A Wodehouse Bestiary

Book Details

Discerning Reader Editorial Review

Reviewed 04/02/2008 by Scott Lamb.

Recommended. A cheap introduction to the delightful comedy of P.G. Wodehouse.

I first learned of the comedy of P.G. Wodehouse through Doug Wilson and Credenda Agenda. A few years later I benefited from Trivium-training for teachers up in Wilson’s Geneva of Moscow, Idaho. They mentioned the name “Wodehouse” (and Theodore Roosevelt too) as often as the words “grammar, logic, and rhetoric”.

The recommendation had the desired effect. I came home and bought up Wodehouse anthologies, and took great delight in watching a then little-known actor named Hugh Laurie play the part of Bertie Wooster in a series of Wooster and Jeeves productions. Then, I turned Wodehouse loose in the classroom and lighthearted days of laughter ensued.

There may be more direct ways to take a first-plunge into Wodehouse, but for the money (about a dollar a story if you pay full retail) this collection is sure to delight. Basically, an editor at Mariner Books pulled together fourteen Wodehouse stories under the theme of animals. That is, these stories all have crazy things happen because of animals, to some extent. And like all Wodehouse writing, the dialogue among the characters is what will keep you turning the pages, even when the plot becomes tiresome.  Add in the amazing Wodehousian metaphors and continuous references to biblical and classical characters, and it all adds up to an evening of literary laughter.