Reading the 20th Century discussion

Welcome to our May 2024 buddy read of....




Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939)
(Blandings Castle #6) (Uncle Fred #1)

by

P.G. Wodehouse


All are welcome

Feel free to add comments at any time

I'm loving the way these books are spiralling out so that at some point after Blandings we'll have the pleasures of Uncle Fred and Monty Bodkin to enjoy. I really have fallen in love with PGW 💜

Hurrah 🙌🏻

I've just got the audio for this which was wait listed at the library so will start on tomorrow's commute. PGW audios are always fun but I feel that I don't get to appreciate the language in the same way as the written page so will probably swap between them.

Of the various videos I have seen I cannot esp recommend Wodehouse Playhouse. Not terrible, but not that great. Mostly they they are about the Bodkins. I do not remember if The Empress makes so much as a token appearance.

However if you have not seen any of the Jeeves and Wooster TV shows staring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie Please seek them out. Those two are playing roles that are all but custom fit.

I’m going in


I ❤️ PGW

Roman Clodia wrote: "I've just got the audio for this which was wait listed at the library so will start on tomorrow's commute. PGW audios are always fun but I feel that I don't get to appreciate the language in the sa..."

I also think the books offer more. I have listened to this on audio with Jonathan Cecil narrating, and I felt he struggled with the female voices. To me Polly is light and bubbly, and I felt he made her a bit flat.

I’m listening to J Cecil


I know what you mean. Listening to and reading PHW are subtly different experiences. Both are delightful though.

I’m now recalling this book. It really is a corker

Sir Roderick Glossop is always great value - glad to see him entering the fray

I'm glad to have this crazy-at-work week behind me where I've had practically no reading time for the last few days - PGW and the sanctuary of Blandings is just what I need.

I’m in the Drones with the Clothes Stakes


Most amusing

Amazed to hear the phrase “a wolf of Wall Street”


Who knew it was so old

Oh cool! And I love the Drones and their crazy wagers as mentioned by Bertie.

This is adorable! I love how PGW strikes the perfect balance between the comfort of repetition of tropes while making each story feel somewhat new. The new characters introduced here are immediately enticing and I can't wait to meet Uncle Fred, 'loopy to his tonsils'.

It feels like the writing has taken another step up: on extremely tall Horace Davenport: 'a chap of that length didn't really get on to what his feet were doing till some minutes after it had happened. What you wanted, of course, was to slice him in half and have two Horaces.' 😂

As I recall this one is solid gold

I’m certainly loving it so far and I’m still very much in the set up

I feel it’s time to revive “potty” and the scathing insult “a blister”

Haha, I had to meet the Tory MP Tim Loughton on Thursday night (Brexiteer, voted against same sex marriage, believes his religion gives him the right to castigate women who choose not to be mothers, tried to get his water bills paid for on expenses...) - definitely both religiously potty and a blister.

"Mustard" Pott - bitten by both a pig and a lamb 😂

The game's afoot...


Uncle Fred, Pongo, and Sally off to Blandings

Uncle Fred is so ridiculously resourceful and confident - a very enjoyable character

Ooh, I Iove the idea of Ricky's onion soup bar at Piccadilly Circus - does this mean French onion soup, do we think? Just the thing after a night on the cocktails.

I know this is my modern sensibility but isn't adorable Uncle Fred just a little bit creepy over Polly?

"You've no notion what a pretty, charming girl you are, Polly. When you came in just now, I was stunned. I would have given you anything, even unto half my kingdom."

And he puts his arm around her waist and kisses her 'tenderly'. And comments on her legs.

I'm going to try to wipe this scene from my mind 😖

Ah, Sir Roderick Glossop and Rupert Baxter are on their way to Blandings too. The plot is even more head-spinning than usual... and I'm loving every second of it!

Yes I noticed the low level harrasment from Uncle F - no hint that it might be unwelcome or uncomforable for Polly


There's also an assumption throughout that all married men are inhibited by their domineering wives who are consistently depicted as bossy

Still putting those anachronistic issues aside it is a lot of fun. I'm loving it and chuckling along

Roman Clodia wrote:


"Ah, Sir Roderick Glossop and Rupert Baxter are on their way to Blandings too. The plot is even more head-spinning than usual... and I'm loving every second of it!"

This must be one of PGW's most ambitious plots. It gets even more so as it progresses

Nigeyb wrote: "This must be one of PGW's most ambitious plots. It gets even more so as it progresses"

I'm so glad we're reading these in order so we can appreciate the growing confidence with which he manipulates these dazzling plots... wheels within wheels as Monty Bodkin would say!

I have just started listening to this, encouraged by how much everyone is enjoying it!

I think the many plot developments work because PGW has created a quick witted character in Uncle Fred. Uncle Fred has an answer to everything, and the charisma to carry his accomplices with him.

I'm closing in on the ending


It's a pip and a dandy

No moments that made me cry with laughter but plenty of mirthsome moments

I was hoping for another Baxter set piece along the lines of the flower pot throwing incident but, with not long to go, it's looking as though The Efficient Baxter is more of a tangential figure in this one

This may be heresy, but I think I prefer the chaos of Gally to the quick-wittedness of Uncle Fred.

I agree, Nigey, Baxter hasn't been used as effectively since the flowerpots and the scarab beetle - which is a shame as he has so much straitlaced potential.

Love the incident in the Drones.

‘Who was the chap who was.such a devil with the other sex? … Donald something.”

I agree, RC, Gally remains my favourite.

SueLucie wrote: "Love the incident in the Drones.

‘Who was the chap who was.such a devil with the other sex? … Donald something."

Donald Duck? Oh, Don Juan! 😂

The final set piece is proving most enjoyable - nearly finished


It seems we're going out on a high

Finished


I really enjoyed the finale

A solid four stars, possibly five

Mulling

It had to be five stars




Spoiler free review....


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

5/5

I'm almost at 70% and I'm thinking 4-stars at the moment. The plotting is fabulous and I love the potty Earl but I miss the adorable characters of the lovers from the other books: Polly's not had much page space so far though Ricky Gilpin is quite a departure from the usual type.

Is anyone else surprised that Horace Davenport is training to be a lawyer? And that Lady Constance and the Efficient Baxter are so close?

Roman Clodia wrote: "Is anyone else surprised that Horace Davenport is training to be a lawyer?."

It's Pongo who is reading for the Bar - Horace is learning to dance (and although I'm not far in yet, I didn't see anything to suggest Horace too is studying law of any kind).

Lady C and Baxter have always been soul mates


Horace D is slightly different from the usual air headed males we find in PGW novels, but the lack thereof is more than made up for by Lord Bosham who really comes into his own in the latter stages of the story

This is notably different in many ways, with the romantic entanglements very much secondary to Uncle Fred's machinations however I love the other characters, most notably....

Lord Bosham, Claude "Mustard" Pott, the splendidly cantakerous Duke of Dunstable, and Ricky Gilpin

Lady Constance and Clarence are always a delight

I am joining you, my first Wodehouse. I've just read the episode when Sir Roderick Glossop shows up on the train, leaving Polly (aka Gwendoline) and Pongo (aka Basil) in a gasp for air while Uncle Fred's jolly spirit is completely unfazed. I haven't laughed out loud this much in a very long time. So glad I caught up with your reading schedule.

Ah yes, sorry, of course it's Pongo at the Bar. Interesting to see who has to work for a living and who has inherited a fortune.

Bosham is indeed delightfully slow on the uptake, Dunstable is plain potty, and Ricky feels like he's wandered in from a different world. I always love Roderick Glossop whom we know from Bertie Wooster 's encounters.

I'm dying to tell someone I'm going on a toot!

Just getting started. Must admit that I wouldn’t mind if someone pushes Aleric down a well.

The way Uncle Fred controls the plot makes me think he's a kind of meta version of the author manipulating the story and glorying in making it up as he goes.

I've finished. Have to say it's not my favourite Blandings but I think that's just because the others have been so splendid. Polly's little more than a name on the page and Baxter and Lord Em feel a bit underused. I hope we see more of Bosham.

Glossop has just been remembered as “Pimples” and Uncle Fred has devised his plan of deception and impersonation. Wonderful!

I can see how someone familiar with the Blandings series might wish there had been a greater presence of their characters, but for someone like me who never read Wodehouse, Uncle Fred is a hilarious and delightful discovery. I am glad to have met him and that he is featured in 2-3 other novels. I'd surely love to read them too.

Just finished and I have to say that I love the way Wodehouse manages to lure characters into the mix, sometimes across series and even when their story seemed concluded (ie. fired or off to live in America, etc.)

I'm a big Uncle Fred fan and have loved all his novels - you're in for a treat Vesna


So guessing there's an appetite to continue with Blandings next month?

They're so quick and easy after all, and a real pick me up.

Vesna wrote: "I can see how someone familiar with the Blandings series might wish there had been a greater presence of their characters, but for someone like me who never read Wodehouse..."

I'm splitting hairs here as I genuinely believe Wodehouse to be a comic genius. I just didn't have quite such a big grin on my face with this one as some in the past. But delighted you have discovered him, Vesna - the sunny uplands of Blandings are a delight.

Nigeyb wrote: "So guessing there's an appetite to continue with Blandings next month?"

Oh yes!

Btw, do you know why the Drones are called 'beans' and 'crumpets'?

Good question! Blister speaks for itself but not so much Crumpet.

I think one of my favourite moments in this one is when the Empress wanders out of the bathroom frothing gently at the mouth because, inexplicably, there's been no food available and so she's eaten the bar of soap 😂

Roman Clodia wrote: "Nigeyb wrote: "So guessing there's an appetite to continue with Blandings next month?"

Oh yes!"

The next one is Full Moon:

When the moon is full at Blandings, strange things happen: among them the commissioning of a portrait of The Empress, twice in succession winner in the Fat Pigs Class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. What better choice of artist, in Lord Emsworth's opinion, than Landseer. The renowned painter of The Stag at Bay may have been dead for decades, but that doesn't prevent Galahad Threepwood from introducing him to the castle - or rather introducing Bill Lister, Gally's godson, so desperately in love with Prudence that he's determined to enter Blandings in yet another imposture. Add a gaggle of fearsome aunts, uncles and millionaires, mix in Freddie Threepwood, Beach the Butler and the gardener McAllister, and the moon is full indeed.