Something Fresh
Series: Blandings Castle, Book 1
By: P. G. Wodehouse / Narrated By: Jonathan Cecil
Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
So many P.G. Wodehouse series, so little time: Zany, madcap, delightfully silly
If any novel can be described as a romp, then Something Fresh is it. Honestly? I always thought I’d be starting on Wodehouse Listening with his “Jeeves” books, but I looked at some of the other Blandings Castle books on offer, and an addition in a later book had me raring to start Wodehouse right here, right now, with this very book.
What a true delight. You maaaaay’ve noticed that I’m totally into Regency romps as I like the whole British comedy of manners thing, and I love it when an author shows spectacular writing skills, capturing the language of an earlier era. Well, this might not be Regency but, first published in 1915, this captures Wodehouse’s view of the world then. In a sneaky, cheeky style.
What we have is the fidgety, flighty Lord Emsworth kinda sorta pocketing Mr. Peters’s prize scarab. Not wanting to cause disruption as Emsworth’s son Freddie is to marry Peters’s daughter Aline, Peters frets and fumes and ultimately hires our Hero Ashe to be his valet for a stay at Blandings Castle where Ashe is to ferret out and swipe the scarab back for Peters. Aline is friends with our heroine Joan, and learning of the immense reward papa Peters is surreptitiously offering for the furtive return of the scarab, she offers herself as Lady’s Maid to Aline for this stay at Blandings Castle. Ashe and Joan live in the same building of flats, know each other, and Joan does her best to dissuade Ashe, then to apprise him of social etiquette expected “below stairs”.
The two, after failing on their own, form a partnership, and it’s here where Wodehouse shows that he’s come up with an awesome heroine: Joan reFUSes to just sit on the sidelines as Ashe takes the risks—She’s keenly aware of herself as a capable woman, is keenly aware that women should be viewed less paternally and with more respect. She’s an adventurous and bold young woman, and she has Ashe’s head aching as she argues so well.
Then there’s Freddie, the lazy layabout groom to be, who just wants to kick up his heels in London and to read Action Adventure novels (Which Ashe just so happens to write). He’s in over his head as once upon a time, he wrote raving letters of love and commitment to a young chorus girl (Turns out? Joan!), and he’d like those letters back so that he might not be faced with proof/a breach of contract thing now that he's engaged to Aline. And Aline is being followed around by the lovesick George, a Hong Kong police officer who just wants to marry her and take her back home with him (And there too, George’s view of what a woman SHOULD be irks Aline, even if she’s not all hot-tempered about it as Joan is).
There’s an over-earnest secretary of Lord Emsworth who plays the fall guy and gets into bumps, bruises, scrapes, as he tries to keep “Emsworth’s” scarab safe from theft. There’s a duplicitous schemer. There are daring raids made overnight. There are falls down flights of stairs after tripping over daring raiders; there are falls down flights of stairs after tripping over ill-placed cats.
Really, there’s just silly stuff that is oh so hilarious cuz it’s written with such wit and dashing prose.
Here I listened to the version narrated by Jonathan Cecil, and he did a magnificent job. It’s not the best recording, but it was suitable. Besides which, the other versions are narrated by Marvin Jarvis (Who’s pretty decent) and by Frederick Davidson (Who’s not). Cecil manages everything from a delighted waiter who just can’t WAIT to do his next impression of the flaky Lord Emsworth, to Joan piping up about women’s right to respect. (Also, he does an enraptured and caught-out Freddie meeting his hero as tho’ Freddie was a ten-year old boy).
So really good audiobook with just a few production glitches, and I can’t thank a fellow Accomplice enough for having Wodehouse in her Favorites as an option for this week’s Listening. Way to go, Accomplice!
I benefited from your magnificent taste!!!
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