The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories
P.G. Wodehouse
Penguin Books. First published 1917
A set of twelve unremarkable, but pleasant stories. They probably had first been published in American magazines in the first one and a half decades of the twentieth century, and later collected together in a book. Though most are soppy and sentimental love stories, the language is smooth and delicious, as is only to be expected from Wodehouse. There are not many 'nifties', though. And no memorable characters. All those came later. The influence of the O.Henry style of writing (or plotting, rather) is apparent in several of the stories. About half of them are set in America, apparently in and around New York, and the others in England. Some of the stories invoked in me a strange kind of nostalgia for a lifestyle and for events I have never actually known or experienced, like the feelings invoked by songs like 'Those were the days' (Mary Hopkin) or 'The day before you came' (Abba) or 'Pussy willow' (Jethro Tull). One of the stories introduces Jeeves and Bertie, but Jeeves is just the valet in the background. However, Bertie's character is almost fully formed already, as is his relationship to Aunt Agatha. Their respective characters and their mutual relationship are hardly changed in the fifty years or so that they continued to appear in PGW's books.
No comments:
Post a Comment