Well, I say! This is dashed good stuff, what?

Lots of fun and frolics can be found within these pages. ( )

This is my reminder to re-read this #Wodehouse novel. It's been more than ten years, which is both a shame and a delight, because it'll be like new to read this Prince and the pauper inspired story. ( )

Tony, raised as the next Earl of Droitwich, and Sydney Price, a barber, discover that many years ago, Mrs. Price, their nurse, switched them as babies. The family Tony grew up with try to discourage Sydney from accepting his rightful place, while Tony, who is in love with Syd's manicurist, is quite content to do the honorable thing and give up his title. Things work out well in the end for almost everyone; Violet, the daughter of an American millionaire, who wanted to marry Tony for the social status it would bring, is still single at the end of the book, but Freddie, Tony's sometimes brother, and Syd are rich and Tony gets to marry his true love. There's even a bit of social commentary about the nobility: Syd, in spite of his noble blood, was raised a man of the people and remains proudly so. SPOILER: he finally relinquishes all claims to the title when he discovers that Tony will sell the barber shop that has been in the Price family for generations and go to Kenya to grow coffee. ( )

Read 27 April 2014

Big ship ( )

If I Were You is Wodehouse's comic variation on a favourite theme of Victorian melodrama - the changeling. Did old Nannie Price really substitute her own child for the infant son of the late Lord and Lady Droitwich while they were away in India? If so, Tony Droitwich is heir, not to rolling acres and a stately pile, but to a barber's shop in London's West End. With Socialist Syd Price determined to prove himself the new earl, and Tony's haughty relations determined that he shall not, the stage is set for an amusing battle, waged by a familiar Wodehousean cast of fat butlers, tough aunts, lively American girls and drawling dandies.