P. G. Wodehouse



         


Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (October 15, 1881 - February 14, 1975) was a profilic English comic novelist whose writing career spanned nearly seventy years. He was most famously described as "English literature's performing flea." An acknowledged master of the English tongue and a stylist par excellence, his admirers include Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh, Rudyard Kipling, Salman Rushdie, and many others.

Best known for the Jeeves and Wooster and Blandings Castle novels and short stories, Wodehouse was also a talented lyricist who worked with Cole Porter on the musical Anything Goes. He also collaborated with Jerome Kern, and, in particular, wrote the lyrics for the song "Bill" in Show Boat.

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Life

Born in Guildford, Wodehouse (pronounced "Woodhouse", not "Woadhouse") was nicknamed 'Plum'. He was educated at Dulwich College, but his anticipated progression to university was stymied by family financial problems. Subsequently he worked for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank for two years, though he was never really interested in banking as a career. Having taken up writing as his profession, he eventually went 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, which also paid large amounts of money. He married in 1914, gaining a stepdaughter.

Although Wodehouse and his novels are considered quintessentially English, from 1924 through 1940 he lived entirely in the United States and France and apparently applied for American citizenship at one point. 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 France, then briefly in Berlin. Encouraged by fellow prisoners to entertain them with witty dialogues, he was then persuaded by the Germans to make broadcasts from Berlin poking fun at his dilemma. Wartime England was in no mood for light-hearted banter, however, and the broadcasts led to many accusations of treason. Some libraries banned his books. Foremost among his critics was A. A. Milne, author of the "Winnie the Pooh" books; Wodehouse got some revenge by creating a ridiculous character named "Timothy Bobbin," who starred in hilarious parodies of some of Milne's children's poetry. Among Wodehouse's defenders were Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell (see links below).

The criticism led Wodehouse to move permanently to America. He became an American citizen in 1955, and made only one more visit to his homeland. He was made a Knight of the British Empire (KBE) in 1975, shortly before his death. It is widely believed that the honor was not given earlier because of lingering resentment about the German broadcasts.

Many consider Wodehouse as second only to Charles Dickens in fecundity of character invention. His characters however were not always popular with the establishment, notably the foppish foolishness of Bertie Wooster. Papers released by the Public Record Office have disclosed that when Wodehouse was recommended for a Companion of Honour in 1967, Sir Ukridge books are about a scheming character of that name.

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Partial Bibliography

Two books that are part of the Blanding Castle series but not listed above are "Leave It To Psmith" (1923) and "Blandings Castle and Elsewhere" (1935).



Both the Blandings and Jeeves stories have been adapted as BBC television series: the Jeeves series has been adapted twice, once in the 1960s (for the BBC) with Ian Carmichael as Bertie Wooster, and Dennis Price as Jeeves, and again in the 1990s (by Granada Television for ITV), with the title "Jeeves and Wooster," starring Hugh Laurie as Wooster and Stephen Fry as Jeeves. David Niven and Arthur Treacher also starred as Bertie and Jeeves, respectively, in a few films made in the 1930s.

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Characters

Major Characters:

Minor Characters:

From Buried Treasure:

‘Oh Brancepeth,’ said the girl, her voice trembling, ‘why haven’t you any money? If only you had the merest pittance -- enough for a flat in Mayfair and a little weekend place in the country somewhere and a couple of good cars and a villa in the South of France and a bit of trout fishing on some decent river, I would risk all for love.’

From Blandings Castle:

A sort of gulpy, gurgly, plobby, squishy, wofflesome sound, like a thousand eager men drinking soup in a foreign restaurant.

From The Girl on the Boat:

Dark hair fell in a sweep over his forehead. He looked like a man who would write vers libre, as indeed he did.

From Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves:

‘Don't you like this hat?‘
‘No, sir.‘
‘Well, I do,‘ I replied rather cleverly, and went out with it tilted just that merest shade over the left eye which makes all the difference.

From Summer Moonshine:

Whatever may be said in favour of the Victorians, it is pretty generally admitted that few of them were to be trusted within reach of a trowel and a pile of bricks.

From The Mating Season:

It is not aunts that matter, but the courage that one brings to them.

From The Adventures of Sally:

And she's got brains enough for two, which is the exact quantity the girl who marries you will need.
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