A Wodehouse Handbook

Author: N.T.P. Murphy
Publisher: Sybertooth Incorporated
ISBN: 9781927592007
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
In 1981, Norman Murphy caused a minor stir in literary circles when he published In Search of Blandings, which demonstrated that many of P.G. Wodehouse's legendary characters and settings were based on fact. In the two volumes of A Wodehouse Handbook, he reveals his findings across a wider field - the world that Wodehouse lived in and the sources of the many quotations and references Wodehouse used so brilliantly. In Volume 1, he tells us of Winston Churchill's first public speech; of Sam Goldwyn's typhoon that outdid Nature; how Clement Atlee made his first social protest; how the Gibson Girls kept England in suspense; of the longest golf hole ever played; and of the lady who flew the Atlantic without a map. We learn that immersion in the swimming pool (with all your clothes on) was not uncommon in a certain London club and that the home of Jeeves's Junior Ganymede is still to be found in Mayfair. The recipe for Green Swizzles is revealed at last - and a distant Wodehouse relation has provided an astonishing origin for the fabled "Buck-U-Uppo." Based on more than twenty years of searching though biographies, memoirs, obituaries and newspaper reports, Norman Murphy's discoveries encompass English and American social history from the Victorian era to the space race. He demonstrates conclusively that the world P.G. Wodehouse described was real enough. What Wodehouse did was to show the funny side of it.

A Wodehouse Handbook

Author: N.T.P. Murphy
Publisher: Sybertooth Incorporated
ISBN: 9781927592014
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
Did people really speak like Bertie Wooster? Who was the celebrated Maisie? What does a Jubilee watering trough look like? Where is Loose Chippings? What was "Just Like Mother Makes"? Where does "the exile from home splendour dazzles in vain" come from? What was a gazeka? Why was Bertie Wooster more to be pitied than censured? When did young men-about-town start saying "What"? How did Bosher Street get its name? While P.G. Wodehouse's way with words has long set a standard for literary humour, much in his writing puzzles the modern reader. Volume Two of A Wodehouse Handbook answers many of the questions that arise when reading Wodehouse - especially the constant flow of quotations and deliberate misquotations that he used so skilfully. These range from the Bible and the Greek and Latin writers he knew so well, through Geoffrey Chaucer to writers like Ogden Nash and Mickey Spillane. Often he incorporated them into his stories so cunningly that the reader sometimes does not recognise them as quotations at all. Wodehouse also made a point of being up to date. From his first book in 1902 to his last in 1975, there are topical jokes, catchphrases, advertisements of the time and extracts from popular songs which everyone recognised when the books were published. In this volume, Norman Murphy explains the many references to people, places, and events that were appreciated by contemporary readers but are often mystifying today. He also identifies for us the myriad quotations that abound in Wodehouse's books and the songs, advertisements and long-forgotten catchphrases that Wodehouse used over seventy-five years. His findings, covering an extraordinary range of language and usage, from Aristotle to Variety magazine, will be of interest to all book-lovers and add to their appreciation and enjoyment of Wodehouse's superb writing.

A Wodehouse Handbook

Author: N. T. P. Murphy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780955420900
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 468

Book Description

The Code of the Woosters

Author: P. Wodehouse
Publisher: Aegitas
ISBN: 0369401360
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Book Description
The Code of the Woosters is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. It was serialised in The Saturday Evening Post (US) from 16 July to 3 September 1938 and in the London Daily Mail from 14 September to 6 October 1938. The Code of the Woosters is the third full-length novel to feature two of Wodehouse's best-known creations, Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. It introduces Sir Watkyn Bassett, the owner of a country house called Totleigh Towers where the story takes place, and his intimidating friend Roderick Spode. It is also a sequel to Right Ho, Jeeves, continuing the story of Bertie's newt-fancying friend Gussie Fink-Nottle and Gussie's droopy and overly sentimental fiancée, Madeline Bassett. Bertie and Jeeves return to Totleigh Towers in a later novel, Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.

P.G. Wodehouse Miscellany

Author: N.T.P Murphy
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750963301
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 88

Book Description
P.G. Wodehouse saw his first article published when still at school, and went on to become the leading humour writer of the twentieth century. He created characters famous across the English-speaking world, such as Rupert Psmith, Stanley Ukridge, Uncle Fred, the inhabitants of the Drones Club, Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, and Lord Emsworth and his beloved Empress, all of whom remain as popular today as they were when they first appeared all those years ago.But behind all the brilliant metaphors that make us laugh out loud, there is a surprising background of reality. Wodehouse didn’t create his stories from scratch; he used real settings and exaggerated the characteristics of people he knew. With examples of Wodehouse’s unique imagery, the P.G. Wodehouse Miscellany follows the development and progress of his legendary characters, tells us where Wodehouse got his ideas from and demonstrates why his admirers included Bertrand Russell, Berthold Brecht, George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling and the Kaiser. This informative little miscellany will be a must for all fans of P.G. Wodehouse.

The Russian Debutante's Handbook

Author: Gary Shteyngart
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781573229883
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 500

Book Description
NAMED ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS A visionary novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story and Little Failure. The Russian Debutante's Handbook introduces Vladimir Girshkin, one of the most original and unlikely heroes of recent times. The twenty-five-year-old unhappy lover to a fat dungeon mistress, affectionately nicknamed "Little Failure" by his high-achieving mother, Vladimir toils his days away as a lowly clerk at the bureaucratic Emma Lazarus Immigrant Absorption Society. When a wealthy but psychotic old Russian war hero appears, Vladimir embarks on an adventure of unrelenting lunacy that takes us from New York's Lower East Side to the hip frontier wilderness of Prava--the Eastern European Paris of the nineties. With the help of a murderous but fun-loving Russian mafioso, Vladimir infiltrates the Prava expat community and launches a scheme as ridiculous as it is brilliant. Bursting with wit, humor, and rare insight, The Russian Debutante's Handbook is both a highly imaginative romp and a serious exploration of what it means to be an immigrant in America.

The Inimitable Jeeves

Author: P. G. Wodehouse
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
ISBN: 1789506735
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
In The Inimitable Jeeves, Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves embark on a series of riotous adventures. Among other things they involve Bertie's feeble attempts to stop his friend Bingo Little from falling in love with every girl he meets. But the amiable chump's main concern is to avoid the eagle eye and iron will of his merciless Aunt Agatha. In one of the funniest works in the English language, P. G. Wodehouse charms, delights, and occasionally surprises the reader with his shrewd parody of the carefree lives of the English elite.

The Girl in Blue

Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
ISBN: 9781590204726
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This charming novel is one of Wodehouse's best late works.

The Most Of P.G. Wodehouse

Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743203585
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 708

Book Description
This lavish collection of ever published of the incomparable stories of P.G. Wodehouse is paired with a complete and hilarious short novel.

P.G. Wodehouse

Author: Frances Donaldson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781853754241
Category : Novelists, English
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
There are not many characters in literature more famous or cherished than Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. They feature in nearly 100 tomes, which taken together, make their creator, Sir Pelham Greville Wodehouse, among the most eminent and best-loved writers of comedy in the English language. But what of the man himself? Frances Donaldson, who first met Wodehouse in 1921, was given unique access to his most important private papers. From his blissful school days and his love affair with Hollywood to his time as a prisoner of war and his final years in America, Donaldson's definitive biography paints a luminous and affectionate portrait of the man known to his friends as "Plum."