Wodehouse and nothing but Wodehouse
Mar. 31st, 2005 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI adore the books of P.G. Wodehouse a.k.a. Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, known simply as "Plum"
He is one of the most famous modern British authors (and the funniest man ever) the creator of Blandings, Mr. Mulliner, Jeeves & Wooster, and one of my most enduring literary crushes, R. Psmith, who is everything I'd like in a man: witty, super-clever, British, and hiding (rather well) a very good heart.
I also adore his earlier books with non-recurring characters (Damsel in Distress, Picadilly Jim are particular favorites of mine). He wrote very funny novels set among the English elite in the Edwardian, 20s and 30s time periods.
I have found an absolutely delightful, spot-on fanfic that is a cross-over between Lord Peter and Jeeves & Wooster books (and no slash, probably out of fear of Harriet :D). The voices are spot on, the Wodehouse-speak is perfect and the new side to Bertie Wooster is plain ouch.
Check it out at:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/adina_atl/58365.html
Also, I've found a community:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
indeedsir which talks about Plum's creations that I look forward to exploring. They also seem to have example of what I'd consider acceptable slash, i.e. the chracters aren't slashed in the story but I could see them slashed, e.g. Mike and Psmith (though that would mean I'd miss all the lovely Eve-Psmith banter). Still not my cup of tea (don't like slash) but at least it doesn't make me tear out my hair.
I have also found a delightful article about Psmith (the only Plum character with a social conscience) at http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/catalog/extract.htm?command=search&db=main.txt&eqisbndata=0091885124 which I exerpted for my own amusement:
Was Psmith's a happy marriage? 'Marry someone eccentric,' her friend Cynthia had said to Eve. Psmith was certainly eccentric. How long did he last as Lord Emsworth's secretary? That is one of the expendable jobs in the Blandings saga, and we see several other incumbents in later books: Hugo Carmody, Monty Bodkin, Jerry Vail and even Baxter himself again. Also not a few girls. Presumably Psmith and Eve married soon after the end of Leave it to Psmith. Eve was quite a character in her own right, 'straight and slim' with a 'cheerful smile', 'boyish suppleness of body', a 'valiant gaiety', a 'golden sunniness'. She was 'joyously impecunious'. She got £150 a year from a deceased uncle and couldn't touch the capital; but she spent dangerously on buying hats and betting on horses. Did Mr and Mrs Psmith 'live in' at Blandings after she had finished cataloguing the library? That might have been a bit unkind to Freddie Threepwood, who had thought himself so deeply in love with Eve, and who was from time to time incarcerated at Blandings by his infuriated father.
My theory had been that that fish-magnate uncle of Psmith's died and left him a new pile of money, and that Psmith went off somewhere in Shropshire (perhaps buying back his childhood home, Corfby Hall in Lower Benfield) and became a gentleman of easy leisure, like the Infant at the end of the first Stalky book. Psmith and Eve would have the Mike Jacksons to stay when Mike could get away from his farm and the claims of Lincolnshire on his cricket. Psmith would grow grey, but not fat. He would perhaps look more like the Peruvian llama in middle age than he had even in youth, but he would keep his figure and his eyeglass and his smart clothes. Eve would make him resign from five of his London clubs and remain a member of the Drones only. Psmith wouldn't come up to London very often. He would remind you a good deal of the Earl of Ickenham.
In the Preface that Wodehouse wrote for the 1974 omnibus World of Psmith, the four novels in one book, he said:
A married Psmith would not be quite the same. But obviously a man of his calibre is not going to be content to spend his life as Lord Emsworth's secretary. In what direction he branched out I cannot say. My guess is that he studied law, became a barrister, was a great success and wound up by taking silk. If so, I see him as a genial judge like A. P. Herbert's Mr Justice Codd, whose last case, in the book entitled Codd's Last Case, is possibly the funniest thing that great humorist ever wrote.
He is one of the most famous modern British authors (and the funniest man ever) the creator of Blandings, Mr. Mulliner, Jeeves & Wooster, and one of my most enduring literary crushes, R. Psmith, who is everything I'd like in a man: witty, super-clever, British, and hiding (rather well) a very good heart.
I also adore his earlier books with non-recurring characters (Damsel in Distress, Picadilly Jim are particular favorites of mine). He wrote very funny novels set among the English elite in the Edwardian, 20s and 30s time periods.
I have found an absolutely delightful, spot-on fanfic that is a cross-over between Lord Peter and Jeeves & Wooster books (and no slash, probably out of fear of Harriet :D). The voices are spot on, the Wodehouse-speak is perfect and the new side to Bertie Wooster is plain ouch.
Check it out at:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/adina_atl/58365.html
Also, I've found a community:
indeedsir which talks about Plum's creations that I look forward to exploring. They also seem to have example of what I'd consider acceptable slash, i.e. the chracters aren't slashed in the story but I could see them slashed, e.g. Mike and Psmith (though that would mean I'd miss all the lovely Eve-Psmith banter). Still not my cup of tea (don't like slash) but at least it doesn't make me tear out my hair.I have also found a delightful article about Psmith (the only Plum character with a social conscience) at http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/catalog/extract.htm?command=search&db=main.txt&eqisbndata=0091885124 which I exerpted for my own amusement:
Was Psmith's a happy marriage? 'Marry someone eccentric,' her friend Cynthia had said to Eve. Psmith was certainly eccentric. How long did he last as Lord Emsworth's secretary? That is one of the expendable jobs in the Blandings saga, and we see several other incumbents in later books: Hugo Carmody, Monty Bodkin, Jerry Vail and even Baxter himself again. Also not a few girls. Presumably Psmith and Eve married soon after the end of Leave it to Psmith. Eve was quite a character in her own right, 'straight and slim' with a 'cheerful smile', 'boyish suppleness of body', a 'valiant gaiety', a 'golden sunniness'. She was 'joyously impecunious'. She got £150 a year from a deceased uncle and couldn't touch the capital; but she spent dangerously on buying hats and betting on horses. Did Mr and Mrs Psmith 'live in' at Blandings after she had finished cataloguing the library? That might have been a bit unkind to Freddie Threepwood, who had thought himself so deeply in love with Eve, and who was from time to time incarcerated at Blandings by his infuriated father.
My theory had been that that fish-magnate uncle of Psmith's died and left him a new pile of money, and that Psmith went off somewhere in Shropshire (perhaps buying back his childhood home, Corfby Hall in Lower Benfield) and became a gentleman of easy leisure, like the Infant at the end of the first Stalky book. Psmith and Eve would have the Mike Jacksons to stay when Mike could get away from his farm and the claims of Lincolnshire on his cricket. Psmith would grow grey, but not fat. He would perhaps look more like the Peruvian llama in middle age than he had even in youth, but he would keep his figure and his eyeglass and his smart clothes. Eve would make him resign from five of his London clubs and remain a member of the Drones only. Psmith wouldn't come up to London very often. He would remind you a good deal of the Earl of Ickenham.
In the Preface that Wodehouse wrote for the 1974 omnibus World of Psmith, the four novels in one book, he said:
A married Psmith would not be quite the same. But obviously a man of his calibre is not going to be content to spend his life as Lord Emsworth's secretary. In what direction he branched out I cannot say. My guess is that he studied law, became a barrister, was a great success and wound up by taking silk. If so, I see him as a genial judge like A. P. Herbert's Mr Justice Codd, whose last case, in the book entitled Codd's Last Case, is possibly the funniest thing that great humorist ever wrote.
