Showing posts with label P.G. Wodehouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label P.G. Wodehouse. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Pigs Have Wings (1952) by P.G. Wodehouse #1952Club




🐷 My second read for #1952Club was one of P.G. Wodehouse's novels. This is my first from the Blanding Castles series. I think nowadays I always need at least one Wodehouse read a year. Not only they are always hilarious and highly entertaining, I also admire Wodehouse's genius plotting. The way he could put one simple everyday-life stuff into an ordinary existence, and change it into a wrecking chaos, but then straighten it again to a beautiful ending, is always amazed me. This one's premises is a competition between two prominent figure in a rural village called Blandings.

🐷 Lord Emsworth's passion is pigs. His "pet" is Empress of Blandings, a reigning champion in Fat Pigs competition at the Shropshire Show. This year his neighbor, a Sir Gregory Parsloe, is becoming a huge contender, with his new sow called Queen of Matchingham. It's one or two weeks before the show, and at least two of Lord Emsworth's household: Galahad Threepwood - the idle but smart brother, and Beach - the butler, are deeply concerned because they have put their money on Empress of Blandings. Hence, it's imperative that the Empress should win the contest!

🐷 Pig competition scheming, however outrageously funny, wouldn't be entertaining enough to read, so Wodehouse added love element. Lots of them too! Old love-turned-sour, current-blossoming-love, and a lot of understandings and wrong-timings involved to create an entanglement of love makings in the midst of pigs-scheming. The combination of the two resulted in the usual Wodehouseian charming-hilarious novel that makes you lost your mind, in a positive way! 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read this book for:

hosted by Simon @ Stuck in a Book & Karen @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings


Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by P.G. Wodehouse: A Review for #ReadingTheMeow2023




🐱
Bertie Wooster wakes up one morning to find red spots on her chest, and the doctor's (E. Jimpson Murgatroyd) order is to stay quietly in a peaceful place. So go Bertie and his smart valet Jeeves to Maiden Eggesford, a rural town where Bertie's Aunt Dahlia is staying with her friend, Colonel Briscoe, in a house called Eggesford Hall.

🐱 But will Bertie get his prescribed dose of the quite life in Maiden Eggesford? Of course not! As usual, a series of chaos would certainly ensue wherever he goes. This time in the shape of a stray cat!

🐱 There will be a horse race in nearby town. Colonel Briscoe and a man called Cook, who lives in a house called Eggesford Court, were longtime rival. Cook's horse, Potato Chip (what a name for a racehorse!πŸ˜‚) is very attached to a stray black cat. He always performs well whenever the cat is present.

🐱 When Bertie was calling on Colonel Briscoe for lunch, he mistakenly arrived at Eggesford Court (Cook's residence) instead of Eggesford Hall. He saw a black cat, and played with it. But, alas, Pop Cook saw it and thought Bertie wanted to steal his cat to sabotage Potato Chip's training. Bertie recounted this unpleasant incident to the 'old ancestor' (Aunt Dahlia), who has actually placed a bet on Simla, her host's horse. Knowing a way to secure her win, she arranged with a local poacher to steal the cat, and to place it temporarily at Bertie's cottage!

🐱 This then created a string of complex but hilarious misunderstandings, mis-timings, and whatever you call it that usually happens to Bertie Wooster! Add to it the romance between a headstrong girl (Cook's daughter), whom Bertie had once proposed to but regret it now, and a communist young man (Bertie's friend) who are now jealous of Bertie. To make it more complicated, Major Plank, whom Bertie had had trouble with in the past, happened to be staying as a guest at Pop Cook's!

🐱 If you're familiar with Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, you'll guess how chaotically funny these awkward situations can become, and how the ever reliable Jeeves could always save his master from the worst possible intricacies he's liable to put himself in.

🐱 As usual, one will always feel much satisfied after a dose of laughter along Jeeves stories. This one is no different. Though the cat seems not to appear very often, it did have an important and cohesive role in this particular adventure.

Rating: 4,5 / 5


**My second read for Literary Potpourri's Reading the Meow 2023 **



Getting to know the Meow:
I won't tell you my name, but I am very fond of my horse friend: Potato Chip.
I'm hanging around him during his trainings (he's a race horse, isn't it cool?)
My contribution to the story: I was catnapped! Poor Potato Chip refused to do what he's told because I'm not there with him. 
I don't understand why people make fuss about it, 'cause 
I'm having a good time, and I love following people around!

 

Saturday, November 13, 2021

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

🌞 The Inimitable Jeeves is the first comedic novel in Jeeves series from P.G. Wodehouse, one of the greatest humorists and writers of 20th century. Well, it's actually more of semi-novel, as it's constructed of eleven short stories which are assembled chronologically into a novel. You can detect its lack of cohesion after each chapter - which make the whole reading experience becomes...well, unwholesome.

🌞 Jeeves is what they call a gentleman's gentleman - a highly competent valet - to a wealthy "idle rich" gentleman called Bertie Wooster.

🌞 Wooster is fond of Jeeves, because of his almost perfect competence in either serving his comfort or solving his personal (and general) problems.

🌞 In this first semi-novel, most of Wooster's problems come from his best friend Bingo Little, who is always falling in love with the next charming girl he ever lays his eyes to, and his rather tyrannical Aunt Agatha, who always persuades him to marry. Other than that, Jeeves' domineering manner sometimes annoys him when the valet disapproves his flamboyant fashion styles, although in the end he'll relents to it, rather than being deprived of Jeeves' flawless services.

🌞 Overall, it's a witty, humorous piece to read. It's the kind of book you'd need to keep you sane in difficult or dreary times. It's amusing and entertaining, but lack of deeper or meaningful values. You'll have fun while reading it, but most probably forget most of it after.

Am I going to read more of Wodehouse, or Jeeves' series in particular? Certainly, you'd need one or more comic antidote every year, right?

Rating: 3,5 / 5