P. G. Wodehouse

P. G. Wodehouse, pictured in 1904, became famous for his complex plots, ingenious wordplay, and prolific output

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (October 15, 1881 – February 14, 1975) (IPA: [wʊd.haʊs]) was an English comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success for more than seventy years. Wodehouse was an acknowledged master of English prose and was admired both by contemporaries like Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by modern writers alike. Sean O'Casey famously called him "English literature's performing flea", a derogatory description that Wodehouse cherished and adopted as the title of his autobiography. Today, he is recognized by literary critics and popular audiences alike as a master of farce, and one of the most gifted comedic writers to ever grace the canon of English literature.

Life

Wodehouse was born prematurely to Eleanor Wodehouse while she was visiting Guildford. He attended boarding school, where he saw his parents only once every six or seven months. Feeling abandoned, Wodehouse grew very close to his brother, who shared his love for art. Wodehouse filled the voids in his life by writing relentlessly.

He was educated at Dulwich College, where the library is now named after him, but his anticipated progression to university was stymied by family financial problems. Subsequently he worked for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in London (now known as HSBC) for two years, though he was never interested in banking as a career. He wrote part-time while working in the bank, eventually proving successful enough to take up writing as a full-time profession. He was a journalist with The Globe (a defunct English newspaper) for several years before eventually going to Hollywood, where he earned enormous amounts as a screenwriter. Many of his novels were also serialized in magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and The Strand, which also paid well.

Although Wodehouse and his novels are considered quintessentially English, from 1924 on he lived largely in France and the United States. He was also profoundly uninterested in politics and world affairs. When World War II broke out in 1939 he remained at his seaside home in Le Touquet, France, instead of returning to England, apparently failing to recognize the seriousness of the conflict. He was subsequently taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940 and interned by them for a year, first in Belgium, then at Tost in in Poland. While at Tost, he entertained his fellow prisoners with witty dialogues, which, after his release from internment a few months short of his 60th birthday, he used as the basis for a series of comic radio broadcasts. Wartime England was in no mood for light-hearted banter, however, and the broadcasts led to many accusations of collaboration with the Nazis and even treason. Some libraries banned his books.

The criticism led Wodehouse and his wife to move permanently to New York. Apart from Leonora, who died during Wodehouse's internment in Germany, the couple had no children. He became an American citizen in 1955, never returning to his homeland, spending the remainder of his life in Remsenburg, Long Island.

He was made a Knight of the British Empire shortly before his death at the age of 93. It is widely believed that the honor was not given earlier because of lingering resentment about the German broadcasts, although the Queen Mother was so anxious for Wodehouse to be knighted that she offered to perform the service herself.

Writings

Wodehouse was a prolific author, writing ninety-six books in a career spanning from 1902 to 1975. His works include novels, collections of short stories, and a musical comedy. Many characters and locations appear repeatedly throughout his short stories and novels, leading readers to classify his work by "series".

• The "Blandings Castle" books are about the upper-class inhabitants of the fictional Blandings Castle, including the eccentric Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth, obsessed by his prize-winning pig, the "Empress of Blandings", and at one point by his equally prize-winning pumpkin "Blandings' Hope".

• The wealthy, scatterbrained Bertie Wooster narrates a number of stories and novels that recount the improbable and unfortunate situations in which he and his friends find themselves, and the manner in which his ingenious valet Jeeves is always able to extricate them. Collectively called "the Jeeves stories", or "Jeeves and Wooster", they are Wodehouse's most famous and most critically acclaimed.

• Mr Mulliner is a long-winded pub raconteur who tells outrageous stories about his family, all surnamed Mulliner. His sometimes unwilling listeners are always identified solely by their drinks, e.g., a "Hot Scotch and Lemon" or a "Double Whisky and Splash."

Jeeves Takes Charge

"Jeeves Takes Charge" is an early short story featuring Jeeves and Bertie Wooster that is widely considered one of his masterpieces of fiction, and one of the best introduction's to his characteristically satirical and light-hearted style. It was first published in the United States in The Saturday Evening Post on November 28, 1916, and in the United Kingdom in the April 1923 edition of The Strand. Its first book publication was in Carry on, Jeeves in 1925.

Plot summary

Arrival of Jeeves

Bertie Wooster narrates, recalling Jeeves' first days as his valet. Bertie had been staying at Easeby, his Uncle Willoughby's estate in Shropshire, with his valet Meadowes. He had been forced to return to London in search of a new valet after having observed Meadowes stealing his silk socks. At the time, he was engaged to Lady Florence Craye, who upon his departure from Easeby had given him a thick and complicatedly intellectual book entitled Types of Ethical Theory, expecting him to read it in the week before his return.

In his London flat, Bertie picks up the volume and begins to read it, but is interrupted by the arrival of Jeeves, a new valet sent by the local agency. Jeeves, observing Bertie's painful state of mind, goes directly to the kitchen and returns with a drink on a tray, suggesting that Bertie drink it. It consists, he explains, of Worcestershire sauce for color, raw egg for nutrition, and red pepper for bite, among other ingredients. Bertie willingly swallows the contents of the glass, and feels a change immediately:

For a moment I felt as if somebody had touched off a bomb inside the old bean and was strolling down my throat with a lighted torch, and then everything seemed suddenly to get all right. The sun shone in through the window; birds twittered in the tree-tops; and, generally speaking, hope dawned once more.

"You're engaged!" I said, as soon as I could say anything.

Jeeves notices a likeness of Lady Florence on Bertie's mantelpiece and comments on the eccentricity of her father, Lord Worplesdon, whose employ he had recently left. Bertie reveals to Jeeves that he is engaged to Florence; though Jeeves replies courteously, Bertie detects "a certain rummy something about his manner". Jeeves shortly thereafter enters with a telegram from Florence, instructing that Bertie must return immediately, since a matter of extreme urgency has arisen.

Return to Easeby

That afternoon, Bertie and Jeeves return by train to Easeby. Bertie cannot imagine what crisis might have caused Florence to insist on his immediate presence. Upon arriving at Easeby, Bertie proceeds directly into Lady Florence's room, where she explains the dire situation in which she has found herself. She recalls how, before his departure, Bertie, who was at this point dependent on Willoughby for financial support, had suggested that Florence do her best to ingratiate herself to him, in preparation for the announcement of their engagement. She had done so by offering to let him read his nearly-complete history of the family to her.

He read the manuscript to her gladly, but Florence was alarmed to discover that it was not, in fact, a history of the family; rather, it was his reminisces, to be titled Recollections of a Long Life. Worse yet, it consisted largely of scandalous stories, especially about people who had grown to become "the essence of propriety", one of whom was her father, now Lord Worplesdon; indeed, the book began with a tale of how Willoughby and Worplesdon were thrown out of a dance hall in 1887.

Florence is outraged at her father's behavior as a young man, and fears that such disgraceful information will become public. The manuscript is to be mailed the next day to Riggs and Ballinger, publishers who specialize in such reminisces, and she wants Bertie to intercept and destroy it, since she will be away for the next several days.

Theft of the parcel

The following day after breakfast, Bertie waits around the house until Uncle Willoughby emerges from his library and deposits the parcel with the manuscript on a table to be taken with the mail. Bertie snatches it immediately and absconds to his upstairs bedroom. Pondering what to do with the manuscript, Bertie eventually decides on locking it in the bottom drawer of a bureau in his room.

On Saturday morning, Willoughby accosts Bertie to inform him that, upon telephoning Messrs. Riggs and Ballinger, he was informed that they had not yet received the parcel. Bertie informs his uncle that he has already discovered and sacked his valet Meadowes for stealing various small items, and suggests that Meadowes may have stolen the parcel out of revenge. They part, Willoughby baffled and Bertie pretending to be.

Later, Bertie goes for a stroll in the garden, and, while passing under the open library window, hears Edwin, Willougby's son, accusing Bertie of having stolen the parcel, since he saw him with it while in his room earlier. Willoughby does not believe it; nevertheless, Edwin convinces him to search Bertie's room, suggesting that he affect to be looking for something left by Mr. Berkeley, the room's previous occupant.

Bertie dashes to his room to relocate the parcel, but is unable to find the key to the drawer in which it is locked, and is busy looking for it when Willoughby enters and awkwardly announces his intent to search the room for Berkeley's cigarette case. When he reaches the locked drawer, Jeeves enters the room and offers him the key, which he had found in Bertie's clothes from the previous evening. Bertie "could have massacred the man" until, to his surprise, Willoughby opens the drawer and discovers that it is empty. He departs, apologizing for the intrusion.

Bertie then queries Jeeves, who assures him that the parcel is stowed safely elsewhere. Bertie thanks Jeeves heartily for saving him much embarrassment.

Conclusion

Florence returns to Easeby on Monday morning and goes directly to interrogate Bertie about the parcel; however, they are interrupted by Willoughby, who announces joyfully that Messrs. Riggs and Ballinger have received the parcel, and returns to his library. Florence is furious and will hear no explanation. She breaks off their engagement immediately, accuses Bertie of having caved to the allure of his uncle's money, and informs him that his Aunt Agatha was right all along about his spinelessness. She storms away, leaving Bertie to search for Jeeves.

Bertie confronts Jeeves who admits to having mailed the parcel. He thinks that Florence overestimated people's offense at being referred to in the book, mentioning a similar experience which his aunt had; Bertie cuts him off and tells him that he is sacked. Jeeves, no longer in Bertie's employ, then gives the true reason why he mailed the parcel: he did not believe Florence and Bertie were suitable for each other, she being of a highly arbitrary temperament, and inclined to make him read difficult philosophy. Bertie will not hear it, orders him out, and goes to bed. The next morning he awakens considerably less heartbroken and, upon opening to a particularly difficult passage in Types of Ethical Theory, re-hires Jeeves.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

1. Usborne, Richard (2003). Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion. New York: The Overlook Press, 137–207. ISBN 1-58567-441-9. 
2. McCrum, Robert (2004). Wodehouse: A Life. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-05159-5. 
3. Davis, Lee (1993). Bolton & Wodehouse & Kern: The Men Who Made Musical Comedy. James H. Heineman Incorporated. ISBN 0-87008-131-4. 
4. Day, Barry (2004). The Complete Lyrics of P. G. Wodehouse. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-4994-1. 

External links

• The P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• The Wodehouse Society Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• Yahoo group discussion on Wodehouse Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• A Celebration of P G Wodehouse Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• Biblia Wodehousiana Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• The Poems of PG Wodehouse Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• In Defence of P.G. Wodehouse — George Orwell Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• Why A.A. had it in for P.G. Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• Stephen Fry on Wodehouse Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• Blandings Castle located! Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• P.G. Wodehouse Website Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• Transcripts of the five controversial Berlin broadcasts Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• Works by P. G. Wodehouse. Project Gutenberg Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• Free audiobook of Psmith in the City from LibriVox Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• 1975 The Paris Review interview Retrieved April 3, 2007.
• Russian Wodehouse Society: Information about Carry on, Jeeves and the stories which compose it Retrieved April 3, 2007.

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