A PG Wodehouse Sampler

“Sorry, I’ve Lost What“Odd how Aimportant Strange names are.Name It always takes me “‘WhatA P.G. ho!’ I said. Wodehouse Sampler “He still remained the same galumphing man with about as long to get them to my satisfaction as it does ‘What ho!’ said Motty. two left feet, who had always been constitutionally NumbersCount” are a problem when applied to to write the novel.” ‘What ho! What ho!’ incapable of walking through the great Gobi desert P.G. Wodehouse. His years are easy; he lived — P.G. Wodehouse ‘What ho! What ho! What ho!’ without knocking something over.” 93 of them, from 1881 to l975. Counting is Wodehouse’s preoccupation with comic names puts After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with —The Code of the Woosters otherwise tricky. How many novels? How him in good company. To name a few... the conversation.” “He was the sort of person who would take every —My Man Jeeves many short stories? How many books for WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, who gave us Anthony Dull, Pinch, egg out of a nest and excuse himself on the ground musicals? How many lyrics? How many Speed, Sir Toby Belch, Elbow, Fang, and Doll Tearsheet. “Chumps always make the best husbands. When that he was preventing (in the future) cruelty to you marry, Sally, grab a chump. Tap his forehead first, worms.” straight plays? How many films? How many BEN JONSON, who invented Sir Epicure Mammon, Adam and if it rings solid, don’t hesitate. All the unhappy —Note for an unpublished story other kinds of writing? Overdo, Mosca (Fly), Volpone (Fox), Voltore (Vulture), marriages come from the husbands having brains. Sometimes it depends on who is doing the Dame Pliant, and Tribulation Wholesome. What good are brains to a man? They only unsettle “The Right. Hon. was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes counting and how they do it. Sometimes RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, who named characters him.” and had forgotten to say ‘When!’” books and shows have been renamed in Snake, Joseph Surface, Benjamin Backbite, Lady —The Adventures of Sally revivals or new editions. Sometimes names Sneerwell, Lydia Languish, Mrs. Malaprop, and Lucius “She gave a smirk that sounded like a nor’easter —Very Good, Jeeves used in Great Britain are different from O’Trigger. ripping through the sails of a stricken vessel.” Explaining the spelling of his name Psmith says, “The —Barmy in Wonderland those used in the United States. JOHN VANBRUGH, who created Miss Hoyden, Lord p is silent as in pshrimp....” Foppington, Fashion, and Sir Tunbelly Clumsy, and “It is no use telling me that there are bad aunts and A good guess is that Wodehouse wrote —Psmith GEORGE ETHERIDGE, who conceived Sir Fopling Flutter. good aunts. At the core, they are all something like 120 volumes that include alike. Sooner or later, out pops “It was my Uncle George who discovered that novels and short stories, wrote or contrib- CHARLES DICKENS, who enriched our reading with the cloven hoof.” alcohol was a food, well in advance Scrooge, Mr. Gradgrind, Uriah Heep, Pecksniff, Mr. of medical thought.” uted to 42 musicals, wrote hundreds of —The Code of the Woosters Bumble, Augustus Snodgrass, and Affery Flintwich. song lyrics, wrote numerous plays, and —The Inimitable Jeeves wrote or contributed to 24 films. In addi- W.C. FIELDS, who wrote his own screenplays (some- tion, he said in Over 70 (one of his autobio- times under the names Mahatma Kane Jeeves, Otis Criblecoblis, and Charles Bogle) and gave us Egbert graphical works, written in 1957) that he Sousè, J. Pinkerton Snoopington, Ogg Oggilbie, Cuthbert had written 10 boys’ books, a children’s J. Twilley, and Filthy McNasty. book, 315 short stories, and 411 articles. And that was l8 years before he died. Wodehouse himself, who in addition to the characters in By Jeeves worried into existence Stilton Cheesewright, J. Chichester Clam, Boko Fittleworth, Freddie Threepwood, Orlando Wotherspoon, Pongo hadWodehouse a recurring fascination with descrip- Thistleton, Cybil Waddesley-Davenport, Lady tions of babies. One is said to look like “a Bablockhythe, Reggie Foljambe, Lady Betty Boodle, and William Egerton Ossingham Belfry. mass murderer suffering from an ingrowing toenail.” Another is called a “mixture of Given his fascination with nomenclature, it comes as no Winston Churchill and Edward G. surprise to discover that Wodehouse wrote under six Robinson,” while still another looks like “a pseudonyms in addition to writing under his own name: P. Brooke-Haven, Pelham Grenville, J. Plum, C.P. West, J. homicidal fried egg.” Walker Williams, and Basil Windham. 8 9.

Load more