Wodehouse’s The Heart of a Goof is the second collection of Wodehouse’s humorous golf stories (the first collection is The Clicking of Cuthbert, also very funny). You don’t need to know much about golf to appreciate Wodehouse’s witty tales of golfers and their plights. I was amazed that this volume, first published in 1926, is still entertaining. Wodehouse is timeless.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
THE HEART OF A GOOF
HIGH STAKES
KEEPING IN WITH VOSPER
CHESTER FORGETS HIMSELF
THE MAGIC PLUS FOURS
THE AWAKENING OF ROLLO PODMARSH
RODNEY FAILS TO QUALIFY
JANE GETS OFF THE FAIRWAY
THE PURIFICATION OF RODNEY SPELVIN
Timsless is a perfect word to describe Wodehouse. As long as you’re willing to relac and let his silliness in you can’t go wrong. I bought the complete Jeeves & Wooster DVD set with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, but haven’t yet started watching them again.
We have that Jeeves & Wooster DVD set, too, Jeff. Another summer project…
Also “timeless”
I wonder why golfing clothes are so gaudy.
Part of the plot of one of the stories centers on the outrageous golfing clothes, Patti.
I’m still living with the J&W tape set. It’s worth noting that the writers take broad liberties with many of the stories, often adding new business – some apropos, some not – or doing mash-ups of some of the plots, e.g. transporting the Totleigh Towers gang into the Mating Season story. Still, the casting is so spot on. I can’t imagine a more perfect Bertie than Hugh Laurie; or the series’ Gussie, Madeline, Spode & Aunt Dahlia. Stephen Fry is too young for Jeeves, but otherwise excellent.
P.S.: The golf stories are even funnier if you’re a golfer, though the argot takes some getting used to. Cleeks, baffys, mashies & niblicks; and what we now call par, they called bogey.
Yes, Art, you’re right about learning the golf argot Wodehouse uses. But, golfer or not, these are funny stories.
I’ve only read a few of the Jeeves and Wooster stories, and I’m afraid they seemed pretty silly to me. I’ll have to try again with a more open mind, as I have a collection of them here somewhere, or maybe it’s just a Woodhouse collection. Or something. Sigh.
Wodehouse wrote in several modes, Rick. If you don’t like Jeeves and Bertie, try some of the others. Wodehouse is wonderful!
I fall asleep watching Golf on TV, and have never played it personally because I prefer a game where cheating is easier, but I must confess I was convulsed with laughter al the way through Wodehouse’s collection of golf stories,YOUNG MEN IN SPATS
I laughed out loud, too, Dan, while reading THE HEART OF A GOOF.
I love Wodehouse but don’t read him as often as I should, probably because I then get completely addicted and won’t read anything else – I can feel the hunger coming on again … thanks George (I think).
Wodehouse is addicting, Sergio. He wrote over 100 books so there’s plenty of pages to feed the addiction.
Silliness is the essence of Wodehouse, Rick. If you have no taste for farce, then you’d best give PGW the miss in baulk (as Plum might say); thus, alas, doing without the premier farceur in the English language.
Art’s right, Rick. You have to have a taste for silliness and the absurd to appreciate Wodehouse.