What ho! 

Welcome to the thread that is all things P.G. Wodehouse! (pronounced "WOOD house"--but known as "Plum" to all of his friends)

I had started this thread several months ago, but it got deleted for some reason.  I assume because it was inactive for over a month.  My fault.  I won't let it happen again.

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (October 15, 1881 – February 14, 1975) was an English comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success for more than seventy years. Wodehouse was an acknowledged master of English prose.  He is best known for the Jeeves and Wooster and Blandings Castle novels and short stories.  He once said of his own writing, "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..." 

Anyhow, my purpose for this thread is to introduce Wodehouse's wonderfull world of farce to other PBS members who may never have heard of him before.  It's impossible to have a bad day if you've read a little Wodehouse.  If the following qoute I took randomly from The Code of the Woosters doesn't bring a smile to your face than there's no hope for you.

"Why did you come? Oh, I know what you are going to say. You felt
that, cost what it might, you had to see me again, just once. You could
not resist the urge to take away with you one last memory, which you could
cherish down the lonely years. Oh, Bertie, you remind me of Rudel."

The name was new to me.

"Rudel?"

"The Seigneur Geoffrey Rudel, Prince of Blay-en-Saintonge."

I shook my head.

"Never met him, I'm afraid. Pal of yours?"

"He lived in the Middle ages. He was a great poet. And he fell in love
with the wife of the Lord of Tripoli."

I stirred uneasily. I hoped she was going to keep it clean.

"For years he loved her, and at last could resist no longer. He took
ship to Tripoli, and his servants carried him ashore."

"Not feeling so good?" I said, groping. "Rough crossing?"

"He was dying. Of love."

"Oh, ah."

"They bore him into the Lady Melisande's presence on a litter, and he
had just strength enough to reach out and touch her hand. Then he died."

She paused, and heaved a sigh that seemed to come straight up from the
cami-knickers.  A silence ensued.

"Terrific", I said, feeling that I had to say something, though
personally I didn't think the story a patch on the one about the
travelling salesman and the farmer's daughter. Different, of course, if
one had known the chap.

I intend to post a list of all the Jeeves and Wooster books and the Blandings Castle books in their proper order. 

**Why the DRONES CLUB, you might ask.  Well, the Drones Club is the fictional gentlemen's club located in London, that is the common link between all of Wodehouse's series.  The Drones Club is aptly named because a drone is a male bee that does no work, living off the labour of others, which describes the rich, idle young club members.

I was raised on PGW and still have many of the books.  Only wish I qualified as a real drone - not to work and be able to read all day...!

I've read many of these aloud to my sons, now teenagers, and have listen to them on tape during car trips.  I feel these have been wonderfully successful in warning them of the dangers of dating for years!!!  They do not want to get tied up with any Honoria Glossups.  And who doesn't have an old comfortable book one reads for relaxation such as Whiffle's On the Care of the Pig? 

Tootle-pip!

LIST OF BLANDINGS CASTLE BOOKS

NOVELS

Something Fresh (1915, aka Something New)

Leave It to Psmith (1923)

Summer Lightning (1929, aka Fish Preferred)

Heavy Weather (1933)

Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939)

Full Moon (1947)

Uncle Dynamite (1948)

Pigs Have Wings (1952)

Cocktail Time (1958)

Service with a Smile (1962)

Galahad at Blandings (1965, aka The Brinksmanship of Galahad Threepwood)

A Pelican at Blandings (1969, aka No Nudes is Good Nudes)

Sunset at Blandings (1977, posthumous, never completed)

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

Blandings Castle (1935, aka Blandings Castle and Elsewhere)
Contains six Blandings stories:
The Custody of the Pumpkin,
Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best,
Pig-Hoo-o-o-o-ey!,
Company for Gertrude,
Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend,
The Go-Getter

Lord Emsworth and Others (1937, aka The Crime Wave at Blandings)
Contains one Blandings story:
The Crime Wave at Blandings

Nothing Serious (1950) * Unable to find a copy in PBS database
Containes one Blandings story:
Birth of a Salesman

Plum Pie (1966) * Reprint scheduled to be released later this year Contains one Blandings story:
Sticky Wicket at Blandings

Ahhhh.. P. G. Wodehouse fans! I had almost given up hope of finding anyone on PBS who likes his books. I am delighted to be here. :) Thanks Mark. Also, thanks for the list of Blandings Castle books. Is the Jeeves series next? And are you going to cover the non-series books? What about the golf series? Sorry if I seem to be gushing but i simply ADORE P. G. Wodehouse books!

Linda - I second your wish. If only one was able to spend one's time doing nothing else but read... my definition of heaven! :)

Nita

What Ho, Nita! 

And a VERY belated "what ho!" to Linda and Adrianne.  <=)

Yes, the Jeeves and Wooster series is next.  I'm trying to spread it out over time, so check back in a couple weeks.

I'll do my best to round up the golf and non-series books as well.  Plus I have some fun Wodehouse related internet finds to share with everyone. 

Stay tuned...

What Ho!  I'm back.

I will have the Jeeves and Wooster series soon. 

Until then, I have found a treat that should curb your Jeeves and Wooster appettite.  Someone by the handle of LaurieFan109 over at YouTube has posted all four seasons of the television series, Jeeves and Wooster, of course.  I invite you to check it out.  Hugh Laurie (aka Dr. House) plays Bertie Wooster and his real life best friend, Stephen Fry, plays Bertie's inimitable valet Jeeves.  IMO Fry and Laurie were made to play these parts, so much so that everytime I read a J&W story now it's their voices I hear in my head for their respective characters.

Start here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph4GQeJyyjw

More to come...

list will be posted soon.

We have watched the four seasons of J & W so many time that we can almost re-enact them a la Rocky Horror style.  Season three had some very clever writing in order to work bits from many different stories into the plot, resolving them satisfactorily by the end of the episode.  When my sons were 15 and 12, they dressed up as J & W for Halloween.  They were thrilled that some adults upon opening their front door actually said, "Why, it's Bertie Wooster and Jeeves!"  Goodwill stores provided all the attire.

Now, to find all those Blandings Castle books we've missed....

LIST OF JEEVES AND WOOSTER BOOKS

NOVELS

Thank You, Jeeves (1934)

Right Ho, Jeeves (1934, aka Brinkley Manor)

The Code of the Woosters (1938)

Jeeves in the Morning (1947, aka Joy in the Morning)

The Mating Season (1949)

The Return of Jeeves (1953, aka Ring for Jeeves)

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (1954, aka Bertie Wooster Sees It Through)

How Right You Are, Jeeves (1960, aka Jeeves in the Offing)

Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves (1963)

Jeeves and the Tie that Binds (1971, aka Much Obliged, Jeeves)

The Cat-Nappers (1974, aka Aunts Aren't Gentlemen)

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

The Inimitable Jeeves (1923, aka Jeeves)

Carry On, Jeeves (1925)

Very Good, Jeeves (1930)

For those who like online role playing games: here's one based on Wodehouse's writings.  Haven't tried it myself, but I thought it was a cool idea.

http://www.granta.demon.co.uk/drones/

Updated the Jeeves and Wooster list with links (see two posts above). 

Happy wishlisting!   ;)

Hmm...a friend was looking for a new system to play with for a summer RPG session. I've forwarded the link--thanks! 

(If I can't be a drone in real life, maybe I can play one in the summer. :))

Bump

Just to keep the thread alive, and buy me time to find my lost Wodehouse web stuff     :P

Nothing to add except that Wodehouse is one of my favorite authors.

 And if that doesn't leave me without a stain on my conscience, then I don't know what it doesn't leave me without a stain on...