Wednesday Wrenches in the Works

[evelyn_b]

What I've Finished Reading

The Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse was delightful, unexpectedly sweet (even for Wodehouse) and a much more successful use of Comedy American tropes than poor old Psmith Journalist. Sally is a young American heiress who has just come into a large fortune and hopes to use it to benefit her friends and family.

Comments

[scripsi]

I guess the reason he doesn't talk about his secret identity is supposed to be "Percy doesn't trust Marguerite not to denounce him immediately and there's no safe way to ask." Which is understandable if still a little unsatisfying, but doesn't really explain why he can't be nicer/less alienating toward her in his fop persona.

Sorry, I was a bit fuzzy. I meant the whole believing she had willfully betrayed those people. I don't know if I remember this correctly, but I believe Margurite really hates the aristocrat, but that she never meant that he and his family would be killed and she feels dreadful about it. But then Percy more or less accuse her and she gets mad at him and he ends up thinking she is cruel and callous.

If he had just said "Darling, I have heard this awful things said about you, things that I would never, ever believe, but I thought you should know." Then she had probably explained herself properly. For being such a smart man, Sir Percy is awfully quick in believing the worst of his wife.

I don't think I have seen Raymond Massey in anything before, but I love Leslie Howard. I can recommend Pygmalion and Gone With the Wind, but also Pimpernell Smith were he plays a contemporary man (this is during WWII) who spirits away people from Nazi concentration camps. It is an interesting piece of Brittish propaganda and reflects Howard's own views.

[evelyn_b]

I believe Margurite really hates the aristocrat, but that she never meant that he and his family would be killed and she feels dreadful about it. But then Percy more or less accuse her and she gets mad at him and he ends up thinking she is cruel and callous.

I don't have the book with me right now, but I think you're correct!
Yes, you'd think he could have gotten a little more information before jumping to conclusions and then acting all tragic about it. I don't know that I even hate the alienation/reconciliation plot in principle, but yeah. I found myself wondering if it would work better if the Marguerite/Percy alliance had begun as an arranged marriage or marriage of convenience, rather than a supposed love match that fell apart at the drop of a rumor.

Does Pimpernell Smith also have a stupid/frivolous persona? I would hate for Howard not to get a billion more opportunities to break out his Eyelids of Foppery. (Foppertunities?)

[scripsi]

I found myself wondering if it would work better if the Marguerite/Percy alliance had begun as an arranged marriage or marriage of convenience, rather than a supposed love match that fell apart at the drop of a rumor.

I think you are right. :)

Does Pimpernell Smith also have a stupid/frivolous persona? I would hate for Howard not to get a billion more opportunities to break out his Eyelids of Foppery. (Foppertunities?)

He's an archeologist, so a bit more serious. :) And foppertunities is the BEST Word! :D