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Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls. Born in Guildford, the third son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy teenage years at Dulwich College, to which he remained devoted all his life. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction. Most of Wodehouse's fiction is set in his native United Kingdom, although he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeeves
Jeeves (born Reginald Jeeves, nicknamed Reggie) is a fictional character in a series of comedic short stories and novels by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the highly competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Bertie Wooster. First appearing in print in 1915, Jeeves continued to feature in Wodehouse's work until his last completed novel ''Aunts Aren't Gentlemen'' in 1974, a span of 60 years. Both the name "Jeeves" and the character of Jeeves have come to be thought of as the quintessential name and nature of a manservant, inspiring many similar characters as well as the name of an Internet search engine, Ask Jeeves, and a financial-technology company. A "Jeeves" is now a generic term as validated by its entry in the ''Oxford English Dictionary''. Jeeves is a valet, not a butler; that is, he is responsible for serving an individual, whereas a butler is responsible for a household and manages other servants. On rare occasions he does fill in for someone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bertie Wooster
Bertram Wilberforce Wooster is a fictional character in the comedic Jeeves stories created by British author P. G. Wodehouse. An amiable English gentleman and one of the "idle rich", Bertie appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose intelligence manages to save Bertie or one of his friends from numerous awkward situations. Bertie Wooster and Jeeves have been described as "one of the great comic double-acts of all time". Bertie is the narrator and central figure of most of the Jeeves short stories and novels. The two exceptions are the short story "Bertie Changes His Mind" (1922), which is narrated by Jeeves, and the novel ''Ring for Jeeves'' (1953), a third-person narration in which Bertie is mentioned but does not appear. First appearing in " Extricating Young Gussie" in 1915, Bertie is the narrator of ten novels and over 30 short stories, his last appearance being in the novel '' Aunts Aren't Gentlemen'', published in 1974. Inspiration The Wodehouse scholar Norman Murphy bel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earls Of Kimberley
Earl of Kimberley, of Kimberley in the County of Norfolk, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1866 for the prominent Liberal politician John Wodehouse, 3rd Baron Wodehouse. During his long political career, he notably held office as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Secretary of State for the Colonies, Secretary of State for India and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. At first a Liberal like his father, he later joined the Labour Party, becoming the first Labour member of the House of Lords. His eldest son, the third Earl, represented Norfolk Mid in the House of Commons as a Liberal. Since 2002, the titles are held by the latter's grandson, the fifth Earl. Background The title of Baron Wodehouse, of Kimberley in the County of Norfolk, was created in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1797 for Sir John Wodehouse, 6th Baronet, of Wilberhall. He had previously represented Norfolk in Parliament. His son, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oldest Member (character)
The Oldest Member (of a golf club with varying names) is a fictional character from the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse. He narrates the majority of Wodehouse's golf stories from the terrace of a golf club whose location is unclear. The location and name of the club change between the stories, and between the US and UK versions of some of the stories. The club's members enjoy having drinks in the clubhouse after a brisk eighteen holes; but they do so fully aware of the risk that the Oldest Member who, (though he has long since given up golf) has seen all and knows all, might pick up on their conversation and begin to relate a story from his experience. Once he has started talking, he cannot be stopped. These stories are often told to another character, a 'young man' who is eager to leave before the story has even started. Isaac Asimov used a similar format for his '' Union Club Mysteries''. Inspiration One of the club's names, Manhooset, may be a reference to Manhas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blandings Castle
Blandings Castle is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Lord Emsworth (Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth), home to many of his family and the setting for numerous tales and adventures. The stories were written between 1915 and 1975. The series of stories taking place at the castle, in its environs and involving its denizens have come to be known as the "Blandings books", or, in a phrase used by Wodehouse in his preface to the 1969 reprint of the first book, "the Blandings Castle Saga". In a radio broadcast on 15 July 1961, Evelyn Waugh said: "The gardens of Blandings Castle are that original garden from which we are all exiled." The Castle Blandings Castle, lying in the picturesque Vale of Blandings, Shropshire, England, is from the town of Market Blandings, home to at least nine pubs, most notably the Emsworth Arms. The tiny hamlet of Blandings Parva lies directly outside the castle gates and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guy Bolton
Guy Reginald Bolton (23 November 1884 – 4 September 1979) was an Anglo-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the US, he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred working in collaboration with others, principally the English writers P. G. Wodehouse and Fred Thompson, with whom he wrote 21 and 14 shows respectively, and the American playwright George Middleton, with whom he wrote ten shows. Among his other collaborators in Britain were George Grossmith Jr., Ian Hay and Weston and Lee. In the US, he worked with George and Ira Gershwin, Kalmar and Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II. Bolton is best known for his early work on the Princess Theatre musicals during the First World War with Wodehouse and the composer Jerome Kern. These shows moved the American musical away from the traditions of European operetta to small scale, intimate productions with what the ''Oxford Encyclopedia of Popular Music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psmith
Rupert Psmith (or Ronald Eustace Psmith, as he is called in the last of the four books in which he appears) is a recurring fictional character in several novels by British author P. G. Wodehouse, being one of Wodehouse's best-loved characters. The P in his surname is Silent letter, silent ("as in pshrimp", in his own words) and was added by himself, in order to distinguish him from other Smiths. A member of the Drones Club, Psmith is a monocle-sporting Old Eton College, Etonian. He is something of a dandy, a fluent and witty speaker, and has the ability to pass through incredible adventures unruffled. Origins Wodehouse said that he based Psmith on Rupert D'Oyly Carte (1876–1948), the son of the Gilbert and Sullivan impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte, as he put it "the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a silver plate with watercress around it". Carte was a school acquaintance of a cousin of Wodehouse at Winchester College, according to an introduction to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Emsworth
Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl Emsworth, commonly known as Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings Castle series of stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of the large Threepwood family. Longing for nothing more than to talk to his prize pig, Empress of Blandings, or potter peacefully in the idyllic gardens of Blandings Castle, he must frequently face the unpleasant reality of his domineering sisters and familial duties. Lord Emsworth's first appearance is in the novel ''Something Fresh'' (1915). The last completed work by Wodehouse in which Emsworth appears is ''A Pelican at Blandings'' (1969). He is also in Wodehouse's unfinished novel ''Sunset at Blandings''. Origins Wodehouse frequently named his characters after places with which he was familiar, and Lord Emsworth takes his name from the Hampshire town of Emsworth, where Wodehouse spent some time in the 1900s; he first went there in 1903, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as " Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", " A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "The Song Is You", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Long Ago (and Far Away)". He collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era, including George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg. A native New Yorker, Kern created dozens of Broadway musicals and Hollywood films in a career that lasted for more than four decades. His musical innovations, such as 4/4 dance rhythms and the employment of syncopation and jazz progressions, built on, rather than rejec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mr Mulliner
Mr. Mulliner is a fictional character from the short stories of P. G. Wodehouse. Mr. Mulliner is a loquacious pub raconteur who, no matter what the topic of conversation, can find an appropriate (if improbable) story about a member of his family to match it. Like much of Wodehouse's work, the Mr. Mulliner stories were originally written for magazine publication. Thirty-seven of the 41 overall Mulliner stories were originally published between 1926 and 1937. The final four stories appeared much later, being published between 1958 and 1972. Overview Like his fellow Wodehouse character, the Oldest Member, the raconteur Mr. Mulliner can turn any conversation into a "recollection", or funny story. A habitué of the Angler's Rest pub, his fellow drinkers are identified only by their beverages. (Mr. Mulliner is a '' Hot Scotch and Lemon''.) Wodehouse revealed in an introduction that he devised Mr. Mulliner after collecting notebooks full of ideas that could not be used because they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Wodehouse
Richard Lancelot Deane Wodehouse (30 May 1892 – 20 May 1940) was an English cricketer. Born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, his entire recorded cricket career took place in Asia. He was one of three brothers of the author P. G. Wodehouse. Wodehouse died in Cookham, Berkshire, in 1940, leaving a widow, Winifred Baker Wodehouse, and property valued at £1,920. His address at death was given as Woodlands, Cookham Dean. Career In April 1919, Wodehouse made his debut for the Straits Settlements, playing against the Federated Malay States in Singapore. The following year, he played twice for Hong Kong; against Malaya and a combined Shanghai/Malaya team.Other matches played by Richard Wodehouse at CricketArchive He returned to play two more matches for the Straits Settlements against ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humorist
A humorist (American) or humourist (British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business entertainers whose business is to make an audience laugh. It is possible to play both roles in the course of a career. The iconic humorist Mark Twain (pen name of Samuel Langhorn Clemens, 1835–1910) was widely considered the "greatest humorist" the U.S. ever produced, as noted in his ''New York Times'' obituary. It's a distinction that garnered wide agreement, as William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature". The United States national cultural center, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, has chosen to award a Mark Twain Prize for American Humor annually since 1998 to individuals who have "had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th century novelist and essayist best known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
