Trapped in rural Steeple Bumpleigh, a man less stalwart than Bertie Wooster would probably give way at the knees, for among those present were Florence Craye, to whom Bertie had once been engaged; her new fiancé "Stilton" Cheesewright, who sees Bertie as a snake in the grass; and that biggest blot on the landscape, Edwin the Boy Scout, who is busy doing acts of kindness out of sheer malevolence. All of Bertie's forebodings are fully justified, for in his efforts to oil the wheels of commerce, promote the course of true love, and avoid the consequences of a vendetta, he becomes the prey of all and sundry. In fact, only Jeeves can save him.… (más)
In his latest novel "Cinema", German star author Daniel Kehlmann lets an English movie critic by the name of Rupert Wooster appear. As the only international attendee of a movie premiere in Salzburg in 1942 - right in the middle of World War II - Wooster engages in an English conversation that is a wonderful mix of eloquence and humour on the Wooster side, and misunderstandings due to broken English on the German guests' side. As this was one of the funniest literary chapters I've read in a long time, I wondered whether there was a real counterpart to Rupert Wooster. And of course there was! Even though I knew nothing about P. G. Wodehouse and his humouristic Wooster-Jeeves novels (I am German and P. G. Wodehouse isn't exactly famous among German readers in the 2020's), it wasn't very difficult to find out about Wodehouse's internment in Berlin and about Kehlmanns's ingenious idea to let Wodehouse appear as a relative of one of his main protagonists Bertie Wooster, only to have a conversation that is very much like a conversation in a Wodehouse novel. Curious to find out more about Wodehouse and his literature, I decided to read "Joy in the morning", the book that made it into a top-100 list of English novels in the Guardian. This proved to be an excellent choice. Although I must admit that Wodehouse is a bit of a vocabulary and verbal phrase challenge to a non-native speaker, it certainly is also great joy to read. While I am not sure whether this book is an appropriate trainer for everyday conversation, I think it is the best compilation of English humour based on play on words that I have ever read. The plot reminds of a theatre comedy, as it develops around conversations among people that all know each other and have clear roles assigned to them. In the end, butler Jeeves solves it all. I am very thankful to Daniel Kehlmann for having directed my attention to P. G. Wodehouse. Indeed, it is "Joy in the morning" that Wodehouse began before and finished shortly after his internment in Nazi Germany. This book is the perfect link to Kehlmann's tribute to P. G. Wodhouse's humour in "Cinema", and it is a wonderful "getting to know the original Wodehouse humour" experience. ( )
The fourth Jeeves and Wooster novel, Joy in the Morning was written by Wodehouse during the long, dark experience of World War II, during which the author was interned by the Germans and subsequently treated like an honoured guest, treatment which saw him exiled from England for the remainder of his life. This novel is unabashed escapism, and also one of the highlights of the series. ( )
A solid Jeeves & Wooster romp—would be four stars, but I'll knock off a star for a bit of casual racism. This one's bright and fluffy, filled with fancy dress balls and romantic hijinks in the countryside, and it all ties up nicely in the end. ( )
After the thing was all over, when peril had ceased to loom and happy endings had been distributed in heaping handfuls and we were driving home with our hats on the side of our heads, having shaken the dust of Steeple Bumpleigh from our tyres, I confessed to Jeeves that there had been moments during the recent proceedings when Bertram Wooster, though no weakling, had come very near to despair.
[Jeeves:] '....Her ladyship wishes you to convey it to its destination personally, realizing that, should she entrust it to the ordinary channels, the gift will be delayed in its arrival beyond the essential date.' [Bertie:] 'You mean if she posts it, it won't get there in time?' [Jeeves:] 'Precisely, sir.' [p. 37]
'Edwin did that. There's a lad, Jeeves. There's a boy who makes you feel that what this country wants is somebody like King Herod.'
Trapped in rural Steeple Bumpleigh, a man less stalwart than Bertie Wooster would probably give way at the knees, for among those present were Florence Craye, to whom Bertie had once been engaged; her new fiancé "Stilton" Cheesewright, who sees Bertie as a snake in the grass; and that biggest blot on the landscape, Edwin the Boy Scout, who is busy doing acts of kindness out of sheer malevolence. All of Bertie's forebodings are fully justified, for in his efforts to oil the wheels of commerce, promote the course of true love, and avoid the consequences of a vendetta, he becomes the prey of all and sundry. In fact, only Jeeves can save him.
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Curious to find out more about Wodehouse and his literature, I decided to read "Joy in the morning", the book that made it into a top-100 list of English novels in the Guardian. This proved to be an excellent choice. Although I must admit that Wodehouse is a bit of a vocabulary and verbal phrase challenge to a non-native speaker, it certainly is also great joy to read. While I am not sure whether this book is an appropriate trainer for everyday conversation, I think it is the best compilation of English humour based on play on words that I have ever read. The plot reminds of a theatre comedy, as it develops around conversations among people that all know each other and have clear roles assigned to them. In the end, butler Jeeves solves it all. I am very thankful to Daniel Kehlmann for having directed my attention to P. G. Wodehouse. Indeed, it is "Joy in the morning" that Wodehouse began before and finished shortly after his internment in Nazi Germany. This book is the perfect link to Kehlmann's tribute to P. G. Wodhouse's humour in "Cinema", and it is a wonderful "getting to know the original Wodehouse humour" experience. (