Friday, April 06, 2018

P G Wodehouse - Painless Introduction to English Literature

I was already a happy student of English literature when I caught the Wodehouse bug. And that helped me enjoy his novels so much the more. On the one hand, many of his books begin with a small quote from a poem or such. On the other, the books do tend to burp up more literary references than any blue stocking would.

From Homer and Chaucer to Wordsworth and Keats and more, Wodehouse manages to smuggle them in to his stories. In fact, there is an answer on Quora to a query about Wodehouse's specific sources for the quotes. 

Wodehouse, like Enid Blyton, defined many an Anglicised Indian. There appear to have been plenty of those when I was younger. Plenty of Wodehouses perched on many a library bookshelf. And so it must be even now. The difference is that he might no longer be of interest and even be a bit dull to plod through if one is not a student of English literature.

If that sounds discouraging, I hasten to add that he is timeless and it would be well worth the initial 'stiff upper lip' required by the novice reader to quaff some Wodehouse. There is every chance, then, of turning into an addict. After that you are instantly part of a worldwide group of his fans and you will pester every other groupie with "What's your favourite Wodehouse?"  And there will be a million different answers to that for he is one of the kings of humourous writing.

For starters, try: 


Test the waters with a chapter from Right Ho‚ Jeeves - some claim it's his funniest but each fan will have their say.




In a day and age when even four letter words are as few as the fingers on my hand, Wodehouse is handy:

20 Insults from P. G. Wodehouse

My favourite Wodehouse, I'm pretty sure, was the Blandings books. 




With so many stories to choose from, here is a useful page:



In any case, there's plenty of his books to be had for free or for a fee. Some pages to treasure if you are already a die-hard fan - there are several but I leave you with a sample:

Though P. G. Wodehouse may be old hat India has a thing for him:
PG Wodehouse is by far the most popular English-language writer in India, his readership exceeding that of Agatha Christie or John Grisham. His erudite butlers, absent-minded earls and silly-ass aristocrats, out to pinch policemen's helmets on boat race night or perform convoluted acts of petty larceny at the behest of tyrannical aunts, are familiar to, and beloved by, most educated Indians. 


But, even as we, here, fancied the Woosters, Europe and America were seeing red - read all about that and more about him: 


In any case, whatever the truth, we've seen how the media loves salacious stories about story writers. None of those news stories, however, will give us as much delight as Wodehouse did.

Read some of his hilarious tales and anyone to whom you gift one will thank you forever. 

No comments: