DDC/MDS
| 823.912 |
Publication
Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, Doran & company, inc., 1929.
Original publication date
1929
Description
Another laugh-aloud story of Blandings Castle, set in an idyllic part of Shropshire, England, where the sun always seems to shine, even when it's stormy.
Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collection
User reviews
LibraryThing member ctpress
“Hugo?’ ‘Millicent?’ ‘Is that you?’ ‘Yes. Is that you?’ ‘Yes.’ Anything in the nature of misunderstanding was cleared away. It was both of them.”
Nr. 3 in the Blandings saga.
Unfortunately Psmith - the main character in nr. 2 - does not reappear. On the other hand Lord Emsworth
In addition we have several love-twists - Hugo Carmody wants to marry Millicent Threepwood - but her family want her to wed Ronnie - however he’s in love with the chorus girl Sue Brown (who are meanwhile the love-attention of the detective Percy Frobisher Pilbeam - oh, what names, I love it) - and then there’s the pig. Who stole it? What are the motive?
“Lady Constance’s lips tightened, and a moment passed during which it seemed always a fifty-fifty chance that a handsome silver ink-pot would fly through the air in the direction of her brother’s head.”
Nr. 3 in the Blandings saga.
Unfortunately Psmith - the main character in nr. 2 - does not reappear. On the other hand Lord Emsworth
Show More
finally comes to the forefront and plays a major part. We learn that he not only have an obsession with his garden flowers but also for his dear prize-winning pig. When it is stolen all hell breaks loose at Blanding Castle. In addition we have several love-twists - Hugo Carmody wants to marry Millicent Threepwood - but her family want her to wed Ronnie - however he’s in love with the chorus girl Sue Brown (who are meanwhile the love-attention of the detective Percy Frobisher Pilbeam - oh, what names, I love it) - and then there’s the pig. Who stole it? What are the motive?
“Lady Constance’s lips tightened, and a moment passed during which it seemed always a fifty-fifty chance that a handsome silver ink-pot would fly through the air in the direction of her brother’s head.”
Show Less
LibraryThing member iayork
More Piggish Capers at Blandings Castle:
Summer Lightning is one of the several delightful books in the Blandings Castle series by P.G. Wodehouse. Summer Lightning is better than many other P.G. Wodehouse books in that the plot and character development are more thorough than most which keeps the
Clarence, the ninth Earl of Emsworth, is at home in his castle in Shropshire where he dotes on his famous prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings. Having dispatched his earlier secretary, Baxter, Clarence is at peace contemplating how his pig will win again when he learns from his brother Galahad (Gally) that the neighbor's pig man is offering 3:1 odds against the Empress. Clarence and Gally presume that their neighbor, Sir Gregory Parsloe is planning to knobble the Empress. Their worst fears are borne out when the Empress disappears!
At the same time, Parsloe lives in fear that Gally will publish old stories about his wild younger days in Gally's new book. Clarence's and Gally's sister Connie wants to stop publication as well. Soon the castle is overrun with manuscript thieves!
At the same time, love is in the air. Clarence's new secretary, Hugo Carmody, is secretly and unsuitably in love with Millicent Threepwood, niece to Clarence, Connie and Gally, and Millicent is in love with him. But they need to get some financial help to pull off the merger.
Ronald Fish, a wealthy young man whose money is tied with Clarence, is also in love with an unsuitable person . . . one Sue Brown who is a chorus girl. Ronnie has proven himself to be a poor judge of investments in the past, and Clarence is skeptical of allowing any more money. It doesn't help when Clarence finds that Ronnie doesn't truly share his love of pigs!
Will love win out? Of course! It's a P.G. Wodehouse book. But before love wins, humor will take the day in many silly scenes worthy of Shakespeare's best in the forest of Arden.
Summer Lightning is one of the several delightful books in the Blandings Castle series by P.G. Wodehouse. Summer Lightning is better than many other P.G. Wodehouse books in that the plot and character development are more thorough than most which keeps the
Show More
fun going longer. Clarence, the ninth Earl of Emsworth, is at home in his castle in Shropshire where he dotes on his famous prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings. Having dispatched his earlier secretary, Baxter, Clarence is at peace contemplating how his pig will win again when he learns from his brother Galahad (Gally) that the neighbor's pig man is offering 3:1 odds against the Empress. Clarence and Gally presume that their neighbor, Sir Gregory Parsloe is planning to knobble the Empress. Their worst fears are borne out when the Empress disappears!
At the same time, Parsloe lives in fear that Gally will publish old stories about his wild younger days in Gally's new book. Clarence's and Gally's sister Connie wants to stop publication as well. Soon the castle is overrun with manuscript thieves!
At the same time, love is in the air. Clarence's new secretary, Hugo Carmody, is secretly and unsuitably in love with Millicent Threepwood, niece to Clarence, Connie and Gally, and Millicent is in love with him. But they need to get some financial help to pull off the merger.
Ronald Fish, a wealthy young man whose money is tied with Clarence, is also in love with an unsuitable person . . . one Sue Brown who is a chorus girl. Ronnie has proven himself to be a poor judge of investments in the past, and Clarence is skeptical of allowing any more money. It doesn't help when Clarence finds that Ronnie doesn't truly share his love of pigs!
Will love win out? Of course! It's a P.G. Wodehouse book. But before love wins, humor will take the day in many silly scenes worthy of Shakespeare's best in the forest of Arden.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ben_a
The stories of Blandings castle show Wodehouse at his most lyrical, a man in love with the world. Have you ever been in a building with translucent stone walls? This novel reminds me of that: it has the bones of a light comedy, but one suffused by an external radiance.
LibraryThing member Dorritt
Wodehouse never disappoints! If you haven't had the pleasure, the best I can do is to compare him to Oscar Wilde - they both write the sorts of stories that involve bright young things exchanging dazzlingly witty dialog and getting themselves entangled in preposterous situations that are only in
In this outing, Wodehouse supplies us with not one but two seemingly doomed romances, the first between Hugh Carmody, secretary to wealthy Lord Emsworth and Emsworth's haughty daughter Millicent, the second between Ronnie Fish, Emsworth's ne'er-do-well nephew and Sue, a self-possessed chorus girl. Now throw in Galahad Emsworth, who's writing a tell-all bio destined to embarrass most of England's peerage; Pilbeam, a comical private detective; Parsloe-Parsloe, a blustering neighbor; Baxter, Emsworth's former secretary, who has an odd propensity for falling out of windows; Beach, the unflappable butler - mix generously with a convoluted plot involving attempted larceny, impersonation, flower-pot throwing, and a particularly nefarious pig-napping - and you get this froth of a confection: bright, clever, breezy, and laugh-out-loud funny. (Honest to goodness, I almost choked trying not to burst out laughing in my doctor's waiting room.) Absolutely PERFECT beach reading, though I make a point of reading Wodehouse year-round because there's never a time when a bit of humor isn't just what the doctor ordered.
Show More
the end untangled by a combination of luck and cleverness. Think The Importance of Being Ernest lite.In this outing, Wodehouse supplies us with not one but two seemingly doomed romances, the first between Hugh Carmody, secretary to wealthy Lord Emsworth and Emsworth's haughty daughter Millicent, the second between Ronnie Fish, Emsworth's ne'er-do-well nephew and Sue, a self-possessed chorus girl. Now throw in Galahad Emsworth, who's writing a tell-all bio destined to embarrass most of England's peerage; Pilbeam, a comical private detective; Parsloe-Parsloe, a blustering neighbor; Baxter, Emsworth's former secretary, who has an odd propensity for falling out of windows; Beach, the unflappable butler - mix generously with a convoluted plot involving attempted larceny, impersonation, flower-pot throwing, and a particularly nefarious pig-napping - and you get this froth of a confection: bright, clever, breezy, and laugh-out-loud funny. (Honest to goodness, I almost choked trying not to burst out laughing in my doctor's waiting room.) Absolutely PERFECT beach reading, though I make a point of reading Wodehouse year-round because there's never a time when a bit of humor isn't just what the doctor ordered.
Show Less
LibraryThing member FolioSociety
Summer Lightning is a wonderful book and a joy to read. It sparkles with wonderful characterizations, settings, situations, dialogue and, of course, humour. The twists and turns of the plot flowed smoothly from one to another naturally and almost effortlessly. Wodehouse is a master with prose and
Show More
it clearly shows. Show Less
LibraryThing member VickyKaseorg
I started reading PG Wodehouse after the very depressing Uris, and Ayn Rand novels I had recently tackled. I needed something light and fun. It took me three books before I began to enjoy Wodehouse. It is a little silly and slapstick, even, but also clever satire on the idle rich. Once I got past
I don't think any great truths will enrapture anyone's souls with these books, but they will make you laugh.
Show More
the need to read something that is good for my intellect or my soul, I realized I was enjoying this book. I prefer this one to his Jeeves books that I had read- but it could just be that I was developing a taste for his style of humor.I don't think any great truths will enrapture anyone's souls with these books, but they will make you laugh.
Show Less
LibraryThing member CarltonC
Inspired writing that brings a smile to the face with nearly every page and regular chuckles. This was a fantastic book to read in winter, as it breathes so much warmth of summer.
This is my first Blandings book and certainly won't be my last. As inspired as the Jeeves and Wooster books that I have
This has been such a joyful romp of a read, excruciatingly silly, yes, but with such a fine command of the language of comedy. It has to be read as a whole to be appreciated, as the humour is not preserved when quoting passages lifted from the text. However that is its strength.
The plot is about overcoming the difficulties of the love lives of bright young members of the British aristocracy in a rose tinted, imagined period following the First World War (written in 1929) and how this impacts on the disappearance and subsequent discovery of the Earl of Blandings' prize pig, the Empress of Blandings. It also involves a butler (Beach), who has not reached the intellectual pinnacle of Jeeves, a dismissed secretary (the Efficient Baxter) who is trying to recover his lost position, and a private eye, Percy Frobisher Pilbeam.
The edition that I read was published by the Folio Society and is copiously and beautifully illustrated by Paul Cox, which enhances the reading experience by making you imagine that you too have managed to sneak into some cosy sunlit library in 1920's England. Brilliant fun.
This is my first Blandings book and certainly won't be my last. As inspired as the Jeeves and Wooster books that I have
Show More
read have been, I have always had the Fry and Laurie interpretation in mind, which was some of the best comedy ever on TV in my opinion. However, I think that this has diminished my enjoyment of the books when I subsequently came to them.This has been such a joyful romp of a read, excruciatingly silly, yes, but with such a fine command of the language of comedy. It has to be read as a whole to be appreciated, as the humour is not preserved when quoting passages lifted from the text. However that is its strength.
The plot is about overcoming the difficulties of the love lives of bright young members of the British aristocracy in a rose tinted, imagined period following the First World War (written in 1929) and how this impacts on the disappearance and subsequent discovery of the Earl of Blandings' prize pig, the Empress of Blandings. It also involves a butler (Beach), who has not reached the intellectual pinnacle of Jeeves, a dismissed secretary (the Efficient Baxter) who is trying to recover his lost position, and a private eye, Percy Frobisher Pilbeam.
The edition that I read was published by the Folio Society and is copiously and beautifully illustrated by Paul Cox, which enhances the reading experience by making you imagine that you too have managed to sneak into some cosy sunlit library in 1920's England. Brilliant fun.
Show Less
LibraryThing member soraki
The Honorable Galahad Threepwood is writing his memoirs of his misspent youth, and all of his acquaintances, both friends and enemies alike, quell in their shoes. Meanwhile, Lord Emsworth is worried that something will happen to his prize-winning pig with the annual Agricultural Show coming up
Imposters, pig thieves, and manuscript thieves run amuck at Blandings Castle in another comedy by P.G. Wodehouse.
Show More
again.Imposters, pig thieves, and manuscript thieves run amuck at Blandings Castle in another comedy by P.G. Wodehouse.
Show Less
LibraryThing member augustusgump
You can’t be serious about writing humorous fiction – maybe I should just leave it at that, but what I was going to say is that you can’t be serious about writing humorous fiction without some degree of familiarity with the works of the great P. G. Wodehouse, for many the funniest writer in
I recently renewed my acquaintance with the master after many years and read “Summer Lightning.” This is one of the Blandings Castle books, after the Jeeves and Wooster tales perhaps the best known and best loved of Wodehouse’s creations.
A little way into the book, I was surprised to find myself enjoying it less than I expected to. It’s not difficult to figure out where my problem lies. The plot is funny, of course, and the language is sublime, but – and it’s a big but – there’s no Bertie Wooster telling the tale.
In the Wooster books, it’s Bertie’s character and his reaction to events that makes us chuckle more than the plot. This is heavily dependent on Wodehouse’s brilliant use of the first person narrative, which puts us right there in Bertie’s muddled brain. Bertie leads us through the story, and he is excellent company. It’s this fondness we have for the narrator that lends the stories their charm and immediacy. Take away the first person narrative and you still have the plot and the language, but there’s no Bertie. This is also the reason why no television series has ever been able to do justice to the books, no matter how good the adaptation and how excellent the efforts of Messrs. Carmichael and Price or Lawrie and Fry.
Served up in the third person, Wodehouse’s characters can seem bland. Imagine Aunt Agatha, if she were not seen through Bertie’s eyes. She would not seem half as terrifying. Worse, the “romantic leads” can occasionally be annoying, a case in point being Ronnie Fish in Summer Lightning. The situations his childish jealousy land him in, make me roll my eyes rather than laugh. This is never a problem in the Wooster books, as Bertie himself never plays this role and the amorous friends he attempts to help are clearly silly asses and a source of exasperation to Bertie, rather than to the reader.
Just when it looks like Summer Lightning is going to be a bit of a disappointment, the action switches to Blandings Castle and Wodehouse hits his stride with a plot whose very complexity makes it hilarious and a set of characters to savour – Lord Emsworth, the Honourable Galahad, Beech the butler, Percy Pilbeam, private eye, and especially the Efficient Baxter, his Lordship’s ex-secretary, whose every action aimed at correcting the widely held view that he is completely bonkers only serves to reinforce the impression that he is not only a first rate loony, but also the kind of scoundrel who would steal his host’s prize pig and blame it on an innocent butler.
Very funny and recommended. I have to give it five stars, even if it is not in the same sublime class as the Jeeves and Wooster books. Those should have six stars.
Show More
the English language.I recently renewed my acquaintance with the master after many years and read “Summer Lightning.” This is one of the Blandings Castle books, after the Jeeves and Wooster tales perhaps the best known and best loved of Wodehouse’s creations.
A little way into the book, I was surprised to find myself enjoying it less than I expected to. It’s not difficult to figure out where my problem lies. The plot is funny, of course, and the language is sublime, but – and it’s a big but – there’s no Bertie Wooster telling the tale.
In the Wooster books, it’s Bertie’s character and his reaction to events that makes us chuckle more than the plot. This is heavily dependent on Wodehouse’s brilliant use of the first person narrative, which puts us right there in Bertie’s muddled brain. Bertie leads us through the story, and he is excellent company. It’s this fondness we have for the narrator that lends the stories their charm and immediacy. Take away the first person narrative and you still have the plot and the language, but there’s no Bertie. This is also the reason why no television series has ever been able to do justice to the books, no matter how good the adaptation and how excellent the efforts of Messrs. Carmichael and Price or Lawrie and Fry.
Served up in the third person, Wodehouse’s characters can seem bland. Imagine Aunt Agatha, if she were not seen through Bertie’s eyes. She would not seem half as terrifying. Worse, the “romantic leads” can occasionally be annoying, a case in point being Ronnie Fish in Summer Lightning. The situations his childish jealousy land him in, make me roll my eyes rather than laugh. This is never a problem in the Wooster books, as Bertie himself never plays this role and the amorous friends he attempts to help are clearly silly asses and a source of exasperation to Bertie, rather than to the reader.
Just when it looks like Summer Lightning is going to be a bit of a disappointment, the action switches to Blandings Castle and Wodehouse hits his stride with a plot whose very complexity makes it hilarious and a set of characters to savour – Lord Emsworth, the Honourable Galahad, Beech the butler, Percy Pilbeam, private eye, and especially the Efficient Baxter, his Lordship’s ex-secretary, whose every action aimed at correcting the widely held view that he is completely bonkers only serves to reinforce the impression that he is not only a first rate loony, but also the kind of scoundrel who would steal his host’s prize pig and blame it on an innocent butler.
Very funny and recommended. I have to give it five stars, even if it is not in the same sublime class as the Jeeves and Wooster books. Those should have six stars.
Show Less
LibraryThing member losloper
The Honourable Galahad Threepwood has decided to write his memoirs and England's aristocrats are all diving for cover, not least Galahad's formidable sister Lady Constance Keeble who fears that her brother will ruin the family reputation with saucy stories of the 1890s. But Galahad's memoirs are
Show More
not the only cause for concern. Yet again Lord Emsworth's prize pig has been stolen and, as usual, the castle seems to be buzzing with imposters all pretending to be one another. Love and natural justice triumph in the end, but not before Wodehouse has tangled and unangled a plot of Shakespearean complexity in a novel which might as well be subtitled 'The Price of the Papers'. Show Less
LibraryThing member PhilSyphe
If you need cheering up, read “Summer Lightning”.
Lord Emsworth is now officially my favourite Wodehouse character creation. In fact the distracted earl is one of the funniest characters created by anyone I’ve ever read. Bless my soul, indeed he is!
Lord Emsworth is now officially my favourite Wodehouse character creation. In fact the distracted earl is one of the funniest characters created by anyone I’ve ever read. Bless my soul, indeed he is!
LibraryThing member Pferdina
As Wodehouse states in the preface, this book contains all his old characters under their same old names. It's typical Wodehouse, set mostly at Blandings Castle.
LibraryThing member ben_a
A re-read. The master at the height of his powers. Notable for:
-Millicent Threepwood on Schopenhauer
-The trials of the Efficient Baxter
-The Efficient Baxter's letter to Sue Brown
-Drunk P. Frobisher Pilbeam
-Faithful servitors
-Millicent Threepwood on Schopenhauer
-The trials of the Efficient Baxter
-The Efficient Baxter's letter to Sue Brown
-Drunk P. Frobisher Pilbeam
-Faithful servitors
LibraryThing member tgraettinger
Classic Wodehouse, a joy to read.
LibraryThing member leslie.98
2019 reread via Kindle library book: 4.5*
I can't decide which parts of this Blandings Castle book I like best - is it the humiliation of the Efficient Baxter, returned to Blandings at the request of Lady Constance, or is it the ups and downs of the 2 romances, Hugh Carmody & Millicent and Ronnie
I can't decide which parts of this Blandings Castle book I like best - is it the humiliation of the Efficient Baxter, returned to Blandings at the request of Lady Constance, or is it the ups and downs of the 2 romances, Hugh Carmody & Millicent and Ronnie
Show More
Fish & Sue Brown, or the wonderful scene in which Clarence and Galahad confront Sir Godfrey Parsloe-Parsloe about the theft of that prize-winning pig the Empress? It doesn't matter - it is all deliciously funny! Show Less
LibraryThing member ben_a
Read quickly on vacation -- the travel day from London to Salzburg. Magnificent.
Subjects
Awards
Physical description
3 p.; 20 cm
Local notes
light wear and chips to edges of dust jacket, etse very good.