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linda_don's review
5.0
If you read anything from this (admittedly large) anthology, let it be "Uncle Fred in the Springtime," and "Over Seventy." I'd love to be able to pull a quote that would convince other people to pick this up, but are far too many of them and I'll have to settle for this:
"I go in for what is known in the trade as 'light writing', and those who do that -- humorists they are sometime called --- are looked down upon by the intelligentsia and sneered at. When I tell you that in a recent issue of the New Yorker I was referred to as 'that burbling pixie', you will see how far the evil has spread.
These things take their toll. You can't go calling a man a burbling pixie without lowering his morale. He frets. He refuses to eat his cereal. He goes about with his hands in his pockets and his lower lip jutting out, kicking stones. The next thing you know, he is writing thoughtful novels analyzing social conditions, and you are short another humorist."
Hilarious and lovely.
"I go in for what is known in the trade as 'light writing', and those who do that -- humorists they are sometime called --- are looked down upon by the intelligentsia and sneered at. When I tell you that in a recent issue of the New Yorker I was referred to as 'that burbling pixie', you will see how far the evil has spread.
These things take their toll. You can't go calling a man a burbling pixie without lowering his morale. He frets. He refuses to eat his cereal. He goes about with his hands in his pockets and his lower lip jutting out, kicking stones. The next thing you know, he is writing thoughtful novels analyzing social conditions, and you are short another humorist."
Hilarious and lovely.
pearlmorpho's review
5.0
Wodehouse tends to get repetitive, but he is absolutely hilarious. This volume gathers what is needed for a supreme comedy experience, without the overkill that comes with reading his work.
tzadik's review
5.0
Pure, unadulterated literary comfort food. Every page is at least good for a smile or a grin, and often a snigger or out-loud belly laugh. Also incredibly well-written by an absolute master at his craft. For some reason we tend to value the tragic over the comic and the serious over the humorous, but stylistically this is at a level with the likes of Dickens or even Shakespeare. Wonderful.
atroskity's review
4.0
I skipped over the novels in this collection, as I have them in separate volumes, and stuck to the short stories.
A great introduction to someone who is fast becoming a favorite.
A great introduction to someone who is fast becoming a favorite.
doug_whatzup's review
5.0
“Too little has been written about vaudeville bird-imitators and their passionate devotion to their art: but everybody knows the saying, Once a Bird-Imitator, Always a Bird-Imitator. The Mabel Potter of today might be a mere lovely machine for taking notes and tapping out her employer’s correspondence, but within her there still burned the steady flame of those high ideals which always animate a girl who has once been accustomed to render to packed houses the liquid notes of the cuckoo, the whip-poor-will, and other songsters who are familiar to you all.” If you find this paragraph, from “The Nodder,” a hoot, you’re going to love reading Wodehouse.
I read the above paragraph to my wife, who found it “weird.” I, on the other hand, couldn’t stop laughing, and now have it practically memorized. Everything Wodehouse writes is like this – okay, the humor of his Jeeves stories is slightly less broad – so you’re either going to find his writing constantly amusing or constantly weird.
Obviously, my wife and I are in different camps.
This anthology makes for a nice introduction to Wodehouse's brand of humor, but it hardly does justice to one of the last century's most prolific writers. While I particularly enjoyed the short stories, of which there are 14 here, and the sections from the autobiographical "Over Seventy," I was a tad overwhelmed by the anthology's two full-length novels, The Code of the Woosters and Uncle Fred in the Springtime. The novels are on the short side, which is good, because they are best read in one sitting, with a few breaks as possible, at least for a guy of my advance years whose synapses don't fire like they used to. They're a sort of literary whack-a-mole, with characters popping in and out and complications piling up one after the other until the reader begins to lose faith that it can somehow be sorted out. I'm not certain that, in the end, Uncle Fred actually did sort everything out in the springtime, but no matter. I found myself constantly amused.
Ideally, immediately following "one after another" above, a footnote would be added explaining how managed to keep all those balls simultaneously airborne. In "Over Seventy" he explains that he spends months outlining and refining his plotlines before actually putting pen (or rather pencil) to paper.
I'll be reading more Wodehouse, I'm sure, and my wife will simply have to tolerate the chuckling emanating from the next pillow over. I may, however, be making notes as I go.
I read the above paragraph to my wife, who found it “weird.” I, on the other hand, couldn’t stop laughing, and now have it practically memorized. Everything Wodehouse writes is like this – okay, the humor of his Jeeves stories is slightly less broad – so you’re either going to find his writing constantly amusing or constantly weird.
Obviously, my wife and I are in different camps.
This anthology makes for a nice introduction to Wodehouse's brand of humor, but it hardly does justice to one of the last century's most prolific writers. While I particularly enjoyed the short stories, of which there are 14 here, and the sections from the autobiographical "Over Seventy," I was a tad overwhelmed by the anthology's two full-length novels, The Code of the Woosters and Uncle Fred in the Springtime. The novels are on the short side, which is good, because they are best read in one sitting, with a few breaks as possible, at least for a guy of my advance years whose synapses don't fire like they used to. They're a sort of literary whack-a-mole, with characters popping in and out and complications piling up one after the other until the reader begins to lose faith that it can somehow be sorted out. I'm not certain that, in the end, Uncle Fred actually did sort everything out in the springtime, but no matter. I found myself constantly amused.
Ideally, immediately following "one after another" above, a footnote would be added explaining how managed to keep all those balls simultaneously airborne. In "Over Seventy" he explains that he spends months outlining and refining his plotlines before actually putting pen (or rather pencil) to paper.
I'll be reading more Wodehouse, I'm sure, and my wife will simply have to tolerate the chuckling emanating from the next pillow over. I may, however, be making notes as I go.
lewfode's review against another edition
4.0
A good Wodehouse compendium. I love what a twit Bertie is, and how ridiculous the problems of the main characters are. And of course, Jeeves always saves the day -- and gets his way in the end. This book also includes some stories about other Wodehouse characters, which were fun in their own right. I really liked "Uncle Fred Flits By". A light and fun read.
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