When P.G. Wodehouse died in February 1975, he was working on another Blandings Castle novel, full of all the classic Blandings trademarks: a niece in love with an ineligible young man, forbidding aunts, a mischievous and complicated plot concocted by Uncle Gally to unite the young lovers, an assortment of other guests dealing with their own romantic misadventures, and, of course, the Empress of Blandings herself, presiding over all with the majesty that befits her enormous girth. The book was never finished but in 1977 the manuscript was published as Sunset at Blandings and it makes for an interesting read, though it is nowhere near as satisfying as Wodehouse at his best.
Sunset at Blandings is recognizably Wodehouse but it is not finished Wodehouse. There are too many phrases that need polishing, too many short scenes that need fleshing out with the verbal gymnastics that were Wodehouse’s trademark. The established characters (Gally, Lord Emsworth, Freddie, etc) are recognizable but Gally especially is not quite up to the mark. I am used to treasuring his every word but here, in this early draft, many of them fall flat. They are almost funny but seem to act more as placeholders for where jokes should go rather than fill that purpose themselves. Still, I find it impossible to feel hard done by: any glimpse of Gally is better than none. I love this passage particularly:
Galahad Threepwood was the only genuinely distinguished member of the family of which Lord Emsworth was the head. Lord Emsworth himself had once won a first prize for pumpkins at the Shropshire Agricultural Show, and his Berkshire sow, Empress of Blandings, had three times been awarded the silver medal for fatness, but you could not say that he had really risen to eminence in the public life of England. But Gally had made a name for himself. There were men in London – bookmakers, skittle sharps, jellied eel sellers on race courses, and men like that – who would not have known whom you were referring to if you had mentioned Einstein, but they all knew Gally. He had been, till that institution passed beyond the veil, a man at whom the old Pelican Club pointed with pride, and had known more policemen by their first names than any man in the metropolis.
The story part of the book is brief; just sixteen chapters but far shorter in length than the chapters in Wodehouse’s finished books. Had he lived, these would have been expanded and polished, filled with ramblingly and highly amusing speeches from Gally, no doubt. But it is getting to see the story so early on in the process that makes this book so interesting. The story is far from original but maybe that is why it is so easy to tell what is missing, what needs to be fleshed out, and what is not quite right. As a reader, you know how Wodehouse handled this material before and you have a pretty firm idea of how he would have handled it here, given the chance. The second half of the book contains his notes on the story and his ideas for what to change (playing around with characters’ back stories, giving minor characters love interests, that sort of thing) so you have an even clearer idea of what would have been altered as he continued to work on the book. It is fascinating to know that characters and plots did not spring fully formed onto the page but were instead developed and inserted over time.
As a story, this is nothing special but as a glimpse of how Wodehouse approached writing a novel, it is fascinating.
I can never decide if Uncle Gally or Uncle Fred is my favorite Wodehouse uncle. I haven’t come across this novel, but now I’m interested in this as an insight into his writing.
It is such a difficult choice, isn’t it?
I always find it fascinating to read the “notes left behind” and get a glimpse of how an author worked things out in their stories.
That really was the most interesting part of the whole book!
I read somewhere that Wodehouse liked to write his characters into a corner and then have the fun of writing them back out again. He was a master at that.
He was, indeed, though he hadn’t quite figured out how to get his characters into those corners yet in this draft of the story. Just another of the elements that would obviously have been worked on, had he lived.
It is interesting to see what goes into the making of a novel and this book seems to provide that insight. You have reminded me of one of my favorite authors and that I need to read more books by him. After rereading “The Pursuit of Love” recently I would love to read another book that makes me laugh.
I probably would never have searched out a book simply on Wodehouse’s writing process but that’s what I got here and it was really interesting! I hope you do pick up some more Wodehouse soon; he is always a delight.
I’m ashamed to admit that I have never read Wodehouse. What title should I read first?
“Shoulds” are always dangerous. I’d say probably start with one of the Jeeves books (Joy in the Morning or The Code of the Woosters are particularly good) and go on from there!