The Girl in Blue

by P.G. Wodehouse

Not being a dentist turns out to be a stroke of good luck for Jerry. If he were, he would not have been summoned to sit on the jury with the delightful Jane, with whom he falls instantly in love. Only then does it dawn on him that he is already engaged to Vera Upshaw.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Classics, Comedy, British Literature, Audiobook, Literature

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

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

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

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

Reviews

[Keith Bruton · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.1
.
PG Wodehouse has done it again! This man was a genius. I've read five or so novels by Wodehouse and they were all splendid. His writing is full of energy, wit and drama, keeping you wanting more.
.
This story had so many side stories and quirky characters it was sometimes hard to keep up. Jerry falls in love with a woman on jury duty but he cannot marry her right away due to his uncle's Gainsborough miniature (miniature portrait) gone missing. He must find it and so the wild, adventurous story begins.
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A must read for lovers of Bridgeton, Downton Abbey, Period dramas and laughter. There's plenty of laughs, highs and lows. A great in-between when reading heavy books or if you haven't read Wodehouse ever...you could start with this one. Wodehouse somehow always puts a smile on my face. Simply brilliant!

[John Frankham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 2019 re-read confirms this review.

Written in 1970 when Wodehouse was 89, this novel really is up to a high standard. Felicitous phrasing and witticism alongside a well-constructed plot.

"Not being a dentist turns out to be a stroke of good luck for Jerry. If he were, he would not have been summoned to sit on the jury with the delightful Jane, with whom he falls instantly in love. Only then does the sudden realization that he is already engaged to Vera Upshaw strike him. Vera has been insisting that Jerry is entitled to his inheritance, currently kept in trust by Uncles Crispin and Willoughby. Meanwhile, Willoughby is thrilled at being the proud owner of Gainsborough’s small painting of one of his ancestors, called The Girl in Blue, but when she goes missing, believed stolen, Jerry is called upon to track her down, wherever she may be …"

Everyone gravitates to impoverished Crispin's paying guest country house, where debt collectors, police constables, gold-diggers, and millionaires, as well as the main characters engage in theft, wooing, drinking, lake-ducking, etc.’

Lovely stuff.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The man was a genius. The wordplay is witty and humorous. The plot straightforward. Jerry wants to get access to his trust fund. To do this he must retrieve a valuable Gainsborough miniature. Meanwhile Vera Upshaw a beautiful woman who wants to get a rich husband. Throw in another wealthy woman and you have mayhem.

A feud between a policeman and a quasi butler also add humorous episodes. Crispin also finds true love. Wodehouse always without makes me smile.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another winner by Wodehouse with a familiar storyline. I liked this one

Quotes

“You're one of those guys who can make a party just by leaving it. It's a great gift.”

"His aspect was that of one who has been looking for the leak in a gas pipe with a lighted candle."

“It was one of the dullest speeches I ever heard. The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.”

[Madhulika Liddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

… The eponymous girl in blue being a Gainsborough miniature, a portrait of the great great (or great great great?) grandmother of wealthy lawyer Willoughby Scrope, a miniature which he has acquired for a stupendous sum and values immensely. Scrope’s elder brother is the penurious Crispin Scrope, owner of Mellingham Hall—a white elephant which costs so much in upkeep that Crispin has run up debts and has resorted to taking in paying guests in order to get some income.

As in any good Wodehouse novel with a mention of a country house, said Mellingham Hall soon becomes the scene of much action, with various people converging on it. There’s the Scrope brothers’ nephew, the cartoonist Jerry West, fallen headlong in love with Jane—who happens to have just come into a big inheritance, which will mean that everybody will think of Jerry as a fortune hunter if he proposes to her. There’s Jane herself. There’s American wealthy lady Bernadette ‘Barney’ Clayborne, spirited off by her lawyer brother Homer Pyle into the English countryside to keep her away from department stores, in which she seems to have a penchant for practising her shoplifting skills…

The Girl in Blue was a delightful, breezy read. It had some characters (faux butler Chippendale in particular) whom I would have loved to encounter in other books. It had the usual Wodehouse tropes—the gold digger, the actress, the village policeman who is given his comeuppance (even if in this case he doesn’t deserve it), the sudden twists and turns of fate. It moves at a brilliant pace, it’s convoluted and intricately plotted, and everything ends happily for the good guys (and girls).

And, how hilarious Wodehouse is, plot and characters aside. “The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required” and “Chippendale’s a little shrimp who couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag.”. “Cor chase —’ Chippendale began, but before he could issue instructions concerning his aunt Fanny and gum trees he was interrupted by the entry of Barney, Homer and Vera.”

Vintage Wodehouse, entertaining as ever.

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This classic Wodehouse novel is the story of cartoonist Gerald “Jerry” West who meets his soulmate when on jury duty but while he makes a date with her, he forgets to ask her name. And then when he bumps into her again at Barribault’s, he makes the same mistake. But these are not his only problems. While he dreams of Jane Hunnicut (he finally does discover her name), he is engaged to the domineering Vera Upshaw. Plus his inheritance has been tied up in trust by his father who believed that no man should be given his money till he reaches thirty for only then do they get some sense in their heads. Jane, however, has come into millions and Jerry does not want to be thought a gold digger. On the other side, a misunderstanding ensures that his uncle Willoughby Scrope who has recently purchased a Gainsborough miniature—“The Girl in Blue” of the title—finds on his return from a golfing holiday that the miniature has been pinched. He is convinced that it has been pinched by Bernadette “Barney” Claybourne who he has just sent to his brother Crispin’s estate Mellingham, to keep her away from London and shoplifting. Crispin has his own money problems and after some reluctance agrees to help recover the miniature with his butler (actually a broker’s man) Chippendale. Willoughby has also blackmailed Jerry into attempting the recovery of the Gainsborough. What follows is a hilarious comedy of errors of sorts with some thievery, some blackmail, and lots of fun (including pushing a policeman into a brook). This may not be one of Wodehouse’s more convoluted plots—in fact, it seems rather straightforward compared to others—but the writing is wonderful (as always) and one is seldom without a smile on one’s face. No impostors, though (except one, who was only technically so).

[Candi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Wodehouse read, and I will most certainly read more! Such a fun, snappy little book; I was entertained throughout. Here, Wodehouse created some quirky, memorable characters who found themselves in and out of one mishap and misunderstanding after another, revolving around money issues, romance confusions, and a valuable Gainsborough miniature titled "The Girl in Blue". I recommend for a quick diversion on a cold winter day.

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly fine, just not Wodehouse's best. The Girl in Blue lacks a lot of laughs and feels like one of his early works, like the ones published between about 1915-1930. And yet, this was one of the last books he ever read. Its plot doesn't have the edge to its plot. Deus Ex Machina waltzes in and tidies things up for a number of characters. Luck, instead of sweat and elbow grease, win the day. I reread Wodehouse's best books every few years. I don't see myself going back to this one.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What do I want? It's what you want, cocky. If you've forgotten what you sent me to fetch from beneath my summer underwear, you ought to see your medical doctor. Here it is mate..." Wodehouse writes. If your curiosity is aroused, you won't be disappointed.

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

"One of the advantages a sister has when arguing with a brother is that she is under no obligation to be tactful. If she wishes to tell him that he is an idiot and ought to have his head examined, she can do so and, going further, can add that it is a thousand pities that no one ever thought of smothering him with a pillow in his formative years. Barney did both these things almost immediately after she had entered the saloon bar of the Goose and Gander, and Homer, sipping whiskey, said that he did not know what she was talking about." (196)

The Girl in Blue is uneven in two ways. First, the second half is much better and funnier than the first. Second, this edition suffers from a printing mistake: after page 112, we go back to and repeat page 73, to return after page 96 to page 137. In short, 25 pages are missing. I don't know whether this is a single accident or whether all copies of this Everyman's Library edition carry this mistake. I haven't seen anyone else point this out, so all I can say is, if you're thinking of getting a copy: be sure to check the pages!

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some background.
PG Wodehouse was a very prolific writer of minor mannered, usually manor house comic ephemera. Feather light, pointless stories and novellas; told in the most deft, daft happy language. Because of the enormous popularity of his most famous books; Bertie and Jeeves, (my personal favorites), Psmith and Blandings Castle; it can be hard to find his many other titles. Thanks to the Random House, Every man editions many of this titles can be found in lovely hand sized hard back editions. The fly leaf on The Girl in Blue tells me that as of 2010 they had 72 titles in print, plus this one and with more to follow.

The Girl in Blue is like so many other PG Wodehouse books, elegant popcorn for the mind. We have the usual assortment of boorish rich Americans, impecunious younger brothers of the British gentry and an assortment of head strong but romance hungry women. There is also a man servant with greater wisdom or at least more cleverness then his employers.

Unusual in these kinds of books, at least one of the leading male characters is willing to work, if only he has the money to cover both his bad habits, gambling and his responsibilities. His responsibility is Mellingham Hall, the family’s crumbling country house. The house is just this side of past redemption except that Crispin accepts paying lodgers; if not all of their constant needs for things like hot water and non-leaking ceilings.

Also unusual for Wodehouse, the women, however overly romantic or overbearing they are not so hearty as to be off putting. All are an sufficiently agreeable company as to be worthy of tender male feeling and smart enough to command male attentions.

Mellingham House by design and accident with become the stage for all of our assembled cast. They will undergo the usual in the way of confused motives, break and entry, (but for the best motives) and overly complex schemes. Never less then what we expect from ‘Plummy’ Wodehouse. .

What we also expect from Plummy and is delivered is his spritely froth of language. Somehow Wodehouse manages to engage the mind in what is entertainment. Plot rarely matters and character development is, when it happens, secondary. What brings us here is the language. Carefully constructed arabesques in words. Wodehouse’s mastery is that his careful work reads effortlessly. Rather like the finest acting never has you thinking: What wonderful acting!

If you are looking for a way into the PG Wodehouse library, The Girl in Blue is a fun starting point. For us longtime, it is another of his signature stories. The Girl in Blue and Random House has me anticipating more of the same into the future.

[QNPoohBear · Rating 3 out of 5]

Homer Pyle’s sister Bernadette has been caught shoplifting at a top department store in New York and needs a place to go to get out of the way. Homer is traveling to Brussels to the P.E.N conference so he brings his sister to England to stay at Mellingham Hall, the estate of Mr. Crispin Stokes. Crispin’s younger brother Willoughby, a wealthy solicitor, is excited to show off his new purchase, a Gainsborough miniature of his great-great (possibly great) grandmother. Gerald West meets Jane at jury duty and falls madly in love, but love is ever complicated. For one thing, he’s engaged to the gold-digging Vera Bradshaw and for another, he doesn’t know Jane’s name. When he learns her identity, he’s convinced they will be star-crossed lovers. Meanwhile, back at Mellingham Hall, the Woman in Blue goes missing and everyone is on the hunt in return for a generous reward, including Chippendale, a most unusual butler.

I guess I wasn’t in the mood for Wodehouse because I couldn’t concentrate on this story. I found it difficult to keep track of the cast of characters and I didn’t like knowing where the miniature was. It took some of the fun out of it. There are a couple of really funny scenes and some surprise plot twists but overall, this isn’t one of Wodehouse’s best. My favorite character was Chippendale, the butler. He is a typical quirky Wodehousian character who stole every scene he was in. He’s not a likeable person but he’s funny. Bernadette is another good character. She makes a nice change from Wodehouse’s lovesick maidens. Jane is also an atypical Wodehouse heroine. Possibly these women reflect the women’s lib movement which makes them different from the 1920s women I’m used to reading about. If you’re a dedicated Wodehouse fan, then be sure to read this book. If you’re just beginning, don’t judge him by this one novel. He was at the end of his life when he wrote it.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENGLISH: This is the first time I've read this book, which does not belong to any of the typical Wodehouse series. Being a somewhat late book (1970), it lends itself to Wodehouse copying himself. For example, the scene where a man agrees to push a policeman into the lake, and a woman offers to do it in his stead, is the same in Uncle Dynamite.

An air hostess falls in love with a ginger-headed cartoonist who is engaged to a strikingly beautiful girl who is trying to marry a rich husband and decides to leave him to pursue a wealthy American lawyer. Of the redhead's two uncles, one is his trustee, who refuses to give him his inheritance; the other, who is always on the brink of financial collapse, feels mutually attracted to the American lawyer's sister, who some believe is a kleptomaniac. There's also his butler, who isn't really a butler. And the girl in blue, a Gainsborough miniature that most of the characters are trying to get.

A few hilarious quotes from this book:

"Could I see Mr Scrope?" "What name, sir?" "Mr Scrope" "Your name, sir." "Mr Scrope" "Mr Scrope?" "Mr Crispin Scrope. I am Mr Scrope's brother." "Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr Scrope. Mr Scrope is engaged at the moment, Mr Scrope. Will you take a seat, Mr Scrope."

"Have you looked everywhere?" "Don’t talk as if I had mislaid my spectacles!" "Did you say you had mislaid your spectacles?" "No, I did not say I had mislaid my spectacles." "I’m always mislaying my spectacles." "Curse your spectacles!"

ESPAÑOL: Es la primera vez que leo este libro, que no pertenece a ninguna de las series típicas de Wodehouse. Al ser un libro algo tardío (1970), se presta a que Wodehouse se copie a sí mismo. Por ejemplo, la escena en la que un hombre se compromete a empujar a un policía al lago, y una mujer se ofrece a hacerlo en su lugar, es igual en Uncle Dynamite.

Una azafata se enamora de un pelirrojo dibujante que está prometido con una chica guapísima decidida a casarse con un marido rico, por lo que decide dejarle para perseguir a un abogado americano rico. De los dos tíos del pelirrojo, uno es su tutor, que se resiste a entregarle su herencia; el otro, que está siempre al borde del colapso financiero, se siente atraído (y atrae) a la hermana del abogado americano, que algunos creen que es cleptómana. También está su mayordomo, que en realidad no lo es. Y la chica de azul, una miniatura de Gainsborough tras la cual van casi todos los personajes.

Veamos algunas citas descacharrantes de este libro:

"¿Puedo ver al Sr. Scrope?" "¿Qué nombre, señor?" "Sr. Scrope" "Su nombre, señor". "Sr. Scrope" "¿Sr. Scrope?" "Señor Crispin Scrope. Soy hermano del señor Scrope". "Oh, le ruego me disculpe, señor Scrope. El señor Scrope está ocupado en este momento, señor Scrope. ¿Quiere sentarse, señor Scrope?"

"¿Has mirado por todas partes?" "¡No me hables como si se me hubieran perdido las gafas!" ¿Has dicho que se te han perdido las gafas? "No, no he dicho que se me han perdido las gafas". "Pues yo siempre estoy perdiendo las gafas". "¡Malditas sean tus gafas!"

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Wodehouse's later stand-alone books. I thoroughly enjoyed this and Graham Seed did a very good narration.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

P.G.Wodehouse is one of those writers (Georges Simenon is another) who are able to write large amounts of fiction that remain interesting throughout their entire career. The Girl in Blue is one of the comic master's last works, yet it remains as fresh as his earlier Jeeves and Blandings stories.

The title refers to a miniature by Gainsborough that is he pride and joy of solicitor Willoughby Scrope. When the lawyer leaves the office for a few days, he returns to find the painting not in its rightful place. Suspicion falls on Bernadette "Barney" Clayborne, who has indulged in shoplifting in her native New York.

Most of the characters gravitate toward a resort hotel at Mellingham, which is run by Scrope's brother Crispin. Willoughby badly wants to recover his art work and broadly promises rewards all around to get it back. And that's where it all begins.

As usual, all ends well for everyone but the local constable, who is pushed into a brook while soaking his feet by the rambunctious Barney.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable and funny, but not my favorite Wodehouse. It is pretty amazing that he wrote this at 89 years old though!

[K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wodehouse at his most adorable. I thought I'd read all of his novels, but I guess I missed this one. So delightful. Nothing new for any Wodehouse fan, but he just doesn't get old either.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every Wodehouse novel is full of laughs; that's why I read them. This one is full of laughs. But the reason I'll remember The Girl in Blue is because I found it on the shelf of the Wharton county library where it had been in circulation since 1969. There were the date due stamps inside and the "2-week loan" stamp from the summer of love long ago. Their circulation policy remains two weeks all these years later. The book was in deplorable condition. and I just had to wonder, Do these Wharton librarians have any pride at all? What is their weeding criteria? I'm angry that the Wharton county library system is the closest system to my home; it's shameful.

[kvazimodla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, classic Wodehouse, with another shining example of his magic with words ❤️

[Ram Kaushik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of his classics, but Wodehouse at less than his best is still a genius.

[Ashish · Rating 5 out of 5]

After going through Jeeves series by PG Wodehouse, this one was refreshingly great read. While there was humour in it, it wasn't laugh-out-loud kind, but of mildly amusing kind. That didn't deter unputdownable quality of this book though. His writing, oh man, I am impressed. Each sentence is an art to be read and re-read. Imagination, analogies, structuring of thoughts are all masterpieces. Amazing read both from story and hilarity, but also from highest quality of writing and thinking.

[Vivien Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great Wodehouse book. I just love the characters and the situations they get themselves into. You feel that they really come to.life and you sympathise with them. You laugh with them too. A truly wonderful book full of adventures.

[SaraKat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A farce at it's best.

[Teri-K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better than The Adventures of Sally, though both have as a MC a young woman who unexpectedly comes into money. Jane wasn't actually a huge part of the book, which follows the young man who falls for her and several relatives. It was pretty amusing and I looked forward to the chance to spend a few minutes listening each evening.

Still not as good as Wodehouse's best, but worth reading for his fans, I think.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t love this one as much as the other Wodehouse books I’ve read. Wodehouse tried to write an annoying character, and he was a little too successful. It was painful reading through Chippendale’s officious monologues.

[Danette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious

A book written by an author with initials in their name.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOL!

[EJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly fine, as books go, but without the character development of the Psmith or Wooster books. I'm very fond of Jane, though. (I have a weakness for girls named Jane, I'm afraid).

[Wendi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Wodehouse, who writes descriptions like, 'he hadn't got a conscience. He had something better, an alibi.'
He makes me laugh, every time, every book. Can't say better than that.

[Michelle Reetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious as Wodehouse always is!