A grammatical error, or P.G. Wodehouse on American politics
"If Mr. Wilberfloss had been a politician, he would have been one of those dealers in glittering generalities who used to be fashionable in American politics."
— P.G. Wodehouse, Psmith, Journalist (1915)
 |
| First edition, A&C Black, 1915 |
And the following, from the novel's preface, ought to tantalize fans of crime fiction that crosses borders:
"There are several million inhabitants of New York. Not all of them eke out a precarious livelihood by murdering one another, but there is a definite section of the population which murders—not casually, on the spur of the moment, but on definitely commercial lines at so many dollars per murder. The `gangs' of New York exist in fact. I have not invented them. Most of the incidents in this story are based on actual happenings."© Peter Rozovsky 2013
Labels: comedy, Humor, P.G. Wodehouse, Psmith
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 12:07 AM
10 Comments:
Peter
Isnt that the one with the immortal line "Cozy Moments Will Not Be Silenced"?
I quite enjoyed the Psmith stories, not quite up there with Wooster or Blandings but still thats high praise indeed...
Yes, that's the one.
I somehow like it less each time I re-read it, which is odd for me and Wodehouse; I like most of them more each time I re-read.
You're both right. That is, indeed, the Cozy Moments story, which I ought to enjoy given my profession.
I have not got far with previous efforts to read Psmith. My favorite Woedehouses have been the Bertie & Jeeves stories along with the Mulliners and Oldest Members,
It might just be pure coincidence but seconds before looking to see what you'd been writing about recently, Peter, I'd been checking into online reviews of my Amazon DVD pre-order, famous for the narration
"There are eight million stories in the Naked City"
I don't know how many millions of stories there were in New York when Wodehouse published the novel in book form in 1915 or as a serial a few years before. Several, I presume.
Peter
Now that you've read Psmith, Journalist you should read Evelyn Waugh's Scoop next if you haven't already done so. I think you may like it a little better...
Peter
You could try Scoop by Evelyn Waugh, you may like it a little better than Psmith, Journalist...
Probably not as many as there were by the time 'The Naked City' rolled around
(always assuming New Yorkers' capacity for storytelling, or their capacity for doing something interesting, hadn't changed appreciably in the intervening 45 or so years)
PS: These numbers in the 'verifiers' really intrigue me. The kind of thing people take photos of, eh?
There's nowt as queer as folk, indeed!
Adrian, I have a copy of Scoop lying around somewhere from a Waugh spree I went on years. Maybe I'll dig it out, perhaps as a kind of decompression treatment as I distance myself gradually from my gangrenous profession.
TCK: Manhattan's population had hit 2.3 million by 1910, according to a source I just consulted, so Wodehouse was on safe ground.
Post a Comment
<< Home