// Index
Sunlit Perfection
On my return from Malta I paused for a moment in the airport bookshop where I was killing time and found myself taking down a slim volume that had caught my eye. The last time I had a yen for finding the works of this particular author it had been impossible, but there was a whole host of freshly printed, newly re-issued copies staring right at me. So I bought one.
I have now joined the illustrious ranks of Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Douglas Adams and Ben Elton amongst others in being utterly addicted (well, okay, it’s probably just the live ones who still are) to the works of P.G. Wodehouse.
Admittedly I’m only ploughing my way through the Jeeves and Wooster novels at the moment (coindientally ITV3 – Independent Television’s “When We Were Good” channel – is showing the Fry and Laurie adaptations too) but they are frankly the written equivalent of spun gold. Wodehouse is one of the finest writers ever to put pen – or inked metal – to paper. A wordsmith who manages to be both staggeringly clever, uproarisouly funny and yet completely aposite with his every choice.
His genius should not be understated.
Any man who can come up with lines like the following should be universally adored.
- Many a man may look respectable, and yet be able to hide at will behind a spiral staircase.
- It isn’t often that Aunt Dahlia lets her angry passions rise, but when she does, strong men climb trees and pull them up after them.
- He caught the eye and arrested it. It was as if Nature had intended to make a gorilla and had changed its mind at the last moment.
- It was one of the dullest speeches I ever heard. The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.
- Before my eyes he wilted like a wet sock.
- I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢d always thought her half-baked, but now I think they didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t even put her in the oven.
And so on and so on. The pages are full of them!
I think, though, one of the things that endears me to Bertie Wooster though is his victimisation at the hands of his aunts. They always seem to be pushing or dragging him into some ill-advised venture that even his limited common sense warns him against, but finds them unstoppable.
And I kind of know how he feels.
Anyway. Buy one. Or more. You won’t regret it.
Posted on November 16, 2008 | Filed Under Reading and Writing
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