There can be no doubt that P. G. Wodehouse was one of the greatest short story writers of the 20th Century. His prose style is sharp and funny. And that is the problem: comedy is seldom taken seriously by literary critics. The great philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote that “Honeysuckle Cottage” was the funniest story he’d ever read. The hero of “Honeysuckle Cottage” is James Rodman, a writer of hard-boiled detective stories who inherits the cottage from his aunt, a gushingly prolific romantic novelist called Leila J. Pinckney. Rodman learns that the Cottage has a strange effect on his writing. Suddenly, his hard-boiled style turns to romantic drivel. No matter how hard he tries to write hard-boiled prose, all of Rodman’s writing turns to romantic mush. Of course, there are other complications of the hilarious sort. A mysterious woman plays an important part in the plot. I cannot praise Wodehouse and “Honeysuckle Cottage” enough. And if you find you love Wodehouse as much as I do, Everyman’s Library’s Best of Wodehouse should be by your bedside.
Wonderful stuff, indeed. Wodehouse can brighten any day.
Wodehouse is completely unique.
There is a wonderful dead-on (in more ways than one) parody of Wodehouse’s “Jeeves” stories called “Greaves, This Is Serious” by William Mingin. The original publication was in something called “Tales of the Unanticipated #23, 2002”. It was also in “Year’s Best Fantasy 3”, edited by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It’s very short and very funny.
I’ll look it up and let you know what I think of it.
Took me until two to get here. Glad to see this guy finally turn up.
Wodehouse turns up a lot on my reading pile.
I’ve not read Wodehouse in far too long, but I have a long shelf of his books in my upstairs closet. Time to make a way to get at them. Or — and it might be easier — maybe I’ll buy this new collection, which I didn’t know about until now. Thanks, George!
I’ve been a fan of Wodehouse for decades. He’s an original.