Great introduction to Blandings!

I an a huge fan of the writing of P G Wodehouse . There is such a gentle timeless quality to the world he creates. And there is great comic writing in the eccentric characters he creates. I thoroughly recommend this introduction to the Blandings and the lovable Lord Emsworth happily floating through life and his beloved Blandings castle. If you enjoy 'Three men in a boat' or 'Diary of a nobody' then this is in the same style.

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Something Refreshing

A clever and comic novel which should delight fans of P G Wodehouse's particular form of humor expertly brought to life by the narrator.

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Something Fresh

This was something fresh for me. Amusing to listen to with plums galore in the eloquent delivery of the light storyline.

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Thoroughly Enjoyable

Great story yet again about the idle rich written by Wodehouse. Excellent reading bringing the characters to life. I have heard other readings who make the Earl sound too much like a miserable grandad, Cecil does not do this. Likeable characters and will certainly be listening to again.

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2 people found this helpful

The Scandal of the Stolen Scarab!

When the Hon. Freddie Threepwood gets engaged to American heiress Aline Peters, Lord Emsworth is thrilled. As a younger son, the Hon. Freddie has been a trial and a tribulation to him, and the idea of him settling down with a rich wife is a great relief to what one might loosely describe as Lord Emsworth’s mind. Lord Emsworth’s mind is mostly notable for being absent, though, and this leads him to accidentally steal a valuable scarab from Mr Peters, Aline’s father – the pride of his collection. Mr Peters knows that to denounce the theft would break up the engagement, and he’s as keen on getting Aline married into the British aristocracy as Lord Emsworth is to marry Freddie to American money. So Mr Peters lets it be known that he will handsomely reward anyone who steals the scarab back and returns it to him. Enter Joan Valentine, an old school friend of Aline who is in need of money. Joan decides to head off to Blandings Castle, Lord Emsworth’s seat, in the guise of being Aline’s maid, to steal the scarab and get the reward. Imagine her surprise when she finds her neighbour, Ashe Marson, has also turned up at Blandings purporting to be Mr Peters’ valet, with the same intention. The competition is on for who will get to the scarab first, but the general air of misunderstandings and romantic entanglements at Blandings make the task far from simple…

I’ve always preferred the Jeeves and Wooster books to the Blandings books, mainly because I love Bertie Wooster and have never found any of the Blandings regulars as likeable. So it’s been a long number of years since I last read a Blandings book, until I was encouraged to do so by a recent review from a blogging friend. Noting that my favourite Jeeves and Wooster narrator, Jonathan Cecil, had recorded the first Blandings book was an extra incentive. And I enjoyed it a lot!

Despite it being a Blandings book, the Emsworth family play a rather secondary role, and I think that works to the book’s advantage. Instead the leads are Ashe and Joan and they’re both very likeable characters whom the reader would like to see succeed in their mission and achieve a happy ending. It’s a Wodehouse book, so of course happy endings are guaranteed! Joan is one of Wodehouse’s modern, feisty heroines with a mind of her own, a spirit of adventure and a determination to make her own way in the world. But that doesn’t make her immune to the charms of a man who appreciates her independence and admires her for it, like, for example, young Ashe. He has made a living write pulp detective stories for magazines but is heartily sick of it and wants to try something different. The reward Mr Peters is offering will give either of them the means to make a fresh start in life.

As well as the upstairs characters, we spend a lot of time below stairs with the servants, from Beach, the hypochondriac but immensely dignified butler, to the gossiping valets of the various guests who exchange scandalous and sometimes scurrilous stories about their employers past and present. Despite the main characters in Wodehouse’s books being culled from among the upper class, he’s actually not nearly as snobbish as many of his contemporaries. He sends up both high and low equally, and laughs at the aristocrats for the same kinds of quirks as he mocks in his servants. Just as Jeeves is at least Bertie’s equal, so Beach, though a figure of fun, is easily the intellectual and organisational superior of Lord Emsworth. If anything, the servant class has the upper hand over the aristos, even though they show all due deference to their ‘masters’. This somehow means the books feel less dated than they should, despite their belonging to a specific social level at a specific point in time. It’s an idealised, impossibly innocent world for sure, but all the more fun for that!

Needless to say, everything comes right at the end. Sundered hearts are united with true loves, and no one is left unhappy or heart-broken at the end. The sun always shines even when it rains, all’s right with the rightest of all possible worlds and everyone is destined to live happily ever after. Well, at least until the next time Wodehouse takes up his pen and throws them all into a different set of confusions and turmoil! I still prefer the Jeeves books, but enjoyed my visit to Blandings and will spend more time there in future. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.

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2 people found this helpful

A superb combination

The best P G Wodehouse narrator is, undoubtedly, the late Jonathan Cecil. This is the first Blandings story and it is excellent. JC's performance makes any Wodehouse novel or short story come to life.

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Joyful. Highly recommend

Great writing brought to life by Jonathan Cecil - thoroughly enjoyed. Master narrator! Thank you so much

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Fresh, Reviving, Funny and So Good

'Something Fresh' is as sweet as a tightly made dovetail joint that does not need glue. It is so well imagined and crafted. The plot is well grounded and not impossible to believe and there is a nice tussle between a couple that deals neatly with equal opportunities and with reference to the times when women did not have the vote. Amusing - in coincidence - is the fact that Wodehouse names one of his male characters after the hero of E M Forster’s ‘A Room with a View’ of 1908. That is all that they have in common; their characters are very, very different. For me Wodehouse hits a length for a novel which is comfortable and manageable. So too with the characters. As an audio-book this is especially welcome to me, and I suspect others. Something I did not expect was the detail of the below-stairs arrangements and the pecking-order there-in. The performance of the Audio-book by Jonathan Cecil is wonderfully delivered and the characterisations of the different characters is terrible well done. If I have a quibble, I wish there were slightly longer pauses between paragraphs. This is a delight of a listen warming and cheering all those who decide to take a trip with P G Wodehouse to Blandings Castle. Fully recommended.

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Classic Wodehouse!

I've been looking for an alternative to Stephen Fry and am delighted to have found Jonathan Cecil!

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Is it possible that Wodehouse can be improved on?

Wodehouse's writings are one of the great pleasures in life. Is it possible they can be improved on? Yes, by getting Jonathan Cecil to you!

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7 people found this helpful