P. D. Wodehouse, by Begoña Devis
BIOGRAPHY
Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was born on the 15th of October
1881, in Guildford (UK). He was the son of Eleanor Deane, from a landed family,
and Henry Ernest Wodehouse. The Wodehouse had been based in Norfolk for many centuries.
His lineage is ancient, going back to as far back as 1227, when Sir Bertram of
Wodehouse fought with Eduard I against the Scots.
He was a prolific writer, author of more than 90 narrative books (70
novels and 20 collections with a total of 200 stories), another hundred short
stories in magazines, 400 articles, 19 plays and 250 song lyrics for 33
musicals of Broadway as well as adaptations and screenplays.
Until the age of two, he lived in Hong Kong, where his father was a
British government judge. Back in London, he grew up with his two older
brothers practically as am orphan, under different
family guardianships, especially aunts, since his parents continued to reside
in Hong Kong until he was 15 years old. That’s reflected in his abundant
production: in his work there are no mothers but aunts, and there are also few
fathers and their relationship with their children are scarce and comical. On the other hand, his biographer revealed that, as a
young man, he pretended to be almost mentally retarded, when in reality he has
intelligent, complex and educated. Thanks to that false naive disguise, he was
able to concentrate on what he really liked: writing.
Having studied at Dulwich College, his first paid paper was “Aspects of
Game Captaincy”. He was unable to follow his brother to Oxford because the
family finances began to have difficulties. So, instead of a university degree,
in September 1900, he reluctantly took a job at the London office of the Bank
of Hong Kong and Shanghai. To disassociate himself from this job that he did
not like at all, he began to write about sports and humorous stories in the
press and magazines. As a great sportsman, he represented Dulwich College in
boxing, cricked and rugby, sports which, along with golf, figure directly or
indirectly in many of his stories.
Although he had already visited New York in 1904, it was during another
visit in 1909 that Wodehouse sold “two short stories to Cosmopolitan and Collier’s magazines
for a total sum of $500, much more than he had ever made”. That decided him to leave
the United Kingdom and settle in New
York. In 1914, he married Ethel Newton, a widow he had met in New York two months earlier and whose daughter,
Leonora, he adopted.
The following year, he was hired as a theatre critic by Vanity Fair magazine. By this time, his first
novels had met with some success, and, from 1909, Wodehouse was living between
Paris and the United States. His reputation as a humorous novelist was established with his work Psmith in the City. He maintained his enormous
popularity through almost a hundred novels, in which a series of curious and
very British characters were almost always idle young people disoriented by the
absurd and comical situations. In 1919, he begins what will be his most famous
series of novels and stories, with My Man Jeeves. This character, a
shrewd valet who always rescues the reckless Mr Bertie Wooster, who almost
always is the victim of some conspiracy by his aunt.
In 1934, Wodehouse, already very successful as a writer, and to avoid
double taxation on his income, moved to live in France. With the outbreak of
the Second World War in 1939, instead of returning to the UK, he decided to
stay in his house on the coast at Le Touquet. In the summer of that year,
Wodehouse had gone to Oxford to be made an honorary doctor, and shortly after
his return to Le Touquet. The German authorities interned him, in his late
sixties, as an “enemy alien”, first in Belgium, then in Upper Silesia (now in
Poland). After that, the British government, despite having a report by a
senior M15 exonerating him of treason (which was not published until after his
death), denounced him as a Nazi collaborator, and the media continued to accuse
him of being a traitor for a long time, and some
public libraries banned his books, and even some prominent authors criticized
him harshly. Wodehouse, disgusted by
the treatment received by his country, never returned to the United Kingdom,
and in 1955 he obtained American citizenship.
In the year of his death, the great
Wodehouse was made Sir. He died in Remsenburg, Long Island (United States) on the
14th of February 1975. He was 93 years old.
Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend
Despite
glorious weather, Lord Emsworth is miserable; it is August Bank Holiday, which
means the annual Blandings Parva School Treat. The precious grounds are to be
overrun with fairground rides, tea-tents and other amusements for the throngs,
and Emsworth is will be forced by his sister Constance to wear a stiff collar
and a top hat, despite the warm weather and his strong protests.
On
top of that, Head Gardener Angus McAllister is determined to carry out his
project of putting gravel in the garden. Emsworth, who loves his mossy carpet,
loathes the idea, but his sister is in favour, and the stronger personalities
overpower the elderly man.
After
that, while visiting Blandings Parva to judge the flower displays, Emsworth is
frightened by a large dog, but he is rescued by a small girl named Gladys. They
chat and become friends, especially when she reveals that, having been seen
picking flowers in the Castle grounds, she hit McAllister in the shin with a
stone to stop him chasing her.
When
the fête begins, Emsworth is uncomfortable as ever in his formal clothes, and he’s
worried about the speech he will have to make. In addition, at the tea-tent,
his top hat is knocked off by a cleverly aimed rock cake, and Emsworth flees,
taking refuge in an old shed. In there, he finds Gladys, miserable; she has
been put there by his sister Constance, for stealing from the tea tent
something to take to her brother Ern, barred from the fête for biting Constance
on the leg.
Delighted
by this family, Emsworth takes Gladys into the house, and provides her a hearty
tea, and also a feast to take back to Ern.
Gladys requests to pick some flowers to take home too. Emsworth
hesitates, but cannot refuse her. As she is picking flowers, McAllister rushes
up in a fury, but his master, encouraged by Gladys’s hand in his, stands up to
the man, saying that the flowers belong to him, and that he also doesn’t want
gravel in the garden, putting him in his place.
Constance
approaches then, demanding Emsworth return to make his speech, but he refuses,
saying he's going to put on some comfortable clothes and to visit Ern with his
friend Gladys.
In
my opinion is a really naive story, with sense of humour and ridiculous
situations, as in almost always stories of the writer happen. In that story,
the powerful aristocrat behaves like a boy, under the strict supervision of his
sister (who could very well be his aunt), while his saviour is a little girl.
Thanks to her, he finds the courage to do and say what he really wants.
QUESTIONS
Talk about the main characters
-Lord Emsworth
-Lady Constant Keeble
-Angus McAllister
-Gladys
-Ern
-Beach
What happens in August Bank Holiday?
Tell us about the gravel path.
What opinion does Lord Emsworth have about Scottish
people?
Why does Angus have the upper hand with Lord Emsworth?
Can you explain the scene with the dog?
What are Lord Emsworth’s resources as to deal with
people of the other sex?
What is the meaning of “season” for a “classical
lord”?
What kind of relationships does Lord Emsworth have
with women?
Talk about Lord Emsworth’s Panama hat.
What was the problem with his collar?
What is the reference for Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego?
According to Lord Emsworth, what are the
characteristics of a London child?
Why Gladys and her brother were excluded from the
garden party?
What do you know about the Battle of Bannonckburn?
When did Lord Emsworth feel like a true lord again?
“Better to cease to be a Napoleon than be a Napoleon
in exile.” What do you think of this proverb?
VOCABULARY
summer morning, beaming, kippered, marquees, potter,
evenfall, dodge, dodder, hemlock, peers, filling station, blistering, clutches,
kink, number twelve heel, flout, demeanour, confidence trick, wizened, velveteen,
pick, tenantry, ‘ahse, josser, plice, arf, sharted, ‘air-oil, todiy, stror,
rummage-sale, ballyragged, Jno., gave at the knees, squeaker, cut both ways,
rig-out, dickens, Saturnalia, goggling, vouchsafed, tough egg, curate, back-chat,
squint, tumbril, slicer, dooce, shirk, lidy, gorn, Gad, pliying, dorg, fit,
spineless, excursions