Post by Wayne BrownPost by Charles BishopIn article
Post by Dianne van DulkenWhat ho,
Been a long time between drinks,but one has to come out and be
horrified with others who will understand the level of horror.
Have you lot heard of this abomination that is Sebastian Faulkes
writing a "PG Wodehouse novel". Jeeves and the Wedding Bells I
believe this foul stench will be called.
What the????
I am rarely lost for words, but this time, I am...
I share your horror. I think what happens is these writer johnnys think
"I can do better than that." and to prove it they don't and probably
can't.
I have seen pastiches where the author could probably do a good enough
job with the writing, but it's hard, as we know, to get the plots right.
The worst of PGW's plots are probably better than the best they can
imagine.
I shudder, shudder with fear. Fear and Outrage.
Charles, once Gally Threepwood
My daughter-in-law brought it home from the library the other day.
I'll probably read it after she's through with it, and I'll try to give
it a fair hearing, but my expectations are not high. The publisher's
statement about "shining a different light on" the Wodehouse characters
fills me with trepidation. The rosy glow of their original light already
is quite satisfactory.
I just finished reading "Jeeves and the Wedding Bells" this past weekend.
It was better than expected, though by no means perfect. The author said
in his introduction that he did not intend to slavishly copy the Wodehouse
style, which might easily turn into parody. Instead, he said he intended
his book to be an homage that would bring a nostalgic remembrance to
veteran Wodehouse fans, while perhaps suggesting enough of the flavor
of the originals to draw new readers on to read the master's own works.
In this I think he largely succeeded, though there were a few passages
in which I felt he may have succumbed to temptation and tried a little
too hard; in such passages he seemed to me to be trying almost to be more
Wodehousian than Wodehouse himself. For the most part, though, he showed
admirable restraint and often hit exactly the right note. I suppose the
best compliment I can give is that sometimes, for a few pages at a time,
I would forget that I was not reading the genuine article.
The book does a good job of referencing beloved Wodehouse characters
like Bingo Little, Bobby Wickham and Pauline Stoker without hitting
us over the head with them (and indeed, without them appearing in
the story except in Bertie's reminiscences). It has all the standard
furniture of a Jeeves and Wooster story: A quick escape from London
to avoid a visit from Aunt Agatha; a visit to a large country estate
with a group of people connected to one another in convoluted ways;
a damsel engaged to a man she doesn't love through economic necessity
and family loyalty; another engaged couple braving the displeasure of
a disapproving father; Bertie trying good-naturedly to repair a lovers'
quarrel and getting himself tangled up in the middle, with both parties
mistaking his innocent intentions; both Bertie and Jeeves pretending to
be people other than themselves; sporting wagers going wrong; climbing
in and out of windows, mistaking one person's room for another's, and
having to flee across rooftops; and everything coming right in the end,
thanks to a previously-undisclosed plan of Jeeves that takes into account
the flaws in Bertie's well-meaning but bumbling schemes.
The major fault I saw in the book was not a single incident but an overall
impression. It seems to me that Bertie was just a bit too clever in
this book. He always thinks himself clever, of course, though he also
recognizes the familiar Jeeves superiority in the brain department, but
here he seems a little less befuddled than we have come to expect, and
the cleverness of Jeeves does not shine quite as brightly by comparison.
Bertie seems to me to have "grown up" somewhat compared to his earlier
adventures, though ultimately he still needs Jeeves to rescue him.
There appeared to me to be a few inaccuracies and possible anachronisms
in the text. One thing I enjoyed was that the author portrays one of his
characters as an expert on "Sumerian tablets and the cuneiform script,"
which is an area of study in which I myself take a great interest.
This lady is a friend of Aunt Agatha and Bertie is continually nervous
that she might penetrate his disguise. In his narration he makes several
humorous comments related to her vocation. But there appeared to be a
couple of factual errors in this part of the story. For one, Bertie
refers to "Sumeria" rather than "Sumer," though that might have been
an intentional mistake on the part of the author to highlight Bertie's
unfamiliarity with the subject. But there is also a reference to the
"Journal of Cuneiform Studies." This is a real-world journal, a product
of the American Schools of Oriental Research, and it did not begin
publication until 1947. That seems to me to be far too late for Bertie's
milieu and thus would be an anachronism. I was under the impression
that all the Jeeves and Wooster stories took place during the Edwardian
period and I don't recall any of them reaching even so far forward as the
First World War, let alone the post-WWII era. There is, however, another
passage in this book that seems clearly to speak of one of those wars.
While driving through a lovely piece of countryside Bertie remarks to
Jeeves about how they might have "lost all of this" and they speak of the
"hostilities," which seems to indicate at least a post-WWI time-frame.
All in all, I think this is a worthwhile book, especially since the
author makes it clear up front that he is not attempting to write a
genuine Wodehouse book, but merely to give us a last look at some
beloved characters in a way that will remind us pleasantly of the
real thing. The end of the book, which I suppose is intended to "wrap
up" the Jeeves and Wooster tales, was at once both surprisingly out of
character and yet too obvious (I saw it coming a mile away); I cannot
imagine Wodehouse writing such an ending. But perhaps that is part of
the author's intention, to do something Wodehouse would not have done.
In any case, I'm glad I read it at least once, though I doubt that I
will repeat the experience as I have done with the originals.
--
F. Wayne Brown <***@bellsouth.net>
Þæs ofereode, ðisses swa mæg. ("That passed away, this also can.")
from "Deor," in the Exeter Book (folios 100r-100v)