P. G. Wodehouse: The Case of Leisure as the Sole Topic of an Author’s Output

Abstract

For those of us who first came to Wodehouse through the medium of Penguin Paperbacks, certain glowing critical comments on the book covers stick in the mind. The endlessly repeated encomium by Waugh is not the most apposite here, however (for those who feared another repeat). Probably the most relevant on the occasion of one more, rather solemn discussion of Wodehouse’s work is that of A. P. Ryan in the New Statesman, quoting the assertion in Punch that trying to criticise Wodehouse is like taking a spade to a soufflé. Wodehouse was amused, perhaps a little irritated, by those who examined his work with critical zeal. He referred even to the magnificent Richard Usborne as ‘a certain learned Usborne’.¹ When, as is often the case on scholarly occasions, footnotes are added by way of paraphernalia, then Wodehouse’s now heavenly ridicule is assured.² Clearly unease is an appropriate sensation for anyone trying to say something ‘serious’ about the work of an immensely able, if self-consciously limited, comic writer.³ Why spoil a good thing? After all, Wodehouse certainly had no message. Wodehouse was of the view that writing was to be enjoyed, not analysed. His own writing was the product of enormous hard work directed towards the amusement of his readers.