Reading the 20th Century discussion

Welcome to our August 2023 buddy read of...



Leave It to Psmith

by

P.G. Wodehouse


Please feel free to comment at any time


Ronald Psmith (“the ‘p’ is silent, as in pshrimp”) is always willing to help a damsel in distress. So when he sees Eve Halliday without an umbrella during a downpour, he nobly offers her an umbrella, even though it’s one he picks out of the Drone Club’s umbrella rack. Psmith is so besotted with Eve that, when Lord Emsworth, her new boss, mistakes him for Ralston McTodd, a poet, Psmith pretends to be him so he can make his way to Blandings Castle and woo her. And so the farce begins: criminals disguised as poets with a plan to steal a priceless diamond necklace, a secretary who throws flower pots through windows, and a nighttime heist that ends in gunplay. How will everything be sorted out? Leave it to Psmith!

I've just started this, one of our August buddy reads, a little early. I have read it before but not for many years. If my memory is accurate there is much hilarity in store.

In the opening chapters we become acquainted with some recurring characters: the amiable and absent-minded Lord Emsworth, his imposing and bossy sister Lady Constance Keeble, and the efficient Baxter, Lord Emsworth's annoyingly efficient secretary.

It's the story around the efficient Baxter that caused me most mirth last time I read this novel, or so I seem to recall.

Looking forward to this one Nigey, and loved your thoughts on the Trollope, one of the few I've read and agreee it's a great story.

Thanks Alwynne


I’ll doubtless race through this one. Wodehouse is like catnip to me. I’m also a big Psmith fan

A quarter of the way through and still very much in the set up section of the book.


Always a joy to be in the company of Psmith though.

Interestingly in this early Blandings book Lord Emsworth is not yet pig obsessed but instead consumed by his garden

Herbert the Turbot 😂


A poem for the Fishmonger's Gazette that sadly was never written 😂

Nigeyb wrote: "Herbert the Turbot 😂"

Sounds hilarious! I'm a Blandings newbie so looking forward to this.

It certainly tickled me


Things picking up nicely now the action is poised to return to Blandings after a day in London

Halfway through now and have laughed out loud on a couple of occasions.


The scene on the lake is particularly mirth inducing

Psmith versus the efficient Baxter is also rich with comic possibilities

Am slowly listening to it, and agree with the laughter. Loved Psmith having to wear a chrysanthemum.

Great news that you are also enjoying it Sonia

There’s one section that makes me really laugh. Needless to say it features the efficient Baxter. I recall it from the first time I read this, and it still has the same effect second time round

I should finish this today. It's a joy from start to finish. But no great surprise there.

Roman Clodia wrote:


"I'm a Blandings newbie so looking forward to this."

Here's hoping you find the same joy I do

I love the Blandings books ❤️‍🔥

I've finished 🤠


A joy of course, and every bit as good as I had remembered from my first read c2010

Review here...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

4/5


I can't wait to discover what the rest of you make of this book

I know this was my first Wodehouse, recommended by my father, and I probably read it in about 1960. (that's a bit before Nigeyb). But I can't remember much about it - so many other books since then!

I did enjoy it. Does Psmith appear in any of the other Blandings books? The Psmith series seems to end with this one.

The Psmith book does end with this one but the Blandings books continue. There are also previous Psmith books too, as you probably already know

Im only far enough along to contribute these words… umbrella… chrysanthemum. :)

Nigeyb wrote: "The Psmith book does end with this one but the Blandings books continue. There are also previous Psmith books too, as you probably already know"

There doesn't seem to be an easy time-line for the Blandings books, looking at the summaries. (view spoiler)[The Empress appears, but Baxter still seems to be the Earl's secretary - (hide spoiler)]I had hoped that Psmith would reappear in some of them.

Rosina wrote:


"There doesn't seem to be an easy time-line for the Blandings books, looking at the summaries. I had hoped that Psmith would reappear in some of them"

All very true Rosina, it is a little incoherent

The Wikipedia page bears this out...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psmith

I was intrigued to learn that Psmith was portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis in the BBC television film Thank You, P. G. Wodehouse (aired on 16 October 1981).



Renee wrote:

"Im only far enough along to contribute these words… umbrella… chrysanthemum. :)"

Makes me chuckle to think about both

It makes it sound almost Japanese ...

Halfway through my first PGW. Delightful and very entertaining.

Finished. Entertaining light relief, but I did find a few of the caricatures of character a
bit annoying and low lying fruit.

I've found my copy so plan to make a start at the weekend.

I started it on the commute yesterday - just adorable! And couldn't be more different from The Godfather which some of us are discussing on another thread. It's my first visit to Blandings.

Wodehouse is masterful at keeping all the strands of this farce together... And I'm sure there is more confusion and misunderstanding to come 😄

We have lift off ❤️‍🔥

Haha, Miss Peavey! What a turnaround. I fell for it because of those drippy, dreamy girls in Jeeves.

Psmith is himself interesting as he has some of the verbal mannerisms of Bertie Wooster but the cool dignity and cleverness of Jeeves.

And poor Freddie and the leg through the ceiling :))

Miss Peavey is great - and whoda thought it huh?

Wodehouse pulls it all off immaculately - such a sunshiny book :))

It is indeed - so glad it worked for you

I'm so looking forward to this, I think I read the Psmith series in my teens, my local library had omnibus editions of Wodehouse but don't remember them in any detail. I've reread Jeeves and Mulliner more than once but don't think I've ever reread these. Now desperate to find out what's up with Miss Peavey!

Ah, if you can't remember then we shouldn't spoilt anything for you - we'll wait for you to finish.

Anyone else think there's an ancestral line from Wodehouse to Pym?

Roman Clodia wrote: "Ah, if you can't remember then we shouldn't spoilt anything for you - we'll wait for you to finish.

Anyone else think there's an ancestral line from Wodehouse to Pym?"

I remember liking it, and I don't mind spoilers so don't hold back! And yes there's a definite affinity.

There's a dash of E. F. Benson in Pym too, the machinations of small communities.

And you could barely squeeze another machination into this book!

We'll hold off as Miss Peavey is sublime :))

I've caved and made a start, feeling very sorry for Emsworth having poets foisted on him, left, right and centre. McTodd sounds familiar for some reason, is there a similar character in Jeeves & Wooster?

Pretty sure McTodd doesn’t appear I’m other books 🤔


But then whilst I’ve read a good many by PGW I doubt I’ve read even half of his entire output

The details in this one are marvellous, love the idea of artists covering their eyes as they hurry past streets of red-brick villas - the section where Psmith is introduced.

Ha, yes - and it's interesting that we see those young women in the first part.

It's all shaping up nicely, love the convoluted interconnections between characters, and on familiar territory now with the Drones Club.

I was half expecting Bertie Wooster to be lunching across the room at the Drones.

Me too! Love the plotting - reminds me of a screwball comedy - seems effortless and rattles along but actually incredibly skilful. I'm at the point where Psmith is telling Lord Emsworth why he could never pen a poem about 'Herbert the Turbot' just wonderful.

Do we know what happened to Emsworth's wife by the way? I was looking at a list of characters in the series and there are a few marked as deceased but no sign of a wife.

I agree with the pacing of the plot and really admired the skill required. I also thought some of the dialogue was stunning.

Stephen wrote: "I agree with the pacing of the plot and really admired the skill required. I also thought some of the dialogue was stunning."

Definitely, I've been laughing loud enough to make the neighbours worry! I very rarely enjoy comic novels, and tend to avoid them, but Wodehouse is one of the rare exceptions.

Also wondering if I can find a way to work 'persiflage' into a sentence. What a glorious word.

Roman Clodia wrote: "I was half expecting Bertie Wooster to be lunching across the room at the Drones."

Wondering too about cross-overs, as in Pym, the Drones seems to be one of the constants, appears here, in Jeeves and Wooster stories, and crops up in Mulliner's tales too.

And finally, do we know if Raymond Chandler liked Wodehouse? Something about the use of similes here reminds me of Chandler's style.

Edit: answered my own question, remembered they went to the same school but at different times, so looks as if their similarities might relate to the teaching there?

Found an article quite confirmed my suspicions/recollections, ages since I've read Chandler

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8784096.stm

Alwynne wrote: "Me too! Love the plotting - reminds me of a screwball comedy - seems effortless and rattles along but actually incredibly skilful."

That's what struck me too - it reminded me of those theatrical farces where everything depends on split-second movements, entrances and exits. One misstep and the whole edifice of absurdity would collapse. The way Wodehouse controls it all is mightily impressive.

Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "Me too! Love the plotting - reminds me of a screwball comedy - seems effortless and rattles along but actually incredibly skilful."

That's what struck me too - it reminded me of th..."

Absolutely, I keep thinking of films like 'Bringing Up Baby' or Mitchell Leisen's 'Easy Living' which hinges on a fur coat being thrown out of a window and landing on a woman looking for a job, and then spirals out from there into bizarre coincidence and mistaken identities. All very absurd but somehow plausible, and of course Wodehouse writing well before the era of the screwball comedy. It makes sense that he might have been influenced by the kind of farce you mentioned.

Edit: this is sending me down various rabbit holes, looked up 'Easy Living' to confirm the director and found that it was based on a story by Vera Caspary who's best known for her crime novel Laura also filmed. So maybe the links between a certain kind of comedy and crime fiction in the 20s and 30s were tighter than I'd imagined. Looked at from one perspective, this is shaping up to be a weird variation on a crime novel.

My heart soars for all the love and appreciation expressed above for this sparkling comedic novel


All hail PGW's genius 🙌🏻