World Famous Comics: Summer Lightning (The Blandings Castle Saga)
Summer Lightning (The Blandings Castle Saga)
By: P. G. Wodehouse Publisher: CSA Word Average Rating: Binding: Audio CD Format: Abridged, Audiobook, CD Label: CSA Word Number of Items: 4 Publication Date: April 01, 2009
Product Description: This is a Blandings novel. "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...?
The Plot Thickens at Blandings P. G. Wodehouse is at his most delightful in this generational romp at Beautiful Blandings Castle, where Lord Emsworth is grieving, first, the dispossession of his beloved prize pig which was somehow stolen in at least four distinct acts of thievery and, second, the untimely return of his erstwhile secretary, the efficient Baxter, while the title's summer lightning strikes every youth in sight with love's blinding ferocity.
In a labyrinthine plot designed to assure the reader that none of the lovers will pair up correctly, that the stolen pig will never be returned, and that Galahad, Emsworth's unreconstructed rogue of a brother will befoul the reputations of the entire House of Lords with his impending memoirs, all the knots untangle in their time, and the sated reader is left with a lingering smile and a bevy of patented extended similes.
Among the best of these describes Gally's niece Millicent at a low point in her young life due to her strained relationship with the man of her dreams. "She looked like something that might have occurred to Ibsen in one of his less frivolous moments."
Wodehouse's unmatched command of his native tongue at play always yields surprises. In this outing, Nature herself is a character personified in luscious clauses like this one: "It was that gracious hour of a summer afternoon...when Nature seems to unbutton its waistcoat and put its feet up." Or this instant of momentous expectancy: "Nature paused, listening. Birds checked their songs, insects their droning. It was as if it had got about that this young man's fate hung in the balance and the returns would be in shortly."
It is Millicent, hesitantly forgiving of her beau, who says, "Any funny business from now on..."
She is answered:
"As if...!"
Thus anticipating Alicia Silverstone of the movie Clueless by about 50 years.
These are a couple of the treats scattered like a well whacked piñata throughout the text, and reason enough to delve into this singular piece of writing. But there's so much more to savor. The outrageous and hardly Honorable Galahad Threepwood, the young men with hearts afire and brains without a noticeable spark, inordinately homely detectives, efficient ex-secretaries, and the indomitable Aunt Constance, all simmering deliciously in as cleverly crafted a plot as Wodehouse has ever cooked up.
And, of course, there's Sue Brown, the chorus girl far too beautiful and far too good for any man in the kingdom, Sue Brown, who has chosen one of the least worthy to love with all her golden heart. Therein lies my only quibble. The author has chosen to focus on the admittedly hilarious plot twists and turns, thereby leaving little space for continuing development of Sue. So tantalizingly promising at her introduction, her character recedes almost to blandness by the final third of the book, until she is little more than a passive and mournful observer of the goings on swirling about her. She deserved a better shake from her creator, on the order of Sally Nicholas (The Adventures of Sally) or Corky Pirbright (The Mating Season). Nobody does the heroic fair maiden like Plum, and one imagines that he meant to do so here but simply lurched off...so much fun to have; so few pages!
In these trying times, Summer Lightning will have the same effect on you as did lovely Sue on the smitten but jealous Ronnie become convinced of her love for only him: "The cloud had passed from his face, the look of Byronic despair from his eyes. He beamed."
As will you.
Terrific Wodehouse Although Wodehouse prided himself on his intricately-woven plots, his books succeed largely because of brilliant dialogue and humorous situations. Summer Lightning, written during Wodehouse's long creative peak, succeeds on all levels. A stolen pig, an embarrassing memoir, young love, and doddering old aristrocrats keep the action moving. Thoroughly-enjoyable escapist fare. In this Blandings Castle episode, Lord Emsworth is a relatively minor character and his son, Freddie Threepwood, is all but nonexistent, but Wodehouse's other characters are so amusing that this book succeeds nonetheless.
More Piggish Capers at Blandings Castle
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.
The best of Wodehouse 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.
Blandings at its best, with the arrival of Gally 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.
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