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Hot Water
At French seaside Château Blissac, J. Wellington Gedge from California wants to go home. His larger richer wife wants him to be a Paris Ambassador, blackmails Senator Opal, publicly dry, with a letter to his bootlegger in her safe. Jewels attract criminals tough 'Soup' Slattery and 'Oily' Carlisle, who mourn female partners here unknown.
Amid confusion of assumed identities and one real undercover detective, 'Packy' Patrick Franklyn, rich ex-Yale footballer, wants Jane Opal to be happy. Jane's fiancé poor writer 'Egg' Blair Eggleston is touted by Packy's fiancée culture-lofty Lady Beatrice Bracken. Rakish 'Veek' Vicomte de Blissac returns for holiday festival where men drink, fight, and find love - or at least reward from safe.
Amid confusion of assumed identities and one real undercover detective, 'Packy' Patrick Franklyn, rich ex-Yale footballer, wants Jane Opal to be happy. Jane's fiancé poor writer 'Egg' Blair Eggleston is touted by Packy's fiancée culture-lofty Lady Beatrice Bracken. Rakish 'Veek' Vicomte de Blissac returns for holiday festival where men drink, fight, and find love - or at least reward from safe.
294 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1932
60 people are currently reading
974 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 261 reviews
October 19, 2024
Love and robbery.
Wodehouse writes a story about Americans in England. And he's pretty kind. You know, considering those colonials were a bunch of dirty traitors.
I liked all the adorableness of the two main characters, who are obviously perfect for each other, what with all their wacky antics and big personalities. And yet, there they both sit, engaged to the human equivalents of two wet blankets.
Now, if you've ever read anything written by P.G. Wodehouse, you already know that the plot will include some kind of a badly done impersonation or a crazypants attempt at theft.
Most of the time both.
And just because he's got Yanks in starring roles, this book is no different.
Here we have several thefts happening at once - expensive jewels AND incriminating letters - by amateurs and professionals.
Add in a couple of fake murders, a starcrossed safecracker & the inside gal, a wild reveal at the end worthy of any Scooby Doo episode, and you have the gist of this funny little novel.
It's good stuff.
Recommended for fans of Wodehouse.
Wodehouse writes a story about Americans in England. And he's pretty kind. You know, considering those colonials were a bunch of dirty traitors.
I liked all the adorableness of the two main characters, who are obviously perfect for each other, what with all their wacky antics and big personalities. And yet, there they both sit, engaged to the human equivalents of two wet blankets.
Now, if you've ever read anything written by P.G. Wodehouse, you already know that the plot will include some kind of a badly done impersonation or a crazypants attempt at theft.
Most of the time both.
And just because he's got Yanks in starring roles, this book is no different.
Here we have several thefts happening at once - expensive jewels AND incriminating letters - by amateurs and professionals.
Add in a couple of fake murders, a starcrossed safecracker & the inside gal, a wild reveal at the end worthy of any Scooby Doo episode, and you have the gist of this funny little novel.
It's good stuff.
Recommended for fans of Wodehouse.
March 3, 2021
So, this was a lunchtime listen, over a period of about a fortnight with my wife. And I tell you what, the number of times i almost snorted my cheese sandwich were numerous, this was just so funny. The characters, the language, the scrapes, the convoluted farce and also I hasten to add, the reading by Jonathon Cecil were all marvellous.
This is just such a typical British Farce, that I could see Ian Carmichael or Hugh Laurie in the role of Packy Franklyn (if he hadn't been American). The expressions and the way the story was woven around about ten characters was just genius.
I have, in the past read one or two Jeeves and Wooster, and obviously seen at least the two afore mentioned actors take on the role of Wooster, but having enjoyed this so very much, maybe it is time to return to more Wodehose novels.
And I wish to also say that I think we will be continuing with "The Audiobook at Lunchtime". This was the second "reading", and, I say, what grand fun it is 😊
This is just such a typical British Farce, that I could see Ian Carmichael or Hugh Laurie in the role of Packy Franklyn (if he hadn't been American). The expressions and the way the story was woven around about ten characters was just genius.
I have, in the past read one or two Jeeves and Wooster, and obviously seen at least the two afore mentioned actors take on the role of Wooster, but having enjoyed this so very much, maybe it is time to return to more Wodehose novels.
And I wish to also say that I think we will be continuing with "The Audiobook at Lunchtime". This was the second "reading", and, I say, what grand fun it is 😊
August 14, 2020
A wonderful hilarious farce with hijinks throughout. The use of characters unable to speak French pretending to be French-speakers who want to practice their English. A horrible wife who wants her husband to become the American ambassador to France. Enter two Chicago thieves trying to break into a safe at the house. Where does he come up with these characters and the whole story is funny from start to finish.
Two couples mismatched, a couple of crooks, a chateau in France all add up to laughter. Senator Opal, Packy, a Vicounte and Soup Slattery to name a few characters all add to the laughter. Jewels, blackmail, lots of booze and twists and turns throughout.
The wordplay Wodehouse uses is simply superb and funny. A great easy book to read and I can see why he is such a popular author.
Two couples mismatched, a couple of crooks, a chateau in France all add up to laughter. Senator Opal, Packy, a Vicounte and Soup Slattery to name a few characters all add to the laughter. Jewels, blackmail, lots of booze and twists and turns throughout.
The wordplay Wodehouse uses is simply superb and funny. A great easy book to read and I can see why he is such a popular author.
February 9, 2017
Mistaken identities. Compromising letters. Unfortunate engagements. Long-lost loves. Confidence men and safe-blowers and drunk people. Deliciously absurd and absurdly delicious, this is typical Wodehouse, and I mean that in the best way possible. There are reasons I love Wodehouse so much, and this book embodies all of them.
The only problem with his books is how quickly you get through them, even when you're making an effort to savor them. Still, in the end, you're left with a warm, satisfied feeling, similar to drinking hot cocoa but not limited to your stomach. I highly recommend all Wodehouse, but this one in particular is especially lovely.
The only problem with his books is how quickly you get through them, even when you're making an effort to savor them. Still, in the end, you're left with a warm, satisfied feeling, similar to drinking hot cocoa but not limited to your stomach. I highly recommend all Wodehouse, but this one in particular is especially lovely.
October 7, 2024
P.G. Wodehouse is comfort food - especially in these dark times that we're living through. The man is more or less my go-to panacea, probably for the decade.
And he's even better (not that it's particularly necessary at any time for him to be even better) when he comes forth with a distinct surprise - like, for example, this zany stand-alone-entry farce.
Removed from the serial worlds of Wooster and Jeeves and Blandings Castle, Wodehouse was here free to invent an entirely new group of farceurs. I don't recall coming across a single one of these characters before in his work. Such was the extent of the author's genius that he could re-invent his special brand of comic talent and present fresh personalities as though they weren't copies of what he'd concocted before but were, instead, members of the same fictional 'family', possessed of their own unique traits and quirks and sensibilities.
The characters in 'Hot Water' do seem slightly less silly than what one comes to expect from Wodehouse. They're still generally silly, but somewhat less so. And that could be why 'HW' comes off as being less hilarious. It's still quite funny - but here the humor doesn't come so much from what is said as it does from the mechanics of the plot.
It's not that 'HW' (to borrow from 'The Court Jester') has got a-lot-0'-plot. But it has a lot of mechanics. People and their personal resentments come and go with the rapidity of a pinball machine in heat. (In other words, folks get into more than a fair amount of hot water.) It could be that Wodehouse was so preoccupied with the traditional French-ness of the farce (and this one is also mostly set in France) that it left him less time for rib-tickling bon mots.
Not to worry. Merriment remains.
Reduced to a basic, the plot concerns an errant piece of correspondence which must be retrieved at all cost. That's it. It's just gussied up with some mismatched amants and made-up mistaken identities. Oh, and some thieves.
Like I said - comfort food. Or like getting better acquainted with an especially clever friend who can spin a relentlessly wacky yarn. Result: it seems that to know Wodehouse better is to love him more.
And he's even better (not that it's particularly necessary at any time for him to be even better) when he comes forth with a distinct surprise - like, for example, this zany stand-alone-entry farce.
Removed from the serial worlds of Wooster and Jeeves and Blandings Castle, Wodehouse was here free to invent an entirely new group of farceurs. I don't recall coming across a single one of these characters before in his work. Such was the extent of the author's genius that he could re-invent his special brand of comic talent and present fresh personalities as though they weren't copies of what he'd concocted before but were, instead, members of the same fictional 'family', possessed of their own unique traits and quirks and sensibilities.
The characters in 'Hot Water' do seem slightly less silly than what one comes to expect from Wodehouse. They're still generally silly, but somewhat less so. And that could be why 'HW' comes off as being less hilarious. It's still quite funny - but here the humor doesn't come so much from what is said as it does from the mechanics of the plot.
It's not that 'HW' (to borrow from 'The Court Jester') has got a-lot-0'-plot. But it has a lot of mechanics. People and their personal resentments come and go with the rapidity of a pinball machine in heat. (In other words, folks get into more than a fair amount of hot water.) It could be that Wodehouse was so preoccupied with the traditional French-ness of the farce (and this one is also mostly set in France) that it left him less time for rib-tickling bon mots.
Not to worry. Merriment remains.
Reduced to a basic, the plot concerns an errant piece of correspondence which must be retrieved at all cost. That's it. It's just gussied up with some mismatched amants and made-up mistaken identities. Oh, and some thieves.
Like I said - comfort food. Or like getting better acquainted with an especially clever friend who can spin a relentlessly wacky yarn. Result: it seems that to know Wodehouse better is to love him more.
December 10, 2007
Written at the height of his powers ‘Hot Water’ is Wodehouse’s most ambitious farce and certainly his most successful. It is possibly one of the most overlooked of Wodehouse’s farces due to it featuring none of his regular characters, although plenty of his regular types, and although is not unique in having a French location, it certainly is one of the few full novels to be entirely set in St Rocque, Wodehouse’s fictional Monte Carlo.
That none of Wodehouse’s regular characters appear is no doubt due to the fact that virtually everyone in the book is in fact an imposter and should they all be known to each other or the reader then the surprises that await the turning of the pages would be lost. The novel features Soup Slattery, Oily Carlisle and Gertie whom bear a similarity to Soap Molloy, Chimp Twist and Dolly the Dip who we have met in previous Wodehouse novels. Also featured are J. Wellington Gedge, Mrs Gedge, Senator Opal, his daughter Jane, Vicomte Blissac and Packy Franklyn and an assortment of domestic staff whom aren’t as domestic as was traditional in the nineteen thirties.
In ‘Hot Water’ Wodehouse has raised his own standard and that of farce to he one of the highest rather than lowest of art forms. Wodehouse’s most overlooked masterpiece, a timeless literary classic.
That none of Wodehouse’s regular characters appear is no doubt due to the fact that virtually everyone in the book is in fact an imposter and should they all be known to each other or the reader then the surprises that await the turning of the pages would be lost. The novel features Soup Slattery, Oily Carlisle and Gertie whom bear a similarity to Soap Molloy, Chimp Twist and Dolly the Dip who we have met in previous Wodehouse novels. Also featured are J. Wellington Gedge, Mrs Gedge, Senator Opal, his daughter Jane, Vicomte Blissac and Packy Franklyn and an assortment of domestic staff whom aren’t as domestic as was traditional in the nineteen thirties.
In ‘Hot Water’ Wodehouse has raised his own standard and that of farce to he one of the highest rather than lowest of art forms. Wodehouse’s most overlooked masterpiece, a timeless literary classic.
October 18, 2017
In my view, PG Wodehouse is the the greatest ever writer of English in terms of pure style. His prose is elegant, light, airy and seemingly effortless. There can surely be no more readable a writer. Wodehouse chose to devote his enviable talent to the creation of stories that can best be described as trifles. They are invariably fluffy comedies with preposterous plots and larger than life characters. Their sole purpose is entertainment. He is, of course, best known for his Jeeves and Wooster tales, which are wonderful. I have a particular fondness for his Ukridge stories. 'Hot Water' is typical of his non-series novels. With its convoluted plot and reliance on coincidence, it's the literary equivalent of a Georges Feydau stage farce. It also reminds me of the madcap theatre productions that master farceur Ray Cooney wrote, directed and starred in in London's West End in the 1970s and 1980s.
Set in the 1920s in Brittany, France, 'Hot Water' features J Wellington Gedge. Gedge is a young Californian who used to be rich but who is now dependent on his wife, the widow of an American oil multi-millionaire, for his money. They live in Chateau Blissac, in a town called St Rocque. The pushy and domineering Mrs Gedge is determined to secure her husband's appointment as the United States Ambassador to France. Gedge, who likes a quiet life, wants no such position. Into this mix come Jane Opal and her father, Senator Ambrose Opal. Jane is engaged to novelist Blair Eggleston but is really in love with Packy Franklyn, a Yale football star. Franklyn is engaged to the very beautiful and controlling Lady Beatrice Bracken. Also involved are two American low-level hoodlums and Vicomte de Blissac, the heir to Chateau Blissac. These are the principal characters in a plot that involves safe-breaking, blackmail, impersonation, confidence trickery and theft.
It's all good fun and is a great pleasure to read. There are numerous twists and turns and, because of that, the reader perhaps needs to concentrate on the precise details of the plot rather more than is usual with a Wodehouse story. Appreciation of comedy is, of course, a very personal thing. It's therefore difficult to summarise Wodehouse's appeal. Novelist Evelyn Waugh perhaps did so best in this citation, which appears (usually in abbreviated form) on the dust jackets of many of Wodehouse's books: 'Mr Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.'. A good example of Wodehouse's beautifully simple but seductive writing style is this brief extract from chapter 1 of 'Hot Water':
'Who's going to be Ambassador to France?' said Mr Gedge, mystified.
He could not have asked a more convenient question. It enabled Mrs Gedge to place the salient facts before him crisply and without further preamble.
'You are', she said."
That succinct prose sums up Wodehouse's exquisite way with words and makes reading his stories so pleasurable. 'Hot Water' is a very enjoyable light comedy. I loved it. 9/10.
Set in the 1920s in Brittany, France, 'Hot Water' features J Wellington Gedge. Gedge is a young Californian who used to be rich but who is now dependent on his wife, the widow of an American oil multi-millionaire, for his money. They live in Chateau Blissac, in a town called St Rocque. The pushy and domineering Mrs Gedge is determined to secure her husband's appointment as the United States Ambassador to France. Gedge, who likes a quiet life, wants no such position. Into this mix come Jane Opal and her father, Senator Ambrose Opal. Jane is engaged to novelist Blair Eggleston but is really in love with Packy Franklyn, a Yale football star. Franklyn is engaged to the very beautiful and controlling Lady Beatrice Bracken. Also involved are two American low-level hoodlums and Vicomte de Blissac, the heir to Chateau Blissac. These are the principal characters in a plot that involves safe-breaking, blackmail, impersonation, confidence trickery and theft.
It's all good fun and is a great pleasure to read. There are numerous twists and turns and, because of that, the reader perhaps needs to concentrate on the precise details of the plot rather more than is usual with a Wodehouse story. Appreciation of comedy is, of course, a very personal thing. It's therefore difficult to summarise Wodehouse's appeal. Novelist Evelyn Waugh perhaps did so best in this citation, which appears (usually in abbreviated form) on the dust jackets of many of Wodehouse's books: 'Mr Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.'. A good example of Wodehouse's beautifully simple but seductive writing style is this brief extract from chapter 1 of 'Hot Water':
'Who's going to be Ambassador to France?' said Mr Gedge, mystified.
He could not have asked a more convenient question. It enabled Mrs Gedge to place the salient facts before him crisply and without further preamble.
'You are', she said."
That succinct prose sums up Wodehouse's exquisite way with words and makes reading his stories so pleasurable. 'Hot Water' is a very enjoyable light comedy. I loved it. 9/10.
October 19, 2024
Typical brilliant PGW romantic farce. Great stuff. Definite reread!
Copy online here: https://www.bookfrom.net/p-g-wodehous...
1932 book.
"Mrs Gedge herself would have fought in the light-heavy division. She was a solidly built, handsome woman a few years younger than her husband, and you could see from a glance at her why he always did what she told him to....
Of her past life before their marriage, except that she was the widow of a multi-millionaire oil man
named Brewster who had left her all his multi-millions, Mr Gedge knew nothing. He sometimes thought she might have been a lion-tamer."
Just as good as I remembered, about 1/3 in. Remarkably silly & fun. Don't miss!
As another reviewer observed, "The only problem with his books is how quickly you get through them, even when you're making an effort to savor them."
"In accordance with his customary method of summoning his personal attendant, Senator Opal threw his head back and began to howl like a timber-wolf, and continued to howl until Blair Eggleston came running round the corner of the house with a clothes-brush in his hand. He had been some little distance away, but his master's voice was a carrying one."
2023 re-read: 4.5 stars. I remembered almost nothing about it. Not that that mattered! Great, silly stuff. Makes no sense whatever!
If you need more convincing, read John's 5-star review: "A wonderful hilarious farce with hijinks throughout. The use of characters unable to speak French pretending to be French-speakers who want to practice their English. A horrible wife who wants her husband to become the American ambassador to France. Enter two Chicago thieves trying to break into a safe at the house. Where does he come up with these characters and the whole story is funny from start to finish."
Copy online here: https://www.bookfrom.net/p-g-wodehous...
1932 book.
"Mrs Gedge herself would have fought in the light-heavy division. She was a solidly built, handsome woman a few years younger than her husband, and you could see from a glance at her why he always did what she told him to....
Of her past life before their marriage, except that she was the widow of a multi-millionaire oil man
named Brewster who had left her all his multi-millions, Mr Gedge knew nothing. He sometimes thought she might have been a lion-tamer."
Just as good as I remembered, about 1/3 in. Remarkably silly & fun. Don't miss!
As another reviewer observed, "The only problem with his books is how quickly you get through them, even when you're making an effort to savor them."
"In accordance with his customary method of summoning his personal attendant, Senator Opal threw his head back and began to howl like a timber-wolf, and continued to howl until Blair Eggleston came running round the corner of the house with a clothes-brush in his hand. He had been some little distance away, but his master's voice was a carrying one."
2023 re-read: 4.5 stars. I remembered almost nothing about it. Not that that mattered! Great, silly stuff. Makes no sense whatever!
If you need more convincing, read John's 5-star review: "A wonderful hilarious farce with hijinks throughout. The use of characters unable to speak French pretending to be French-speakers who want to practice their English. A horrible wife who wants her husband to become the American ambassador to France. Enter two Chicago thieves trying to break into a safe at the house. Where does he come up with these characters and the whole story is funny from start to finish."
November 15, 2020
PG Wodehouse is at his merriest and his maddest in 'Hot Water' in which a whole host of disparate characters gather together to produce an hilarious turn of events at the Château Blissac close to the French town of St Rocque.
The characters names themselves - Blair Eggleston, Gordon 'Oily' Carlisle, Gertrude Carlisle, J. Wellinton Gedge, Medway, Julia Gedge, Kate Amelia Putnam, Ambrose Opal, Jane Opal, Maurice de Blissac, Soup Slattery, Patrick B. 'Packy' Franklyn, Beatrice Brackin, Octave, Gwendolyn Blinkhorn, Mabel Brewster and Parker - might even excite the imagination without any knowledge of what they get up to. But once we learn what each one is about the mayhem begins.
Mistaken identities, broken engagements, secret assignations, family squabbles, ambitious plans, surprising turns of events, unexpected arrivals and various nefarious activities abound throughout the story.
It is the small of stature but wealthy J Wellington Gedge and his somewhat larger and domineering wife who take the action to the Château Blissac amd once there they are joined by all the characters mentioned who all have their own itinerary, some of them intertwined with one another. But that scenario of intertwining only complicates matters and confuses nearly everybody, particularly the Gedges. A novelist - who according to his girlfriend doesn't use plots - turned valet, an American senator and his wife, a safe breaker, a confidence trickster, a man about town and ladies in and out of love are all involved in the confusion.
All the characters are handled in PG's usual and irresistible style and are constantly amusing - admittedly, occasionally arousing pathos - and the incidents that they become involved in are all hilarious, hilarious enough at times to evoke laugh-out-loud moments. 'Hot Water' is PG at his best and funniest. It is well worth the read to brighten up any dull day.
The characters names themselves - Blair Eggleston, Gordon 'Oily' Carlisle, Gertrude Carlisle, J. Wellinton Gedge, Medway, Julia Gedge, Kate Amelia Putnam, Ambrose Opal, Jane Opal, Maurice de Blissac, Soup Slattery, Patrick B. 'Packy' Franklyn, Beatrice Brackin, Octave, Gwendolyn Blinkhorn, Mabel Brewster and Parker - might even excite the imagination without any knowledge of what they get up to. But once we learn what each one is about the mayhem begins.
Mistaken identities, broken engagements, secret assignations, family squabbles, ambitious plans, surprising turns of events, unexpected arrivals and various nefarious activities abound throughout the story.
It is the small of stature but wealthy J Wellington Gedge and his somewhat larger and domineering wife who take the action to the Château Blissac amd once there they are joined by all the characters mentioned who all have their own itinerary, some of them intertwined with one another. But that scenario of intertwining only complicates matters and confuses nearly everybody, particularly the Gedges. A novelist - who according to his girlfriend doesn't use plots - turned valet, an American senator and his wife, a safe breaker, a confidence trickster, a man about town and ladies in and out of love are all involved in the confusion.
All the characters are handled in PG's usual and irresistible style and are constantly amusing - admittedly, occasionally arousing pathos - and the incidents that they become involved in are all hilarious, hilarious enough at times to evoke laugh-out-loud moments. 'Hot Water' is PG at his best and funniest. It is well worth the read to brighten up any dull day.
May 22, 2022
Ο Π. Γκ. Γούντχαουζ, ένας από τους πιο πολυδιαβασμένους Βρετανούς συγγραφείς, πέθανε στα ενενήντα τρία του και στη μεγάλη του καριέρα πρόλαβε και έγραψε πάνω από ενενήντα βιβλία, όλα ή σχεδόν όλα κωμικά και χιουμοριστικά. Δυστυχώς στα ελληνικά έχουν μεταφραστεί μόλις τέσσερα βιβλία του (!), και μάλιστα όχι από τα πιο γνωστά που έχει γράψει. Τι να πει κανείς, άβυσσος η ψυχή των εκδοτών. Το "Μην μπλέξεις με το Διάβολο" που μόλις τελείωσα είναι η πρώτη μου επαφή με το έργο του, και πραγματικά δεν νομίζω ότι θα μπορούσα να περάσω πιο τέλεια την ώρα μου! Πρόκειται για ένα άκρως αστείο βιβλίο παλιάς εποχής, γεμάτο κωμικοτραγικές καταστάσεις και τρελά σκηνικά, με ένα ευχάριστο και έξυπνο χιούμορ, καθώς και με τέλεια ατμόσφαιρα. Η γραφή είναι πολύ ωραία, σπιρτόζικη και άκρως ευκολοδιάβαστη, σίγουρα σε κάνει να ξεχάσεις για λίγη ώρα τα προβλήματα της καθημερινότητας. Και επίσης αυτό το βιβλίο είναι το τέλειο φάρμακο για όσους είναι στα πρόθυρα του "αναγνωστικού μπλοκ", αλλά ίσως και για όσους βρίσκονται στα κάτω τους. Μπορεί να μην του βάζω πέντε αστεράκια (αν και σαν διασκέδαση αξίζει δέκα), αλλά σίγουρα το κατευχαριστήθηκα!
September 15, 2022
Heaping helpings of silliness from a Wodehouse plot that I swear I've read before. Doesn't matter, I still loved it!
August 30, 2017
Excellent. And I finished it again in August of 2017.
December 9, 2018
Hot Water (1932) is peak P.G. Wodehouse
Much of the story takes place at the Château Blissac in St Rocque (Wodehouse’s fictional Monte Carlo) which makes for an interesting change. Wodehouse delightfully captures the atmosphere of France in the 1930s. The plot embraces American senators, English aristocrats, safe crackers, con men, jewel thieves, and a Bloomsbury novelist.
Hot Water contains none of Wodehouse’s regular characters however the various types he often deploys are all present and correct. No one is quite who they appear which makes keeps this interesting and it is in turns funny, sentimental, and exciting.
Yet more Wodehouse magic.
4/5
Much of the story takes place at the Château Blissac in St Rocque (Wodehouse’s fictional Monte Carlo) which makes for an interesting change. Wodehouse delightfully captures the atmosphere of France in the 1930s. The plot embraces American senators, English aristocrats, safe crackers, con men, jewel thieves, and a Bloomsbury novelist.
Hot Water contains none of Wodehouse’s regular characters however the various types he often deploys are all present and correct. No one is quite who they appear which makes keeps this interesting and it is in turns funny, sentimental, and exciting.
Yet more Wodehouse magic.
4/5
August 30, 2020
Marvelously convoluted comedy showing a keen insight into community/social interaction and individual motivation.
July 14, 2022
Having by now read the major works of Wodehouse—Jeeves and Wooster, Blandings, Psmith, and so on—it sometimes feels like I am left picking at the remains of this prolific man's corpus. Still wonderful, of course, but seemingly without the luster of those glittering works of sunlit perfection (Stephen Fry's words). How pleasantly surprised was I to find that Hot Water is up there with the best! Strong plot, great characters, good twists, and plenty of witticisms and laugh-out-loud moments. Just what I needed—balm for the soul and all that.
"'Did I say that we were soul-mates?'
'I believe you did.'
'Well, we are. Young Jane,' said Packy, holding her at arm's length and gazing searchingly into her eyes, 'are you sure you love me?'
'Of course I am.'
Packy expelled a deep breath.
'This,' he said, 'is like being in heaven without going to all the bother and expense of dying." (292)
March 24, 2016
I came round to this at the end. I've discovered that the way to enjoy Wodehouse fully is to make sure you read good stretches of him at a sitting: the plots are so intricate that if you read just a few pages before drifting off at night, you are hopelessly stuck as to who was pretending to be whom when you next pick the book up.
Anyway, I think this was the most elaborately plotted piece of his I've read, and I'm not going to attempt any sort of summary. Suffice it to say that I wanted all the time to be watching the action unfold on stage. If there is a stage script out there somewhere, I'd be interested to know.
It was nice to see Soup Slattery and Gordon 'Oily' Carlisle popping up again - I can't remember where I encountered them before - 'Piccadilly Jim'? - and nice also to see the jumped up Mrs Gedge getting her come-uppance at the end in the nicest most semi-romantic way.
I liked also a couple of features of Wodehouse's style. There's the 'I'm not going to remind you, dear reader, of the plot that has gone before, but I will just make sure you know how things stand at the moment' technique. I like this: the plotting really is complicated and it's good to have a breather and be assured that you know what you thought you knew. The other is to cut back on those long periphrastic circumlocutions (and I know that's pleonastic, perhaps even tautological, but excuse my enthusiasm for the polysyllable) narratives you often get when a character is in a corner: 'The duty of a chronicler to his readers is to sift and select. Whatever of his material is not, in his opinion, of potential interest he must exclude. Out, therefore, in toto goes the story of what Senator Opal remembered in Washington...' This allows the reader another welcome breather as well as the author a chance to cut to the chase. And I like the authorial intrusion - a kind of knowing Chaucerian moment where the author cheekily invites the reader to admire his/her command of the storytelling. Several friends of mine loathe that, but I have to say I rather like it.
I also think Wodehouse can do sex very decently. I know he's not exactly a D.H. Lawrence in this respect, but he can in his restraint suggest something more than a silly young man and a silly young woman looking with foolishly googly eyes at each other. 'He eyed her mournfully. She was wearing a blue negligee, and in a blue negligee, as the records have shown, she looked charming. So charming, indeed, that something suddenly seemed to explode inside Packy like a bomb, and remorse was swept away on the tide of another emotion.' Well, it works for me.
Having been prepared to offer a grudging three stars to this rather jolly caper, I've tossed it an extra one. It holds back from five because I would - even though I enjoyed the plotting - have liked the story to be a little less complicated, frankly, and for there to have been something more in terms of characterization.
Anyway, I think this was the most elaborately plotted piece of his I've read, and I'm not going to attempt any sort of summary. Suffice it to say that I wanted all the time to be watching the action unfold on stage. If there is a stage script out there somewhere, I'd be interested to know.
It was nice to see Soup Slattery and Gordon 'Oily' Carlisle popping up again - I can't remember where I encountered them before - 'Piccadilly Jim'? - and nice also to see the jumped up Mrs Gedge getting her come-uppance at the end in the nicest most semi-romantic way.
I liked also a couple of features of Wodehouse's style. There's the 'I'm not going to remind you, dear reader, of the plot that has gone before, but I will just make sure you know how things stand at the moment' technique. I like this: the plotting really is complicated and it's good to have a breather and be assured that you know what you thought you knew. The other is to cut back on those long periphrastic circumlocutions (and I know that's pleonastic, perhaps even tautological, but excuse my enthusiasm for the polysyllable) narratives you often get when a character is in a corner: 'The duty of a chronicler to his readers is to sift and select. Whatever of his material is not, in his opinion, of potential interest he must exclude. Out, therefore, in toto goes the story of what Senator Opal remembered in Washington...' This allows the reader another welcome breather as well as the author a chance to cut to the chase. And I like the authorial intrusion - a kind of knowing Chaucerian moment where the author cheekily invites the reader to admire his/her command of the storytelling. Several friends of mine loathe that, but I have to say I rather like it.
I also think Wodehouse can do sex very decently. I know he's not exactly a D.H. Lawrence in this respect, but he can in his restraint suggest something more than a silly young man and a silly young woman looking with foolishly googly eyes at each other. 'He eyed her mournfully. She was wearing a blue negligee, and in a blue negligee, as the records have shown, she looked charming. So charming, indeed, that something suddenly seemed to explode inside Packy like a bomb, and remorse was swept away on the tide of another emotion.' Well, it works for me.
Having been prepared to offer a grudging three stars to this rather jolly caper, I've tossed it an extra one. It holds back from five because I would - even though I enjoyed the plotting - have liked the story to be a little less complicated, frankly, and for there to have been something more in terms of characterization.
June 11, 2013
It begins simply enough. Mrs. Gedge has guests coming to the French chateau she's renting -- the Vicomte, the son of the landlady, and she has firm instructions to keep him from drink and firm intentions of complaining about the plumbing, and Senator Opal, a firm Dry, whom she intends to persuade to get her husband appointed Ambassador to France. But this is Wodehouse. . . .
Two American criminals are hanging out in St. Rocque -- Soup Slattery and Oily Carisle -- and meeting up in a foreign land so has them chatting about their female accomplices who left them, and the prospects in the area. Mr. Gedge (who has no desire to be ambassador) confides in Slattery about how he lost all his money in the crash, so only Mrs. Gedge has it -- plus all the jewelry, worth thousands, that he had bought her before.
Meanwhile, a young American millionaire named Packy and Lady Beatrice have become engaged. She gives him firm instructions to stay in London and meet Blair Eggleston, who was, according to the people who mattered, among the most promising writers of his generation. Eggleston himself is engaged to Jane, Senator Opal's daughter. Owing to some contretemps about a barbers' strike and a letter from the Senator to his bootlegger, he sets sail to St. Rocque to help Jane and Eggleston, out of pure sympathy for fellow lovers.
It goes on from there, involving a lady's maid who's reading a book about a detective disguised as a lady's maid, catching a burglar and putting him on the window sill until morning, a carnival disguise, Packy getting into the chateau under two separate false pretenses, Soup Slattery's desire to buy a farm, and Senator Opal's getting confused about who his daughter is engaged to. Culminating in one of Wodehouse's glorious complicated and hilarious plots
Two American criminals are hanging out in St. Rocque -- Soup Slattery and Oily Carisle -- and meeting up in a foreign land so has them chatting about their female accomplices who left them, and the prospects in the area. Mr. Gedge (who has no desire to be ambassador) confides in Slattery about how he lost all his money in the crash, so only Mrs. Gedge has it -- plus all the jewelry, worth thousands, that he had bought her before.
Meanwhile, a young American millionaire named Packy and Lady Beatrice have become engaged. She gives him firm instructions to stay in London and meet Blair Eggleston, who was, according to the people who mattered, among the most promising writers of his generation. Eggleston himself is engaged to Jane, Senator Opal's daughter. Owing to some contretemps about a barbers' strike and a letter from the Senator to his bootlegger, he sets sail to St. Rocque to help Jane and Eggleston, out of pure sympathy for fellow lovers.
It goes on from there, involving a lady's maid who's reading a book about a detective disguised as a lady's maid, catching a burglar and putting him on the window sill until morning, a carnival disguise, Packy getting into the chateau under two separate false pretenses, Soup Slattery's desire to buy a farm, and Senator Opal's getting confused about who his daughter is engaged to. Culminating in one of Wodehouse's glorious complicated and hilarious plots
March 26, 2022
Hats off to the dazzling intricacy of the plotting! But Wodehouse is such an in-your-face narrator and his scenarios are so ridiculously contrived that I couldn't settle and lose myself in the story. I guess "English farce" - or, at least, this version of it - isn't my cup of tea.
August 29, 2024
Surprisingly enjoyable.
July 2, 2016
Subtle humour is probably the most challenging kind of humour there is. The art of making people laugh with simple, but insightful observations as opposed to crude, in-your-face one-liners has been attempted by many, but mastered by few. The stalwart of subtle humour in the vocal form is undoubtedly Jerry Seinfeld. In literature, there is no one to match the genius and the cutthroat delivery of P. G. Wodehouse.
“Hot Water” is a work testimonial to Wodehouse’s impeccable writing flair. After Senator Opal’s compromising letter to a bootlegger lands in the custody of Mrs. Gedge, Packy Franklin, an American millionaire and the soon to be son-in-law of the Earl of Stableford, offers to help him and his daughter, Jane, retrieve it. But, little do they know that they aren’t the only ones planning to rob the Château Blissac.
The “robbery gone wrong” scenario almost always presents an excellent setting for a comedy, and this one was no exception. Packy was a wonderful protagonist, with his lovable nature and timely quips at the forefront from the very beginning. His awkward exchanges with the senator and his daughter were a thing of comedic gold, and I wish there had been more of them. The tried and tested comedic pairing of the fun-loving and carefree Packy with the quick tempered and rigid Opal turned out to be a masterstroke.
The story is a satirical take on the mannerisms of the upper class. The overbearing nature of Beatrice Bracken, forcing her fiancé to attend the opera, book signings and meet other royal dignitaries doesn’t sit well with Packy, whose sportsman spirit didn’t care for interacting with the drab, tight-lipped VIPs just because they were acquaintances of the royal family. The commanding Mrs. Gedge mirrors this quality as well, as she tries to get her husband appointed the French Ambassador, much to the dismay of Mr. Gedge, who wants nothing to do with the mammoth responsibility. Then there is Blair Eggleston, a renowned writer, whose flair for romance that is apparent from his books, fails to manifest itself in his own demeanour.
The characters all get their share of the spotlight, right from the strong, but slightly dim-witted Soup Slattery, to the bumbling Vicomte, who despite his absence for a good part of the book, manages to incite a few laughs. Each sub-plot is adequately emphasised, just enough to stay relevant without stealing Packy’s thunder.
Overall, “Hot Water” is an exceptional comedy that delivers on all fronts – it is hilarious, but not slapstick; the jokes are subtle but don’t get lost between the lines. This is a great book to read if you’re looking for something to lighten your mood while you lounge on your porch on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
November 10, 2018
My first reaction to this book was gratitude. Gratitude to live in a world that features a comic genius and a word-magician like P.G.W. The second reaction was pity. Pity that there are still those who are tone-deaf to the sheer wizardry of this brilliant author.
One example will suffice.
"It serves to keep the records straight, and is a convenience to the public to whom one wants to do the square thing - affording as it does a bird's eye view of the position of affairs to those of his readers who, through no fault of their own, are not birds."
Not that the specifics of a given PGW are very relevant but just to dot the i's and dash the t's - the plotting is superlative and the situations are absurd. And all ends well. Highly recommended.
One example will suffice.
"It serves to keep the records straight, and is a convenience to the public to whom one wants to do the square thing - affording as it does a bird's eye view of the position of affairs to those of his readers who, through no fault of their own, are not birds."
Not that the specifics of a given PGW are very relevant but just to dot the i's and dash the t's - the plotting is superlative and the situations are absurd. And all ends well. Highly recommended.
June 26, 2012
Hot Water is a delightful farce set in the north of France at the Chateau Blissac, Brittany and in London, containing a mixture of romance, intrigue and Wodehouse's brand of humor.
The story recounts the various romantic and criminal goings-on during a house party, hosted by the Vicomte Blissac. It was another reminder to me what a ‘serious business’ comedy is. Supposedly one of Wodehouse’s more elaborate farces; I appreciated ‘visiting with a very different set of characters—not that I don’t enjoy the usual Blanding’s and Jeeves & Wooster set.
Most enjoyable!
The story recounts the various romantic and criminal goings-on during a house party, hosted by the Vicomte Blissac. It was another reminder to me what a ‘serious business’ comedy is. Supposedly one of Wodehouse’s more elaborate farces; I appreciated ‘visiting with a very different set of characters—not that I don’t enjoy the usual Blanding’s and Jeeves & Wooster set.
Most enjoyable!
January 22, 2022
Not my favorite, but still HILARIOUS. I had trouble keeping some of the characters separate, mainly. But then, that was rather the point, as there were any number of nobles (British AND French, American politicians, detectives, and a handful of hardened criminals to boot. Millionaire American playboys were mistaken for barbers and French viscounts, New Jersey safecrackers for dukes, and at one point, the real viscount was dressed as a giant lizard!
July 22, 2024
This "plot-boiler" started off frothy and witty but lost me along the way. There are so many plot developments (mistaken identity, competing schemes) that it would be best to read this all in one gulp, at a weekend at the beach for example. Reading it over several days, I often found myself lost when I picked it back up.
As others have said, this is not the best Wodehouse.
As others have said, this is not the best Wodehouse.
November 20, 2025
Wodehouse is best known for his series books, but he wrote some wonderful standalones as well, and this is one.
It's very much in the formula, but it's a formula I enjoy, so that's fine. There's a man of action at the heart of it, a decent fellow who nevertheless doesn't scruple about a few falsehoods in a good cause. He's engaged to one of Wodehouse's attractive-but-managing young women, who is determined to develop his sensibilities, whether he wants her to or not. There's also a managing older woman whose husband, having lost his own money and being dependent on hers, is a cypher in the home, and resents it deeply, but doesn't see what he can do about it. His wife wants him to become American Ambassador to France, which is the last thing he wants, and is putting the screws on Senator Opal to make that happen. One of the screws she is putting on Opal is that he accidentally swapped two letters, and sent his refusal of her invitation to his bootlegger, and an order for alcohol to her. Given that he's a prominent Dry (a proponent of prohibition legislation) in public, this is powerful blackmail material, and the letter therefore becomes a McGuffin.
Of the twelve characters with a part to play in the plot, six of them are operating under some form of false identity at some point during the book, and the hero, Packy, ends up using three false identities, if you count pretending to be the Senator's daughter's fiancé. I don't think that's even a record for a Wodehouse hero, but it leads to wonderful complications for all concerned, as Packy tries to retrieve the letter for the Senator, definitely not because he's in love with the Senator's daughter, given that he's engaged to the managing beauty and the daughter is engaged to the wet Bloomsbury novelist. No, it's definitely not for that reason.
Meanwhile, there are four different crooks and an undercover detective operating in the French Riviera chateau where most of the action happens, drawn there by the managing older lady's jewellery (given to her by her husband during his prosperous years, before the stock market crash wiped him out). Also, there's a disreputable and dissolute, but basically harmless, young French aristocrat who's a friend of Packy's and the son of the owner of the chateau.
The farce is high, the prose, while not as crammed full of quotations as Wodehouse often is, sparkles along, the plot is intricate and beautifully handled, and overall it's a good time.
As is often the case with these Cornerstone Digital editions, this one shows clear signs of having been scanned using OCR and then given little or no proofreading, something which it badly needed. There are a great many missing quotation marks, some other missing punctuation (usually at the ends of sentences), and inserted hyphens where, in the print version, a word broke across two lines. There are even a few instances of what look like page numbers dropped into the middle of the text. It's distracting and unprofessional, and I recommend not buying these editions. (I got my copy from the library.)
It's very much in the formula, but it's a formula I enjoy, so that's fine. There's a man of action at the heart of it, a decent fellow who nevertheless doesn't scruple about a few falsehoods in a good cause. He's engaged to one of Wodehouse's attractive-but-managing young women, who is determined to develop his sensibilities, whether he wants her to or not. There's also a managing older woman whose husband, having lost his own money and being dependent on hers, is a cypher in the home, and resents it deeply, but doesn't see what he can do about it. His wife wants him to become American Ambassador to France, which is the last thing he wants, and is putting the screws on Senator Opal to make that happen. One of the screws she is putting on Opal is that he accidentally swapped two letters, and sent his refusal of her invitation to his bootlegger, and an order for alcohol to her. Given that he's a prominent Dry (a proponent of prohibition legislation) in public, this is powerful blackmail material, and the letter therefore becomes a McGuffin.
Of the twelve characters with a part to play in the plot, six of them are operating under some form of false identity at some point during the book, and the hero, Packy, ends up using three false identities, if you count pretending to be the Senator's daughter's fiancé. I don't think that's even a record for a Wodehouse hero, but it leads to wonderful complications for all concerned, as Packy tries to retrieve the letter for the Senator, definitely not because he's in love with the Senator's daughter, given that he's engaged to the managing beauty and the daughter is engaged to the wet Bloomsbury novelist. No, it's definitely not for that reason.
Meanwhile, there are four different crooks and an undercover detective operating in the French Riviera chateau where most of the action happens, drawn there by the managing older lady's jewellery (given to her by her husband during his prosperous years, before the stock market crash wiped him out). Also, there's a disreputable and dissolute, but basically harmless, young French aristocrat who's a friend of Packy's and the son of the owner of the chateau.
The farce is high, the prose, while not as crammed full of quotations as Wodehouse often is, sparkles along, the plot is intricate and beautifully handled, and overall it's a good time.
As is often the case with these Cornerstone Digital editions, this one shows clear signs of having been scanned using OCR and then given little or no proofreading, something which it badly needed. There are a great many missing quotation marks, some other missing punctuation (usually at the ends of sentences), and inserted hyphens where, in the print version, a word broke across two lines. There are even a few instances of what look like page numbers dropped into the middle of the text. It's distracting and unprofessional, and I recommend not buying these editions. (I got my copy from the library.)
January 1, 2022
Wow! Hot Water is not just outrageously hilarious, but one of the best I’ve read from the inimitable author English language has produced. For who else can come up with a sentence as beautiful as this? ‘Night, sable goddess, from her ebon throne in rayless majesty stretched forth her leaden sceptre o’er a slumbering world.’
Ardent Wodehouse fans would know of Soapy Molloy and Chimp Twist, whom we first encounter in Sam the Sudden. Safe smashing Soup Slattery and confidence man Gordon “Oily” Carlisle make Soapy Molloy and Chimp Twist look weak – especially Soup Slattery, who can only be described as an adorable crook.
I haven’t even talked about the main characters in Hot Water, Packy Franklyn, and his friend, Vicomte de Blissac, U.S. Senator Opal and his daughter Jane, Mrs. Gedge and her husband Wellington Gedge, who all assemble in Château Blissac outside the French casino town of St. Rocque, each with their own agenda. Throw in impersonations, mistaken identities, a diamond necklace and a sinister letter with undesirable ramification that need to be stolen, this 1932 classic is one of Wodehouse’s best efforts. So much so that as I neared the end, I had to continue reading as I made dinner.
With an extraordinary twist in the very end, Hot Water is that much more enjoyable. Naturally, as in any Wodehouse comedy, true love triumphs and everyone lives happily ever after.
Ardent Wodehouse fans would know of Soapy Molloy and Chimp Twist, whom we first encounter in Sam the Sudden. Safe smashing Soup Slattery and confidence man Gordon “Oily” Carlisle make Soapy Molloy and Chimp Twist look weak – especially Soup Slattery, who can only be described as an adorable crook.
I haven’t even talked about the main characters in Hot Water, Packy Franklyn, and his friend, Vicomte de Blissac, U.S. Senator Opal and his daughter Jane, Mrs. Gedge and her husband Wellington Gedge, who all assemble in Château Blissac outside the French casino town of St. Rocque, each with their own agenda. Throw in impersonations, mistaken identities, a diamond necklace and a sinister letter with undesirable ramification that need to be stolen, this 1932 classic is one of Wodehouse’s best efforts. So much so that as I neared the end, I had to continue reading as I made dinner.
With an extraordinary twist in the very end, Hot Water is that much more enjoyable. Naturally, as in any Wodehouse comedy, true love triumphs and everyone lives happily ever after.
May 9, 2017
This time, I listened to Jonathan Cecil's narration, rather than reading it. Usually brilliant, this was a bit of a struggle as so many of the characters are American, French, or Americans pretending to be French. But, ignoring this, I thought some of the exposition was more laboured than Wodehouse was at his very best, but the dialogue was as good as usual, and the complicated, but easy to follow, plotting was absolutely stunning, with some good surprises near the end. So, overall a 4*.
The GR blurb is:
"At French seaside Château Blissac, J. Wellington Gedge from California wants to go home. His larger richer wife wants him to be a Paris Ambassador, blackmails Senator Opal, publicly dry, with a letter to his bootlegger in her safe. Jewels attract criminals tough 'Soup' Slattery and 'Oily' Carlisle, who mourn female partners who have deserted them.
Amid confusion of assumed identities and one real undercover detective, 'Packy' Patrick Franklyn, rich ex-Yale footballer, wants Jane Opal to be happy. Jane's fiancé poor writer 'Egg' Blair Eggleston is touted by Packy's fiancée culture-lofty Lady Beatrice Bracken. Rakish 'Veek' Vicomte de Blissac returns for holiday festival where men drink, fight, and find love - or at least rewards from safebreaking."
July 27, 2024
Who can say anything negative? We all bow beneath Wodehouse's comic lightness, which at its best is almost Shakespearean.
This particular volume is like a well balanced fruit smoothie. Very sweet, definitely a treat, but not nearly as bad for your health as a bowl of Skittles.
If you feel your mind needs a bit of a break, while still being sharpened by the double razor edge of wit and eloquence, give this a go.
This particular volume is like a well balanced fruit smoothie. Very sweet, definitely a treat, but not nearly as bad for your health as a bowl of Skittles.
If you feel your mind needs a bit of a break, while still being sharpened by the double razor edge of wit and eloquence, give this a go.
January 31, 2021
I believe it was the mythologist, Rollo Bath, who said Plum’s narrative of emotional criminals obscures a reality of brutal greed.
October 19, 2016
Bit below par it seemed to me. I was thinking about the cliche "X on a bad day is still better than most Ys at their best", and it seems to me that it doesn't apply here: sometimes with Wodehouse you get the impression he's straining after his own tone, and when he misses it, he can be pretty pedestrian. Example: there's a little running bit on the theme of an imaginary German sociologist with precise statistics for how young men rejected in love will react. On a good day Wodehouse could no doubt be hilarious with this, but in fact he just reels off a few labouredly facetiously precise figures for exactly when the person concerned does this and that, and tells it all in lengthy convoluted sentences with the verb right at the end. Ho ho.
I write - as you can see if you look at my stats here - as a huge Wodehouse fan. This is like flat lager for sheer enjoyment value. Well, half-flat lager maybe. Just about swallowable if there's no good stuff around and you really need a drink.
Odd really, considering it was written in 1932, as he was gearing up to, and indeed already producing, some of his greatest stuff.
I write - as you can see if you look at my stats here - as a huge Wodehouse fan. This is like flat lager for sheer enjoyment value. Well, half-flat lager maybe. Just about swallowable if there's no good stuff around and you really need a drink.
Odd really, considering it was written in 1932, as he was gearing up to, and indeed already producing, some of his greatest stuff.
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