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Last edited by David Scotson
September 16, 2023 | History

P. G. Wodehouse

15 October 1881 - 14 February 1975

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE (15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) (pronounced /ˈwʊdhaʊs/) was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be widely read. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained that of pre-war English upper-class society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career.

An acknowledged master of English prose, Wodehouse has been admired both by contemporaries such as Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by modern writers such as Stephen Fry, Douglas Adams, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith and Terry Pratchett. Journalist and writer Christopher Hitchens commented, "there is not, and never will be, anything to touch him."

Wodehouse's characters are often eccentric, with peculiar attachments, such as to pigs (Lord Emsworth), newts (Gussie Fink-Nottle), antique silver (Bertie's Uncle Tom Travers), golf-collectables (numerous characters) or socks (Archibald Mulliner). His "mentally negligible" good-natured characters invariably make their lot worse by their half-witted schemes to improve a bad situation.

A key figure in most Wodehouse stories is a "fixer" whose genius soars above the incompetent blather and crude bluster of most of the other characters, Jeeves being the best known example. Other characters in this vein are Lord Ickenham ("Uncle Fred") and Galahad Threepwood, who perform much the same role in the Blandings Castle stories—though never both at the same time—and Psmith, who does the same thing in the stories that bear his name.

Wodehouse was known for his consummate skill at their detailed construction and development. Typically, a relative or friend makes some demand that forces a character into a bizarre situation from which it seems impossible to recover, only to resolve itself in a clever and satisfying finale.

Source: Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse]

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  • Cover of: The cat-nappers: a Jeeves and Bertie story

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  • Cover of: Stiff upper lip, Jeeves
    First published in 1963 24 editions in 1 language — 4 previewable Cover of edition stiffupperlipjee00pgwo_1 Cover of edition stiffupperlipjee00pgwo Cover of edition stiffupperlipjee0000wode

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  • Cover of: The little nugget
    First published in 1914 24 editions in 2 languages — 2 previewable Cover of edition littlenugget00wode_638

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  • Cover of: Jeeves and the feudal spirit.
    First published in 1954 24 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: The man upstairs, and otherstories
    First published in 1926 24 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition manupstairsother00wode_562

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  • Cover of: The Gold Bat
    First published in 1923 24 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: The coming of Bill
    First published in 1920 23 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition comingbill00wode

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  • Cover of: The Pothunters
    First published in 1902 22 editions in 1 language

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  • Cover of: Leave it to Psmith
    First published in 1923 22 editions in 2 languages — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Very good, Jeeves
    First published in 1930 22 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Uncle Fred in the springtime.
    First published in 1939 22 editions in 1 language — 4 previewable Cover of edition unclefredinsprin00wode Cover of edition unclefredinsprin0000wode_b3k4 Cover of edition unclefredinsprin0000wode

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  • Cover of: Ukridge
    First published in 1924 21 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition ukridge00wode

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  • Cover of: Piccadilly Jim
    First published in 1917 20 editions in 1 language — 3 previewable Cover of edition piccadillyjim0000wode_i8b8 Cover of edition piccadillyjim0000wode_t0s0

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  • Cover of: The heart of a goof: by P. G. Wodehouse.

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  • Cover of: The prince and Betty
    First published in 1912 20 editions in 2 languages — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: Meet Mr. Mulliner
    First published in 1900 19 editions in 2 languages — 2 previewable Cover of edition meetmrmulliner0000wode

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  • Cover of: Heavy weather
    First published in 1933 19 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition heavyweather0000wode_y0w1

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  • Cover of: Big money
    First published in 1931 18 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable

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  • Cover of: The Girl on the Boat
    First published in 1922 18 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition girlonboat0000wode_z6h6

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  • Cover of: Summer lightning
    First published in 1929 18 editions in 2 languages — 2 previewable Cover of edition summerlightning0000wode_x1b2

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Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
September 16, 2023 Edited by David Scotson removed some audiobook narrator names
April 14, 2023 Edited by Tom Morris Remove bad AKAs
September 3, 2021 Edited by Jenner merge authors
September 30, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot add ISNI
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user initial import