Reflections on the Fourth Week of Winter - Lord Emsworth and Others

 

Lord Emsworth and Others

Lord Emsworth and Others is a collection of nine stories by P. G. Wodehouse. The first and my favorite, “The Crime Wave at Blandings,” is novella length. The others run twenty-five pages or longer.

Wodehouse spins his tales in a slow, methodical pace with delightful language. He takes ordinary situations—Lord Emsworth cowering to his domineering sister Lady Constance over his secretary, his niece’s fiance, and his grandson’s air rifle—then twists the situations with one humorous shot in the secretary’s butt after another.

Wodehouse also puts the twist on the homely, short guy pining for the beautiful woman who attracts all men in the story, “There’s Always Golf.” Clarice Fitch wants a man who would show his love through violence. Ernest Plinlimmon accidentally hits her with a line drive, whacks her shin with a club he threw away, and punches her in the eye. She adores him.

Quiet. Funny. Amazing.

Wodehouse is a master with words.