DOCSLIB.ORG

Romance and Sex a La Wodehouse

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Romance and Sex a La Wodehouse Plum Lines The quarterly newsletter of The Wodehouse Society Vol. zi No. 4 W inter 2000 Lady Constance’s Lover: Romance and Sex a la Wodehouse By Elin Woodger A talk delivered at the Houston convention of the Wodehouse Society, October, 1999. Klin is, as all right-minded members know, president of our society, co-editor of Plum Lines, and an All-Around Indispensable. — OM nd now for the juicy stuff. Here is some advice from Look closely at some o f his early work, for example, and A Lord Uffenham for all you lovelorn men out there: you will find a lot of talk about affinities—the instant at­ traction of, as he described it, “soul-mates destined for Grab her! Seize her! Fold her in a close em­ each odaer from the beginning o f time.” No wonder so brace. A really close embrace. One that’ll make many characters in Wodehouse fall in love at first sight— her ribs creak. Kiss her, too, of course. Kiss her and you will usually find that it is the men doing the fall­ repeatedly. At the same time saying “You are my ing. The male of the species has only to take a single look, mate, dash it,” or something to that effect. That’ll and he knows, as in this example from Hot Water: do the trick. Walking before him, like a princess making The trick, of course, is for a Wodehouse hero to win her way through a mob of the proletariat, came a the woman of his dreams, a situation that we encounter girl. And at the sight of her, Berry’s eyes swelled repeatedly in Plum’s novels and stories —and one that al­ slowly to the size of golf-balls. His jaw dropped, most always meets with success in the end. It is this as­ his heart raced madly, and a potato fell from his pect of the Master’s vast canon that we shall put under trembling fork. the microscope today, touching on matters of romance For it was the girl he had been looking for all and sex—yes, sex—that make his works so dashed enter­ his life—the girl he had dreamed of on summer taining, and, at times, titillating—yes, titillating. evenings when the western sky was ablaze with Any dedicated reader knows that romance is para­ the glory of the sunset, or on spring mornings mount in Wodehouse. Wherever we are in Plum’s imagi­ when birds sang their anthems on dewy lawns. nation, whether in the Drones Club or on the idyllic He recognized her immediately. For a long time grounds of Blandings Castle, whether on the golf links now he had given up all hope of ever meeting or out in Hollywood, there is one overpowering theme her, and here she was, exactly as he had always that is constant in almost all of his stories and novels. And pictured her on moonlight nights when fiddles that theme is Love. Love sells—it always has—and Plum played soft music in the distance. knew it and milked it for all it was worth. Rarely will you read a Wodehouse novel or story and not find love at the All right, so it’s a bit sappy—but still romantic. And root o f the story-line. it proves a point Plum loved to emphasize, time and again: Yet beyond the monetary rewards of writing about Love strikes us when we least expect it. It is efficiency love, I believe diat Plum was truly a romantic at heart. expert Hamilton Beamish who learns this in The Small Bachelor, A practitioner of a philosophy he calls Sane Love, “Yes” which is followed in due course by Sane Marriage, “Though, as a matter of factsaid Hamilton Hamilton informs us that “The mating of the sexes should Beamish, “ I always say that what one objects to be a reasoned process, ruled by die intellect .” Early on, he is not the heat but the humidity” explains his ideal plan for marriage, a scientific approach Which simply goes to prove that even effi­ that involves careful consideration and sorting o f the ap­ ciency experts, when diey fall in love at first sight, propriate candidates until he chooses his ideal mate—and can babble like any man o f inferior intellect in he will not, he says, allow passion to blind him to any die same circumstances. Strange and violent emo­ faults in her disposition. tions were racking Hamilton Beamish’s bosom: But Fate has another plan for Hamilton, who, like so and, casting away the principles o f a lifetime, he many Wodehouse characters, is not immune to the power recognized without a trace o f shame tiiat love had of affinities. It is on a bus that he notices “a girl o f chic come to him at last—not creeping scientifically and elan. One may go still further—a girl of espieglerie into his soul, as he had supposed it would, but and je ne sais quoi.” He studies her closely, approving elbowing its way in with the Berserk rush o f a highly of her apparel and her schoolgirl complexion, com­ commuter charging into the five-fifteen. Yes, he plete with “ the skin you love to touch.” was in love. And it is proof of the completeness with which passion had blunted his intellectual . But it was her face that he noted most faculties that he was under the impression that in particularly. It was just the sort of face which, if the recent exchange of remarks he had been talk­ he had not had his policy of Sane Love all care­ ing rather well. fully mapped out, would have exercised the most disturbing effect on his emotions. This, then, is the position in which many a Wode­ Sad, reflected Hamilton Beamish, as he stood house hero has found himself: Hopelessly, dizzily in love upon the steps of Number 16 and prepared to in one fell swoop, to such an extent that it affects his en­ ring the bell, that he would never see this girl tire life, not to mention his golf game. But what o f the again. Naturally, a man of his stamp was not in female of the species? Rarely do we witness her falling so love at first sight, but nevertheless he did not con­ hard all at once. Rather, she is mixed up with some other ceal it from himself that nothing would suit him man who is all wrong for her; or she is so bally indepen- better than to make her acquaintance and, after dent-minded that she is initially immune to our hero’s careful study o f her character and disposition, charms; or she has certain romantic notions about desert possibly discover in a year or two that it was she sheiks and heroes that rather intimidate her would-be whom Nature had intended for his mate. suitor; or for her it may simply be a case of dislike-at- It was at this point in his reflections that he first-sight—until she learns better. It seems to take longer perceived her standing at his elbow. for your typical Wodehouse heroine to realize that her predestined mate is right there, and she has only to open After Hamilton takes a bit of dust out of the girl’s her arms to him to experience a lifetime of joy and fulfill­ eye, the two proceed to have die sort of stimulating con­ ment. Or so Wodehouse would have us believe. versation one often has when meeting one’s affinity for How, then, to get the woman to sit up and take no­ the first time: tice of the man? Like Lord Uffenham, Uncle Fred advo­ cates the caveman sort of approach, something that he “I saw you on the omnibus,” he said. calls the Ickenham system: “Did you?” “Yes, I was sitting in the next seat.” “It’s a little thing I knocked together in my “How odd!” bachelor days. It consists of grabbing the girl, “It’s a lovely day, isn’t it.” waggling her about a bit, showering kisses on her “Beautiful.” upturned face and making some such remark as “The sun.” cMy mate!’ Clench the teeth while saying that, of “Yes.” course. It adds conviction.” “The sky.” “Yes.” In Service With a Smile, Lord Ickenham offers thus “I like the summer.” advice to a reluctant Jimmy Schoonmaker, who has a han­ “So do I.” kering for Lady Constance. “You needn’t stick too closely “When it’s not too hot.” to the script if you feel like gagging,” he tells Jimmy, “ but 2 Plum Lines Vol. 21 No, 4 Winter 2000 on no account tamper with the business. That is of the was uneasy with the subject o f sex, that he had no real feel essence” for women, even that he was himself asexual. Those who Indeed, the “ business” portion of the proceedings — adopt this view point to such blots on die landscape as die that is, physical contact—is the crux o f the Ickenham sys­ numerous dragon aunts, the dictatorial Florence Crayes, tem. In “ Life With Freddie,” Freddie Threepwood ex­ the overbearing Honoria Glossops, and the gooey, goofy plains to Joe Cardinal that any struggles on the part of females like Madeline Bassett. Even Frances Donaldson the female half should be ignored, “ ...And in grabbing has contributed to the myth, writing in her biography of her by the wrist don’t behave as if you were handling a Wodehouse that he was “ out o f reach o f the female sex” delicate piece o f china.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Routledge History of Literature in English
    The Routledge History of Literature in English ‘Wide-ranging, very accessible . highly attentive to cultural and social change and, above all, to the changing history of the language. An expansive, generous and varied textbook of British literary history . addressed equally to the British and the foreign reader.’ MALCOLM BRADBURY, novelist and critic ‘The writing is lucid and eminently accessible while still allowing for a substantial degree of sophistication. The book wears its learning lightly, conveying a wealth of information without visible effort.’ HANS BERTENS, University of Utrecht This new guide to the main developments in the history of British and Irish literature uniquely charts some of the principal features of literary language development and highlights key language topics. Clearly structured and highly readable, it spans over a thousand years of literary history from AD 600 to the present day. It emphasises the growth of literary writing, its traditions, conventions and changing characteristics, and also includes literature from the margins, both geographical and cultural. Key features of the book are: • An up-to-date guide to the major periods of literature in English in Britain and Ireland • Extensive coverage of post-1945 literature • Language notes spanning AD 600 to the present • Extensive quotations from poetry, prose and drama • A timeline of important historical, political and cultural events • A foreword by novelist and critic Malcolm Bradbury RONALD CARTER is Professor of Modern English Language in the Department of English Studies at the University of Nottingham. He is editor of the Routledge Interface series in language and literary studies. JOHN MCRAE is Special Professor of Language in Literature Studies at the University of Nottingham and has been Visiting Professor and Lecturer in more than twenty countries.
    [Show full text]
  • Westminster Abbey South Quire Aisle
    Westminster Abbey South Quire Aisle The Dedication of a Memorial Stone to P G Wodehouse Friday 20th September 2019 6.15 pm HISTORICAL NOTE It is no bad thing to be remembered for cheering people up. As Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881–1975) has it in his novel Something Fresh, the gift of humour is twice blessed, both by those who give and those who receive: ‘As we grow older and realize more clearly the limitations of human happiness, we come to see that the only real and abiding pleasure in life is to give pleasure to other people.’ Wodehouse dedicated almost 75 years of his professional life to doing just that, arguably better—and certainly with greater application—than any other writer before or since. For he never deviated from the path of that ambition, no matter what life threw at him. If, as he once wrote, “the object of all good literature is to purge the soul of its petty troubles”, the consistently upbeat tone of his 100 or so books must represent one of the largest-ever literary bequests to human happiness by one man. This has made Wodehouse one of the few humourists we can rely on to increase the number of hours of sunshine in the day, helping us to joke unhappiness and seriousness back down to their proper size simply by basking in the warmth of his unique comic world. And that’s before we get round to mentioning his 300 or so song lyrics, countless newspaper articles, poems, and stage plays. The 1998 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary cited over 1,600 quotations from Wodehouse, second only to Shakespeare.
    [Show full text]
  • PDF EPUB} the Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories (Jeeves 0.5) by P.G
    Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories (Jeeves 0.5) by P.G. Wodehouse The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories (Jeeves 0.5) by P.G. Wodehouse. There's divinity that shapes our ends. Consider the case of Henry Pitfield Rice, Detective. Or the case of Bertie Wooster, tottering and trickling to the rescue of his not precisely intellectual cousin, under the basilisk eye of Aunt Agatha. Or the East End mongrel who mixed in Society. Or the King of Coney Island, the Super- Fan, or, of course, Henry Wallace Mills, of the two left feet. Consider any or all of these twelve vintage cases of good eggs and decent chaps entangled in snares of young love. Bill the Bloodhound Extricating Young Gussie Wilton's Holiday The Mixer - I - He Meets a Shy Gentleman The Mixer - II - He Moves in Society Crowned Heads At Geisenheimer's The Making of Mac's One Touch of Nature Black for Luck The Romance of an Ugly Policeman A Sea of Troubles The Man with Two Left Feet. Thirteen early short stories, written in America. One, Extricating Young Gussie is important because it introduces Bertie (though his surname seems to be Mannering-Phipps), Jeeves and Aunt Agatha. Gussie Mannering-Phipps, head of the 'very old and aristocratic' family now that his father, Bertie's Uncle Cuthbert, keen drinker, unsuccessful gambler, big spender, has died, has gone to America and is involved with a girl on the New York vaudeville stage. Aunt Agatha sends Bertie over to extricate Gussie.
    [Show full text]
  • Summer 2007 Large, Amiable Englishman Who Amused the World by DAVID MCDONOUGH
    The quarterly journal of The Wodehouse Society Volume 28 Number 2 Summer 2007 Large, Amiable Englishman Who Amused the World BY DAVID MCDONOUGH ecently I read that doing crossword puzzles helps to was “sires,” and the answer was “begets.” In Right Ho, R ward off dementia. It’s probably too late for me (I Jeeves (aka Brinkley Manor, 1934), Gussie Fink-Nottle started writing this on my calculator), but I’ve been giving interrogates G. G. Simmons, the prizewinner for Scripture it a shot. Armed with several good erasers, a thesaurus, knowledge at the Market Snodsbury Grammar School and my wife no more than a phone call away, I’ve been presentations. Gussie, fortified by a liberal dose of liquor- doing okay. laced orange juice, is suspicious of Master Simmons’s bona I’ve discovered that some of Wodehouse’s observations fides. on the genre are still in vogue. Although the Egyptian sun god (Ra) rarely rears its sunny head, the flightless “. and how are we to know that this has Australian bird (emu) is still a staple of the old downs and all been open and above board? Let me test you, acrosses. In fact, if you know a few internet terms and G. G. Simmons. Who was What’s-His-Name—the the names of one hockey player (Orr) and one baseball chap who begat Thingummy? Can you answer me player (Ott), you are in pretty good shape to get started. that, Simmons?” I still haven’t come across George Mulliner’s favorite clue, “Sir, no, sir.” though: “a hyphenated word of nine letters, ending in k Gussie turned to the bearded bloke.
    [Show full text]
  • Where Did They Go
    BRITISH ‘BABY BOOMER’ NOSTALGIA Compiled by David Challinor Saluting AA Men Cream on Milk The Children’s Newspaper Shaving in Barbers Time Guns Foot X-Ray Machines in Shoe Shops Pea Shooters Pushers-up Same Day Post Passing Bells Subscription Libraries Boxing Kangaroos Dunces Caps Home-made Fireworks Aluminium Nameplate Machines at Stations German Bands Breton Onion Sellers Romany Caravans Ceiling Clocks Paint Boxes Electric Shock Therapy Bona Fide Travellers Bird – Nesting Apache Dancing Audiphones Aunt Sallies John Bull Puncture Repair Outfits & Printing sets Office Boys White Sugar Mice Camp Coffee Crystal Radio Sets Gas Mantles Guineas Boys Shouting the News Life Preservers Liquorice Imps/ Sherbet Pipes and Dabs Lobby Lud Cigarette Cards Driving Cattle through Towns Tripe Shops Continuous Performance School Ink, Inkwells and Ink Monitors Paper Chases Skipping Seasonal Children’s Games (conkers, marbles) Muffin Men Gob-stoppers Rag and Bone Men (goldfishes for junk) Beetle Drives Card Indexes in Libraries Change Receptacles on Overhead Wire Pulleys Reins on Toddlers Silver Cigarette Cases ‘Fly-proof’ Metal Grilles on Meat-safes Sticky Fly Paper DDT Memory Men (Leslie Welch) Kewpie Dolls Cigarette Holders Bells to Call the Chambermaid in hotel rooms Children’s Gardens Music Halls Pierrots/Black and White Minstrels School Milk Empire Day Pork Butchers Polite Children Blackberrying Laxative Chocolate Tuck Shops Ticking Clocks Flying Boats Rubber Bathing Caps Train Spotting Buying Pickles by the Basin Motor Cycle Sidecars Milk Churns Errand
    [Show full text]
  • Blavatsky Will Instruct Me in the Seven Sacred Trances
    Thomas Stearns Eliot Blavatsky will instruct me in the seven sacred trances Blavatsky will instruct me in the Seven Sacred Trances v. 19.10, www.philaletheians.co.uk, 1 February 2019 Page 1 of 3 BLAVATSKY TRIBUTES SERIES T.S. ELIOT ON THE SEVEN SACRED TRANCES 1 A Cooking Egg En l’an trentiesme de mon aage 2 Que toutes mes hontes j’ay beues . Pipit sate upright in her chair Some distance from where I was sitting; Views of the Oxford Colleges Lay on the table, with the knitting. Daguerreotypes and silhouettes, Her grandfather and great great aunts, Supported on the mantelpiece An Invitation to the Dance. I shall not want Honour in Heaven For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney And have talk with Coriolanus And other heroes of that kidney. I shall not want Capital in Heaven For I shall meet Sir Alfred Mond. We two shall lie together, lapt In a five per cent. Exchequer Bond. I shall not want Society in Heaven, Lucretia Borgia shall be my Bride; Her anecdotes will be more amusing Than Pipit’s experience could provide. 1 First appeared in T.S. Eliot’s second collection of Poems, 1919. For a short analysis of the poem click here. 2 i.e., “By the 30th year of my life, I have drunk up all my shame,” epigraph from François Villon, the best known French poet of the late Middle Ages. Blavatsky will instruct me in the Seven Sacred Trances v. 19.10, www.philaletheians.co.uk, 1 February 2019 Page 2 of 3 BLAVATSKY TRIBUTES SERIES T.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Consuming Fin De Siécle London: Female Consumers in Dorothy Richardson’S Pilgrimage
    Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture．Vol 4.1．December 2010．57-80. Consuming Fin de Siécle London: Female Consumers in Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage Han-sheng Wang ABSTRACT As an emerging site of female consumption, the West End of London in the fin de siècle period registers especially women‟s greater mobility in public consuming spaces. Along the central streets of the West End, with its mushrooming of shops, department stores, theaters, cafés, female clubs, and cinemas around the turn of the century, women increasingly manifest their visibility as purchasers, pleasure-seekers, and window-shoppers on the public street and the hetero-social urban space. Established during the same time, situated in the same neighborhood, and courting the same consuming public, these institutions address middle-class women as target customers and, through inviting them to purchase goods and services, contribute to the disruption of the long-held Victorian separate spheres and to the increased female public visibility at the turn of the century. This paper would thus examine female consumption as manifesting fin de siècle women‟s complicated involvement in the city‟s consuming spaces and commodity culture, which is represented by Dorothy Richardson in her fictional narratives about female consumers emerging in fin de siècle London, a phenomenon historically experienced by women of the 1880s and 1890s who increasingly found London‟s West End a site of consumption and female pleasure. KEY WORDS: Dorothy Richardson, Female Consumption, Fin de Siècle London,
    [Show full text]
  • Wodehouse - UK and US Editions
    Wodehouse - UK and US editions UK Title Year E.L US Title Norwegian A Damsel in Distress 1919 x En jomfru i nød A Few Quick Ones 1959 x A Gentleman of Leisure 1910 x The Intrusion of Jimmy A Man of Means (med C. H. Bovill, UK) 1991 x A Pelican at Blandings 1969 x No Nudes is Good Nudes A Prefect's Uncle 1903 x A Prince for Hire 2003 0 A Wodehouse Miscellany (e-bok) 2003 0 Aunts Aren't Gentlemen 1974 x The Cat-nappers Tanter er ikke Gentlemen Bachelors Anonymous 1973 x Anonyme Peppersvenner Barmy in Wonderland 1952 x Angel Cake Big Money 1931 x Penger som gress Bill the Conqueror 1924 x Blandings Castle and Elsewhere 1935 x Blandings Castle Bring on the Girls 1953 x Carry on Jeeves 1925 x Cocktail Time 1958 x Company for Henry 1967 x The Purloined Paperweight Death At the Excelsior and Other Stories (e-bok) 2003 0 Do Butlers Burgle Banks 1968 x Doctor Sally 1932 x Eggs, Beans and Crumpets 1940 x French Leave 1956 x Franskbrød og arme riddere Frozen Assets 1964 x Biffen's Millions Full Moon 1947 x Månelyst på Blandings Galahad at Blandings 1968 x The Binkmanship of Galahad Threepwood Heavy Weather 1933 x Salig i sin tro Hot Water 1932 x Høk over høk Ice in the Bedroom 1961 x The Ice in the Bedroom Gjemt men ikke glemt If I Were You 1931 x Indiscretions of Archie 1921 x Side 1 av 4 / presented by blandings.no Wodehouse - UK and US editions UK Title Year E.L US Title Norwegian Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 1954 x Bertie Wooster Sees it Through Jeg stoler på Jeeves Jeeves in the Offing 1960 x How Right You Are, Jeeves S.O.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Herald of the Golden Age V13 N2 Apr 1910
    u Circulation in Countries & Colonies. PRICE 3d. (Postage 1d.) Fiity-OncI K A ,K ~, \ p ^ ^ s Direct * WHOLESOME. From -the Creamery to the Consumer. Dainty and Delicious APPETISING. Creamery Butter NOURISHING. Scientifically made on the best hygienic principles, with the highest technical skill. In 150 Guaranteed Pure Varieties. and tree from Salt and Preservatives. For Wallaceites <© and all others desirous ot absolute purity In food. HIGHEST TESTIMONIALS. What Mrs. WALLACE BayB : "A sample of the Drumquin Creamery Batter received was delicious, even though It nae several days old bffnre I turned my attention to It . That it was absolutely Pure from Salt and Preservation I know both by observation and analyses." (Herald NUT of HcaltK, July. '08). Mr. HOUSTON (Agricultural Bacteriologist, Royal College of Bdence for Ireland), writes: "The butter received . was Delicious, even though It was several days old. It could hardly be otherwise, when we understand the amount of care bestowed upon Its making, and the Intelligence and Tech- # nical Knowledge that controlled Its handling throughout." FOODS. (Herald of Health, October, 'OS). The MANAGER of Ballymacltnton Restaurant, White City, Londnn, writes: "The Butter supplied to us dnrlng the Exhibition season has been perfection, receiving unstinted praise from staff and customers alike.'' Any quantity supplied. No order too small and none too large. Write for full descriptive Price List with Recipes, PROMPT AND REGULAR DELIVERY GUARANTEED. post free, also name of nearest agent, to Write to-day for Price List and Particulars. MAPLETON'S NUT FOOD CO., Ltd. « Pare Batter Specialists, Creamery—DRUMQUIN, TYRONE. (Dept. 8), Garston, Lanes. ^ PLEASE MENTION THIS PAPER.
    [Show full text]
  • Wooster Sauce – March 2009
    Wooster Sauce – March 2009 I had wanted to tell the Master this and gladden his That is increasingly true in England and the rest of indulgent heart with the tribute being paid to him at this the Commonwealth, but not in India. While no English- outpost of Wodehouseana thousands of miles away language writer can truly be said to have a “mass” from any place he had ever written about. But I had following in India, where only a small percentage of the never been satisfied by any of my drafts of the letter. It population read English, Wodehouse has maintained a had to be just right. Of course, it never was, and now I general rather than a “cult” audience; unlike others, he would never be able to establish this small connection has never gone out of fashion. This bewilders those to the writer who had given me more joy than anything who think that nothing could be further removed from else in my life. Indian life, with its poverty and political intensity, than The loss was personal, but it was widely shared: the silly escapades of Wodehouse’s decadent P. G. Wodehouse was by far the most popular English- Edwardian Young Men in Spats. language writer in India. His erudite butlers, absent- India’s fascination with Wodehouse is one of those minded earls and silly-ass aristocrats, out to pinch endearing mysteries. Many believe that Wodehouse’s policemen’s helmets or perform acts of petty larceny at popularity reflects a nostalgia for the British Empire in the behest of tyrannical aunts, are beloved by most India.
    [Show full text]
  • The First Screen Jeeves
    Plum L in es The quarterly journal of The Wodehouse Society Vol. 22 No. 2 Summer 2001 The First Screen Jeeves By Brian Taves Brian Taves (PhD, University of Southern California) is a film archivist at the Library of Congress and author of three books. t the end o f 1935,20th detective, and Chan was A Century-Fox bought the studio’s most popular the film rights to Thank “star” after Shirley Ton, Jeeves (along with a Temple. one-year option on the Like Chan, Jeeves had other stories) and the right been brought to the no­ to make other films cen­ tice of the American read­ tered around Jeeves. Look­ ing public in The Saturday ing for potentially pro­ Evening Post. The Jeeves lific—and profitable — film series seems to have properties, the studio was been launched on what interested in any character was perceived as a sure who seemed to have the bet, casting Arthur potential to lure filmgoers Treacher, known for play­ to film after film, no less ing butler roles, as the fa­ than a modern television mous literary butler. series. Earlier in the year, However, while the Chan Fox’s merger with 20th series was cast and pre­ Century had enhanced the sented in a manner conso­ A studio photo of the three principals in the first Jeeves film: studio’s status, and a CCB” nant with Biggers’s liter­ David Niven, Virginia Field, and Arthur Treacher. unit was organized under ary creation, the Jeeves Sol Wurtzel, who had a $6,000,000 annual budget for films revealed no sense of the situations and character pat­ 24 “Bs” per year.
    [Show full text]
  • Upturn Lines
    upturn Lines A Quarterly Publication of The Wodehouse , TJ.S.A. Volume 12, No. 4 Winter 1991 WCY+10 Notes from Plum Bill Claghorn writes: "At the time I found my copy of William Tell Told Again in a used book store, I had no prior indication that such a book had ever been written. It is only more recently that the name appears on any lists." The Mcllvaine bibliography says the first English edition was published November, 1904, when Plum was barely 23, and there were four undated reissues. There was one American edition, December 1904, with no reissues. It was Plum's fifth book and fourth novel. July 13.1950 Dear Mr Claghorn. ♦ Venoy you having got hold of a William Toll Told Again! Zt was writtan ovar fifty yaera ago fct the time whan I vaa game to urlta anything that would help pay tha rant. If I remember, thay aant ma tha ploturea and gave ma tan pounds for writing a story round them! Hr books for boys - all published by A ft C Blaok, l* Soho Square, London V - arei- The Pothunters Talas of St Austin's Tha Gold Bat The Bead of Kay's Tho Whits Feather Mika Psmlth Zn Tha City Psmith Journalist A Prefeot's Unole but I don't think thay are still in print. Tha White Hope, If I remember, was tha pulp magaslna serial title of tha book subsequently published ovar hare as Their Hutual Child and in England as Tha Coming Of Bill. It's not one of tha ones I'm proud of.
    [Show full text]