Nov 04, 2005 07:30 PM
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(Updated Nov 04, 2005 07:30 PM)
Trying to explain the comic genius of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse is like trying to explain the taste of Indian curry. Describing it will only tell you that it is a potpourri, and not much besides! It is the same with Sir P.G. Wodehouse.
He is the wittiest author that I have ever read and I recommend him to anyone looking for a funny and importantly refreshing read
Leave it to Psmith is a perfect example of his mastery of the humor genre.
If you are looking for a genuine hysterical childish laugh, make your bones and muscles ache with funny smiles - this is the book - a light, bright, sunny and unobjectionable book.
here are the stats - while reading it I laughed loudly twelve times, chuckled sixteen times, grinned thirty-two times, held my sides and rolled on the floor thrice.
Wodehouse invents a world where unique language hijacks plain English and his protagonist Psmith (pronounced ''Smith'') has a manner of speaking to everyone as if the world were made of children. Wodehouse's greatest quality is this innocence.
Leave It to Psmith is the first P.G. Wodehouse novel about Blandings Castle and its higgledy-piggledy inmates - Clarence, ninth earl of Emsworth, his strict sister, Lady Constance Keeble and Beach the butler. Clarence is obsessed with flowers and gardening rather than pigs as it seems in later books. The Empress of Blandings, the pig, is nowhere in sight.
Frankly this is not the best of the Blandings Castle series but has one of the best plots and does an effective job of the jokes twined with the character development and is remarkable for its complexity and scenes.
Psmith and Clarence are two of Wodehouse's finest creations - the central joy of this book is found in their interactions (count the three times I rolled on the floor?).
The Plot
Psmith cannot bear to be in the fish business any longer and advertises that he will do anything - even commit a crime - to get a change of pace. Clarence's son, Freddie Threepwood, contacts Psmith and asks him to help with an inside job - a family theft of his aunt's necklace. Although his uncle is rolling in the stuff, Lady Constance keeps him on a short leash. Freddie's uncle will give her another necklace like the one that's ''stolen'' and use the money to help Freddie and his uncle's step-daughter Phyllis. Freddie needs the money to attract a bride and Phyllis needs to help her new husband get a start on life.
Like the other Blandings Castle stories, the castle is full of imposters. Psmith himself is posing as a poet, but is constantly unmasked by those who choose to keep his secret for various motives.
The book has some of the funniest scenes in it that you can imagine involving flower pots and about potty people residing at Blandings Castle.
The Love Angle
Complications come when Psmith finds himself falling in love with a young woman whom he spies outside the Drones Club in the need an umbrella. The young woman is on her way to Blandings Castle as well and the plot is tightly held together without fail unlike modern novels where characters sometimes are mere props. Unfortunately Freddie has also been proposing to her, but hasn't worn her down yet.
This story sees Psmith enter into Blandings Castle, and though Lord Emsworth is not the dominant character he later becomes; flashes of brilliance are visible in his appearances.
The book is jam packed with lots of witty dialogue, readily suited to Psmith's abilities and the traditional Wodehouse farce for the plot (meaning there isn't really a one).
The ending is predictable, of course, but this is hardly the point. It is the use of language that makes this such an enjoyable tale. Wodehouse connoisseurs all have their own favourite phrases, or particular sections of books that they find as humorous from the prolific collection of Wodehouse's works.
So who will win the fair maiden? Read the book, and that doesn't matter, the prose starts you off on a nirvana land where you are forever HAPPY!
In a world congested and overflowing with books or pulp posing as books, Leave It to Psmith stands out alone and jovial.
