to questions.. "

" Coming events do not always cast their shadows before them. "

" The eccentricity of her conversational methods bewildered Lord Shortlands.. "

" some people are made incompatible by nature.. "

" I'm just a bird in a gilded cage. "

" Enjoy the evening of her life, and all that. "

" some man had let her down pretty badly, and now she's looking for someone she can rely on."

" It's the soul that counts.. "

" The sort of life he had been living for the last few years makes a man a realist. "

" She shared her sister's views about not overdoing it when you are aiding indigent villagers. "

" It is not often that anyone sees an Earl in the act of not believing his ears. Lady Adela was privileged to do so now. "

" quivering with the self-pity which came so easily to him. "

" Lord Shortlands had no difficulty in reading their message. It was that fine old family slogan ' Not a word to the wife! ' "

" It will go down in story and song. "

" The bruised heart demands utterance. "

" Most unpleasant, being dependent on people. "

" An old head on young shoulders.. "

" In this world.. the real trouble is always dough. "

" The young fellow and he were just ships that pass in the night. They had met and spoken, and now they would part, never to meet again."

" Her eyes are heavenly. I don't suppose there's another pair of eyes like that in existence. "

" she's a little fathead and doesn't know what's good for her.. I keep pointing out to her that it's no use looking like an angel, if you can't spot a good man when you see one. "

" His heart is the heart of a little child. But, like the little child whom in heart he so resembles, he has a tendency to lisp artlessly whatever comes into his head. His reputation is that of a man who, if there are beans to be spilled, will spill them with a firm and steady hand. "

" I thought it a composition calculated to melt a heart of stone. "

" Much may be done by persistence and perseverance. "

" A lover's paradise. Sauntering in the shrubberies, seated on the rustic benches, pacing the velvet lawns in the scented dusk and fishing for eels together in the moat.. "

" Terry gave a little squeak of surprise. "

" Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive. "

" But a great sorrow had just come into his life, earthquakes and black frosts had been playing havoc with his garden of dreams, and at such moments the urge to tell all to anyone who happens to be handy cannot be resisted. "

" You young fellows will keep giving them flattery and adulation, when what they really need is a good clump over the ear-'ole, and that makes 'em get above themselves. "

" She says you can't stop marriage being a bust, if the wife has all the dough. "

" Women always admire courage. And how quickly admiration turns to love. Like a flash. It won't be long before you are weeping salt tears and asking me if I can ever forgive you for having tortured me with your coldness. "

" He had been sitting there for some little time, feeling with the poet that of all sad words of tongue or pen the saddest are these: It might have been.. "

" Into each life some rain must fall. "

" I have a rather unpleasant habit of painting a set-up in the darkest colours in order to make the joybells, when they ring, sound louder. "

" He worries. He lets things prey on his mind. "

" 'Yours is a beautiful nature; kind, sweet, gentle, dovelike, the very type of nature that one wants to have around the house. Will you marry me?'

'No.' "

" Up against this dark and subtle butler, we cannot afford to be too nice in our methods. He has raised the banner with the strange device "Anything goes". Let that slogan be ours. "

" The hour has produced the man. "

" The wicked may flourish like a ruddy bay tree.. but they always cop it in the end. "

" the ecstasy of finding himself in such distinguished company having induced in him a state of mind comparable to the Nirvana of the Buddhists.. "

" She knew she was being kittenish, but there are moments when a girl must not spare the kitten. "

" His was a life passed mainly in the society of men who spoke what came into their simple minds, and the things that came into their simple minds were nearly always rude. It was not often that he was able to listen this sort of thing. "

" Terry's eyes were round with dismay. "

" In these delicate negotiations.. it often happens that, where skilled masters of the the spoken word fail to bring home the bacon, success is achieved by some plain, blunt, practical man who ignores the niceties of diplomacy and goes straight to the root of the matter. "

" In every human enterprise, if success is to be achieved, there must always be behind the operations the directing brain. "

" I think I see what must have happened. Leaning out of that schoolroom window during your formative years, you overbalanced and fell on your fat little head. "

" 'All this won't make any difference to my devotion, of course. I shall continue to love you.'

'Thanks.'

'Quite all right.' "

" Terry started, and there came into her face a flush which Mike found himself comparing.. to the first faint glow of pink in some lovely summer sky. "

" She was still staring at his battered face, conscious of strange emotions stirring within her. "

" You're the only girl in the world, as far as I'm concerned. "

" You've no idea how a girl feels when she falls in love with a man who lets her down. "

" Every man's shy when he's really in love. "

" Terry's heart gave a leap. Her citadel of defence was crumbling. "

" Many a man's brain gives of its best and most constructive only when it has been pepped up with crème de menthe.. "

" Have you ever felt that you were floating on a pink cloud over an ocean of bliss? "

" Few things are less conducive to slumber than the sudden collapse of all one's hopes and dreams round about bedtime.. "

" feeling like the man who, having got rid of one devil, was immediately occupied by seven others, worse than the first. "

" Terry was always the best medicine for a bruised soul. "

" in his present low state of mind he felt unequal to anything but the kindest and gentlest treatment. "

" a shattering blow, withering hopes and destroying dreams. "

" Her laughter was musical.. "

" Perhaps this was what Fate had designed for her from the start - a quiet, unromantic union with no nonsense about it, solidly based on friendship. "

" 'Don't talk to me about love,' said Stanwood, plainly contemptuous of the divine emotion. 'Love's a mess.' "

" Terry gasped. Her heart, which she had supposed crushed and dead, gave a sudden leap. "

" Picture a hippopotamus that has just learned that its love is returned by the female hippopotamus for which it has long entertained feelings deeper and warmer than those of ordinary friendship, and you have Stanwood Cobbold at this important moment in his life. "

" she has taken advantage of my good nature. It was high time that I asserted myself. "

" If there's one thing I like, it is to see two loving hearts come together after long separation, particularly in Springtime. "

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another well written story featuring rich Americans at large in an English stately home. The impecunious owner of the stately home in question, Lord Shortlands, is a terrific character and it's odd that he doesn't appear in any other Wodehouse stories. The conniving butler, Spinks, adds a touch of the sinister usually reserved for private detectives and writers of vers libre.

[Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved all of the Wodehouse that I've read so far; but, I really, really, really loved this one, great story and great storytelling. Retreating into the world of Wodehouse is the ultimate escape.

[DC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mike Cardinal is an insufferable, pedophilic stalker. Fight me.

Also, this was too long.

Didn't think I could feel quite so negativley about Wodehouse. Seems it has to be Jeeves and Wooster for me.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite Uncle Fred(my personal favorite). Not with the 'charm' of a Blandings or Jeeves,but still it is the master at his finest. Laugh out loud funny in many places. Good book.

[Michael Bafford · Rating 4 out of 5]

In one of Mr. Wodehouse's books he points his finger at a critic who complained of his previous volume that it "was all the same old Wodehouse characters with different names". Mr. Wodehouse assumes the critic has since been eaten by bears. I suspect that this is the volume to which the critic referred. We have a castle but it isn't Blandings - or any of the ancient piles Bertie Wooster haunts. This one is called Beevor and has a moat. We have the poor but noble Teresa Cobbold and her distant relation the wealthy American Stanwood Cobbold, the up-and-coming Hollywood agent Mike Cardinal, the beloved star of the silver screen Eileen Stoker, the somewhat dotty Earl of Shortlands (Shorty to his friends), father of Teresa but also to the overbearing Adela who is as frightful as any aunt.
Surprisingly we also have the nefarious butler Mervyn Spink (who looks like an Earl while Shorty looks like a butler), a farer cry from Jeeves cannot be imagined. And we have Stanwood's valet Augustus Robb, a born-again burglar.

Shorty wants two hundred pounds in order to purchase a public house so he can marry his cook, Mrs. Punter. Unfortunately Mervyn Spink has the same plan. Mike wants to marry Teresa but she finds him too good-looking for her likes. Stanwood wants to marry Eileen but his father, holding the purse strings, is stoutly against it.

A valuable stamp promises a load of money to Shorty if he can get hold of it - or to Spink if he can finagle it. It all comes out in the end, though neither Shorty nor Spink carry off La Punter.

In typical Wodehouse manner the plot is prodigiously complex but in the end only a vehicle for the more important business of writing sparkling dialogue with droll asides.
Chosen at random here is an interview between Shorty and his middle child, Clare about her intended.

The name seemed to grate upon Lord Shortlands's (sic) sensibilities.
"Cosmo Blair!"
"Why do you say 'Cosmo Blair' like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like you did."
"I didn't."
"Yes, you did."
"Well, why shouldn't I?" demanded Lord Shortlands, driven out into the open. "He's a pot-bellied perisher."
Clare quivered from head to food.
"Don't call him a pot-bellied perisher!"
"Well, what else can you call him?" asked Lord Shortlands, like Roget trying to collect material for his Thesaurus. "I've studied him closely, and I say he's a pot-bellied perisher."
"He's a very brilliant man," said Clare, and swept from the room, banging the door behind her.
"His last play ran nine months in London," she added, re-opening and re-bangning the door...

Otherwise it is Augustus Robb who I find the most enjoyable, here in conversation with his employer:

"Wy did you go and tell Mr. Cardinal I'd been a burglar once?"
"I didn't"
"Yes, you did, and you know it. How else could he have found out? I wish I'd never mentioned it now. That't the trouble with you chum. You're a babbler. You can't keep from spilling the beans. 'So you used to be a burglar, used you?' says Mr. Cardinal, day before yesterday it was... 'And your name's Robb.' 'What about it?' I says. 'Ha, ha.' he says, laughing a sort of silvery laugh. 'Very suitable name for a burglar,' he says. 'You're the fifty-seventh feller that's told me that.' I says. 'Then you have known fifty-seven brilliantly witty people,' he says. 'I congratulate you.' And he takes a couple of little what-nots off the mantelpiece and locked 'em in a cupboard, as it were ostentatiously. Wounding, that was."...

Not at all the same old characters!

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have this in paperback and have read it a number of times, but not all that recently, so in a temporary lack-of-new-books emergency I dug it out of the basement. It's classic Wodehouse, probably underrated because it's a standalone rather than being in any of the series, but if you like the Blandings Castle books you will most probably enjoy this.

Published after World War II, but showing little sign of it apart from the impecuniousness of the Earl thanks to various taxes, it's still very much in the peak Wodehouse style. The Earl of Shortlands, like the Earl of Emsworth, isn't particularly bright, but there the resemblance ends; he looks remarkably like a butler, while his butler, Spink, looks like an earl (and is not a faithful old retainer like Blandings' Beach; he's a bit of a snake). The butler and the earl are rivals in love, both wanting to marry the castle cook, but she will only marry someone who has two hundred pounds to set her up with a pub, and neither of them has this sum - the earl because he's financially dependent on his eldest daughter, who married money and is one of those managing Wodehouse women who stands no nonsense (very like the Earl of Emsworth's sister Lady Constance Keeble); Spink because he has a weakness for horse racing and is a poor judge of form.

Just like a Blandings story, we soon get someone who comes to the castle pretending, for several excellent reasons, to be someone else, and then the person they're impersonating comes to the castle impersonating a third person, all because of complicated circumstances involving two young couples hindered from uniting by the disapproval of a parent in one instance and the hesitation of the woman in the other. Her hesitation is for a sensible reason: She thinks her wooer is too good-looking, and has been burned before by a good-looking man who was inclined to spread his affections around rather freely. Her suitor, Mike Cardinal, is Psmith without the affectation, a bit of a mastermind who's not at all modest about it (though he doesn't agree with his love interest that he's unusually good-looking). He drives much of the plot through his schemes and manipulations. There's even a reformed criminal, a spiritual cousin of "Chimp" Twist, whose safecracking abilities are key to the plot; the scene in which he gets riotously drunk and messes up the whole operation is one of Wodehouse's best.

There's that old Wodehouse flaw, the coincidental existence of far too many ties between the various characters, accompanied by at least one coincidental meeting between two of them, but it's in the service of complicating the plot, not simplifying it, so it passes the Pixar test. The prose sparkles, the plot twists (many times), the characters, while types, are enjoyable and beautifully portrayed types, and in general it's a solid piece of entertainment, recommended for anyone who wishes there were more stories along the lines of the Blandings ones.

[Andrew Fish · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Stanwood is sent to England to remove him from the temptations of an inappropriate relationship, this is less than successful. The starlet with whom he is infatuated is actually in London filming and when his father attempts to send him to a castle in the country, Stanwood attempts a subterfuge by sending his friend Mike in his place.

The owner of the castle, Lord Shortlands, is in love with his cook, but needs to find money to buy a pub in order to entice her. Meanwhile, he has competition in the shape of his butler, Mervyn. A scheme unfolds involving a valuable stamp and a reformed former safebreaker. Needless to say, things do not go entirely to plan.

We have reached the point now where Wodehouse’s non-canonical books have got over their initial problems. Characters are set up and plots set in motion with economy, and we then follow a series of mishaps until we reach the expected happy ending. Unfortunately, this is what leads to idea that Wodehouse’s books are interchangeable and you often fail to remember which is which. This isn’t true – Wodehouse doesn’t reuse scenes like a 40s film director – but the lightness of the reading means that you don’t necessarily engage with the material as much as you could. What makes the difference over a Jeeves or a Blandings is that the language is more economical – Jeeves books in particular are scattered with literary allusion, colourful metaphors and nods to the reader, and by comparison a book like Spring Fever is somewhat more functional.

That’s not to say this is a bad book – at no point is it boring or irritating – but like the mythical Chinese meal, a couple of hours after you finish it you feel as if you haven’t eaten. Consider this then as a literary snack between the more substantial meals of Wodehouse’s justly celebrated genius.

[Joe Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

They say watching Babe Ruth strike out was more entertaining than watching any other man hit a home run. After the home runs of books like Uncle Fred in the Springtime and the first four Jeeves and Wooster novels, not to mention recent captivity by the Nazis, I think we allow PG Wodehouse a somewhat lesser novel like Spring Fever.

There are flashes of Wodehouse comedy, but the characters just aren't compelling. When Bertie Wooster is in trouble or danger of matrimony, we feel his pain and yearn for the greatness of Jeeves to set things right. Here we randomly hope for a happy ending for the characters because well we have to hope for something. Some Blandings novels are rom-coms with bland couples, but we always have Lord Emsworth, Garry or Uncle Fred and Empress of Blandings to keep us company and of course a random 'Aunt' in the form of an Emsworth sister. The castle Blandings itself is a substitute for every fine garden in the history of man or fiction and strolling the grounds is pleasure enough. Here we are in a strange land with surprisingly little description and characters who elicit a shrug.

Very few mature Wodehouse books fall below a moderate enjoyment level, the man was simply to funny and too good at turning a phrase, nor does this novel. When twenty of his books would register in the top 100 comic novels of all time, it is hard to recommend an average Wodehouse unless you have read everything else a dozen times and are looking for something fresh.

[Joe Boenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comedy of manners: this is what comes to mind as I read P. G. Wodehouse's novels. In "Spring Fever" there are several central characters and the action seems to switch among them. Lord Shortlands may be the main character, for the book starts with this member of the British nobility who is in dire financial straits following the War, like many of P.G.'s characters in his other novels. Then, the "camera" switches to record the experiences of Lord Shortlands' daughter, then her suitors, and others of the family, including the butler and the cook who, oddly enough, is in love with a burglar what has found Religion. Lord Shortlands' greatest difficulty arises from his dwindling finances, and the action follows his attempts to reverse his fortunes sometimes by trickery, his or his daughter's or his prospective sons-in-law. The books is filled with dialogues and the plot moves quickly as if it were a screenplay. In a light sort of way "Spring Fever" touches many of the difficulties facing British Society as its status as a world power diminishes following World War II. To complicate matters, Americans are always on the verge of intruding, but never quite pull it off.

This is a fun book in a nostalgic sort of way. The reader can learn about the social niceties of post-war Britain while having a bit of fun in the process.

[S. Suresh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spring Fever may not have any of Wodehouse’s usual characters, but it has all of his classic ingredients for an enjoyable story that can be read only with a smile in your face. An idyllic rural location with a castle? Check that off with Beevor Castle in Kent. A cash strapped Earl? Lord Shortlands who is short on the dosh fits the bill. Overbearing women? Of course, albeit, it is interesting that Shorty finds himself under the spell of his older daughter Adela rather than an overbearing sister or aunt. Pinching something valuable? Certainly, and who better by than the reformed burglar who answers to the name of Robb. Impersonations? How about two – isn’t more the merrier? And of course, lovers who overcome their many suspicions and challenges posed by fathers living in New York. As always, in the end, true loves triumph, and everyone lives happily ever after.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splendid! How nice to have an unread Wodehouse available when the mood strucks. Actually, the mood was triggered by two(!) guys I heard on the radio yesterday pronouncing the guy's name incorrectly. The times we live in...
So we have a case of assumed identities, Butlers and a Lord, rich American guy, and his son. A Hollywood agent, lovely daughter of Lord, not quite so lovely other daughter. And in the end to my satisfaction, the right matches emerge. Very good, sir.
And, as always, we are delighted by the language. How do you react, when the Butler just tells you, that you are not the man you pretend to be? If you are a Wodehouse character, you say: "This opens a new line of thought". And you do not think that this or that is the case but you "hazard a conjecture".

[Suryamouli Datta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I collected this book from an old book shop in Edinburgh and it travelled with me all the way from Scotland to India. I call myself, not a fan but a Wodehouse fanatic ! Hence, it is not possible for me to criticize the master wordsmith's work.

Set in the Beevor castle, the story deals with Lord Shortlands who wishes to marry his cook. But as the fate would have it, he needs to own 200 bucks for marriage which he does not have. The main hurdle to his path of marriage is his eldest daughter Adela who turns men to stone with her sweetest glance ! Needless to say, she manages finance and other administrative activities of the Duke too ! The story takes various hilarious twists and turns to reach an exciting finale - the usual Wodehouse treadmark, a happy ending !

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, mid-40s non-series Wodehouse. Brit Lord Shorty is sick of his castle and it's stupid moat and his miserly daughter, who seems in charge of the castle. Amer. Football hulk, son of rich american, is in England banging around and in love with a lovely american movie star. Mike Cardinal is agent to the stars and therefore rich. These characters bump around each other in fun fashion for 250 pages in a typical Wodehousian farce, with false identities, attempted drunken burglaries of rare stamps and the like. Everyone winds up with who they should and Lord Shorty will wind up in Hollywood, playing a butler.

[Bookosaurus (A book a day keeps reality away) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost all of Wodehouse stories have the same bones- misplaced identity, a botched-up heist, an oppressed husband, etc., and yet they never feel stale. Plum's observations on the mundane, the goofiness of his characters, and his funny metaphors make the stories so enjoyable that you don't mind the sameness of the setting. If you are like me, and do not mind a little silliness and a little dated humor, so give his books a try. I discovered Wodehouse only a few years ago, and I can safely say that other than Jane Austen, he is the only author I adore blindly.

[Meena · Rating 5 out of 5]

A standalone novel about Lord Shortlands (shorty), who is in love with his cook but has to compete for her hand with the Butler, and about Mike Cardinal who is badly in love with shorty's third daughter, and Stanwood and his hilariously obnoxious assistant, Augustus Robb. Above it all hovers Shorty's first daughter, Adela, who's a dragon in woman form. Their lives intertwine and things get extremely chaotic and hilarious.

[Raddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Много освежаващо, забавно и английско, Удхаус е удоволствие, повърхностно, но приятно. Мързеливи пролетни трески.

Very refreshing, amusing and english, Wodehouse is a pleasure, surfice-level, but pleasant. Lazy spring fevers.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stanwood, a doughty performer on the football field during his college career, was a mass of muscle and bone, and it was Mr Cobbold's opinion that the bone extended to his head. And he had a good deal of support for this view.