I feel as though I have read lots of P.G. Wodehouse, having had so many lines quoted to me over the years. My husband is, you see, a big fan, and he regularly re-reads his favourites from the canon, shaking with laughter the while. I invariably ask him to tell me what has tickled him so much, hence my familiarity by proxy with the work of the master. But I have never actually read him for myself - until now.
Feeling at something of a loss as to what to read next - I don't lack good books, there just wasn't anything which quite matched my mood - I thought I wanted something very British, very funny and with a character all its own. I could have picked up a favourite Nancy Mitford, but 'Plum' seemed to be calling me, so I asked Mr. C. to choose a corker and he duly produced Right Ho, Jeeves. Now half way through I am chuckling as I knew I would be, amazed by the sparkling sharpness of the narrative and the consummate stylist that Wodehouse is.
The story is a lot of stuff and nonsense and the plot need not detain us, suffice to say that it is all froth and frivolity, but fun! I can't help but see Messrs. Fry & Laurie as the inimitable Jeeves And Wooster, and there are so many good lines worth quoting that it's hard to choose one or two, but here's a quick passage just to give a flavour:
"I mean to say, when you leave a girl and a man, each of whom has admitted in set terms that she and he loves him and her, in close juxtaposition in the twilight, there doesn't seem much more to do but start pricing fish slices."
I was interested to read in coverage of the newly published William Shawcross biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother that that lady's favourite books were the novels of P. G. Wodehouse, because they were "so realistic"! But someone else said that to criticise PGW was "the equivalent of taking a spade to a soufflé", and I rather agree with them.
