Customer Reviews

Life at Blandings (Omnibus)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The three novels in this volume are three of the first four novels in P G Wodehouse's great Blandings Castle series (the other is Leave It to Psmith). Something Fresh isn't quite as good as Summer Lightning and Heavy Weather, because that memorable pig, the Empress of Blandings, has not yet appeared at the Castle. Heavy Weather takes place immediately after Summer Lightning, and the two are, in my opinion, two of Wodehouse's very best. Some of the great Wodehouse characters are here - the woolly-headed Ninth Earl of Emsworth, his sister, Lady Constance, and brother, The Honorable Galahad Threepwood, not to mention, among others, The Efficient Baxter. Not to be missed by anybody with a sense of humor.

Blandings Castle comes alive when the Empress of Blandings arrives, which she does in Summer Lightning. All fans of romantic comedies will enjoy these books very much.

Be sure to begin the series by reading, Leave It to Psmith, which has an outstanding plot and introduces most of the major characters in the series

Summer Lightning is better than many other P.G. Wodehouse books in that the plot and character development are more thorough than most which keeps the fun going longer.

Clarence, the ninth Earl of Emsworth, is at home in his castle in Shropshire where he dotes on his famous prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings. Having dispatched his earlier secretary, Baxter, Clarence is at peace contemplating how his pig will win again when he learns from his brother Galahad (Gally) that the neighbor's pig man is offering 3:1 odds against the Empress. Clarence and Gally presume that their neighbor, Sir Gregory Parsloe is planning to knobble the Empress. Their worst fears are borne out when the Empress disappears!

At the same time, Parsloe lives in fear that Gally will publish old stories about his wild younger days in Gally's new book. Clarence's and Gally's sister Connie wants to stop publication as well. Soon the castle is overrun with manuscript thieves!

At the same time, love is in the air. Clarence's new secretary, Hugo Carmody, is secretly and unsuitably in love with Millicent Threepwood, niece to Clarence, Connie and Gally, and Millicent is in love with him. But they need to get some financial help to pull off the merger.

Ronald Fish, a wealthy young man whose money is tied with Clarence, is also in love with an unsuitable person . . . one Sue Brown who is a chorus girl. Ronnie has proven himself to be a poor judge of investments in the past, and Clarence is skeptical of allowing any more money. It doesn't help when Clarence finds that Ronnie doesn't truly share his love of pigs!

Will love win out? Of course! It's a P.G. Wodehouse book. But before love wins, humor will take the day in many silly scenes worthy of Shakespeare's best in the forest of Arden.

Heavy Weather picks up where Summer Lightning leaves off. Ronnie Fish's jealousy gets Sue Brown and him into trouble when his mother, Lady Julia Fish, arrives to sunder the pair. Gally's manuscript continues to play a role throughout as does the Empress. This book would only be a three-stars book if you didn't read Summer Lightning first.

In most P.G. Wodehouse stories, the innocents and the not-so-innocents attempt to solve tricky family problems with feats of misdirection and partial truths. The result of these complicated ruses is usually a great deal of unexpected consequences that will tickle almost any funny bone. Heavy Weather is an unusually fine example of this type of story.

Monty Bodkin, who's rolling in dough, must hold a job for a year to win the approval of his fiancee's father. Then the wedding bells can chime. Monty isn't the most helpful fellow, and makes a hash out of his writing for Tiny Tots. He soon uses his uncle's influence a second time to get a new job as private secretary to Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, whose pride and joy is his prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings.

This new employment creates much consternation for Sue Brown, who is engaged to marry the jealous Ronnie Fish. Monty and Sue had been engaged earlier, and Sue's afraid that Ronnie won't be able to handle having Monty around. Wedding bells for Sue and Ronnie depend on getting Clarence to release trust funds for Ronnie. There are a few other problems, as well. For example, Sue earns her living as a chorus girl. What will Ronnie's mother, Lady Julia, think?

The key theme of the story is that true love will win out, if the lovers follow their hearts and seize opportunity when it arises. In that way, the end will charm almost anyone . . . much like Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream does.

In most stories like this, you can anticipate how the obstacles will be overcome. Well, Heavy Weather will surprise you, if you are like me. The plot complications and resolution are delightfully adept, acrobatic, and subtle. I felt like I was watching the elephants do their ballet dance again in Fantasia. The contradictions between the messy moments and the final neatness are brilliantly handled!

The conflict between the desire to have a good reputation and the willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed (including cutting all possible corners) is shown off to good effect in Heavy Weather. Developing this point creates questions about what real goodness is, versus assumed goodness from social position and family connections. In fact, inherited intelligence is also questioned for its morality. The more powerful minds in the story tend to use those capabilities to plot for self-advantage, rather than to accomplish anything meaningful for all involved. Those of limited intelligence, by contrast, tend to follow their hearts and try to do the right thing.

Good results follow in this story whenever people are loyal and honor goodness.

What can you accomplish by being loyal and honoring goodness today? And tomorrow?

This is my first P.G. Wodehouse book. I liked the stories so much that I immediately bought another of his books. The plots are amusing, but the characters are the center of the book. Lord Emsworth is described as a man who "never experienced the thirll of ambition fullfilled, ... but never knew the agony of ambition frustrated". Another very interesting character, Mr. Peters, who belongs to a group of men who "... cannot rest, who are so constituted that they can only take their leisure in the shape of a change of work". Interestingly, their personalities evolve as the story unfolds. Wodehouse satire excludes no one not even writers. He writes, "The reason why all we novelists with bulging foreheads an expensive educations are abandoning novels and taking to writing motion-picture secnarii is because the latter are so infinitely the more simple and pleasant". I also enjoyed his reference to the critics in the preface of "Summer Lightning".

It's certainly a very entertaining book, with a lot of opportunities for vocabulary building. I would recommend this book for students of English as a second language.

I love PG Wodehouse, and the Blandings books are by far my favorites. I have the hardback edition of this omnibus, and the prefaces by the author are every bit as charming and witty and sweet-natured as the three novels they introduce.

At first glance, an omnibus of Blandings castle stories seems delightful. The only flaw is that reading them back to back brings up a sense of repetitiveness, even though the characters are different. The same lovestruck young men, headstrong young women, iron-willed aunts, imposters, secretaries, theft plots and the pig Empress. Each of these elements is a delightful characteristic of Wodehousian plots but perhaps it's better to take them in smaller doses to fully appreciate them.

The series begins with Something Fresh and sets the tone of tangled hearts with Wodehousian newcomers Ashe Marson (he of Larsen exercises) and Joan Valentine. The second book, Summer Lightening continues the tone, this time flowering into the tangled hearts of Ronald Fish, Sue Brown (chorus girl, daughter of Dolly Henderson who made Gally Threepwood's heart beat), Millicent and Hugo Carmody. The third book, Heavy Weather, does rather lay it on thick as its name suggests, this time revolving around the dubious memoirs of Gally Threepwood and a good old-fashioned pig-theft plot thrown in (for what would a Blandings book be without a quest to nobble Empress of Blandings?).

My favorite of the three is Summer Lightening since it blossoms where Something Fresh only hints at and what Heavy Weather withers away. Read with breaks in between books.

Title: Life at Blandings (Omnibus) by P.G. Wodehouse. This omnibus contains the books Something Fresh, Summer Lightning, and Heavy Weather.

Pages: 828.

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: 5 years.

Days spent reading it: 1 month.

Why I read it: I enjoy P.G. Wodehouse, I think he's a comic genius. So we bought this book thinking, "Hey, three-in-one, that's got to be good."

Brief review: Wodehouse is a fantastic comic writer. His characters are fun and light-hearted, and even his characters are out shined by the incredible comic plots that Wodehouse creates. The craziest things happen at Blandings Castle. I've noticed that Wodehouse likes to write about two things: stolen goods and engagements. Random objects, like pigs and scarab beetles, are stolen. Then returned. Then stolen again. And Wodehouse makes the romantic plots of Shakespeare seem simple and straightforward by comparison. Wodehouse must think people in love are literally crazy. And maybe it's true.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a good solid chuckle. Wodehouse is a master wordsmith. But you have to get used to the pace and tempo of the writing. It's quick and witty.

I would say this volume is a great place to be introduced to the Blandings characters, but the size would probably put most people off. Instead, pick up the single volume copies of Something Fresh or Summer Lightning which are both contained in this edition. If you enjoy British humor, you won't be disappointed.

Favorite quote:
"When one considers how keenly London, like all large cities, resents physical exercise...if you run because you wish to develop your lungs or jump because jumping is good for the liver, London punishes you with its mockery. It rallies round and points the finger of scorn." -from Something Fresh

"A certain critic--for such men, I regret to say, do exist--made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.' He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have outgeneralled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy." -from intro to Summer Lightning


"This," said the Hon. Galahad, "is the hour of the day that searches a man out. It makes him examine his soul. And I don't want to examine my soul. I expect the thing looks like an old boot. So, as I say, amuse me, child. Sing to me. Dance before me. Ask me riddles."-from Heavy Weather

Stars: 4 out of 5.

Final Word: Hilarious.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a laugh. It is just fun to read.