Something Fresh (Collector's Wodehouse) [Hardcover]

P. G. Wodehouse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 2005 | Series: Collector's Wodehouse

A Blandings novelThis is the first Blandings novel, in which P.G. Wodehouse introduces us to the delightfully dotty Lord Emsworth, his bone-headed younger son, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood, his long-suffering secretary, the Efficient Baxter, and Beach the Blandings butler.As Wodehouse wrote, ‘without at least one impostor on the premises, Blandings Castle is never itself’. In Something Fresh there are two, each with an eye on a valuable scarab which Lord Emsworth has acquired without quite realizing how it came into his pocket. But of course things get a lot more complicated than this…

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A Blandings novel This is the first Blandings novel, in which P.G. Wodehouse introduces us to the delightfully dotty Lord Emsworth, his bone-headed younger son, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood, his long-suffering secretary, the Efficient Baxter, and Beach the Blandings butler.

As Wodehouse wrote, ‘without at least one impostor on the premises, Blandings Castle is never itself’. In Something Fresh there are two, each with an eye on a valuable scarab which Lord Emsworth has acquired without quite realizing how it came into his pocket. But of course things get a lot more complicated than this… --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) grew up in England and came to the United States just before World War I, when he married an American. He wrote more than ninety books, and his works, translated into many languages, won him worldwide acclaim.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover; The Collector's Wode edition (April 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585676586
• ISBN-13: 978-1585676583
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Company You Keep, February 4, 2005

By 

Gord Wilson "alivingdog.com" (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Something Fresh (Mass Market Paperback)

In P.G. Wodehouse (Thames and Hudson Literary Lives Series), James Connolly offers this advice: "Relax and reread Wodehouse; he's the boy to restore a sense of proportion." Absolutely good advice. I find rereading Wodehouse is more enjoyable than most first reads of other authors, and he's quite easy to reread, even if you don't intend to, because his stories appear in various collections and his novels were often published under various titles.

Something Fresh, officially the first book in the Blandings Castle saga, was published as "Something New" as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post in 1915, and then as a book with the same title in an American edition. "Something Fresh" is a slightly altered British edition of that book. Ashe Marson, the unknown author of the hard-boiled Gridley Quayle, Investigator series of paperback pulps, answers an ad: "WANTED--Young Man of Good Appearance, who is poor and reckless, to undertake delicate and dangerous enterprise. Good pay for the right man." Poor and reckless is a formula in Wodehouse for a good-hearted, down on his luck guy, about to be smiled upon by a beneficent Providence. It's a carry-over from his work in musical comedy and as a struggling writer, but he is one of the few authors who make his leading characters writers, and one of the very few who throws them any of the good parts.

This book is a double bonus, with not only Ashe, but a female writer, Joan Valentine, who knows even more of the hard-bitten life of the streets, and is therefore even poorer and more reckless, as a stellar second in the personnel. Throw in all sorts of millionaires and mix-ups, maids and butlers, a loveable, old, potty Earl, and the beginning of the crime wave at Blandings, and you have the makings of either a rollicking musical comedy or a long series of delightful novels. With Wodehouse it was both. He alternated between the two worlds and if Something Fresh were a film or a musical, Ashe and Joan would no doubt break into song and start dancing about the parlour, as do Gracie Allen, George Burns and Fred Astaire in the Gershwin Brothers' film adaption of Wodehouse's novel, A Damsel in Distress. Why four stars? You can't give everything five, and in my view, as good as Something Fresh is, some of the later Wodehouse novels (such as the Jeeves, Mulliner and Drones Stories) are even better.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sans Porc, September 23, 2010

By 

Craobh Rua "Craobh Rua" (N. Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Something Fresh (Collector's Wodehouse) (Hardcover)

"Something Fresh" is the first of P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings novels. It was first published in 1915 - as "Something New" in the USA and "Something Fresh"in the UK. There are a few differences between the two, though the main plot remains the same.

The book opens with Ashe Marson, a 26 year-old graduate of Oxford University. (Ashe had been intending to read for the church, but was a significantly better athlete than he was a student. Although he eventually scraped through with a degree of sorts, he had to abandon his religious calling. However, he still adheres to Larsen's Exercises...they make him look somewhat ridiculous, they keep him in excellent shape). Ashe now works for the Mammoth Publishing Company in London, churning out "The Adventures of Gridley Quayle"...although very popular, Ashe finds his job absolutely soul-destroying.

Ashe is in the middle of his exercises one morning when he encounters Joan Valentine for the first time...they don't get off to a great start, as she bursts out laughing at him. However, she soon calls round to apologise and Ashe is (unsurprisingly) smitten. (Love at first sight tends to happen in Wodehouse novels, after all). Joan is 23 and has been making her own way in the world for 5 years - like Ashe, she's currently an employee of the Mammoth Publishing Company. However, she has worked as a lady's maid, a governess and even on the stage. After talking to her, Ashe is hopeful he'll find a new career in the newspaper ads.

Meanwhile, Lord Emsworth and his wayward son, the Hon Freddie Threepwood, are paying a brief visit to London. Lord Emsworth hates the city as much as his son loves it - unfortunately for Freddie, he's been more or less under house arrest for the last year. (Lord Emsworth cut off his allowance following a string of gambling debts and made his stay at Blandings Castle, deep in the countryside). Father and son have different appointments however - Lord Emsworth is visiting J. Preston Peters, an American millionaire and the father of Freddie's fiancée, Aline. (The Peters family have been renting the estate next to Blandings since the previous autumn, but J. Preston keeps an impressive scarab collection in his town house). Meanwhile, Freddie pops round to see R. Jones, his very shady ex-bookmaker. He's hoping to "recover" some love-letters he sent to a chorus-girl. (One of Freddie's cousins recently lost a court case, involving some love letters and a claim of breach of promise. Now that he's engaged, he's hoping to prevent the same thing happening to him). For £500, Jones promises all will be fine...

Naturally, nothing goes according to plan. Lord Emsworth, a largely harmless but absent-minded old buffoon, accidentally wanders with one of Peters' very valuable scarabs. Later, he fuzzily (and incorrectly) recalls that that Peters had given it to him as a gift. J. Preston is furious and promises a reward of £1000 to get it back. Joan hears about the reward from Aline - the pair happen to be old schoolfriends. (Coincidentally, she was also the chorus-girl on the receiving end of Freddie's letters). Meanwhile, Ashe is hired by Peters himself - who's placed an ad in the newspaper. Jones also hears about the reward, through a little snooping and lurking in dark corners...and sees a way fo screwing a little more money out of proceedings. It's only a matter of time before all roads lead to Blandings and all hell breaks loose.

An easy and enjoyable read - and the beginning of a series that just gets better and better. Absolutely recommended.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Kindle edition is false advertising, June 3, 2010

By 

Flash Sheridan (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Something Fresh (with linked TOC) (Kindle Edition)

The Kindle edition entitled "Something Fresh (with linked TOC)" is not _Something Fresh_, which was the British version of the book whose American version was entitled _Something New_. There are significant differences between the two versions, visible even in the free sample, e.g. three of the main characters are American rather than English; see Terry Mordue's excellent annotations on the web for more details. Spastic Cat Press's Kindle edition of _Something New_ is fine, however, and I'll be reviewing that later.