Summer Lightning [Hardcover]

P. G. Wodehouse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2003 | Series: P.G.Wodehouse

The fall brings season brings three more antic selections from comic genius, P. G. Wodehouse. In Summer Lightning, the Honorable Galahad Threepwood has decided to write his memoirs and everyone dives for cover; meanwhile, Lord Emsworth's prize pig has been stolen, and the castle is abuzz with imposters all pretending to be one another.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A Blandings novel

‘You don’t analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour.’ Stephen Fry

The Empress of Blandings, prize-winning pig and all-consuming passion of Clarence, Ninth Earl of Emsworth, has disappeared.

Blandings Castle is in uproar and there are suspects a-plenty – from Galahad Threepwood (who is writing memoirs so scandalous they will rock the aristocracy to its foundations) to the Efficient Baxter, chilling former secretary to Lord Emsworth. Even Beach the Butler seems deeply embroiled. And what of Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, Clarence’s arch-rival, and his passion for prize-winning pigs?

With the castle full of deceptions and impostors, will Galahad's memoirs ever see the light of day? And will the Empress be returned...? --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.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover; First Edition Thus edition (September 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158567477X
• ISBN-13: 978-1585674770
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Piggish Capers at Blandings Castle, December 29, 2004

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Summer Lightning (Hardcover)

Summer Lightning is one of the several delightful books in the Blandings Castle series by P.G. Wodehouse. 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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of Wodehouse, November 21, 1999

By 

Pradeep Gupta - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summer Lightning: A Blandings Story (Paperback)

Summer Lightening is the best Wodehouse novel, introducing many elements for the first time reader which reappear in many other Blandings Castle books. The major elements are: the prize pig called Empress of Blandings, a secretary named Baxter who is very intelligent but not liked by Lord Emsworth, who is the family head but detests everything except the pig, his younger brother Galahad, who is at peak of health by avoiding all healthy stuff, and their imperial sisters who control everyone around them. Read the book and savour.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blandings at its best, with the arrival of Gally, July 12, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summer Lightning: A Blandings Story (Paperback)

The Hon. Galahad Threepwood, younger brother of Lord Emsworth, is at Blandings Castle writing his memoirs, much to the consternation of their sister, Lady Constance Keeble, and many blue-blooded neighbors. Amid this, young love becomes repeatedly unstuck, imposters arrive, Baxter returns, and The Empress of Blandings is stolen. All seems lost, until ...

This may be the best of the Blandings series. It introduced Gally, a charming, disreputable younger son of an Earl whose main crimes are enjoying life and refusing to be a snob. He's an older gentleman who is rarely without a whisky in his hand or a story on his lips. If you've never read Wodehouse's Blandings books, this is a good place to start, followed by its sequel, Heavy Wather.