Game 4, Book 1: The Purloined Paperweight/Company for Henry
Welcome to Game Four. Any new players may want to check out the rules, as found here.
We head back into the realm of fiction with the first book of this game. The author, P.G. Wodehouse, best known for the Jeeves and Wooster books, is regarded by many, including myself, as one of the greatest ever to write comic fiction in the English language. He was incredibly prolific, writing around 100 novels in his career, and appears even more prolific than that because his American and British publishers insisted on releasing books under different titles depending on what side of the Atlantic the buyers resided. Our book, released in 1967, is no exception to this, being titled The Purloined Paperweight in the states and Company for Henry in the UK.
What's it about? Here's the Jacket copy and an excerpt:
Glad tidings! A new Wodehouse!
This is the Old Master's 70th
(or 80th or 90th, but don't try to get an exact count by looking at the back of the jacket, because, in P.G. Wodehouse's world, as in Einstein's, one and one don't always add up to two)
perfect potpourri of
happy humor
loopy lovable characters
and incredible plot complications
which are exquisitely untangled.
Ingredients?
A full cast of Uncles and Nephews!
Hideous Regency castle!
A cat up a tree!
An ex-chorus girl cutie
with a heart of gold
and gloriously practical ideas
for investing it!
International finance!
Tender young love!
Smouldering passion!
A villain or two!
And...
A purloined paperweight!
An Excerpt, of a conversation between a valet and a butler:
"He seems a good sort and she's one of the best, and I'd like to see her happily married."
"If such a thing is possible, Mr. Clarkson."
His words jarred unpleasantly on Clarkson, who was a romantic. He was beginning to think that even Duff and Trotter's port could hardly compensate for having to listed to a man who held such subversive views.
"I hope you don't disapprove of marriage, Mr. Ferris."
"I do."
"Are you married?"
"A widower."
"Well, weren't you happy when you got married?"
"I was not."
"Was Mrs. Ferris?"
"She appeared to take a certain girlish pleasure in the ceremony, but it soon blew over."
"How do you account for that?"
"I could not say, Mr. Clarkson."
"I should have thought when two people love each other and want to get married-"
"Marriage is not a process for prolonging the life of love. It merely mummifies the corpse."
"But, Mr. Ferris, if there were no marriages, what would become of posterity?"
"I see no necessity for posterity, Mr. Clarkson."
"You disapprove of it?"
"I do."
Clarkson rose in a rather marked manner, as any man of sentiment would have done in his place. This butler's views on love, a subject to which he had given much thought from his earliest years, revolted him. If it was wrong of him to label Ferris in his mind as a potbellied old codfish who talked through the back of his neck, he must be forgiven, for he was much moved.
Poll Game Four, Book One: The Purloined Paperweight
Edit: A deadline would be useful. Let's say Tuesday Morning, (California time if it matters)
We head back into the realm of fiction with the first book of this game. The author, P.G. Wodehouse, best known for the Jeeves and Wooster books, is regarded by many, including myself, as one of the greatest ever to write comic fiction in the English language. He was incredibly prolific, writing around 100 novels in his career, and appears even more prolific than that because his American and British publishers insisted on releasing books under different titles depending on what side of the Atlantic the buyers resided. Our book, released in 1967, is no exception to this, being titled The Purloined Paperweight in the states and Company for Henry in the UK.
What's it about? Here's the Jacket copy and an excerpt:
Glad tidings! A new Wodehouse!
This is the Old Master's 70th
(or 80th or 90th, but don't try to get an exact count by looking at the back of the jacket, because, in P.G. Wodehouse's world, as in Einstein's, one and one don't always add up to two)
perfect potpourri of
happy humor
loopy lovable characters
and incredible plot complications
which are exquisitely untangled.
Ingredients?
A full cast of Uncles and Nephews!
Hideous Regency castle!
A cat up a tree!
An ex-chorus girl cutie
with a heart of gold
and gloriously practical ideas
for investing it!
International finance!
Tender young love!
Smouldering passion!
A villain or two!
And...
A purloined paperweight!
An Excerpt, of a conversation between a valet and a butler:
"He seems a good sort and she's one of the best, and I'd like to see her happily married."
"If such a thing is possible, Mr. Clarkson."
His words jarred unpleasantly on Clarkson, who was a romantic. He was beginning to think that even Duff and Trotter's port could hardly compensate for having to listed to a man who held such subversive views.
"I hope you don't disapprove of marriage, Mr. Ferris."
"I do."
"Are you married?"
"A widower."
"Well, weren't you happy when you got married?"
"I was not."
"Was Mrs. Ferris?"
"She appeared to take a certain girlish pleasure in the ceremony, but it soon blew over."
"How do you account for that?"
"I could not say, Mr. Clarkson."
"I should have thought when two people love each other and want to get married-"
"Marriage is not a process for prolonging the life of love. It merely mummifies the corpse."
"But, Mr. Ferris, if there were no marriages, what would become of posterity?"
"I see no necessity for posterity, Mr. Clarkson."
"You disapprove of it?"
"I do."
Clarkson rose in a rather marked manner, as any man of sentiment would have done in his place. This butler's views on love, a subject to which he had given much thought from his earliest years, revolted him. If it was wrong of him to label Ferris in his mind as a potbellied old codfish who talked through the back of his neck, he must be forgiven, for he was much moved.
Poll Game Four, Book One: The Purloined Paperweight
Edit: A deadline would be useful. Let's say Tuesday Morning, (California time if it matters)