“Readers who love Wodehouse know perfectly well that he\u2019s no moral compass, towering intellect, or incisive commentator on his times. His genius resides in one simple fact: he had a wondrous way with a sentence. He subdued English grammar like a lion tamer, working himself into seemingly fatal complications before extricating himself with a flourish. He could turn a proverb inside out, cap an epic simile with a preposterous slangy coda, extend a metaphor to the breaking point and fold it neatly for another day\u2014all while displaying a matchless ear for prose rhythm. Brief quotations don\u2019t capture the full effect of Wodehouse\u2019s style. One of his greatest set pieces, for example, involves a jealous young man trashing a London nightclub and runs on for several pages. A few shorter samples will at least hint at the Wodehouse experience.<\/p>
Here is Bertie reminiscing in The Code of the Woosters:<\/p>
The whole situation recalled irresistibly to my mind something that had happened to me once up at Oxford, when the heart was young. It was during Eights Week, and I was sauntering on the river-bank with a girl named something that has slipped my mind, when there was a sound of barking and a large, hefty dog came galloping up, full of beans and buck and obviously intent on mayhem. And I was just commending my soul to God, and feeling that this was where the old flannel trousers got about thirty bob\u2019s worth of value bitten out of them, when the girl, waiting till she saw the whites of its eyes, with extraordinary presence of mind suddenly opened a colored Japanese umbrella in the animal\u2019s face. Upon which, it did three back somersaults and retired into private life.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is either a remarkably critical celebration or a remarkably appreciative critique of P.G. Wodehouse. P.G. Wodehouse and the Idea of Genius (at Front Porch Republic) “Readers who love Wodehouse know perfectly well that he\u2019s no moral compass, towering intellect, or incisive commentator on his times. His genius resides in one simple fact: he had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,2894,20],"tags":[3323],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":82,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/one-book-meme\/","url_meta":{"origin":36880,"position":0},"title":"One Book meme","author":"Jandy","date":"August 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Jennifer tagged me for this a couple of weeks ago, and I missed it. But then I found it, so here you go. 1. One book that changed your life: How do people answer questions like this? I have no idea...I don't think any book has ever changed my life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Reading"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Reading","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37017,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/2023-the-year-that-was\/","url_meta":{"origin":36880,"position":1},"title":"2023: The Year That Was","author":"Jandy","date":"January 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"As usual, I've failed at getting back into posting regularly, and as usual, I'm making another resolution to do better. But in the meantime, let's take a look back at 2023. It's been a great year for me personally, even if my writing time has not reflected that! I've started\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Reading"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Reading","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Banner.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Banner.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Banner.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Banner.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Banner.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":279,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/03\/writing-break\/","url_meta":{"origin":36880,"position":2},"title":"Writing Break!","author":"Jandy","date":"March 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I feel for A.D. Harvey and the research he put into writing the Neo-classical vs. Romantic section of this book Literature and History, especially in hunting down and examining the hundreds of epics written according to the Neo-classical guidelines in the late-18th, early-19th century, hoping to come up with something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "School"","block_context":{"text":"School","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/school\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1067,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/american-idol-top-twelve-performances-and-elimination\/","url_meta":{"origin":36880,"position":3},"title":"American Idol Top Twelve (Performances and Elimination)","author":"Jandy","date":"March 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We got back from spring break last night, but I just got around to watching last week's American Idol tonight. And let me just say, I've been clammering for a Beatles-themed night for the past two years (i.e., all the years I've been watching), and I WAS NOT WRONG. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Television"","block_context":{"text":"Television","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/television\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32554,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/blindspotting-2013-wild-strawberries-1957\/","url_meta":{"origin":36880,"position":4},"title":"Blindspotting 2013: Wild Strawberries (1957)","author":"Jandy","date":"March 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There are so many Ingmar Bergman films I haven't seen (and most all of them are considered essentials by cinephiles) that there will likely be a Bergman film on every one of my Blindspot lists for years to come. Last year it was The Virgin Spring; this year I opted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Blind-Spots-Wild-Strawberries.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":165,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/good-thoughts-on-film-watching\/","url_meta":{"origin":36880,"position":5},"title":"Good Thoughts on Film Watching…","author":"Jandy","date":"December 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of weeks ago, Andy Horbal ran a Film Criticism blog-a-thon, basically encouraging other film bloggers to post their thoughts on film criticism and then posting all the links in his blog. I haven't had time to read all the posts yet, but this one caught my eye. These\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}