I've Never Read A Word Of Pg Wodehouse's Work...

[sandyRoe]

...thinking Waugh covered much the same ground with a more jaundiced eye. Which of his books would you recommend?

[heathfield]

Any of the Jeeves and Wooster stories for a start. His turn of phrase is so often both clever and hilarious.

[joggerjayne]

Right Ho, Jeeves.

Although you'll probably like it so much, that you'll want to read all the Jeeves books, so maybe you should read them in order, starting with ... Googles, Googles ... Thank You, Jeeves.

[sandyRoe]

Thank you, both.

[Lie-in King]

They're hilarious, sandy! This gives both a chronological list & lists by series -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse_bibliography

[joggerjayne]

'kinell !

He wrote a lot of books!

[Lie-in King]

Hi jj - he certainly did! :-)

[jeffa]

JJ, yes he did and, at the risk of angering his fans, they're all the same. Or, put another way, if you've read one you've read 'em all.

I find him unbearably dull, I'm afraid...

[jno]

he wrote some Broadway musicals too.

[Lie-in King]

Be a dull world if everyone liked the same things

[jeffa]

It would indeed!

[bobbycollins]

I will concede that many of the novels are formulaic, but the short stories and a goodly proportion of the novels are quite simply joyous. Even the more formulaic are worth reading if only for the unmatched use of our mother tongue.

[FredPuli43]

The formula remains in each of his subjects; Blandings, Jeeves and Wooster etc; but the language is unsurpassed in its use of metaphor and simile. That's what makes the stories so delightful; you could say that Shakespeare's sonnets, a lot of Mozart's music, nearly all of Vivaldi's, are formulaic but the delight is in the construction. The short stories are, by and large, excellent with ingenious plotting and that language. But I agree with previous posts.

[mikey4444]

He is one of the only authors that I find difficult to read in public, as I laugh out loud so often. None of the TV versions really does Wodehouse proud.

My favourite plot is where Jeeves has his annual 2 weeks off, shrimping in Bonor and Bertie take the opportunity to grow a moustache, something Jeeves would never let him do if he was there. He refuses to shave it off of course but in the end he does ! The book with the cow creamer in it is also to be recommended.

I can't really see much in connection between Wodehouse and Waugh. Everybody should read Brideshead Revisited, especially when they are young.

[BertiWooster]

What ho

Anyone seen that gal , stiffy ?

[sandyRoe]

I'd thought Waugh similar to PG in that they wrote about posh eccentrics. In Waugh's Sword of Honour Apthorp's struggle with Brigadier Richie-Hook over the use of the thunderbox was as funny a thing as I've ever read. And Lodovic, the Corporal of Horse promoted above his ability, if comic in the darkest way.