PG Wodehouse Caught in the Act: A Literary Detective Story.

Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

PG Wodehouse’s novel “Something Fresh” was published in 1915. The US edition was titled “Something New.” This is the first novel in the Blandings Castle series, which would become the author’s longest running series. The novel is also the last of the Psmith series, a point where the two series meet.

But, wait, you say! What is this? Marco, whom we all know is a devoted fan of good old Wodehouse, has given this novel a mere three stars. The cry goes round the reviewing blogs: “Psmith is unimpressed!” Yes, it is true, I can only cough up three stars for “Something Fresh,” but there is a very good reason for this; a bit of solid literary detective work. We will return to that shortly.

The novel is set at Blandings Castle, a massive English Manor house. it is one of those piles of rock that Elvis Costello derides in his song “Little Palaces.” Blandings is inhabited by silly and eccentric nobles, an enormous cast of servants, and dubious locals from town and hamlet. Together, they get up to all sorts of bumbly adventures which are uproariously funny and entertaining. PG Wodehouse wrote this series from 1915 to his death in 1975. He was still working on “Sunset at Blandings” from his hospital bed.

So, you may ask, if this is all so lovely and fun, why are you being so stingy with the doling out of stars? It is a fair question, my good readers, and I will ring for Jeeves to trot out the answer.

“Jeeves, you can explain?”
“With certainty, Sir…”

What has happened is that I have caught dear Mr. Wodehouse at an author’s trick. I love a good gag, and Wodehouse loved to write a good gag, so everyone was more or less happy. I am not, however, so fond of the same exact gag being used twice. On cannot call it plagiarism, as an author cannot really plagiarize themselves. But in this case, Wodehouse does a handy bit of serious recycling.

In volume one of the Psmith series, “Mike and Psmith,” (1909) there is a gag involving a shoe, a can of red paint, and a bumbling amateur detective. There are comparisons to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. It is a fine gag, with school boy Mike Jackson barely escaping Mr. Downing, the angry school master. Shoes are swapped, clues are hidden, and cupboards smashed open. The amateur detective comes out looking very much the fool, whilst the hero narrowly escapes. Cheers all around.

Unfortunately, PG Wodehouse liked this shtick so much, he used it almost verbatim in “Something Fresh.” Imagine my surprise when I realized I was reading almost exactly the same sequence of actions, only with a different setting and different characters. There they were, the damning clue of the shoe splashed with red paint, the certain doom of the hero, and the narrow escape. It was the same gag, right down to the comparisons between Holmes and Watson. It certainly wasn’t an unconscious error; there is half a chapter lifted from one novel and plopped into another. Perhaps, in 1909, Wodehouse did not know how famous he would one day be. How could he have suspected that nerdy fans like myself, poking about in his books, would find him out at a bit of author sleight-of-hand.

So, here is the real rating on this book: A solid Four-Stars. The characters are wonderful, the story is a multi-layered farce, and you probably have not read “Mike and Psmith,” so nothing will be spoiled. If you have read the two novels, then you have the dirt on dear old ‘Plum,’ not that it will make him any less well-beloved. Until next time, Happy Reading!!

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