Item — HN Reader

Yes but then read the books. Wodehouse was a supreme prose writer. Carve up those words, as must happen in adaptations, and you lose an immense amount of the fun. Just try it if you don't believe me. Joy in the Morning is one of my favourites.

The amazing thing about Wodehouse is that his stories came almost entirely out of his head and secondhand sources. By no means did he lead the kind of life described in his peerless stories.

4 comments

But please don't read "Ring for Jeeves" as your first Wodehouse book. I don't know what happened to that one, but it's several notches below the rest, IMO.

I'll vote for 'Psmith in the City', 'Joy in the Morning' and 'The Code of the Woosters'. Also there is the somewhat obscure 'Laughing Gas'.

It's interesting that you say "notches below the rest." That literally may have been true, given that Wodehouse measured how many times he'd revised a page by pasting it higher and higher on his study wall (or some wall somewhere, don't remember exactly what I read). Pages started at the bottom near the floor. A page was ready to release when it had attained a certain height.

Agree with everything above; Wodehouse's skillful use of words is most of the fun in Jeeves. A screen adaptation is bound to come out inferior.

The aversion to aunts may have been autobiographical.

I think the main thing about the current Blandings adaptation on UK tv is it might encourage more people to read the books...