I fully admit to being biased towards Wodehouse in general and this book in particular - I first read it at a more impressionable age, and whenever I revisit it now, it is with the champagne-y, bubbly feeling of being utterly in love with a story, the way you can only be when you are twelve. The plot: Plucky, pretty Jane Abbott is trying to extricate her father, Sir Buckstone (Buck to pals) from financial woes, while keeping afloat her secret relationship with Adrian Peake (professional twerp); this is complicated by a cast of thousands which include the annoying but strangely attractive Joe Vanringham, his hapless brother Tubby, their stepmother the magnetic and vicious Princess von und zu Dworniczek, and a gum-chewing process server. So far, so typical Wodehouse - but I think that aficionados will find this a particularly intricately crafted Wodehouse, with some fantastic set pieces (the Temptation of Tubby Vanringham is a favourite), and a plot which successfully ties together thousands of flailing loose ends. I really will never figure out how Wodehouse did it.The novel also has a core of real feeling that I've never come across in, say, the Blandings books. Joe, for all his effervescence, has a core of bitterness to him that differentiates him from your typical Wodehouse "affable chump". The Princess is uniquely sinister. It's been a while I'll admit, but I can't remember coming across another Wodehouse character who was so genuinely malicious. She's a one-off. Although twelve-year-old me thought Joe Vanringham was dreamy and mid-thirties me thinks he is a bit of a jerk who can't take no for an answer, this book has aged really well for me and I love to periodically revisit the grounds of the horrible Walsingford Hall. This is a desert island book for me.
Sir Buckstone Abbott is in dire financial straits and wants to unload his dilapidated country home as soon as possible. Meanwhile, his daughter Jane is engaged to a man who's also engaged to a woman thinking of buying the house but enamored with another man, Joe Vanringham. Additionally, Mrs. Abbot's brother is lurking in the background and Tubby Varingham is secretly in love with Buckstone's secretary. Can Abbot sell his house and get out of his money woes without condemning his daughter to an unhappy life?P.G. Wodehouse is like a master chess player and his characters are the pieces. While his plots are all very similar, they spin out of control and become unique tales in their own right. All the hallmarks are here: engagements, regrettable letters written in the heat of the moment, mistaken identity, etc, but they come together in delightful ways. You know things will end happily but Wodehouse puts you through the wringer getting there with his serpentine plot twists.As always, the writing is top notch. Wodehouse peppers the dialogue with gems like "She informs me she can make a substance called fudge but no waffles" and "I regard her as sand in Civilization's spinach."Joe Vanringham is the archetypical Wodehouse leading man, witty and quick thinking and his smoothness rivals that of Galahad Threepwood himself, a nice contrast to his brother Tubby. Jane Abbot is the typical Wodehouse heroine, strong and feisty. Miss Whitaker, the cold secretary with a knowledge of jiu jutsu, was an added bonus.While it wasn't a Jeeves or Blandings Castle book, it was still pretty good. If you like British comedy, this should be able to fulfill your needs for a few hours.
What do You think about Summer Moonshine (2003)?
Sir Buckstone Abbot's hideous Victorian country house might be salable, in which case, he might not live in poverty -- he's stuck now, taking in boarders. His daughter Jane is engaged to a man who's also engaged to a widowed princess with two grown stepsons, and is the woman Sir Buckstone hopes to sell it to. Jane sets out to argue with a vanity publisher who charged Sir Buckstone for publishing his memoirs. There she meets Joe, one of those grown stepsons, who is leaving its employ to be a playwright, and who asks Jane to marry him at once.Meanwhile, his brother Tubby, who's staying at that country house, has broken off his engagement with Sir Buckstone's secretary, who will then try to have him served with papers for a breach of promise suit.And Lady Abbot's brother comes to visit. Turns out that he was a process server by occupation.It builds from there, with romance, mystery, intrigue, stealing men's clothes so they can't go place, houseboats, and whistling like a linnet.
—Mary Catelli
I have practically everything Wodehouse wrote on my shelves, and I've read most of his books multiple times. I turned to this one for some comic relief in the middle of a much heavier book I'm reading. I wondered why I didn't remember much about this book. After all, it was written in 1937 - this was a prime period for Wodehouse.Well, I couldn't remember much about it because I hadn't read and reread this one as much as some of Plum's others. Why? Because it's not really that good. Not only is it too strained even for Wodehouse-ian farce, but I found it unpleasant at times. It's a product of its time, of course, but I found the "humorous" racial slurs extremely off-putting. And the hero's behavior falls somewhere between (by current standards) harassment and just being a real jerk.I love Wodehouse, but didn't enjoy this one. Maybe that's just my mood right now, which is influenced by current events.
—Jeff Crompton
Somehow this one sneaked past me, hitherto. With amazing adroitness, Plum manages, in his inimitable style, to keep five or six plot lines spinning, platelike, before resolving them in the final couple of chapters. And despite borrowing heavily from his stock repertoire of character types, he even manages to invent an entirely formidable new harridan: the Princess von und zu Dwornitzchek, who is even more ruthless and cunning than Lady Constance Keeble and Bertie Wooster's Aunt Agatha. Despite this Lady of Iron carrying all before her at the end, Plum still manages to dish up happy endings for all of his cast, which is probably one of the greatest feats of legerdemain in his magical career.
—Spiros
