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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: P. G. Wodehouse
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moron
Shipmate
# 206
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Posted
quote:
I gave it up. The man annoyed me. I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie, but I was dashed if I could see why he couldn't do it with a bright and cheerful smile.
Any other fans?
I'm not sure if I like Jeeves or Archie more. ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
Posts: 4236 | From: Bentonville | Registered: May 2001
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
The Psmith books are fun, too. He is still immensely popular over here.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
I love all his books but my favourite is "Sam the Sudden". I love the running jokes about house rentals and "Is there a Hell?".
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Bob Two-Owls
Shipmate
# 9680
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Posted
Blandings is one of my all-time favourite series but then I used to own a pig called "The Empress of Blandings" myself.
Psmith is also much enjoyed but I have never really got to grips with pronouncing the silent P.
Posts: 1262 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
My favorite line is quote:
He wasn't exactly disgruntled, but he wasn't very gruntled either.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
![[Axe murder]](graemlins/lovedrops.gif)
I have every book and short story he ever wrote -- I think it's about time for me to have another read of some of them.
(Introducing me to PGW is the one thing for which I will always be grateful to a former boyfriend.)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
I think my favourites are his short stories - the Mulliner stories and the golfing ones particularly.
Though if I am on a diet I do not find 'The Juice of an Orange' very funny...
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
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Posted
For pure, life affirming, laughter I go back to Blandings time after time. However, I also love Jeeves, and think that The Code of the Woosters shows Bertie at his finest. And the school stories are among the finest of the genre. There is so much Wodehouse to be thankful for!
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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
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Lucrezia Spagliatoni Dayglo
Apprentice
# 16907
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Posted
I've always been curious about his comparison of Jeeves clearing his throat to a sheep removing a blade of grass from it's throat. Had he never heard a sheep cough or was he just being extra witty? (ironic?)
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Work hard, drink hard, play hard and fall over hard.
Posts: 20 | From: "...an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet ..." | Registered: Jan 2012
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Bob Two-Owls:
Psmith is also much enjoyed but I have never really got to grips with pronouncing the silent P.
"As in psalm, ptarmigan, and pshrimp." Or something like that - a line from Leave it to Psmith. Which is a practically perfect book, bringing together, as it does, Psmith and Blandings. There's a brief scene in which Baxter, Lord Emsworth's secretary, is locked out of the house at night. He tries gently throwing pebbles at windows to try and attract someone's attention. But the moment he gets so exasperated that he decides to "say it with flower-pots" always makes me go like this - ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
Throughout my bachelorhood, I always used the Madeline Bassett test for potential dates.
quote:
She was the sort of girl who puts her hands over a husband's eyes, as he is crawling in to breafast with a morning head, and says, "Guess who?"
If you were that sort, I wanted nothing to do with you. (I actually did have a female acquaintance who, like Miss Bassett, was under the very false impression that should her long term relationship break up, I would naturally slide in to his place and dry her every tear. I thank the good Lord every day that they ended up getting married.)
I once read about a man who kept a copy of "Uncle Fred in the Springtime" on every floor of his house, because he didn't want to have to run upstairs when he needed to find a particular line.
But my favorite Wodehouse connection goes back to high school. We had an English teacher who was known to be quite tough. She graded essays with a sharp eye towards improper grammar, she did not suffer fools lightly, and she always sat with perfect posture. But I always knew that she couldn't be nearly as scary as everyone thought, because when the school library did a display on staff and student's favorite books, hers was "The Code of the Woosters."
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
My father, of blessed memory, used to say:
quote:
The P is silent, as in bath.
When I get around to going to the secondhand bookshop I must look for more - preferably omnibus editions.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
quote:
Originally posted by Bob Two-Owls:
Psmith is also much enjoyed but I have never really got to grips with pronouncing the silent P.
"As in psalm, ptarmigan, and pshrimp." Or something like that - a line from Leave it to Psmith. Which is a practically perfect book, bringing together, as it does, Psmith and Blandings. There's a brief scene in which Baxter, Lord Emsworth's secretary, is locked out of the house at night. He tries gently throwing pebbles at windows to try and attract someone's attention. But the moment he gets so exasperated that he decides to "say it with flower-pots" always makes me go like this -
Especially brilliant, since Psmith needles "poor" Baxter for doing the exact same thing Psmith did a few pages back. It's nice seeing a Woedhouse protagonist actually able to think for once, much less do a decent deadpan; no need for Jeeves, someone actually can do their own dirty work for once!
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
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Posted
I have a theory that Bobbie Wickham is descended from George Wickham and Lydia Bennet Wickham.
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
I was fortunate enough to get an omnibus version of the Jeeves stories for a pittance when our local library had a book sale. ![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif) It now lives on the bookcase (yes, bookcase] in the bathroom.
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"I say - are you a matelot?"
"Careful what you say sir, we're on board ship here"
From "New York Girls", Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown (Voiced by Peter Sellers)
Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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The5thMary
Shipmate
# 12953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by St. Gwladys:
I was fortunate enough to get an omnibus version of the Jeeves stories for a pittance when our local library had a book sale. It now lives on the bookcase (yes, bookcase] in the bathroom.
A bookcase in the bathroom! Oh, how I wish WE could have a bookcase in the bathroom! However, our bathroom is tiny and I'm propping books on an old Epson salts container next to the bathtub as it is. If it was up to me, there would be bookcases in every room in our apartment! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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God gave me my face but She let me pick my nose.
Posts: 3451 | From: Tacoma, WA USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
Well, the complete PGW collection I mentioned above does have its very own bookcase in my living room.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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The Weeder
Shipmate
# 11321
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Posted
My first Wodehouse was Psmith in the City. I was about 12, and lots of it mystifyed me. But I roared with laughter. As I read in bed, my sister put in an official complaint to the Aged Parents, because my laughter kept her awake.
We did not share a room, which gives a clue as to the amount of noise I made.
Fortunately, my fathers official ruling was that reading took precedence over sleep.
I soon discovered Blandings, and Bertie Wooster, and have never looked back. I must see what Wodehouse Kindle has.
PS I was never keen on Ukridge.
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Still missing the gator
Posts: 2542 | From: LaLa Land | Registered: Apr 2006
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The Weeder
Shipmate
# 11321
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zappa:
Likewise, we have an entire 6' x 1' bookshelving of the complete works and some duplicates, but they're kuruman's (who an aficianodo) not mine. One day.
The bathroom is the only room in our house which lacks a bookcase. To be fair, the kitchen shelf only contains cook books, which do not really count, as far as I am concerned. Mr W insists, but he never consults them.
PS There is even a bookcase on the landing.
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Still missing the gator
Posts: 2542 | From: LaLa Land | Registered: Apr 2006
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
I have vague memories of seeing Ian Carmichael and Dennis Price as Wooster and Jeeves on television in the 1960s, and much better memories of John Alderton playing various characters (mostly Mulliners, I think) in the excellent Wodehouse Playhouse in the mid-70s. The books soon followed. I think I started with Meet Mr Mulliner, and under the guidance of a friend graduated to Blandings. I think my first Blandings book was Uncle Fred in the Springtime, and you can't get much better than that.
Like The Weeder, I was never fond of Ukridge. But I re-read a handful of those stories a couple of years ago, and liked them rather better.
I think if I could choose a character to be, it would be Lord Emsworth. He seems to inhabit a heaven on earth, only occasionally interrupted by pig-thieves, various impostors, and his sister.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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nickel
Shipmate
# 8363
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Posted
When I was 13 or so, my oldest sister brought home a bagful of Wodehouse from college, we kept them from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I read about 20 Wodehouses in one go, have never been the same! Lord Emsworth is my favorite. I can identify with his unconcern with convention.
I also have a (small) bookcase in my bathroom, but the main comedy I keep there is Gary Larson. PGW stays in the nightstand next to my bed.
Posts: 547 | From: Virginia USA | Registered: Aug 2004
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Pulsator Organorum Ineptus
Shipmate
# 2515
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Posted
Definitely a Blandings man myself, although I have only quite recently had the pleasure of discovering the books. Previously I had known of Blandings only from dramatisations on the wireless.
I think I may have been put off Wooster for life by Ian Carmichael!
Posts: 695 | From: Bronteland | Registered: Mar 2002
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Meg the Red
Shipmate
# 11838
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Posted
I do not now and never have played golf, but I have practically memorized The Heart of a Goof; I firmly believe it should be required reading for every PGA member; at least it might make them think better of all that annoying fist-pumping. And they should be forced to wear plus-fours.
My other must-have is the short story collection The Man Upstairs - mine is worn to tatters.
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Chocoholic Canuckistani Cyclopath
Posts: 1126 | From: Rat Creek | Registered: Sep 2006
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
If I get more than a hand-span more Wodehouse I will have to rearrange my bookshelves AGAIN! I only did it last week...
...but it will be worth it!
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
Wait, there's someone who does Jeeves and Wooster other than Fry and Laurie?
Or, put it another way: is there a pair worth watching other than them?
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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Kaplan Corday
Shipmate
# 16119
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by moron:
quote:
I gave it up. The man annoyed me. I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie, but I was dashed if I could see why he couldn't do it with a bright and cheerful smile.
Wodehouse enjoyed taking the piss out of self-important revolution-by-Tuesday types.
In Comrade Bingo, the head of the Heralds of the Red Dawn is described by Bingo as, "A delightful chap. Wants to massacre the bourgeoisie, sack Park Lane, and disembowel the hereditary aristocracy. Well, nothing could be fairer than that, what?"
No wonder Malcolm Muggeridge wrote in his The Wodehouse Affair, "With my strict socialist childhood, Bertie Wooster and Jeeves had about them a flavour of forbidden fruit; like Sade or Casanova in the eyes of a Methodist".
But on a strictly non-political level, nothing in the Wodehousean corpus surpasses the setpiece speeches of Gussie Fink-Nottle at the school prize-giving, and Anatole's objections to Gussie's staring at him through his skylight, in Right Ho, Jeeves.
Posts: 3355 | Registered: Jan 2011
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Offeiriad
Ship's Arboriculturalist
# 14031
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
Wait, there's someone who does Jeeves and Wooster other than Fry and Laurie?
Or, put it another way: is there a pair worth watching other than them?
Absolutely! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posts: 1426 | From: La France profonde | Registered: Aug 2008
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
Wait, there's someone who does Jeeves and Wooster other than Fry and Laurie?
Or, put it another way: is there a pair worth watching other than them?
Ian Carmichael and Dennis Price were the Wooster and Jeeves of my day. Not much has survived - but here is some , so you may judge for yourself.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Michael Horden and Richard Briers as Jeeves and Wooster on radio were worth listening to. The BBC has serialised a lot of the books over the years. Some have been rebroadcast on Radio 4 Extra, but there's nothing on currently from a quick check. (I still prefer the pictures from books and radio to those on TV or film)
I go through a phases of reading the books, and did try introducing them my daughter, but all Wodehouse books are on the banned list for me to read aloud because I can't do it without giggling. I was amused that my daughter found and worked her way as many as she could find recently.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
Give me the radio adaptations any day. Fry and Laurie were perfectly cast, but their TV scripts really grated in places - I gave up watching after the episode where Aunt Agatha ASKS JEEVES FOR ADVICE instead of telling Bertie that he relies too much on Jeeves and looking down her nose at him. This is the aunt who chews broken bottles and bays at the moon; it's completely out of character for her to ask a servant's advice. Though she is happy to order Bertie to sort out her problems in the knowledge that he will immediately ask for Jeeves' help.
Golfers are only allowed to wear plus fours if we can set fire to any we don't like ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif)
[ 10. October 2012, 09:12: Message edited by: Jane R ]
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
I think of the Jeeveses and Woosters I've come across, Briers and Hordern are easily the best. I didn't like Carmichael's Wooster, but I did like Price's Jeeves. I didn't like Fry's Jeeves, but I did like Laurie's Wooster. I think one of the problems of dramatising the Jeeves stories is that a lot of the humour in the books isn't in the dialogue or the action, it's in Bertie's prose style.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Keren-Happuch
Ship's Eyeshadow
# 9818
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Posted
Fry and Laurie as Jeeves and Wooster were my introduction to PG Wodehouse. My parents used to complain that Stephen Fry was too young to play Jeeves, which I couldn't see at the time - he was a grown up!! - but when I saw it again lately I couldn't believe how young they were. [grin]
J&W are still my favourite, but I have enjoyed Blandings too. I need to read Psmith as I never have...
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Travesty, treachery, betrayal!
EXCESS - The Art of Treason
Nea Fox
Posts: 2407 | From: A Fine City | Registered: Jul 2005
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The Great Gumby
Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989
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Posted
Hugh Laurie was almost born to play Bertie Wooster. In fact, he's more or less the same character as George in Blackadder. No idea how he managed to go from being typecast like that to House.
If you could combine Hugh Laurie then with Stephen Fry now in their respective roles, it's hard to see how they could be beaten.
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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman
A letter to my son about death
Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
Some of Wodehouse's best gems are his poems. I just found Good Gnus (from The Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court). I remember reading it when I was about 19 and being breathless with laughter. Thirty-odd years later, its natural force is unabated (Deuteronomy 34.7)*.
* Random scriptures quotes being a trick I picked up from, I think, the Bishop of Stortford in the Mulliner stories.
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Great Gumby:
Hugh Laurie was almost born to play Bertie Wooster. In fact, he's more or less the same character as George in Blackadder. No idea how he managed to go from being typecast like that to House.
Forget House—that's basically a comic role in a dramatic setting, which is exactly what gives him that whole "fish out of water" character—Hugh Laurie singing New Orleans blues, and doing it well, is the moment of cognitive dissonance.
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
Wait, there's someone who does Jeeves and Wooster other than Fry and Laurie?
Or, put it another way: is there a pair worth watching other than them?
Almost anyone. Much as I love Fry and Laurie I could cheerfully have decapitated them for the way they desecrated Wodehouse. All the subtlety and finesse was gone, and pantomime farce was left. The whole miserable experience should be forgotten; it is unfair to remind talented artists of such a failure.
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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
<tangent> I once met Ionicus, the artist who did the cover illustrations for my Penguin editions of Wodehouse, at a ghost story convention. He was slightly bemused to meet someone who wanted to enthuse about his depictions of Wodehouse characters instead of his ghost story illustrations...
(example of Ionicus cover illustration)
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
<tangent> I once met Ionicus, the artist who did the cover illustrations for my Penguin editions of Wodehouse, at a ghost story convention. He was slightly bemused to meet someone who wanted to enthuse about his depictions of Wodehouse characters instead of his ghost story illustrations...
(example of Ionicus cover illustration)
Wow. I'm one of that generation that think if it ain't got a cover illustration by Ionicus, it ain't Wodehouse. The man was a genius. Not only did he catch the style of the book perfectly, but he usually managed to illustrate a snapshot from the narrative so perfectly that when you read it, you thought, "This is the sentence that made it onto the cover!"
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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kuruman
Shipmate
# 8892
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Posted
I come from a line of Wodehousians. My father's father collected them and passed them to my father who passed them to me. I entered via Blandings at about 14, and am now wondering at what age I can risk recommending them to my sons. Any ideas? For much of my life I've had one on my bedside table to wind down with at the end of the day - perfect. I reckon Evelyn Waugh had it right in his comment about Wodehouse having created a world for us to live in and delight in.
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Let us, in Heaven's name, drag out the Divine Drama from under the dreadful accumulation of slipshod thinking and trashy sentiment heaped upon it, and set it on an open stage to startle the world into some sort of vigorous reaction. (Dorothy Sayers)
Posts: 390 | From: back home under the Long White Cloud | Registered: Dec 2004
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
Great to see you, kuruman!!
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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kuruman
Shipmate
# 8892
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Posted
I've even come back for a second look! Thanks for the welcomes!
And btw, I'd put in a vote for "Leave it to Psmith" as the best of a brilliant lot. As said above, Psmith and Blandings combined takes some beating.
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Let us, in Heaven's name, drag out the Divine Drama from under the dreadful accumulation of slipshod thinking and trashy sentiment heaped upon it, and set it on an open stage to startle the world into some sort of vigorous reaction. (Dorothy Sayers)
Posts: 390 | From: back home under the Long White Cloud | Registered: Dec 2004
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
My father, of blessed memory, used to say:
quote:
The P is silent, as in bath.
My father was a bit less refined:
quote:
The P is silent, as in swimming.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
Adeodatus: quote:
Wow. I'm one of that generation that think if it ain't got a cover illustration by Ionicus, it ain't Wodehouse. The man was a genius. Not only did he catch the style of the book perfectly, but he usually managed to illustrate a snapshot from the narrative so perfectly that when you read it, you thought, "This is the sentence that made it onto the cover!"
Yes! My only regret is that we hadn't realised in advance that he would be at the convention (not being organised enough to read the programme properly) otherwise we would have further bemused him by asking him to sign our Penguin Wodehouses...! And he obviously read the books himself (unlike many illustrators nowadays, though to be fair most don't have time to read everything), though I didn't quite dare to ask whether he picked the subject for the cover himself or was told which scene to illustrate.
(off to reread Leave it to Psmith - had forgotten Baxter and the flowerpots...)
[ 15. October 2012, 09:16: Message edited by: Jane R ]
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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moonlitdoor
Shipmate
# 11707
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Posted
originally posted by Adeodatus
quote:
He ( Lord Emsworth ) seems to inhabit a heaven on earth
Like Evelyn Waugh said, "the gardens of Blandings Castle are the original garden from which we are all exiled."
I don't agree with the Great Gumby that there should be a large age difference between Bertie and Jeeves; no more than 10 years in my opinion, as Jeeves has various uncles and aunts who were still of working age, and was himself romantically interested in Mabel, one of the girls Bingo Little was in love with.
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We've evolved to being strange monkeys, but in the next life he'll help us be something more worthwhile - Gwai
Posts: 2210 | From: london | Registered: Aug 2006
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
<age difference between Jeeves and Wooster>
Yes, I always think of Bertie in his early to mid twenties and Jeeves as being ten to fifteen years older. But Fry and Laurie are about the same age, and when they did the TV series they both looked about 25.
Nowadays, Fry could probably play Beach; or Sir Roderick Glossop (if you can get away with a tall Sir Roderick). And I could see Hugh Laurie as Ukridge... in another ten years or so he could probably play Uncle Fred.
Jeeves' aunts and uncles are not a good guide to his own age; families were bigger then and many people started having children in their late teens or early twenties. If Jeeves' mother was the oldest of ten children he might even have uncles or aunts younger than himself. My mother was the oldest of six children, and my youngest aunt is only about 12 years older than me. And I'm not that old... old enough (just) to be reviled as a Baby Boomer, but young enough to be hit by the double whammy of increasing life expectancy and nonexistent pension.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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The Intrepid Mrs S
Shipmate
# 17002
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Posted
Oh Beach is definitely one of my favourites! and possibly my favourite Wodehouse line ever is where Beach rises from a deckchair (from memory now) 'clutching the manuscript to the small of his back, if a back such as his could be said to have a small'
And the difference between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine
But try searching the Amazon Kindle section for <PG Wodehouse free> and you get the most amazing selection of irrelevant cr*p ![[Mad]](angryfire.gif)
Mrs. S, scouring the bookshelves for Heavy Weather - read so much the spine has collapsed!
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Don't get your knickers in a twist over your advancing age. It achieves nothing and makes you walk funny.
Prayer should be our first recourse, not our last resort
'Lord, please give us patience. NOW!'
Posts: 1464 | From: Neither here nor there | Registered: Mar 2012
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Jane R
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# 331
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Posted
Wodehouse died in the 1970s, Intrepid Mrs S., so he's still in copyright. You won't get any of his works for free. Not through Amazon, anyway.
Now I come to think of it, my Other Half proposed to me with a copy of 'The Man Upstairs' - we were in a second-hand bookshop and he was too embarrassed to propose within earshot of a group of American tourists, so he took a Wodehouse off the shelf and leafed through it to find a proposal scene, pointed to it and asked me if I agreed.
Of course, after that we had to buy the book (any excuse)!
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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The Intrepid Mrs S
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# 17002
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Posted
quote:
Wodehouse died in the 1970s, Intrepid Mrs S., so he's still in copyright. You won't get any of his works for free. Not through Amazon, anyway.
Oh poo.
Does it annoy anyone else when you already own a copyright work (sometimes in more than one format!) and you STILL have to buy the e-book? ![[brick wall]](graemlins/brick_wall.gif)
Mrs. S, annoyed!
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Don't get your knickers in a twist over your advancing age. It achieves nothing and makes you walk funny.
Prayer should be our first recourse, not our last resort
'Lord, please give us patience. NOW!'
Posts: 1464 | From: Neither here nor there | Registered: Mar 2012
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![[Biased]](wink.gif)
) .... Thank you wodehousians for bringing kuruman out of the woodwork for the first time in about five years. She even found her log-in and password just for Wodehouse.
