Customer Reviews

The Girl in Blue

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3 star:		(2)
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Typical Wodehouse hilarity, a delightfully tangled plot, and the simplest and most moving marriage proposal scene I've ever read. I like the Wooster and Jeeves books well enough, but I love this one.

I highly recommend this book. It is very funy and entertaining.
One of Wodehouse's best!

P.G. Wodehouse is famous for his characters and his marvelous mix-ups in English country houses that will remind many readers of the better Shakespearean comedies in which lovers run amok in the Forest of Arden. Writers have always admired his original turns of phrase.

In his later years, Mr. Wodehouse often recycled his characters and the stories became impenetrable in some cases to those who had not read the earlier books. But every so often, he took the time to develop new characters and put them into the usual country house run around. That's exactly what occurred in The Girl in Blue, with very fine results.

Homer Pyle, an eminent corporation lawyer, is abashed to have to rescue his sister, the wealthy Barney Claybourne, from being prosecuted for shoplifting from Guildenstern's on Madison Avenue in New York. It seems like there's a history in the family, and Homer doesn't know what to do. When Guildenstern's insists Barney be taken out of town, that solution proves to be a relief. Guildenstern's suggests that Barney be kept away from department stores so they agree to take Barney to a country home that takes paying guests in England, one Mellingham Hall, operated by the impoverished Crispin Scrope.

Meanwhile in London, Jerry West, Crispin's nephew, finds himself falling in love with a fellow juror. That's a problem because Jerry's already engaged to one of the town's great beauties . . . who happens to be a gold digger.

Crispin's brother, Willoughby, becomes the London host for Homer and Barney and shares with them his pride and joy, a Gainsborough miniature that he has just purchased. Homer panics and the fun begins!

The story proceeds at a comfortable pace to pose all kinds of awkward situations and dilemmas that lead the characters even more into the soup. It's a delightful plot and the characters are even more wonderful. Enjoy!

THE GIRL IN BLUE has all the elements of classic farce, complete with slamming doors and mixed-up identities, but it never feels preposterous. In many farces, the whole thing would unravel if only one person explained himself or his actions...yet people explain themselves constantly in this book and they still get in terrible scrapes. Very late in Wodehouse's career, but in no way a minor work.

Perhaps I have read too many Wodehouses recently but I found this a little disappointing. This is a very late one in Wodehouse's career and I really felt as if the magic had almost disappeared - the effortless humour and timeless atmosphere was no longer there and it was if this was just another one he was churning out. The usual features are here: a possible theft, in this case of the girl in blue, a Gainsborough minature, engagements and broken engagements and, of course, a country house (with fake butler). Anyway whilst the story was entertaining I finished with a sense of deflation and with a sense of loss that comic greatness had departed, so to speak.

All the usual elements of a P.G. Wodehouse tale are here, a snide butler, dithering males, robust matrons, star crossed lovers, and a country manor house. A few good chuckles were had but not up to the bar set by his Jeeves tales. However, since P.G. isn't writing any new Jeeves stories, it's fun to explore his other works. Reading "The Girl in Blue" is a great way to spend a quiet evening.