 | By: P.G. Wodehouse Binding: Paperback Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd ISBN: 0140059032 ISBN-13: 9780140059038 Released: 24 Sep 1981 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Be sure to begin the series by reading, Leave It to Psmith, which has an outstanding plot & introduces most of the major characters in the series
Summer Lightning is better than many other P.G. Wodehouse books in that the plot & 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 (Gallly) that the neighbor's pig man is offering 3:1 odds against the Empress. Clarence & Gallly 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 Gallly will publish old stories about his wild younger days in Gallly's new book. Clarence's & Gallly'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 & unsuitably in love with Millicent Threepwood, niece to Clarence, Connie & Gallly, & 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, & Clarence is skeptical of alllowing 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.
Heavy Weather picks up where Summer Lightning leaves off. Ronnie Fish's jealousy gets Sue Brown & him into trouble when his mother, Lady Julia Fish, arrives to sunder the pair. Gallly's manuscript continues to play a role throughout as does the Empress. This book would only be a three-stars book if you didn't read Summer Lightning first.
And, as always, Wodehouse has a wonderful mastery of the English language, making anything he writes a pleasure to read.
A literary classic without the boring bits.
Monty Bodkin, who's rolling in dough, must hold a job for a year to win the approval of his fiancee's father. Then the wedding bells can chime. Monty isn't the most helpful fellow, & makes a hash out of his writing for Tiny Tots. He soon uses his uncle's influence a second time to get a new job as private secretary to Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, whose pride & joy is his prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings.
This new employment creates much consternation for Sue Brown, who is engaged to marry the jealous Ronnie Fish. Monty & Sue had been engaged earlier, & Sue's afraid that Ronnie won't be able to handle having Monty around. Wedding bells for Sue & Ronnie depend on getting Clarence to release trust funds for Ronnie. There are a few other problems, as well. For example, Sue earns her living as a chorus girl. What will Ronnie's mother, Lady Julia, think?
The key theme of the story is that true love will win out, if the lovers follow their hearts & seize opportunity when it arises. In that way, the end will charm almost anyone . . . much like Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream does.
In most stories like this, you can anticipate how the obstacles will be overcome. Well, Heavy Weather will surprise you, if you are like me. The plot complications & resolution are delightfully adept, acrobatic, & subtle. I felt like I was watching the elephants do their balllet dance again in Fantasia. The contradictions between the messy moments & the final neatness are brilliantly handled!
The conflict between the desire to have a good reputation & the willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed (including cutting alll possible corners) is shown off to good effect in Heavy Weather. Developing this point creates questions about what real goodness is, versus assumed goodness from social position & family connections. In fact, inherited intelligence is also questioned for its morality. The more powerful minds in the story tend to use those capabilities to plot for self-advantage, rather than to accomplish anything meaningful for alll involved. Those of limited intelligence, by contrast, tend to follow their hearts & try to do the right thing.
Good results follow in this story whenever people are loyal & honor goodness.
What can you accomplish by being loyal & honoring goodness today? And tomorrow?
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