Reviews

Summer Lightning: A Blandings Story by P.G. Wodehouse

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latas's review against another edition

4.0

“A certain critic -- for such men, I regret to say, do exist -- made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.' He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have out-generalled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.”

Just as Wodehouse promises there is the same set of people doing the same set of things like writing memoirs, stealing pigs or manuscripts or both, falling in and out of love, getting engaged and dis-engaged, masquerading as someone else, dominating aunts, efficient butlers..........It is all the same yet so different. The plot gets complicated and we can trust Wodehouse to put everything into order in the end.
I can never get tired of Wodehouse.

"This is peculiarly an age of young men starting out in business for themselves; of rare, unfettered spirits chafing at the bonds of employment and refusing to spend their lives working forty-eight weeks in the year for a salary."
This book was published 100 yrs ago. This quote is relevant even today. When Galahad keeps saying 'in the 90s', I suddenly realized he meant 1890s, not 1990s.

kerryanndunn's review against another edition

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4.0

"The ninth Earl was a man of few and simple ambitions. He had never desired to mould the destinies of the State, to frame its laws and make speeches in the House of Lords that would bring all peers and bishops to their feet, whooping and waving their hats. All he yearned to do, by way of ensuring admittance to England's Hall of Fame, was to tend his prize sow, Empress of Blandings..."

Oh, Clarence and his love for his prized pig. If you want something light and amusing and wry and clever without being pretentious, pick up a P.G. Wodehouse novel. Pure entertainment and nothing more. I love the Blandings Castle crew, but especially Clarence and Galahad. I always see Wodehouse novels as films in my mind. In this film, I see these brothers both played by the same actor just in different costumes: Peter O'Toole. One with pince-nez the other with a monocle so you for sure won't get them mixed up when on screen.

Just look at him. Put a monocle on him and he is Galahad!

adamz24's review against another edition

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4.0

Pure comic genius; a tale of epic complexity involving more prize pigs being stolen, threats to aristocratic reputations, impostors, dismissed and possibly insane secretaries, 'brilliant' plots, butlers in distress, and lovers in situations approaching the maximum of thickness than is fair to throw at a reader who tends to read in public, and has a family history of heart problems.

This was the first book to really focus on Blandings Castle and its inhabitants and not just use it as a setting as Something Fresh and Leave it to Psmith did. As I remember, the sequel to Summer Lightning, Heavy Weather, is somehow even better. We'll see.

veealiceh's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

3.25

First foray into PG Wodehouse as per Nick.
I get why PG has done so well and how he wrote so many books but I’m not 100% sure they are for me.
Light-hearted but I think I missed some of the humour.