Customer Reviews

Something Fresh

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

"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.

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.

Having read many of the jeeves stories 20 years ago and watched again recently the ITV Jeeves and Wooster starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, I thought it was time to get back to Wodehouse for some good cheer. But, I wanted to start on something different, so I decided to start with the first of the Blandings novels. As someone who struggles to get a night sleep because of pain, it was a sheer delight for me to have the tonic of reading this book peopled with its ecentric characthers and its zany plot. Lord Emsworth is the most striking characther here - he is completely potty, not realising he has stolen an american collector's egyptian scarab. The book is about the collector getting the scarab back and it really is hiarlous at times. I will say though that having just read "Leave it to Psmith" that, if anything, the series gets better with its more complex and convoluted characthers with impersonation being a key theme. Anyway enjoy to your heart's content!

Very funny book. One of the Wodehouse series I have truly and thoroughly enjoyed.

It's worth it for that one scene at night with Emsworth wandering with a revolver and the "Efficient Baxter" stumbling into some surprises.

I read that portion and had tears running down my cheeks and an aching belly for the next two weeks from laughing so hard! The visualisation of that scene isn't hard to do, since Wodehouse is an amazing artist with words.... and it's rewarding.

Too funny!

You won't regret it!

This is my 3rd book of P.G Wodehouse & I'm simply hooked!! P.G Wodehouse is one of a kind! Any body can write a story, but it takes real talent to write something which will make people laugh. I liked this book not so much for the story as for P.G Wodehouse's style of writing. The plot is well-made & skilfuly woven.What happens when a scarab gets stolen? 'A scarab?' you think. Yes, a valuable scarab from Mr. Peter's collection & an offer of 10,000 dollars for it's retrieval. This has caught your attention. So has it caught Ashe Marton & Joan Valentine in a web of lies, confusion & humour. Both of them vye for the reward, posing as impostors in Blandings castle. Ashe Marton, as Mr. Peter's valet & Joan Valentine as Aline Peter's maid. The Efficient Baxter, Lord Emsworth's seceretary, gets to know of the plan & spends many sleepless nights hoping to catch them red-handed. But none of them know that somebody else is interested in the scarab too, & will very soon take it away right under their noses! The side characters who contribute a lot towards the humour situation, are Mr. Beach, the butler, who 'Suffers from His Feet, From Nervous Disorders', & 'whose Stomach Lining is not what a stomach lining should be.' I'm sure you'll all love this hilarious story.

The next time your strolling in a peaceful wood where the birds are singing, the squirrels chattering, the brook babbling, and your heart fills with joy, you'll know exactly the type of experience you get when reading a Wodehouse novel. Wodehouse writes about a happy world, where pratfalls rule and coincidences are the norm. This is world where your not in tune if you don't fall in love at first sight. Something Fresh is all of this: happy, filled with pratfalls and coincidence, and brimming with lovers. What should a person recommend more? The wonderfully convoluted plots? The large cast of absolute eccentrics? Wodehouse's command of the English language (and how to use it humorously and dramatically)? Since I love all of the above, it is not difficult to imagine giving this book anything but a glowing review. And what is more amazing is that this is not even his funniest book!! But Something Fresh is a great place to start if you never have read Wodehouse before. It is a good introduction to those wonderful folks of Blandings Castle. And you'll know that having a cheerful "tra-la-la!" on your lips will get you a lot further in life than a frown and a lawsuit. Having Wodehouse in my life has improved things immensely.

I'm a big fan of Wodehouse. In fact, this is the only Blandings novel or story I've yet to read. So I was really looking forward to digging into it. However, the small print in my Penguin edition was proving a bit too tiring for my middle-aged eyes to read in the late evening, so I thought I'd download the Kindle version (only a dollar!), increase the type size a bit, and happy reading! A few nights later, a few chapters into the book, I was settling down in bed to read a bit more and I realized that I'd left my Kindle in another room, so I decided to squint my way through my Penguin copy for the evening. I started leafing through the early chapters, looking for my place, and I noticed some material that i didn't remember having read on the Kindle. So, I got up, went to my office, retrieved the Kindle, and started comparing the two versions. Lo and behold -- the Kindle version is missing whole paragraphs! And not just a few.

I ask you, who in their right mind would abridge a Wodehouse novel?

Wodehouse continues with his wonderful recipe of decadent peerage, hopelessly-in-lovers, imposters and theft plots in another Blandings Castle book. To this delightful mix, is added an American dash in the form of Mr.Peters, a multimillionaire with poor digestion and poorer temper and his sweet wisp of a daughter Aline Peters, engaged to be married to Freddie Threepwood. Ashe Marson (author of Gridley Quayle, detective fiction and avid practicioner of the Larsen exercises) and Joan Valentine (ex-chorus girl, former paramour of Freddie and always ready to take life by the bull's horns)bring in even more flavour to this already succulent mix. What's really interesting is how the lead characters come and go but Blandings Castle and its inmates remain part of the unchanging, everlastingly witty backdrop. 'Something Fresh' uses standard Wodehousian plot ingredients but manages to keep you laughing all along, nevertheless.

"Something Fresh" (also published as "Something New") introduces Clarence Threepwood ninth Earl of Emsworth. Lord Emsworth is my favorite Wodehouse character. This is the first book in the Blandings Castle saga. We meet Lord Em's son Freddie, secretary, Baxter, among others.