Title : Life At Blandings
Author : P.G. Wodehouse
Category : Humour
''I believe there are two ways of writing novels. One is mine, making a sort of musical comedy without music and ignoring real life altogether; the other is going right deep down into life and not caring a damn...''
Life at Blandings is a collection of three books which take place in the ''latter-day Eden'', that is Blandings Castle in Market Blandings, in Britain.
The three stories are -
1. Something Fresh - It is the very first Blandings novel. Ashe Marson after a pep talk from his new neighbour Joan Valentine decides to give up his existence as a not very successful detective-story writer and do something more adventurous. After reading an add in a newspaper, he is now commissioned to steal back a scarab from the pathetically absent minded Lord Emsworth who had carelessly pocketed it from the collection of his future brother-in-law. The problem? Joan Valentine also aims to do the same.
During this time, The Efficient Baxter, Lord Emsworth's secretary becomes highly suspicious of Ashe's intentions and proves to be a hindrance in his aims even though Lord Emsworth couldn't care less about the scarab. In my opinion, it is not of the same quality as the other two.
2. Summer Lightening -
''A certain critic - for such men, I regret to say, do exist - made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.' He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against 'Summer Lightening.' With my superior intelligence, I have outgeneralled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.''
The Hon. Galahad Threepwood (who incidently is my favourite character) - Lord Emsworth's brother has threatened to publish his memoirs and half the beaurocracy in England are having sleepless nights. Gally knows enough about most of the rich and famous to completely humiliate them. His sister, Constance, feels that such a situation would ruin her social life as well and so getting into a conspiracy with their neighbour Sir Gregory Parsloe, they hire a detective, Mr Pilbeam, to steal the manuscript. The problem? Lord Emsworth feels that Parsloe is out to kidnap his sow, The Empress of Blandings, the only thing he ever cared about.
Meanwhile, their nephew Ronnie Fish is in love with a choir girl, Sue Brown and of course the aunts and mothers are against it. Gally supports it since he himself was in love with Sue's mother and Lord Emsworth couldn't care less even if he was aware of it. Sue, after a small misunderstanding with Ronnie, enters Blandings Castle in the guise of a Myrna Schoonmacher who was supposed to marry Ronnie, in the hopes of trying to reconcile with Ronnie. At the same time, Ronnie's old friend Hugo Carmody, who has replaced The Efficient Baxter as Lord Emsworth's secretary is also in love with Ronnie's cousin, Milicent. Ronnie and Milicent suspect Hugo having an affair with Sue, and so they do the most sensible thing and get engaged to each other. In the end, Hugo and Milicent sort out their differences, Gally comes to the recue of Sue who reconciles with Ronnie and the Empress of Blandings is kidnapped, but not by Parsloe. (That should leave you guessing ;))
3. Heavy Weather - Lord Emsworth is still worried that Parsloe may kidnap his pig. And when his sister Constance gets Parsloe's nephew Monty Bodkin as Lord Emsworth's secretary, Gally and Clarence (Lord Emsworth) feel certain. Parsloe, by the way, doesn't give a damn about the pig. Lady Julia is completely against her son Ronnie marrying an ordinary chorus girl, Sue Brown. And Ronnie's suspicious nature returns when he finds out that Monty Bodkin was once engaged to Sue. Things twist and turn as always in a P G Wodehouse novel but in the end everything works out smoothly.
My views - In my opinion, there has never been an author who could twist things around as smoothly and humorously as Wodehouse. This was the first Wodehouse book I ever read and now he's one of my favourite authors. I have now read many Wodehouse books, and though the Jeeves and Wooster stories are considered to be his best, I like the Blandings' stories equally, if not more. His stories do not have jokes in them but the way he frames his sentences and gives comparisons and the events which unfold often make me laugh. I love the way that Wodehouse weaves masses of story lines together so seamlessly. The characters in this book are nowhere in the class of Bertram Wooster, one of the finest characters ever created but on an average, this book has many colourful characters. Nevertheless, anyone who can create and give life to a character like Gally Threepwood is a fine author by my standards.
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