jj’s Reviews > Uncle Fred in the Springtime > Status Update

Wodehouse's strength: ringing out every shred and sliver absurdity and hilarity from a scene/situation, often at the expense of one of the characters

"Horace watched him with a dazed eye as he dived with boyish animation into a studded shirt. The grey head, popping out a moment later at shirt’s end, gave him a renewed sense of shock, so intensely Ickenhamian was it in every respect."

How absolutely hilarious. Easily becoming one of my top 3 fave Wodehouse novels. Uncle Fred is unhinged and so very fun.

‘Very possibly. I can see now why that girl broke off the engagement. She must have realized that he had got this — whatever it was you said, and decided it wasn’t good enough. No girl wants a potty husband, though it’s dashed hard not to get one nowadays.

Lol

"‘But, dash it, why does everybody come trying to touch me?’
‘Because you’ve got the stuff, my boy. It is the penalty you pay for having an ancestress who couldn’t say No to Charles the Second.’"

"So I jabbed him again, and then things hotted up still further. And what really led to my getting arrested was that he managed to edge past the assegai and land me a juicy one on the jaw.’
Lord Ickenham found himself unable to reconcile cause and effect.
‘But surely no policeman, however flat-footed, would take a man into custody for being landed a juicy one on the jaw. You have probably got your facts twisted..."

"Some little time ago, your aunt unfortunately decided to take over the family finances and administer them herself, leaving me with just that bit of spending money which a man requires for tobacco, self-respect, golf balls and what not. My limit is a tenner.’"