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Blandings Castle #3
Замъкът Бландингс и други истории
Here are a dozen stories to delight all Wodehouse addicts...A crooning tenor is attempting to captivate the affections of the Rev. Rupert Bingham's fiancee, Lord Emsworth is striving to remove a pumpkin-shaped blot on the family escutcheon, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood is making a last-ditch attempt to convert Lady Alcester to the beneficial quality of Donaldson's Dog-Joy, and in the bar-parlor of the Anglers' Rest, Mr. Mulliner fascinates everyone with the secret history of old Hollywood.
216 pages, Paperback
First published April 12, 1935
About the author
P.G. Wodehouse
1,741 books7,108 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 514 reviews
September 30, 2021
This is going on my Favorites shelf for sure!
First, let me say that James Saxon was the narrator of the audiobook version that I listened to, and he was hysterical. I seriously think he made the book 10x funnier just by reading it the way he did.
I normally wouldn't suggest listening to a book over reading it, but this dude is hilarious.
Ok, so this isn't ONE long story. Basically, every new chapter is a short story about characters in this world. And while I loved them all, Lord Emsworth & his son Freddie are my favorites. But seriously every one of these stories is SO worth it.
I swear to you, I actually went back and looked up the publication date, because I thought that maybe I misunderstood and this was a recently written story that was trying to sound like it was written back in the 1930s. <--that's how relatable these characters are!
The stories are silly and full of nonsense in the best way possible and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a laugh.
I'm currently working my way thought Wodehouse's Jeeves series but (so far) this one is still my top pick.
First, let me say that James Saxon was the narrator of the audiobook version that I listened to, and he was hysterical. I seriously think he made the book 10x funnier just by reading it the way he did.
I normally wouldn't suggest listening to a book over reading it, but this dude is hilarious.
Ok, so this isn't ONE long story. Basically, every new chapter is a short story about characters in this world. And while I loved them all, Lord Emsworth & his son Freddie are my favorites. But seriously every one of these stories is SO worth it.
I swear to you, I actually went back and looked up the publication date, because I thought that maybe I misunderstood and this was a recently written story that was trying to sound like it was written back in the 1930s. <--that's how relatable these characters are!
The stories are silly and full of nonsense in the best way possible and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a laugh.
I'm currently working my way thought Wodehouse's Jeeves series but (so far) this one is still my top pick.
October 15, 2025
Short stories work for Wodehouse's wit but not for me 😅
The first part of the book was fine but when it changed to the Hollywood stories I lost interest - I don't think they as good as the rest.
The first part of the book was fine but when it changed to the Hollywood stories I lost interest - I don't think they as good as the rest.
December 12, 2024
This was my first ever Wodehouse.
So as you can imagine, it has a special spot in my heart.
The dotty Lord Emsworth, the indomitable Lady Constance, the hapless Freddie, and her porkiness...the Empress of Blandings.
You root for Lord Emsworth to find the backbone to stand up to his sister and head gardener, and you root for Freddie to not cock it up...whatever it happens to be.
This book does have the story of Freddie finally managing to get a girl to walk down the aisle with him.
Keeping her proves to be a bit trickier, but he can count on his father to sweet talk his wife into staying his wife. Right?
Towards the back of the book, Mr. Mulliner regales the local pub with stories from his days in Hollywood. I thought Castaways, the story of people who have been unfortunate enough to wander too close to a studio and have been press-ganged, imprisoned, and forced to finish a movie script, was pretty funny.
Overall, this is a pretty great selection from the Blandings Castle crew.
Recommended.
So as you can imagine, it has a special spot in my heart.
The dotty Lord Emsworth, the indomitable Lady Constance, the hapless Freddie, and her porkiness...the Empress of Blandings.
You root for Lord Emsworth to find the backbone to stand up to his sister and head gardener, and you root for Freddie to not cock it up...whatever it happens to be.
This book does have the story of Freddie finally managing to get a girl to walk down the aisle with him.
Keeping her proves to be a bit trickier, but he can count on his father to sweet talk his wife into staying his wife. Right?
Towards the back of the book, Mr. Mulliner regales the local pub with stories from his days in Hollywood. I thought Castaways, the story of people who have been unfortunate enough to wander too close to a studio and have been press-ganged, imprisoned, and forced to finish a movie script, was pretty funny.
Overall, this is a pretty great selection from the Blandings Castle crew.
Recommended.
January 1, 2022
I sprinkled these dozen stories over four months: the adorable, exasperating, and familiar Lord Emsworth, and then the tiddly raconteur, Mr Mulliner. They were published in 1935.
BLANDINGS CASTLE, 5*
Old favourites: Lord Emsworth, his feckless second son, the Empress of Blandings (not a human relative!), people outwitting each other accidentally and deliberately, multiple misunderstandings, the trials of young love, crazy coincidences, and Wodehouse's inimitable analogies. The stories are self-contained, but with a loosely connecting narrative arc.
Note: Avoid the 2013 TV adaption called Blandings. It had a good cast, but was unwatchably awful, imo.
1. The Custody of the Pumpkin
"It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine."
Agriculturally, one mostly associates Lord Emsworth with competitive pig breeding, so the pumpkin angle was fresh. There are cattle, too:
“It was a fine cow, as cows go, but like so many cows, it lacked sustained dramatic interest.”
However, concerns about his son, The Hon Freddie Threepwood, cast a comic pall on his otherwise cheerful demeanour. Freddie doesn’t want confrontation either:
“He had the air of one who is being pushed towards dangerous machinery in which he is loath to become entangled.”
I also find something inherently amusing in Aggie being an unsuitable wife because her father is an American dog biscuit millionaire.
Image: Dog biscuits - similar to those I occasionally, secretly, ate as a child! (Source)
2. Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best
“Peril brings out unsuspected qualities in every man. Lord Emsworth was not a professional acrobat, but the leap he gave in this crisis would have justified his being mistaken as one.”
Further worries and interventions concerning Freddie’s love life make me question Lord Emsworth’s parenting. He wants the best for his son, but I cannot condone his judgement and methods, and his despair at the very sight of Freddie is tragic. Yet Wodehouse still makes me smile.
"A ray of sunshine, which had been advancing jauntily along the carpet, caught sight of his face and slunk out, abashed."
3. Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey!
How to charm a pig and so win a Fat Pig contest, even though circumstances keep throwing new impediments at you.
4. Company for Gertrude
“The master of Blandings was one of those fluffy-minded old gentlemen who are happiest when experimenting with strange drugs. In a less censorious age, he would have been a Borgia.”
Another young couple, Gertrude and Rupert, facing parental objections. A dash of slapstick, plenty of confusion, misapplied medication, and general joie de vivre - eventually.
5. The Go-Getter
Freddie is immune to the carefully tended beauty of his father’s garden:
“He eyed the lobelias with an unseeing stare, as if he were cutting an undesirable acquaintance in the paddock at Ascot.”
I, on the other hand, am immune to the charms of most dogs, and this story was too focused on canines and their food, although the different reactions to a dog fight in the drawing room were brilliant.
6. Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend
"He drank coffee with the air of a man who regretted that it was not hemlock."
Lord Emsworth at his most benevolent, in his simple, non-judgemental kindness, when others are aghast at “the admixture of the Fresh Air London children” during the time of the village fete.
Image: Fan art by ashokbhatia (Source)
A BOBBIE WICKHAM STORY
7. Mr Potter Takes a Rest Cure
“The doves in the immemorial elms cooed with precisely the right gentlemanly intonation.”
Mr Potter is a US publisher, staying at the country house of one of his authors, novelist Lady Wickham. He’s reading a manuscript titled “The Ethics of Suicide”. An interesting subject, especially in a time when attempted suicide was a crime. However, comic misunderstandings related to the subject jarred.
THE MULLINERS OF HOLLYWOOD, 3*
I was never as much of a fan of the Mulliner or Hollywood stories as Wodehouse’s others, let alone both together. Evidently, that’s still true. As with Meet Mr. Mulliner, each story takes place in The Angler’s Rest, where Mr Mulliner tells tall tales about his relatives to fellow drinkers known by their tipple: “A Tankard of Stout”, “Small Bass”, and “Gin Fizz”. Wodehouse worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood for a couple of years before publishing these stories, so I fear the horrid starlets and working conditions are some reflection of his own experience.
8. Monkey Business
“If America is not to go the way of Babylon and Rome, we must come back to normalcy and the sane outlook.”
The film “Black Africa” involves a gorilla, which provides opportunity to show machismo - or not.
9. The Nodder
“A Nodder is something like a Yes-Man, only lower in the social scale.”
But the question at the heart of this is whether child stars are really “midgets”?!
“Most people, eyeing him, would have been reminded of a corpse which had been several days in the water: but Mr Schnellenhamer thought he looked like a leopard about to spring.”
10. The Juice of an Orange
“[He] was not one of those men who can eat sandwiches aloofly and, as it were, surreptitiously… There was a brio, a gusto, about the performance which stripped it of all disguise.”
The dangers of extreme dieting, and a comic scene where an underling is told he’ll have his pay cut because the studio is struggling, but he bargains down to even less.
Image: Orange juice - delicious, but not enough to live on! (Source)
11. The Rise of Minna Nordstrom
The problem of being a studio boss is that “everybody you meet starts acting at you” - so how does an ambitious wannabe get noticed?
“The Duke of Wigan, who, as so many British dukes do, was at this time passing slowly through Hollywood.”
12. The Castaways
Hold on to your hat if you want to live happily ever after!
A better Mulliner story
Mulliner’s Buck-U-Uppo. See my review HERE.
BLANDINGS CASTLE, 5*
Old favourites: Lord Emsworth, his feckless second son, the Empress of Blandings (not a human relative!), people outwitting each other accidentally and deliberately, multiple misunderstandings, the trials of young love, crazy coincidences, and Wodehouse's inimitable analogies. The stories are self-contained, but with a loosely connecting narrative arc.
Note: Avoid the 2013 TV adaption called Blandings. It had a good cast, but was unwatchably awful, imo.
1. The Custody of the Pumpkin
"It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine."
Agriculturally, one mostly associates Lord Emsworth with competitive pig breeding, so the pumpkin angle was fresh. There are cattle, too:
“It was a fine cow, as cows go, but like so many cows, it lacked sustained dramatic interest.”
However, concerns about his son, The Hon Freddie Threepwood, cast a comic pall on his otherwise cheerful demeanour. Freddie doesn’t want confrontation either:
“He had the air of one who is being pushed towards dangerous machinery in which he is loath to become entangled.”
I also find something inherently amusing in Aggie being an unsuitable wife because her father is an American dog biscuit millionaire.
Image: Dog biscuits - similar to those I occasionally, secretly, ate as a child! (Source)
2. Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best
“Peril brings out unsuspected qualities in every man. Lord Emsworth was not a professional acrobat, but the leap he gave in this crisis would have justified his being mistaken as one.”
Further worries and interventions concerning Freddie’s love life make me question Lord Emsworth’s parenting. He wants the best for his son, but I cannot condone his judgement and methods, and his despair at the very sight of Freddie is tragic. Yet Wodehouse still makes me smile.
"A ray of sunshine, which had been advancing jauntily along the carpet, caught sight of his face and slunk out, abashed."
3. Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey!
How to charm a pig and so win a Fat Pig contest, even though circumstances keep throwing new impediments at you.
4. Company for Gertrude
“The master of Blandings was one of those fluffy-minded old gentlemen who are happiest when experimenting with strange drugs. In a less censorious age, he would have been a Borgia.”
Another young couple, Gertrude and Rupert, facing parental objections. A dash of slapstick, plenty of confusion, misapplied medication, and general joie de vivre - eventually.
5. The Go-Getter
Freddie is immune to the carefully tended beauty of his father’s garden:
“He eyed the lobelias with an unseeing stare, as if he were cutting an undesirable acquaintance in the paddock at Ascot.”
I, on the other hand, am immune to the charms of most dogs, and this story was too focused on canines and their food, although the different reactions to a dog fight in the drawing room were brilliant.
6. Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend
"He drank coffee with the air of a man who regretted that it was not hemlock."
Lord Emsworth at his most benevolent, in his simple, non-judgemental kindness, when others are aghast at “the admixture of the Fresh Air London children” during the time of the village fete.
Image: Fan art by ashokbhatia (Source)
A BOBBIE WICKHAM STORY
7. Mr Potter Takes a Rest Cure
“The doves in the immemorial elms cooed with precisely the right gentlemanly intonation.”
Mr Potter is a US publisher, staying at the country house of one of his authors, novelist Lady Wickham. He’s reading a manuscript titled “The Ethics of Suicide”. An interesting subject, especially in a time when attempted suicide was a crime. However, comic misunderstandings related to the subject jarred.
THE MULLINERS OF HOLLYWOOD, 3*
I was never as much of a fan of the Mulliner or Hollywood stories as Wodehouse’s others, let alone both together. Evidently, that’s still true. As with Meet Mr. Mulliner, each story takes place in The Angler’s Rest, where Mr Mulliner tells tall tales about his relatives to fellow drinkers known by their tipple: “A Tankard of Stout”, “Small Bass”, and “Gin Fizz”. Wodehouse worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood for a couple of years before publishing these stories, so I fear the horrid starlets and working conditions are some reflection of his own experience.
8. Monkey Business
“If America is not to go the way of Babylon and Rome, we must come back to normalcy and the sane outlook.”
The film “Black Africa” involves a gorilla, which provides opportunity to show machismo - or not.
9. The Nodder
“A Nodder is something like a Yes-Man, only lower in the social scale.”
But the question at the heart of this is whether child stars are really “midgets”?!
“Most people, eyeing him, would have been reminded of a corpse which had been several days in the water: but Mr Schnellenhamer thought he looked like a leopard about to spring.”
10. The Juice of an Orange
“[He] was not one of those men who can eat sandwiches aloofly and, as it were, surreptitiously… There was a brio, a gusto, about the performance which stripped it of all disguise.”
The dangers of extreme dieting, and a comic scene where an underling is told he’ll have his pay cut because the studio is struggling, but he bargains down to even less.
Image: Orange juice - delicious, but not enough to live on! (Source)
11. The Rise of Minna Nordstrom
The problem of being a studio boss is that “everybody you meet starts acting at you” - so how does an ambitious wannabe get noticed?
“The Duke of Wigan, who, as so many British dukes do, was at this time passing slowly through Hollywood.”
12. The Castaways
Hold on to your hat if you want to live happily ever after!
A better Mulliner story
Mulliner’s Buck-U-Uppo. See my review HERE.
February 3, 2014
Did I enjoy Blandings Castle? Oh I say, rather! I've been to Blandings before, usually with Uncle Fred, but this is the first time I've felt like a resident of the asylum.
Though similar to say a Totleigh Towers of the Jeeves & Wooster world, Blandings nonetheless has its own set of rules, its own cast of loons. Lord Emsworth, aka Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth is the principle character and a good ol' bean. In some stories he comes off as a doddering old Methuselah, but apparently he's meant to be only in his 60s. Irregardless of whatever story you're reading, Emsworth has a fairly one-track mind, he worries over his prize pig, the Empress of Blandings. If it's not the pig, then it's a pumpkin, but mainly it's the pig. Hardships and annoyances are tossed at him from every corner, yet he always keeps his eyes on the prize...pig.
Some of the hardships and annoyances include his constantly pestering sister Lady Constance Keeble, his good-for-nothing young son Freddy, his gravelly-souled gardner Angus McAllister, and bank holidays in August.
When Emsworth and his pig and pumpkin are not the focal point of the story, the topic almost inevitably is love. Some young couple, or rather I should say, some young trio is always falling in and out of love in Wodehouse's stories. Just as often as not, the young lovers are running from engagements as they are running to them. I can't count the number of times I've read about Bertie Wooster making a near escape from the alter.
Rounding out the collection of tales in Blandings Castle, nearly half the book to be more precise, are stories centered around the Hollywood movie scene of the early days. Wodehouse wrote a film script or two and committed his experiences to paper in the form of fictional, wacky misadventures. Some good satirical barbs at the industry provide a few laughs. However, good as these stories are, I can't help but feel that they are a tack-on to pad out the page total to make up a full book. That said, it's a very enjoyable book!
Addendum For Your Viewing Pleasure: I almost forgot, did you know there's a BBC tv series based on the Blandings books? I haven't seen it yet, but it's a comin' via the Netflix. I'm pretty excited, because it stars some actors from the Harry Potter movies as well as Jennifer Saunders of Ab Fab. I am however tempering my excitement, knowing full well that it will probably be flawed as any Wodehouse adapted story for the screen has been. Without his witty narration, it just isn't the same. But, we'll see!
Though similar to say a Totleigh Towers of the Jeeves & Wooster world, Blandings nonetheless has its own set of rules, its own cast of loons. Lord Emsworth, aka Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth is the principle character and a good ol' bean. In some stories he comes off as a doddering old Methuselah, but apparently he's meant to be only in his 60s. Irregardless of whatever story you're reading, Emsworth has a fairly one-track mind, he worries over his prize pig, the Empress of Blandings. If it's not the pig, then it's a pumpkin, but mainly it's the pig. Hardships and annoyances are tossed at him from every corner, yet he always keeps his eyes on the prize...pig.
Some of the hardships and annoyances include his constantly pestering sister Lady Constance Keeble, his good-for-nothing young son Freddy, his gravelly-souled gardner Angus McAllister, and bank holidays in August.
When Emsworth and his pig and pumpkin are not the focal point of the story, the topic almost inevitably is love. Some young couple, or rather I should say, some young trio is always falling in and out of love in Wodehouse's stories. Just as often as not, the young lovers are running from engagements as they are running to them. I can't count the number of times I've read about Bertie Wooster making a near escape from the alter.
Rounding out the collection of tales in Blandings Castle, nearly half the book to be more precise, are stories centered around the Hollywood movie scene of the early days. Wodehouse wrote a film script or two and committed his experiences to paper in the form of fictional, wacky misadventures. Some good satirical barbs at the industry provide a few laughs. However, good as these stories are, I can't help but feel that they are a tack-on to pad out the page total to make up a full book. That said, it's a very enjoyable book!
Addendum For Your Viewing Pleasure: I almost forgot, did you know there's a BBC tv series based on the Blandings books? I haven't seen it yet, but it's a comin' via the Netflix. I'm pretty excited, because it stars some actors from the Harry Potter movies as well as Jennifer Saunders of Ab Fab. I am however tempering my excitement, knowing full well that it will probably be flawed as any Wodehouse adapted story for the screen has been. Without his witty narration, it just isn't the same. But, we'll see!
July 17, 2019
The day was so warm, so fair, so magically a thing of sunshine and blue skies and bird-song that anyone acquainted with Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, and aware of his liking for fine weather, would have pictured him going about the place on this summer morning with a beaming smile and an uplifted heart.
Right here is probably the best quote that explains the allure of Wodehouse, his almost guaranteed uplifting effect on the spirits of even the weariest reader, the iddylic setting that made Evelyn Waugh comment: “The gardens of Blandings Castle are that original garden from which we are all exiled.”
This is not my first visit here, and no matter how ironic is the author’s introduction to this new volume, I do hope I will find the time to read the rest of the Saga. If there is a cure, I don’t wanna know about it.
Except for the tendency to write articles about the Modern Girl and allow his side-whiskers to grow, there is nothing an author to-day has to guard himself against more carefully than the Saga habit. The least slackening of vigilance and the thing has gripped him. He writes a story. Another story dealing with the same characters occurs to him, and he writes that. He feels that just one more won’t hurt him, and he writes a third. And before he knows where he is, he is down with a Saga, and no cure in sight.
Before we begin, let’s note that here we have two separate collections of short stories instead of a single novel. I prefer the longer form myself, but until I get my hands on one, these short forays will do. Wodehouse is once more spot on in the intro:
The stories in the first part of the book represent what I may term the short snort in between the solid orgies. From time to time I would feel the Blandings Castle craving creeping over me, but I had the manhood to content myself with a small dose.
So, let the summer sunshine in and begin the lecture!
The Custody of the Pumpkin is a fine piece of history to re-familiarize the reader with the main actors and with the usual plot of love triumphing over adversity. We will not meet The Empress of Blandings yet, because the pride of the garden for now is a prize pumpkin.
The ninth Earl of Emsworth was a fluffy-minded and amiable old gentleman with a fondness for new toys.
The toy in question is a telescope that the Lord uses to survey his domain from a tower of his castle. Unfortunately, the instrument also reveals his son, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood kissing a girl in a distant meadow. Further inquiries reveal she is the niece of the head gardener, Angus McAllister, that guy with the heavy accent and inflated sense of his own importance. The ensuing row and the hasty departure of the Scotsman to London puts in grave danger the future growth of the pumpkin. What is Lord Emsworth to do?
Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best is a sequel of sorts to the first story, in that it continues with the romance of Freddie and his new American wife. Back in London to sell a Hollywood script, Freddie is in trouble from his jealous consort and appeals to his father for help. The good-intentioned but clueless Lord Emsworth gets attacked by a savage Pekinese dog, but is more scared to recognize himself in the features of his good-for-nothing son. All’s well that ends well!
Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey! marks the return on the premises of the Empress of Blandings, with the chorus of worries about her prospects for winning the annual Shropshire Agricultural Festival. When her main handler is sent to prison for drunk and disorderly behaviour, the Lord and his friends must learn how Americans call the pigs to feed in Kentucky, helping a couple of young people in love as a bonus.
She resembled a captive balloon with ears and a tail, and was as nearly circular as a pig can be without bursting.
Company for Gertrude is less about pigs and more about the Modern Girl, with Lord Emsworth harassed by a niece sent down to the Castle to recover from an unlucky Love affair.
The family seem to look on the place as a sort of Bastille. Whenever the young of the species make a floater like falling in love with the wrong man, they are always shot off to Blandings to recover. [...] One of the chief drawbacks to entertaining in your home a girl who has been crossed in love is that she is extremely apt to go about the place doing good. All that life holds for her now is the opportunity of being kind to others, and she intends to be kind if it chokes them.
The cure is sometimes more painful than the illness, especially when the solution comes from the Hon. Freddie Threepwood, who sends down Beefy Bingham. Bingham, who is in love with Gertrude, comes disguised as Mr Popjoy and tries to be helpful, but mostly convinces the Lord that he is as crazy as a bat. Hijinks follow!
The Go-Getter continues with the same cast of characters as the previous story, with the addition of a Crooning Tenor as a rival for Bingham in the graces of Gertrude and with more efforts from Freddie to sell his American brand of dog biscuits. Wodehouse underlines once again the theory that even the Modern Girl prefers a man of strength and determination over one singing about moonlight and nightingales.
Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend is my favorite piece in the first half of the collection (that’s where my opening quote comes from). A perfect summer day is ruined for Lord Emsworth by the insistence of his sister that he puts on formal clothes, including a top hat, and that he gives a speech in front of the neighbours gathered for the annual picnic at the Castle. In addition, Angus McAllister wants to put gravel on his yew alley. The Horror!
Clarence is saved by an unlikely young heroine, a Cockney girl named Gladys, who reminds him what are the most important things in life and helps him find the strength to confront both his sister and his head gardener. Excelent closing to the Blandings visit!
Now, lets go Elsewhere for a glimpse at the secret history of Hollywood. Much as I like Blandings Castle, I must confess that I loved the second half of the collection better and I couldn’t stop laughing as the unflappable Mr Mulliner entertained his bar room audience with outrageous tales from the dream factory.
Mr Potter Takes a Rest Cure is a transition piece form London to Hollywood by a way of a New York publicist, visiting England for a bit of ‘delightful old-world peace’. He finds himself instead pulled between Lady Wickam, his host with literary aspirations, and Clifford Gandle, a young man with political aspirations. Mr Potter’s sees a ray of hope entering the summer garden:
She was a boyish-looking girl, slim and graceful, and the read hair on her bare head glowed pleasingly in the sun.
Miss Roberta Wickam is though more similar to the snake in the grass than to a sunny angel, well capable of taking care of her own well-being and not adverse to a little lying and cheating to get her own way. The ensuing troubles put Mr Potter’s recovery in dire straits, but they are good for a laugh or three!
Monkey Business is my first encounter with Mr Mulliner as he tries to impress his pub audience with his insider knowledge of Hollywood.
Mr Mulliner smiled gently.
‘Strange,’he said, ‘how even in these orderly civilized days women still worship heroism in the male. Offer them wealth, brains, looks, amiability, skill at card-tricks or at playing the ukulele ... unless these are accompanied by physical courage they will turn away in scorn.’
This is a recurrent theme in the Wodehouse opus, but never before has Love been demonstrated with the help of a gorilla. Yet this is how the timid young man Montrose Mulliner is asked to demonstrate his devotion to his darling Rosalie Beamish, an aspiring actress. He tries to wiggle out of his predicament by claiming the higher moral ground, but the lady will have none of it:
‘Speaking for myself,’said Montrose, ‘there is nothing I should enjoy more than a quiet wedding in a gorilla’s cage. But has one the right to pander to the morbid taste of a sensation-avid public?
Wodehouse pokes great fun at the American media thirst for sensational headlines and cheap fame, but he reserves some arrows for producers, the press and even for fellow scriptwriters and novelists who claim to be highbrow.
‘I have a tender heart (said Mr Mulliner), and I dislike to dwell on the spectacle of a human being groaning under the iron heel of Fate. Such morbid gloating, I consider, is better left to the Russians.’
Give me a good comedy any day, and leave those Russians to the critics and angsty intellectuals. The more improbable the outcome, the harder the laughter.
The Nodder continues with the expose of the ridiculous Hollywood mentality, as another young man falls in love but is ignored because he has a low status. To illustrate this we go back to the Perfecto-Zizzbaum Motion Picture Corporation of Hollywood and to its president, Mr Schellenhamer, who steers his ship with an iron hand and with the help of certain specialized employees.
It is not easy to explain to the lay mind the extremely intricate ramifications of the personnel of a Hollywood motion-picture organization. Putting it as briefly as possible, a Nodder is something like a Yes-Man, only lower in the social scale.
Young Wilmot Mulliner is paid by the organization to nod at the wise words of its Leader, while his love interest, Miss Mabel Potter, is the private secretary of the President, Mr Schnellenhamer. So you can see why their love is not meant to be. Yet, the secret song of the cuckoo and a few other secrets of the company involving midgets might provide a solution.
The Juice of an Orange is a sequel to the love affair of Wilmot and Mabel, because even happy endings are not forever in Hollywood.
‘Many a girl has fallen into a man’s arms,’said Mr. Mulliner gravely, ‘only to wriggle out of them at a later date.’
Wilmot Mulliner may have had his moment of heroism, but soon enough his love starts comparing him to a “cold-asparagus-back-boned-worm” . It’s a cruel world out there, especially when you tell your boss that you will gladly take a cut in your salary. Few women would endure such spineless behaviour.
‘Don’t dream of cutting your salary, Chief,’ he urged. ‘You’re worth every cent of it. Besides, reflect. If you reduce your salary, it will cause alarm. People will go about saying that things must be in a bad way. It is your duty to the community to be a man and bite the bullet and, no matter how much it may irk you, to stick to your eight hundred thousand dollar a year like glue.’
It's hard not have a tinge of bitterness reading today this dialogue written in 1933 and seeing how little things have changed at the highest levels of management, but in the world of P G Wodehouse there is still hope for Wilmot, even if his first reaction is to fall into depression and into an eating disorder.
No man, however gifted his gastric juices, can go on indefinitely brooding over a lost love and sailing into the starchy foods simultaneously.
The cure recommended is the glass of orange juice from the title, but the effects are all out of proportion with the usually amiable Wilmot. Still funny as hell! Especially when Mr Schnellenhamer tries to find words that just miss him by a letter or two (aiming for sardonic by way of cynical, snickle, Sardinia, sardines and touching down on ‘sardinical’)
The Rise of Minna Nordstrom is focused on the same Perfecto Zizzbaum company, with a plot revolving around the problem of finding good servants in Hollywood and giving a party in the time of the Prohibition.
‘What,’ she demanded passionately at length, ‘is the matter with all you movie magnates? Have you no hearts? Have you no compassion? No sympathy? No understanding? Do the ambitions of the struggling mean nothing to you?’
‘No,’ replied Mr Schnellenhamer in answer to all five questions.
Nevermind, a woman of spirit and courage will always find a way to trick these damn movie moguls!
The Castaways is the last story of the book and I would call it Kafkaesque, if I could stop laughing for a minute or two. The absurdity of kidnapping strangers from the street and locking them up to work as script doctors may have something to do with Mr Wodehouse own experiences in Hollywood, and even more to do with Mr Mulliner’s tendency to twist facts in order to impress his fellow drinkers in the pub. Nevertheless, it has panache, and it has one of the most memorable love scenes never put on the silver screen (I think):
And, seeing her weeping there, Bullstrode could restrain himself no longer. Something snapped in him. It was his collar stud. His neck, normally a fifteen and a eight, had suddenly swelled under the pressure of uncontrollable emotion into a large seventeen. For an instant he stood gurgling wordlessly like a bull-pup choking over a chicken-bone: then, darting forward, he clasped her in his arms and began to murmur all those words of love which until now he had kept pent up in his heart.
I believe Hollywood is the poorer for not embracing Mr Wodehouse more fondly. His dialogue, his screwball plots and the timing of his jokes are some of the best in the genre.
As for me, I will continue with the Sagas, both Blandings and Jeeves, and hopefully I will even meet mt Mulliner again over a hot ‘Scotch and lemon’.
September 5, 2013
The Custody of the Pumpkin: It seems Lord Emsworth was a pumpkin enthusiast before he acquired his pig fixation. He fires the groundskeeper because Freddie Threepwood's in love with a cousin of his. Soon Emsworth fears for his pumpkin's health and goes to London to re-hire McAllister. Hilarity ensues. The Earl is in all his absent-minded glory in this one. "Have that cats gotten at it?"
Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best: Freddie and his wife have a spat and Freddie ends up back in London. The ninth Earl initiall decides not to intervene but does so when it dawns on him that Freddie intends to return to Blandings if his marriage fails. Couple this with a Jeeves-eque side plot where Beach is thinking about quitting because Emsworth grew a beard and there you have it.
Pig Hoo-o-o-o-ey: The Empress of Blandings quits eating after her trainer ends up in the jug. Angela, Emsworth's niece, breaks off her engagement to cavort with Jimmy Belford. Jimmy's what brings the plots together. It seems he worked for two years on a farm...
Company for Gertrude: Gertrude, yet another niece, is staying at Blandngs because her mother doesn't want her marrying Beefy Bingham, a friend of Freddie's. Freddie gives Beefy the idea to go to Blandings under another name and ingratiate himself to the ninth Earl so Gertrude's mother will have to give consent, thus continuing the tradition of an imposter in Blandings.
The Go-Getter: Beefy and Gertrude are on the rocks. Gertrude's mooning over Orlo Watkin, a tenor. Freddie's trying to get them back together while also trying to sell Donaldson's Dog-Joy. Freddie's pretty Wooster-ish in this one.
Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend: Emsworth in a foul mood over August Bank Holiday and meets a little girl that is a kindred spirit.
Mr. Potter Takes a Rest Cure: Bobbie Wickham faces an unwanted engagement to Clifford Gandle until she manages to convince Gandle and J.H. Potter that one another are crazy. Classic Wodehouse.
Monkey Business: Montrose Mulliner's fiancee has him cowed and ditches him for a big game hunter until an ape goes on the rampage.
Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best: Freddie and his wife have a spat and Freddie ends up back in London. The ninth Earl initiall decides not to intervene but does so when it dawns on him that Freddie intends to return to Blandings if his marriage fails. Couple this with a Jeeves-eque side plot where Beach is thinking about quitting because Emsworth grew a beard and there you have it.
Pig Hoo-o-o-o-ey: The Empress of Blandings quits eating after her trainer ends up in the jug. Angela, Emsworth's niece, breaks off her engagement to cavort with Jimmy Belford. Jimmy's what brings the plots together. It seems he worked for two years on a farm...
Company for Gertrude: Gertrude, yet another niece, is staying at Blandngs because her mother doesn't want her marrying Beefy Bingham, a friend of Freddie's. Freddie gives Beefy the idea to go to Blandings under another name and ingratiate himself to the ninth Earl so Gertrude's mother will have to give consent, thus continuing the tradition of an imposter in Blandings.
The Go-Getter: Beefy and Gertrude are on the rocks. Gertrude's mooning over Orlo Watkin, a tenor. Freddie's trying to get them back together while also trying to sell Donaldson's Dog-Joy. Freddie's pretty Wooster-ish in this one.
Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend: Emsworth in a foul mood over August Bank Holiday and meets a little girl that is a kindred spirit.
Mr. Potter Takes a Rest Cure: Bobbie Wickham faces an unwanted engagement to Clifford Gandle until she manages to convince Gandle and J.H. Potter that one another are crazy. Classic Wodehouse.
Monkey Business: Montrose Mulliner's fiancee has him cowed and ditches him for a big game hunter until an ape goes on the rampage.
April 1, 2021
Have you ever seen this trefoil plant?
And that fairy fly?
Those three leaves adjoined at one slender stem and that yellowish flower on top of them! This three-leaf structure below and its flower above looks so guiltless to me and that fairy fly looks squeaky-clean, Impeccable. I felt like such a newly born fairy fly of 0.1 mm long size trying to hoop around the circumference of this three trefoil leaves one by one and trying to extract their greenish charm spread over them first and then aiming at that bulbous yellow color next, but failing every time in midway and falling straight to the grimy root of this plant.
During the period of past four years, I have tried to read one or two books of Wodehouse many times. I couldn’t manage to fulfill my want. This is the only book I have in my kitty, the physical copy, procured by me without any rebate… Fully paid in cash… and I made an effort with this one at least three times in the last three years but after reading a few pages once and the other times reaching somewhere midway with the least focus of a reluctant reader trying to cross his comfort boundaries, I jumped to other wagons. I thought this is not for me and my pencil smears on its pages have not set foot beyond a few chapters.
It seems too much aristocratic, I thought to myself pretentiously in my first two readings. Though I did not get the hang of what aristocratic British writing exactly was. I foisted on me this postulation, based on some heresy to justify my act of giving up midway, his books. In my initial book reading days, I had read George Orwell praising the author quite copiously somewhere, as I had read Orwell’s writing, I could mean it. Similarly Evelyn Waugh was also giving him high ratings. These praises were my initial stimulus to try the author. I never forget those names who introduced me to a new author when I was new to reading. At the beginning of this year on one fine day, I drew my breath in sharply and pronounced to myself that this year I will read many British authors seriously and Wodehouse must be among them without fail. And here my resuscitated determination could bring me round as today I finished this book. It was an attentive reading because this sort of book I don’t read much. This thought was just like an unsung ditty revolving in my head for no reason.
Contrary to my initial pretentious belief, the writing of P.G. Wodehouse is very much for the masses. It’s too much amusing and a sort of rib-tickling spree you can be on immediately. I liked the writing, the wit, and the story all three things in this book. But the most enjoyable thing about his writing is those dialogues. In my first try at this book probably I was trying to extract the story behind it without delving deep into the conversations. And those dialogues are in my opinion are the high–octane doses to the readers in the author’s writing. They were cockeyed. They were no-nonsense too. So they were both absurd and pragmatic at the same time producing levity and laughter. My apprehension was perished by the well-crafted and unconfined gliding descriptive sentences of the author making the reading a treat and I enjoyed every bit of the book. This sort of British writing with such a fantastic comic sense was probably what I was not reading lately. At many places, it was chucklesome with a mild dose of fun. So I read Wodehouse too late seriously. I admit.
Jonathan swift’s somewhere said that the Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own. At many places I found the realization of this thought of Swift while reading the comical circumstances produced by characters of this story, where one particular character became the center of wit through his or her actions and other characters just participated quietly without wearing-off, making the experience for the reader even more amusing. This one significant skill I found in the author. Initially, I needed some focus and read it scrupulously as the writing was not that much free-flowing for my case but my efforts paved the way from chapter three with the title PIG-HOO-O-O-O-EY. And what a funny chapter this one was. I laughed abundantly and then my tone was set for the movement further. A character describes how pigs are described in a different part of America.
“In Wisconsin, for example, the words “Poig, Poig, Poig” bring home in both the literal and figurative sense- the Beacon. In Illinois, I believe they call “Burp, Burp, Burp” while in Iowa the phrase” Kus, Kus, Kus” is preferred. Proceeding to Minnesota we find “Peega, Peega, Peega” or alternatively “Oink, Oink, Oink” whereas in Milwaukee so largely inhabited by those of German descent you will hear the good old Teuton “Komm Schweine, Komm Schweine, Komm Schweine.”Oh yes, there are all sorts of pig calls from Massachusetts, “Phew, Phew, Phew” to the “Loo-ey, Loo-ey, Loo-ey” of Ohio. Not counting various local devices such as beating on a tin can with axes or rattling pebbles in the suitcase.”
This book has two parts. The first one is the story of Lord Emsworth, his famous characters Fredrick, his pig Empress and the Beach, his butler, and his family members making loads of humor inside the Blanding castle. The second part is Titled ELSEWHERE, which has new separate stories, talking about whispered stories of Hollywood and this part is equally fun and frolic. A very satisfying read this time.
I am a fan now piercing my way into his more famous Wooster and Jeeves series.
And that fairy fly?
Those three leaves adjoined at one slender stem and that yellowish flower on top of them! This three-leaf structure below and its flower above looks so guiltless to me and that fairy fly looks squeaky-clean, Impeccable. I felt like such a newly born fairy fly of 0.1 mm long size trying to hoop around the circumference of this three trefoil leaves one by one and trying to extract their greenish charm spread over them first and then aiming at that bulbous yellow color next, but failing every time in midway and falling straight to the grimy root of this plant.
During the period of past four years, I have tried to read one or two books of Wodehouse many times. I couldn’t manage to fulfill my want. This is the only book I have in my kitty, the physical copy, procured by me without any rebate… Fully paid in cash… and I made an effort with this one at least three times in the last three years but after reading a few pages once and the other times reaching somewhere midway with the least focus of a reluctant reader trying to cross his comfort boundaries, I jumped to other wagons. I thought this is not for me and my pencil smears on its pages have not set foot beyond a few chapters.
It seems too much aristocratic, I thought to myself pretentiously in my first two readings. Though I did not get the hang of what aristocratic British writing exactly was. I foisted on me this postulation, based on some heresy to justify my act of giving up midway, his books. In my initial book reading days, I had read George Orwell praising the author quite copiously somewhere, as I had read Orwell’s writing, I could mean it. Similarly Evelyn Waugh was also giving him high ratings. These praises were my initial stimulus to try the author. I never forget those names who introduced me to a new author when I was new to reading. At the beginning of this year on one fine day, I drew my breath in sharply and pronounced to myself that this year I will read many British authors seriously and Wodehouse must be among them without fail. And here my resuscitated determination could bring me round as today I finished this book. It was an attentive reading because this sort of book I don’t read much. This thought was just like an unsung ditty revolving in my head for no reason.
Contrary to my initial pretentious belief, the writing of P.G. Wodehouse is very much for the masses. It’s too much amusing and a sort of rib-tickling spree you can be on immediately. I liked the writing, the wit, and the story all three things in this book. But the most enjoyable thing about his writing is those dialogues. In my first try at this book probably I was trying to extract the story behind it without delving deep into the conversations. And those dialogues are in my opinion are the high–octane doses to the readers in the author’s writing. They were cockeyed. They were no-nonsense too. So they were both absurd and pragmatic at the same time producing levity and laughter. My apprehension was perished by the well-crafted and unconfined gliding descriptive sentences of the author making the reading a treat and I enjoyed every bit of the book. This sort of British writing with such a fantastic comic sense was probably what I was not reading lately. At many places, it was chucklesome with a mild dose of fun. So I read Wodehouse too late seriously. I admit.
Jonathan swift’s somewhere said that the Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own. At many places I found the realization of this thought of Swift while reading the comical circumstances produced by characters of this story, where one particular character became the center of wit through his or her actions and other characters just participated quietly without wearing-off, making the experience for the reader even more amusing. This one significant skill I found in the author. Initially, I needed some focus and read it scrupulously as the writing was not that much free-flowing for my case but my efforts paved the way from chapter three with the title PIG-HOO-O-O-O-EY. And what a funny chapter this one was. I laughed abundantly and then my tone was set for the movement further. A character describes how pigs are described in a different part of America.
“In Wisconsin, for example, the words “Poig, Poig, Poig” bring home in both the literal and figurative sense- the Beacon. In Illinois, I believe they call “Burp, Burp, Burp” while in Iowa the phrase” Kus, Kus, Kus” is preferred. Proceeding to Minnesota we find “Peega, Peega, Peega” or alternatively “Oink, Oink, Oink” whereas in Milwaukee so largely inhabited by those of German descent you will hear the good old Teuton “Komm Schweine, Komm Schweine, Komm Schweine.”Oh yes, there are all sorts of pig calls from Massachusetts, “Phew, Phew, Phew” to the “Loo-ey, Loo-ey, Loo-ey” of Ohio. Not counting various local devices such as beating on a tin can with axes or rattling pebbles in the suitcase.”
This book has two parts. The first one is the story of Lord Emsworth, his famous characters Fredrick, his pig Empress and the Beach, his butler, and his family members making loads of humor inside the Blanding castle. The second part is Titled ELSEWHERE, which has new separate stories, talking about whispered stories of Hollywood and this part is equally fun and frolic. A very satisfying read this time.
I am a fan now piercing my way into his more famous Wooster and Jeeves series.
May 9, 2020
I laughed.
I laughed.
And I laughed some more.
Five stars for the Blandings Castle stories. The Mulliners were a cut below that, but this is still some prime Wodehouse.
"Years before, when a boy, and romantic as most boys are, his lordship had sometimes regretted that the Emsworths, though an ancient clan, did not possess a Family Curse. How little he had suspected that he was shortly to become the father of it."
"... weighing profit and loss as he sipped his port,Lord Emsworth considered that the ledger worked out on the right side. True, he had taken into his house what appeared to be a half-witted acrobat, but then any friend of his son Frederick was bound to be weak in the head ..."
"In predicting that Lord Emsworth would appreciate the gift of a lotion, Freddie had spoken with an unerring knowledge of his father's character. The master of Blandings was one of those fluffy-minded old gentlemen who are happiest when experimenting with strange drugs. In a less censorious age he would have been a Borgia."
I laughed.
And I laughed some more.
Five stars for the Blandings Castle stories. The Mulliners were a cut below that, but this is still some prime Wodehouse.
"Years before, when a boy, and romantic as most boys are, his lordship had sometimes regretted that the Emsworths, though an ancient clan, did not possess a Family Curse. How little he had suspected that he was shortly to become the father of it."
"... weighing profit and loss as he sipped his port,Lord Emsworth considered that the ledger worked out on the right side. True, he had taken into his house what appeared to be a half-witted acrobat, but then any friend of his son Frederick was bound to be weak in the head ..."
"In predicting that Lord Emsworth would appreciate the gift of a lotion, Freddie had spoken with an unerring knowledge of his father's character. The master of Blandings was one of those fluffy-minded old gentlemen who are happiest when experimenting with strange drugs. In a less censorious age he would have been a Borgia."
October 28, 2018
It's a long time since I have read a Wodehouse book afresh - I have finished them all long back so I have to do with re-reads. This was also one, but since there was thirty-five year gap between my previous perusal (during my college days) and this, most of the stories were forgotten and came across as fresh.
Of the dozen stories in this volume, half are dedicated to Blandings Castle and its vacuous peer, Lord Emsworth - attended by his ever-faithful butler Beach, the redoubtable head-gardener Angus MacAllister, his pig-man Cyril Wellbeloved, his prize pig the Empress of Blandings and - to the chagrin of the easy-going peer - his gorgon of a sister Lady Constance Keeble and the blot on his sunshine, his younger son the Hon. Freddie Threepwood.
For the earl is not fond of his younger progeny: in this matter, he is singularly unlike the codfish.
In the opening story, that jaundiced eye falls on the young aristocrat in close embrace with an unsuitable female - the cousin of the head gardener, no less! By the time the affair is satisfactorily settled, Emsworth is called in to heal the rift between his son and his fiance, in a hotel suit infested with snapping toy dogs and gun-wielding females. Even more irritating is the changed Freddie, the go-getter marketing executive of Donaldson's Dog-Joy biscuits. No wonder we find the earl musing thus:
No sooner than he had managed in getting rid of Freddie, Lord Emsworth is tasked with acting as jailer to young nieces who have been dumped into his home to save them from unsuitable alliances by his formidable sisters: also, he is forced to appear in a stiff collar at a school fete arranged in his grounds. One could almost feel that this is some kind of Russian tragedy, with the inexorable hand of fate grinding the poor souls beneath its iron heel. But as with any Wodehouse tale, everything works out in the end, with God in his heaven and everything right with the world.
--------------------
Of the remaining six, one is about Bobbie Wickham, the flighty young girl whom Jeeves thought entirely unsuitable for Bertie Wooster (and was proven right, as usual). Bobbie is being compelled by her mother, the forceful Lady Wickham, to marry the unspeakable Clifford Gandle - however, she has other plans and manages to thwart authority in her own typically idiosyncratic way.
The other five are narrated by that gentleman of the bar parlour of Angler's Rest, the redoubtable Mr. Mulliner. As usual, he speaks with complete honesty about the escapades of his nephews and cousins, this time in Hollywood. And as one can expect with the dream city, everything is a bit larger than life. We have weddings proposed in gorilla cages; child stars who are actually midgets; temperamental lady stars out to brain people with roman swords, people virtually imprisoned to write nonexistent scripts, and the strangest of them all, the Yes-Men and the Nodders.
In fact, business as usual in Hollywood.
--------------------
It's amazing how Wodehouse can keep on spinning the same kind of tale without inciting even an iota of boredom in his reading public. My personal opinion is that it is his consummate mastery over the English language that does it. The following passage serves to illustrate how his prose takes on the wings of poesy even while describing something as mundane as a pig at the feeding trough.
Wodehouse's books are as good as Jeeves's pick-me-ups to raise one from the dumps.
Of the dozen stories in this volume, half are dedicated to Blandings Castle and its vacuous peer, Lord Emsworth - attended by his ever-faithful butler Beach, the redoubtable head-gardener Angus MacAllister, his pig-man Cyril Wellbeloved, his prize pig the Empress of Blandings and - to the chagrin of the easy-going peer - his gorgon of a sister Lady Constance Keeble and the blot on his sunshine, his younger son the Hon. Freddie Threepwood.
For the earl is not fond of his younger progeny: in this matter, he is singularly unlike the codfish.
Unlike the male codfish, which, suddenly finding itself the parent of three million five hundred thousand little codfish, cheerfully resolves to love them all, the British aristocracy is apt to look with a somewhat jaundiced eye on its younger sons. And Freddie Threepwood was one of those younger sons who rather invite the jaundiced eye.
In the opening story, that jaundiced eye falls on the young aristocrat in close embrace with an unsuitable female - the cousin of the head gardener, no less! By the time the affair is satisfactorily settled, Emsworth is called in to heal the rift between his son and his fiance, in a hotel suit infested with snapping toy dogs and gun-wielding females. Even more irritating is the changed Freddie, the go-getter marketing executive of Donaldson's Dog-Joy biscuits. No wonder we find the earl musing thus:
Years before, when a boy, and romantic as most boys are, his lordship had sometimes regretted that the Emsworths, though an ancient clan, did not possess a Family Curse. How little had he suspected that he was shortly about to become the father of it.
No sooner than he had managed in getting rid of Freddie, Lord Emsworth is tasked with acting as jailer to young nieces who have been dumped into his home to save them from unsuitable alliances by his formidable sisters: also, he is forced to appear in a stiff collar at a school fete arranged in his grounds. One could almost feel that this is some kind of Russian tragedy, with the inexorable hand of fate grinding the poor souls beneath its iron heel. But as with any Wodehouse tale, everything works out in the end, with God in his heaven and everything right with the world.
--------------------
Of the remaining six, one is about Bobbie Wickham, the flighty young girl whom Jeeves thought entirely unsuitable for Bertie Wooster (and was proven right, as usual). Bobbie is being compelled by her mother, the forceful Lady Wickham, to marry the unspeakable Clifford Gandle - however, she has other plans and manages to thwart authority in her own typically idiosyncratic way.
The other five are narrated by that gentleman of the bar parlour of Angler's Rest, the redoubtable Mr. Mulliner. As usual, he speaks with complete honesty about the escapades of his nephews and cousins, this time in Hollywood. And as one can expect with the dream city, everything is a bit larger than life. We have weddings proposed in gorilla cages; child stars who are actually midgets; temperamental lady stars out to brain people with roman swords, people virtually imprisoned to write nonexistent scripts, and the strangest of them all, the Yes-Men and the Nodders.
It is not easy to explain to the lay mind the extremely intricate ramifications of the personnel of a Hollywood motion-picture organization. Putting it as briefly as possible, a Nodder is something like a Yes-Man, only lower in the social scale. A Yes-Man's duty is to attend conferences and say "Yes." A Nodder's, as the name implies, is to nod. The chief executive throws out some statement of opinion, and looks about him expectantly. This is the cue for the senior Yes-Man to say yes. He is followed, in order of precedence, by the second Yes-Man - or Vice-Yesser, as he is sometimes called - and the junior Yes-Man. Only when all the Yes-Men have yessed, do the Nodders begin to function. They nod.
In fact, business as usual in Hollywood.
--------------------
It's amazing how Wodehouse can keep on spinning the same kind of tale without inciting even an iota of boredom in his reading public. My personal opinion is that it is his consummate mastery over the English language that does it. The following passage serves to illustrate how his prose takes on the wings of poesy even while describing something as mundane as a pig at the feeding trough.
They looked at him, awed. Slowly, fading across hill and dale, the vast bellow died away. And suddenly, as it died, another, softer sound succeeded it. A sort of gulpy, gurgly, plobby, squishy, wofflesome sound, like a thousand eager men drinking soup in a foreign restaurant. And, as he heard it, Lord Emsworth uttered a cry of rapture.
The Empress was feeding.
Wodehouse's books are as good as Jeeves's pick-me-ups to raise one from the dumps.
March 20, 2024
I'm rereading all the Blandings Castle stories and thought I might have missed these Blanding short stories first time round but, as it turned out, they were all familiar to me. Still, as you know, Wodehouse is always a treat, the plots are secondary to the joy of the characters, turn of phrase, and all round sunniness of his wonderful Wodehousian world.
This collection also contains some non-Blanding stories. The first six stories all take place at Blandings Castle. These are set some time between the events of Leave it to Psmith (1923) and those of Summer Lightning (1929). All are predictably varying hues of marvellous.
The seventh story features Bobbie Wickham (who is an acquaintance and sometime fiancée of Bertie Wooster). This is downright hilarious. I was weeping with laughter at points. I love it when PG can reduce me to that state. This story is worth the price of admission on its own.
The last five are Mr Mulliner stories and all are set in Hollywood among the movie studios that Wodehouse knew from his time as a screenwriter in 1930–31. This is my first encounter with Mr Mulliner and, whilst not up to the dizzy heights of the best of Blandings or Jeeves & Wooster, they were all enjoyable enough.
Each Mulliner story starts in The Angler’s Rest pub, where Mr Mulliner tells tall tales about his relatives to fellow drinkers known by their drink (e.g A Tankard of Stout, Small Bass, and Gin Fizz - Mulliner himself is a Hot Scotch and Lemon).
I have subsequently discovered that Bobbie Wickham appears in three of the stories in Mr. Mulliner Speaking so will be reading that one in the near future, after the effect she had on me in this book.
Delightful
4/5
This collection also contains some non-Blanding stories. The first six stories all take place at Blandings Castle. These are set some time between the events of Leave it to Psmith (1923) and those of Summer Lightning (1929). All are predictably varying hues of marvellous.
The seventh story features Bobbie Wickham (who is an acquaintance and sometime fiancée of Bertie Wooster). This is downright hilarious. I was weeping with laughter at points. I love it when PG can reduce me to that state. This story is worth the price of admission on its own.
The last five are Mr Mulliner stories and all are set in Hollywood among the movie studios that Wodehouse knew from his time as a screenwriter in 1930–31. This is my first encounter with Mr Mulliner and, whilst not up to the dizzy heights of the best of Blandings or Jeeves & Wooster, they were all enjoyable enough.
Each Mulliner story starts in The Angler’s Rest pub, where Mr Mulliner tells tall tales about his relatives to fellow drinkers known by their drink (e.g A Tankard of Stout, Small Bass, and Gin Fizz - Mulliner himself is a Hot Scotch and Lemon).
I have subsequently discovered that Bobbie Wickham appears in three of the stories in Mr. Mulliner Speaking so will be reading that one in the near future, after the effect she had on me in this book.
Delightful
4/5
April 23, 2019
The title is a bit of a misnomer. The first half of the book indeed is all about the delightful Blandings Castle and its crazy gang. But the second half covers stories from the Mr. Mulliner saga. To be honest, while I adore the Blandings stories, I can't say the same for Mr. Mulliner. The Mulliner cast simply doesn't have the same charm for me.
The Custody of the Pumpkin: This is a delightful story of a stubborn gardener matching wills with Lord Emsworth. Also Freddie Threepwood gets married! Loved this one. - 5 stars
Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best: Lord Emsworth helps out his younger son in resolving his marital problems. Probably would have been best if he hadn't! - 4 stars
Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey: We meet the Empress for the first time ever! I have loved this gorgeous animal since childhood. Lord Emsworth also learns how to properly talk to his piggy. - 5 stars
Company for Gertrude: This story follows the typical Blandings formula. Emsworth's niece gets sent to Blandings because she loves the wrong person. Fate plays its role, as does Freddie Threepwood. - 5 stars
The Go-Getter: Poor Freddie tries to sell dog biscuits to his aunt but doesn't appear to be having much success. But a younger son can't sit on his laurels - he has to pull up his pants and get in some action. - 5 stars
Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend: This is a rather sweet story where Lord Emsworth makes friends with a little girl from the village and finds courage. - 4 stars
Mr Potter Takes a Rest Cure: Pure bonkers! Roberta Wickham is introduced here. Her mother wants her to marry a man she doesn't want to. Her way of getting rid of him is ... well, let's just say - creative. - 5 stars
Monkey Business: The Mulliner stories are all set in Hollywood. In this one, Monrose Mulliner is in love with a woman who wants to get married in the gorilla cage. It's fun but I didn't really enjoy this one. Also was a huge disappointment seeing these stories right after the delightful Blandings sagas. - 2 stars
The Nodder: Another Mulliner story: this time Wilmot Mulliner is in love with a woman who thinks he is chicken. His job is to nod at the director's speeches, and he does it admirably well. But would any woman of spirit marry such a man? - 2 stars
The Juice of an Orange: This story was slightly better than the previous two. Mulliner is put on a diet which changes his entire character. Just drinking orange juice (or the juice of an orange) is quite potent! - 4 stars
The Rise of Minna Nordstrorm: I think this was my favourite of all the Mulliner stories. How do popular actresses get made in Hollywood? Read and find out! - 5 stars
The Castaways: Mulliner is enslaved into writing scripts, which plays havoc with his love life. - 2 stars
The Custody of the Pumpkin: This is a delightful story of a stubborn gardener matching wills with Lord Emsworth. Also Freddie Threepwood gets married! Loved this one. - 5 stars
Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best: Lord Emsworth helps out his younger son in resolving his marital problems. Probably would have been best if he hadn't! - 4 stars
Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey: We meet the Empress for the first time ever! I have loved this gorgeous animal since childhood. Lord Emsworth also learns how to properly talk to his piggy. - 5 stars
Company for Gertrude: This story follows the typical Blandings formula. Emsworth's niece gets sent to Blandings because she loves the wrong person. Fate plays its role, as does Freddie Threepwood. - 5 stars
The Go-Getter: Poor Freddie tries to sell dog biscuits to his aunt but doesn't appear to be having much success. But a younger son can't sit on his laurels - he has to pull up his pants and get in some action. - 5 stars
Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend: This is a rather sweet story where Lord Emsworth makes friends with a little girl from the village and finds courage. - 4 stars
Mr Potter Takes a Rest Cure: Pure bonkers! Roberta Wickham is introduced here. Her mother wants her to marry a man she doesn't want to. Her way of getting rid of him is ... well, let's just say - creative. - 5 stars
Monkey Business: The Mulliner stories are all set in Hollywood. In this one, Monrose Mulliner is in love with a woman who wants to get married in the gorilla cage. It's fun but I didn't really enjoy this one. Also was a huge disappointment seeing these stories right after the delightful Blandings sagas. - 2 stars
The Nodder: Another Mulliner story: this time Wilmot Mulliner is in love with a woman who thinks he is chicken. His job is to nod at the director's speeches, and he does it admirably well. But would any woman of spirit marry such a man? - 2 stars
The Juice of an Orange: This story was slightly better than the previous two. Mulliner is put on a diet which changes his entire character. Just drinking orange juice (or the juice of an orange) is quite potent! - 4 stars
The Rise of Minna Nordstrorm: I think this was my favourite of all the Mulliner stories. How do popular actresses get made in Hollywood? Read and find out! - 5 stars
The Castaways: Mulliner is enslaved into writing scripts, which plays havoc with his love life. - 2 stars
September 7, 2021
Once again Wodehouse delivers screwball comedy and absurd situations. Twelve short stories. So set in the familiar Blandings Castle setting with Clarence the eccentric, put upon and absent minded Nonth Earl of Emsworth in lovely Shropshire. The other six stories are across the ocean in that flesh pot city of LA where over a scotch and hot lemon we hear six tales related to the Muliner family.
The Custody of the Pumpkin is where Clarence locks horns with his Glasgow head gardener. He also gets his second son Freddie out of his hair thanks to Donaldsons Dog Biscuits millionaire owners daughter falling in love with Freddie.
Lord Elmsworth Acts the Best sees Beach concerned about his Lordships beard. Clarence also has to act to reunite Freddie with his wife after a misunderstanding concerning a starlet.
Pig-Hoo-O-O-O-EY! Where the Empress is off her feed and Clarence discovers the wonders of pig calling.
Company for Gertrude where Freddie tries to play matchmaker and Clarence is driven to breaking point by good intentions.
The Go-Getter where Freddie tries to make a sale of dog biscuits. Gertrude avoids a bad decision and Rupert her fiancée shows his true colours and Freddie sells two tons of dog biscuits.
Lord Elmsworth and the Girlfriend where the annual fete causes Clarence problems. However, a young girl gives him the courage to avoid a gravel path between his yew trees.
Mr Potter takes a rest cure where Lady Wickham is thwarted by her plans for Bobbie her daughter to marry the obnoxious Mr Gandle MP. Hilarious with an apparent homicidal killer and a suicidal publisher.
We then cross over to the US.
Monkey Business is funny in Mr Mulliner proving his courage to his fiancée Rosalee.
The Nodder or yes man of Hollywood who gets promoted to Executive thanks to a hangover and Mr Schnellenhamer fearing exposure of his child star.
The Juice of an Orange tells us the dangers of a only orange juice diet.
The rise of Mina Nordstrom tells the true story of how she became a movie star. Thanks to her one mindness, perseverance and Prohibition.
The Castaways tells the dangers of writing for Hollywood despots.
These were entertaining, funny and witty stories. Some great sentences.
A sort of gulpy, gurgly, plobby, swishy, wofflesone sound, like a thousand eager men drinking soup in a foreign restaurant. And, as he heard it, Lord Elmsworth uttered a cry of rapture. The Empress was feeding.
The Custody of the Pumpkin is where Clarence locks horns with his Glasgow head gardener. He also gets his second son Freddie out of his hair thanks to Donaldsons Dog Biscuits millionaire owners daughter falling in love with Freddie.
Lord Elmsworth Acts the Best sees Beach concerned about his Lordships beard. Clarence also has to act to reunite Freddie with his wife after a misunderstanding concerning a starlet.
Pig-Hoo-O-O-O-EY! Where the Empress is off her feed and Clarence discovers the wonders of pig calling.
Company for Gertrude where Freddie tries to play matchmaker and Clarence is driven to breaking point by good intentions.
The Go-Getter where Freddie tries to make a sale of dog biscuits. Gertrude avoids a bad decision and Rupert her fiancée shows his true colours and Freddie sells two tons of dog biscuits.
Lord Elmsworth and the Girlfriend where the annual fete causes Clarence problems. However, a young girl gives him the courage to avoid a gravel path between his yew trees.
Mr Potter takes a rest cure where Lady Wickham is thwarted by her plans for Bobbie her daughter to marry the obnoxious Mr Gandle MP. Hilarious with an apparent homicidal killer and a suicidal publisher.
We then cross over to the US.
Monkey Business is funny in Mr Mulliner proving his courage to his fiancée Rosalee.
The Nodder or yes man of Hollywood who gets promoted to Executive thanks to a hangover and Mr Schnellenhamer fearing exposure of his child star.
The Juice of an Orange tells us the dangers of a only orange juice diet.
The rise of Mina Nordstrom tells the true story of how she became a movie star. Thanks to her one mindness, perseverance and Prohibition.
The Castaways tells the dangers of writing for Hollywood despots.
These were entertaining, funny and witty stories. Some great sentences.
A sort of gulpy, gurgly, plobby, swishy, wofflesone sound, like a thousand eager men drinking soup in a foreign restaurant. And, as he heard it, Lord Elmsworth uttered a cry of rapture. The Empress was feeding.
May 28, 2026
I am on holiday on Blandings Castle, and probably will remain there for a couple more books.
I was not enthusiastic about this anthology (second hand paperback, stockpiled long ago), which is a mix of some Blandings stories with others, and I was expecting my favorites would be the Blandings stories. Well, we start with the Blandings stories and Lord Emsworth growing pumpkins, the Hon Freddie eloping and then selling dog biscuits and Lord Emsworth befriending some children and somehow those were my least favorite Blandings stories (though I am totally Lord Emsworth side regarding the moss on the yew alley and I am very glad for his victory). I even became super critical of Lord Emsworth parenting, or that type of parenting being played for laughs, and some of the women were portrayed in ways which were somewhat, eurgh. No. Epic dog fight and Beach butlering though. So the Blandings stories were a definet meh (but still Wodehouse, so 3 stars).
The other stories, the ones I did not have expectations about, ah, those were the ones I loved. Bobbie Wickham's story is just great. And then we get to the Mulliner stories - I never read one of those, and oh my they were fantastic. All through Wodehouse is great at the short story format, the ending, the pace, the framework, but the Mulliner stories are basically the best at those, and their theme (very scandalous over the top Hollywood stories, as narrated by a racconteur in an english pub) is just perfection. Loved those and oh great, I was digging up Wodehouse from the TBR, dieting it a bit so to speak (better than the juice of an orange) and I now must go look for more Mulliner stories for the book pile. Incidentally, weirdly I liked the way some women were portrayed in the Mulliner stories, brains and agency...
I was not enthusiastic about this anthology (second hand paperback, stockpiled long ago), which is a mix of some Blandings stories with others, and I was expecting my favorites would be the Blandings stories. Well, we start with the Blandings stories and Lord Emsworth growing pumpkins, the Hon Freddie eloping and then selling dog biscuits and Lord Emsworth befriending some children and somehow those were my least favorite Blandings stories (though I am totally Lord Emsworth side regarding the moss on the yew alley and I am very glad for his victory). I even became super critical of Lord Emsworth parenting, or that type of parenting being played for laughs, and some of the women were portrayed in ways which were somewhat, eurgh. No. Epic dog fight and Beach butlering though. So the Blandings stories were a definet meh (but still Wodehouse, so 3 stars).
The other stories, the ones I did not have expectations about, ah, those were the ones I loved. Bobbie Wickham's story is just great. And then we get to the Mulliner stories - I never read one of those, and oh my they were fantastic. All through Wodehouse is great at the short story format, the ending, the pace, the framework, but the Mulliner stories are basically the best at those, and their theme (very scandalous over the top Hollywood stories, as narrated by a racconteur in an english pub) is just perfection. Loved those and oh great, I was digging up Wodehouse from the TBR, dieting it a bit so to speak (better than the juice of an orange) and I now must go look for more Mulliner stories for the book pile. Incidentally, weirdly I liked the way some women were portrayed in the Mulliner stories, brains and agency...
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April 9, 2021
It's my belief that in the olden days, people were better writers.
Or maybe that's not quite true; without easy access to publishing, only the very best writers were published (yes the odd shite one like D.H. Lawrence still snuck through, but you know what I mean). Nowadays every Tom, Dick, and Harry can publish whatever they want. That's a good thing of course for diversity of plotlines, but I do feel very wistful for books which you can open and know for a guaranteed fact that the grammar etc is flawless. You don't even have that guarantee with some traditionally published books nowadays, that's how low the bar has sunk.
Wodehouse has an absolutely delightful writing style which just SCREAMS 1930s England. It's witty, and polished, and turns everything into an art form. Even the short stories collected in this book. Sometimes, I listen to old broadcasts from this time period, and I'm always blown away by the accents people had; these slow, posh, painfully elegant drawls which people just don't have anymore. Reading Wodehouse is like listening to one of those broadcasts. It's pure joy.
Or maybe that's not quite true; without easy access to publishing, only the very best writers were published (yes the odd shite one like D.H. Lawrence still snuck through, but you know what I mean). Nowadays every Tom, Dick, and Harry can publish whatever they want. That's a good thing of course for diversity of plotlines, but I do feel very wistful for books which you can open and know for a guaranteed fact that the grammar etc is flawless. You don't even have that guarantee with some traditionally published books nowadays, that's how low the bar has sunk.
Wodehouse has an absolutely delightful writing style which just SCREAMS 1930s England. It's witty, and polished, and turns everything into an art form. Even the short stories collected in this book. Sometimes, I listen to old broadcasts from this time period, and I'm always blown away by the accents people had; these slow, posh, painfully elegant drawls which people just don't have anymore. Reading Wodehouse is like listening to one of those broadcasts. It's pure joy.
July 21, 2017
Not as good as Jeeves & Wooster, but the narration was good and they did make me laugh out loud. The last two stories, without Lord Emsworth & co., did not hold my attention and I skipped them. They might be better on paper, but the narrator's American-accented voices were unpleasant to listen to.
March 11, 2021
Is this the best Wodehouse? It is the best Wodehouse. Are there about 30 other Best Wodehouses? Yes, yes there are. But this is definitely one of them.
May 22, 2021
I loved the Blandings stories! I would rate them 4+ stars.
February 25, 2020
From TIA:
Short stories by P.G. WODEHOUSE adapted for radio in seven parts by RICHARD
USBORNE.
Lord Emsworth....................Richard Vernon
Beach............................Lockwood West
Lady Constance...................MArgot Boyd
The Hon Grederick Threepwood.....Steve Hodson
Narator..........................Nigel Anthony
Producer.........................Bobby Jaye
1. The Custody of the Pumpkin (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 2nd February 1985 12:27)
McAllister.......................Henry Stamper
Mr Donaldson.....................Michael Golide
2. Lord Emsworth Grows a Beard (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 9th February 1985 12:27)
Mrs Tremlow......................Phillada Sewell
Aggie Threepwood.................Fiona Mathieson
Jane Yorke.......................Valerie Colgan
3. Pig-Hoo-oo-o-o-o-ey! (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 16th February 1985 12:27)
Magistrate.......................Peter Tuddenham
Angela...........................Diana Martin
James Belford....................Edward Duke
4. Company for Gertrude (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 23th February 1985 12:27)
5. Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 2nd March 1985 12:27)
Gladys...........................Susanna Dawson
6. Crime Wave at Blandings - Part 1 (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 9th March 1985 12:27)
Jane.............................Helen Atkinson Wood
George...........................Elizabeth Proud
Mr Baxter........................Michael McClain
7. Crime Wave at Blandings - Part 2 (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 16th March 1985 12:27)
https://archive.org/details/blandings...
Short stories by P.G. WODEHOUSE adapted for radio in seven parts by RICHARD
USBORNE.
Lord Emsworth....................Richard Vernon
Beach............................Lockwood West
Lady Constance...................MArgot Boyd
The Hon Grederick Threepwood.....Steve Hodson
Narator..........................Nigel Anthony
Producer.........................Bobby Jaye
1. The Custody of the Pumpkin (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 2nd February 1985 12:27)
McAllister.......................Henry Stamper
Mr Donaldson.....................Michael Golide
2. Lord Emsworth Grows a Beard (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 9th February 1985 12:27)
Mrs Tremlow......................Phillada Sewell
Aggie Threepwood.................Fiona Mathieson
Jane Yorke.......................Valerie Colgan
3. Pig-Hoo-oo-o-o-o-ey! (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 16th February 1985 12:27)
Magistrate.......................Peter Tuddenham
Angela...........................Diana Martin
James Belford....................Edward Duke
4. Company for Gertrude (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 23th February 1985 12:27)
5. Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 2nd March 1985 12:27)
Gladys...........................Susanna Dawson
6. Crime Wave at Blandings - Part 1 (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 9th March 1985 12:27)
Jane.............................Helen Atkinson Wood
George...........................Elizabeth Proud
Mr Baxter........................Michael McClain
7. Crime Wave at Blandings - Part 2 (Broadcast Radio 4, Sat 16th March 1985 12:27)
https://archive.org/details/blandings...
June 18, 2016
It would probably be considered cheating to mark this as "read" because I haven't read any of the "Elsewhere" stories & it's time to send this book on to other locations. That said, couldn't we all use some Wodehouse at the end of the day? Or should I say, couldn't all of us who can fully appreciate Wodehouse use some at the end of the day? B asked me what I was chortling about, but when I read him some of the real choice bits (gyrating dog, I am looking at you particularly), he looked at me like I was touched. But never mind him! I will always have a warm spot in my heart for a certain dreamy peer & all the other inmates of this particular stately home in England.
"Beach understood. If he was surprised at the presence of a the younger son of the house in the amber drawing-room with a sack of rats in his hand, he gave no indication of the fact. With a murmured apology, he secured the sack and started to withdraw. It was not, strictly speaking, his place to carry rats, but a good butler is always ready to give and take. Only so can the amenities of a large country house be preserved."
"Gazing at him, she was reminded of the heroes of old. And few could have denied that he made a strangely impressive figure, this large young man, standing there with bulging eyes & a gyrating dog in each hand."
And finally, "Nature has made some men quicker thinkers than others. Lord Emsworth's was one of those leisurely brains." Beautiful.
"Beach understood. If he was surprised at the presence of a the younger son of the house in the amber drawing-room with a sack of rats in his hand, he gave no indication of the fact. With a murmured apology, he secured the sack and started to withdraw. It was not, strictly speaking, his place to carry rats, but a good butler is always ready to give and take. Only so can the amenities of a large country house be preserved."
"Gazing at him, she was reminded of the heroes of old. And few could have denied that he made a strangely impressive figure, this large young man, standing there with bulging eyes & a gyrating dog in each hand."
And finally, "Nature has made some men quicker thinkers than others. Lord Emsworth's was one of those leisurely brains." Beautiful.
October 12, 2018
I slipped in another Wodehouse, since these are trying times and he is balm for the soul. The stories in this collection are what he refers to in the preface as "the short snorts in between the solid orgies" (8). There are a couple of Blandings stories, a Bobbie Wickham story, and some American stories about the Mulliners of Hollywood (not as interesting).
Overall, these stories aren't his best—there are still some hilarious moments, but some of the stories were rather predictable, which takes away from the fun (Wodehouse is at his best when he keeps you on your toes and, although you feel something coming, you're still surprised when it happens).
Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend was cute.
Overall, these stories aren't his best—there are still some hilarious moments, but some of the stories were rather predictable, which takes away from the fun (Wodehouse is at his best when he keeps you on your toes and, although you feel something coming, you're still surprised when it happens).
Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend was cute.
August 9, 2007
If it happened at Blandings Castle, it's priceless.
January 22, 2018
An absolute masterpiece of humorous short story writing from PGWodehouse. Wonderful plots, writing, humour.
Six Blandings Castle, one Bobby Wickham, and five Mulliners of Hollywood. The last five reflect Wodehouse's time as a scriptwriter in Hollywood, poking much fun at the ignorance and management of the picture studios by its moguls, and the servile condition of the staff, including the 'nodders', whose job was just to nod silently in agreeing with their bosses, but only after the 'yesmen' had had their say! Just superb.
The GR blurb:
'Here are a dozen stories to delight all Wodehouse addicts...A crooning tenor is attempting to captivate the affections of the Rev. Rupert Bingham's fiancee, Lord Emsworth is striving to remove a pumpkin-shaped blot on the family escutcheon, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood is making a last-ditch attempt to convert Lady Alcester to the beneficial quality of Donaldson's Dog-Joy, and in the bar-parlor of the Anglers' Rest, Mr. Mulliner fascinates everyone with the secret history of old Hollywood.'
Six Blandings Castle, one Bobby Wickham, and five Mulliners of Hollywood. The last five reflect Wodehouse's time as a scriptwriter in Hollywood, poking much fun at the ignorance and management of the picture studios by its moguls, and the servile condition of the staff, including the 'nodders', whose job was just to nod silently in agreeing with their bosses, but only after the 'yesmen' had had their say! Just superb.
The GR blurb:
'Here are a dozen stories to delight all Wodehouse addicts...A crooning tenor is attempting to captivate the affections of the Rev. Rupert Bingham's fiancee, Lord Emsworth is striving to remove a pumpkin-shaped blot on the family escutcheon, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood is making a last-ditch attempt to convert Lady Alcester to the beneficial quality of Donaldson's Dog-Joy, and in the bar-parlor of the Anglers' Rest, Mr. Mulliner fascinates everyone with the secret history of old Hollywood.'
April 12, 2023
This is a book of 12 short stories by P.G. Wodehouse. The first six are excellent as they involve the familiar characters of Blandings Castle such as Lord Emsworth, his son Freddie Threepwood, Beach the butler and the monumental Empress of Blandings who wins her first silver medal in the Fat Pigs class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show in the classic short story PIG-HOO-O-O-O-EY. Hopefully, the publisher doesn't feel the need to change this story in the future so that the Fat Pigs class becomes the Monumental Pigs class or something similar. The Empress consumes 58000 calories a day and so is rather overweight.
The seventh story is a Bobby Wickham story and the last five all relate to the Mulliners of Hollywood. I didn't enjoy these stories as much.
In chronological terms, these Blandings Castle short stories come after "Leave It To PSmith" but before "Summer Lightning" so the Empress wins her first silver medal in this book but struggles to repeat her success in both "Summer Lightning" and "Heavy Weather".
The seventh story is a Bobby Wickham story and the last five all relate to the Mulliners of Hollywood. I didn't enjoy these stories as much.
In chronological terms, these Blandings Castle short stories come after "Leave It To PSmith" but before "Summer Lightning" so the Empress wins her first silver medal in this book but struggles to repeat her success in both "Summer Lightning" and "Heavy Weather".
November 3, 2019
Тиквата, тиквата…: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/b...
Този кратък сборник съдържа шепа забавни истории, които носят обилна порция смях сред райските селения на Замъка Блайндингс, където природата е нетипично щедра към лорд Емсуърт. Той е отдаден от цялото си сърце и душа на своята градина – и особено в частност на една гигантска тиква, на която разчита да го окичи с непреходна регионална слава, и на една тлъста свиня-медалистка, за която има сходни въжделения.
Storytel
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/b...
Този кратък сборник съдържа шепа забавни истории, които носят обилна порция смях сред райските селения на Замъка Блайндингс, където природата е нетипично щедра към лорд Емсуърт. Той е отдаден от цялото си сърце и душа на своята градина – и особено в частност на една гигантска тиква, на която разчита да го окичи с непреходна регионална слава, и на една тлъста свиня-медалистка, за която има сходни въжделения.
Storytel
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/b...
February 15, 2017
[4.5] Like at least half the other people on this book page, for now I've only read the Blandings stories in this volume. And, whilst I'm not usually a fan of short stories, I have to say that the format of chronological shorts really suits these characters and plots. In the novels, not an awful lot happens ultimately - it's just convoluted; here, whilst there is the odd impersonation and conspiracy, the plots are simpler and so a greater number of substantial events occur (in so far as substantial events occur in the world of Blandings at all): a pumpkin and the Empress win prizes; not one but several marriages are decided (I wonder if Freddie's will still have happened in subsequent volumes - also quite fascinating to notice he's an early example of a film nerd); staff go and return, and Emsworth even stands up to the fearsome MacAllister. (Whom I'm now in the habit of visualising as Groundskeeper Wullie from The Simpsons... it's not impossible, perhaps, that the character might have been partly based on MacAllister.)
I had meant to stop reading the Blandings books, but discovery of the BBC adaptation of Heavy Weather (the out of print & non-ebooked 5th in the series - and the film features Richard Briers and Peter O'Toole, and fromwhat I can see, not the excess zaniness of trailers for the recent Blandings televisualisation) means I'd now rather like to read up Summer Lightning and then watch it. Yes, there is a certain amount of repetition, even whole paragraphs - principally character descriptions - in different books among the first three. But it's the usual story: if you like something enough in the first place, it doesn't matter that successive novels, albums etc are similar.
It becomes even clearer than in Leave It to Psmith that Lady Constance is the one with the qualities traditionally expected of an earl, whilst due to both generation and gender she is often restricted to chivvying her brother into doing things she would be more capable of doing herself. This is pretty much openly acknowledged towards the end of the final story, when, exasperated and unusually assertive, he tells her to make a speech herself if it matters so much. (Although Blandings under Constance's rule would be a far less amusingly chaotic place, it must be admitted.) I continue to be suprised that people hardly ever discuss feminism in Wodehouse novels: unless these recent Arrow editions have been edited within the last 20 years (yet for some reason did not amend the iffy title of the otherwise utterly adorable final Blandings story in this collection, or certain attitudes to pets which wouldn't be acceptable now) the underlying attitudes to men and women often seem to me more like fairly recent historical fiction than a series that started 100 years ago.
Now, it's not exactly Godzilla v Predator or Superman v Batman, but the penultimate Blandings story here struck me with a similarly frivolous hypothetical conundrum. If I were, like the swithering cousin Gertrude in the amber drawing room after dinner, having to choose between two otherwise equally attractive men, one who was phobic about small creatures (I rather like getting rid of spiders for men, although she has disdain for said gentleman's fear of rats), and another who had the nerve and strength to physically pull apart two fighting dogs (one ex had done so on a few occasions with wolfhounds, no less, and that level of toughness, when not expected from occupation or appearance, is hot) - I am not quite sure which I would prefer, or if it would always be the same result.
End Dec 2015 - Finished all.
...and Elsewhere
There are faults to pick with these if you really want to, mild 'isms' mostly - these are more 'of their time' than most other Wodehouse I've read - but eclipsed by many hilarious lines, far more than I expected. Leaves me keener to read more non-Blandings, non-J&W Wodehouse, when I had thought it would be damp-squibbish.
'A Bobbie Wickham Story: Mr Potter Takes a Rest Cure' - Appaling slander and manipulation in aid of outwitting an overbearing parent, in the days when such beings had more of a say over marriages.
'The Mulliners of Hollywood' - I'm not the biggest fan of early talkie comedy, but most of these made me laugh more than the films themselves, and I couldn't help but visualise them played by supporting casts from Chaplin & Harold Lloyd films, and on the set of that W.C. Fields about a scriptwriter I only watched because it was someone else's favourite (Never Give a Sucker an Even Break).
I had meant to stop reading the Blandings books, but discovery of the BBC adaptation of Heavy Weather (the out of print & non-ebooked 5th in the series - and the film features Richard Briers and Peter O'Toole, and fromwhat I can see, not the excess zaniness of trailers for the recent Blandings televisualisation) means I'd now rather like to read up Summer Lightning and then watch it. Yes, there is a certain amount of repetition, even whole paragraphs - principally character descriptions - in different books among the first three. But it's the usual story: if you like something enough in the first place, it doesn't matter that successive novels, albums etc are similar.
It becomes even clearer than in Leave It to Psmith that Lady Constance is the one with the qualities traditionally expected of an earl, whilst due to both generation and gender she is often restricted to chivvying her brother into doing things she would be more capable of doing herself. This is pretty much openly acknowledged towards the end of the final story, when, exasperated and unusually assertive, he tells her to make a speech herself if it matters so much. (Although Blandings under Constance's rule would be a far less amusingly chaotic place, it must be admitted.) I continue to be suprised that people hardly ever discuss feminism in Wodehouse novels: unless these recent Arrow editions have been edited within the last 20 years (yet for some reason did not amend the iffy title of the otherwise utterly adorable final Blandings story in this collection, or certain attitudes to pets which wouldn't be acceptable now) the underlying attitudes to men and women often seem to me more like fairly recent historical fiction than a series that started 100 years ago.
Now, it's not exactly Godzilla v Predator or Superman v Batman, but the penultimate Blandings story here struck me with a similarly frivolous hypothetical conundrum. If I were, like the swithering cousin Gertrude in the amber drawing room after dinner, having to choose between two otherwise equally attractive men, one who was phobic about small creatures (I rather like getting rid of spiders for men, although she has disdain for said gentleman's fear of rats), and another who had the nerve and strength to physically pull apart two fighting dogs (one ex had done so on a few occasions with wolfhounds, no less, and that level of toughness, when not expected from occupation or appearance, is hot) - I am not quite sure which I would prefer, or if it would always be the same result.
End Dec 2015 - Finished all.
...and Elsewhere
There are faults to pick with these if you really want to, mild 'isms' mostly - these are more 'of their time' than most other Wodehouse I've read - but eclipsed by many hilarious lines, far more than I expected. Leaves me keener to read more non-Blandings, non-J&W Wodehouse, when I had thought it would be damp-squibbish.
'A Bobbie Wickham Story: Mr Potter Takes a Rest Cure' - Appaling slander and manipulation in aid of outwitting an overbearing parent, in the days when such beings had more of a say over marriages.
'The Mulliners of Hollywood' - I'm not the biggest fan of early talkie comedy, but most of these made me laugh more than the films themselves, and I couldn't help but visualise them played by supporting casts from Chaplin & Harold Lloyd films, and on the set of that W.C. Fields about a scriptwriter I only watched because it was someone else's favourite (Never Give a Sucker an Even Break).
July 29, 2021
To remove the sting of my recent, heavy reading - and to put a spring back in my step - I returned to Wodehouse, figuring if I'm going to read about chaos, it may as well have effervescence. I also found balm for hot weather.
Rather than take up another in the Wooster-Jeeves jaunts this time, I veered off into the 'Blandings Castle' series, with which I'm not familiar. Gone, of course, is the lilting W-J banter. In its place is a protagonist (Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth) who also has a butler (Beach) but the Earl does not serve as his straight-man. (Beach is little more than functional.)
He is also less amiable than Wooster. If not a curmudgeon, the Earl is certainly at bottom a malcontent when it comes to the world around him. His hobbies - and those alone - preoccupy him and he's perfectly blissful being self-absorbed. When called on to recognize the rest of the human race for one reason or another, his bent toward sarcasm accompanies him. ~unless he must rise to the occasion for the overriding purpose of having his needs met.
The Earl's resentment re: socialization is always at its height when it comes to his own son Frederick, a spirited, enterprising lad who nevertheless - and inexplicably - fills his father with apoplexy. (How Clarence ever managed to propagate in the first place is a mystery.)
This series-introduction volume - listed sequentially at #3 - is the perfect launch for the series proper. It's a collection of six, extended short stories - each with a strong, comic premise in its spine and each containing dazzling wit that seems to effortlessly cascade. Each story either highlights the Earl's character:
Rather than take up another in the Wooster-Jeeves jaunts this time, I veered off into the 'Blandings Castle' series, with which I'm not familiar. Gone, of course, is the lilting W-J banter. In its place is a protagonist (Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth) who also has a butler (Beach) but the Earl does not serve as his straight-man. (Beach is little more than functional.)
He is also less amiable than Wooster. If not a curmudgeon, the Earl is certainly at bottom a malcontent when it comes to the world around him. His hobbies - and those alone - preoccupy him and he's perfectly blissful being self-absorbed. When called on to recognize the rest of the human race for one reason or another, his bent toward sarcasm accompanies him. ~unless he must rise to the occasion for the overriding purpose of having his needs met.
The Earl's resentment re: socialization is always at its height when it comes to his own son Frederick, a spirited, enterprising lad who nevertheless - and inexplicably - fills his father with apoplexy. (How Clarence ever managed to propagate in the first place is a mystery.)
This series-introduction volume - listed sequentially at #3 - is the perfect launch for the series proper. It's a collection of six, extended short stories - each with a strong, comic premise in its spine and each containing dazzling wit that seems to effortlessly cascade. Each story either highlights the Earl's character:
The master of Blandings was one of those fluffy-minded old gentlemen who are happiest when experimenting with strange drugs. In a less censorious age, he would have been a Borgia.or his view of his fellow man:
"She is seeing far too much of this man Watkins."Granted - and in a style typical of lighthearted angst - many of those the Earl happens upon are grating:
"Well, so am I, for the matter of that. So is everybody who sees him more than once."
In matters where shades of feeling are involved, it is not always easy for the historian to be as definite as he could wish. He wants to keep the record straight, and yet he cannot take any one particular moment of time, pin it down for the scrutiny of Posterity and say, 'This was the moment when Lord Emsworth for the first time found himself wishing that his guest would tumble out of an upper window and break his neck.'But ultimately Wodehouse grows magnanimous towards his principal fop and, in the final story, bestows on him something very unlikely: saving grace.
February 28, 2023
I actually listened to Stephen Fry read this, rather than the edition listed.
It is flipping brilliant!
And it's great to have some more Mulliner stories to sink my teeth into.
Here - because left to my own devices all I would do is repeat is how brilliant it is - are some quotes from these pages:
“It is never difficult to distinguish between with a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.”
“Unlike the male codfish, which, suddenly finding itself the parent of three million five hundred thousand little codfish, cheerfully resolves to love them all, the British aristocracy is apt to look with a somewhat jaundiced eye on its younger sons. And Freddie Threepwood was one of those younger sons who rather invite the jaundiced eye.”
“Presently, the cow’s audience-appeal began to wane. It was a fine cow, as cows go, but, like so many cows, it lacked sustained dramatic interest.”
“The reactions of a country-house party to an after-dinner dog-fight in the drawing-room always vary considerably according to the individual natures of its members."
It is flipping brilliant!
And it's great to have some more Mulliner stories to sink my teeth into.
Here - because left to my own devices all I would do is repeat is how brilliant it is - are some quotes from these pages:
“It is never difficult to distinguish between with a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.”
“Unlike the male codfish, which, suddenly finding itself the parent of three million five hundred thousand little codfish, cheerfully resolves to love them all, the British aristocracy is apt to look with a somewhat jaundiced eye on its younger sons. And Freddie Threepwood was one of those younger sons who rather invite the jaundiced eye.”
“Presently, the cow’s audience-appeal began to wane. It was a fine cow, as cows go, but, like so many cows, it lacked sustained dramatic interest.”
“The reactions of a country-house party to an after-dinner dog-fight in the drawing-room always vary considerably according to the individual natures of its members."
December 18, 2021
ENGLISH: Third book in the Blandings Castle series, published after the fifth.
It contains 6 short stories published separately before the fourth book in the series, about Lord Emsworth, his son Freddie and Blandings Castle, plus one about Bobby Wickham, and 5 about Mr. Mulliner.
ESPAÑOL: Este es el tercer libro de la serie del Castillo de Blandings, que se publicó después de la quinta entrega.
Contiene seis historias breves sobre Lord Emsworth, su hijo Freddie y el Castillo de Blandings, que se publicaron por separado antes del cuarto libro de la serie, además de una sobre Bobby Wickham y cinco sobre el señor Mulliner.
It contains 6 short stories published separately before the fourth book in the series, about Lord Emsworth, his son Freddie and Blandings Castle, plus one about Bobby Wickham, and 5 about Mr. Mulliner.
ESPAÑOL: Este es el tercer libro de la serie del Castillo de Blandings, que se publicó después de la quinta entrega.
Contiene seis historias breves sobre Lord Emsworth, su hijo Freddie y el Castillo de Blandings, que se publicaron por separado antes del cuarto libro de la serie, además de una sobre Bobby Wickham y cinco sobre el señor Mulliner.
July 4, 2013
Delightful and not very demanding--perfect for a plane trip. I learned some new words, too:
zareba: a protective enclosure
gamboge: yellow-orange
one of Nature's prunes: an unpleasant person
not quite the straight bat: dishonest
wince like a salted snail: suffer from the effects of a hangover
cold-asparagus-backboned: devoid of courage
roly-poly pudding: a steamed or baked dessert of biscuit dough and jam or fruit
zareba: a protective enclosure
gamboge: yellow-orange
one of Nature's prunes: an unpleasant person
not quite the straight bat: dishonest
wince like a salted snail: suffer from the effects of a hangover
cold-asparagus-backboned: devoid of courage
roly-poly pudding: a steamed or baked dessert of biscuit dough and jam or fruit
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