![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And who wouldn't sympathise with Lord Emsworth when he declares: "Look here Connie … You know I hate literary fellows. ![]() Safe not least because burrowing any deeper would put us firmly into the camp of the poets and poseurs that Lady Constance Keeble has started to inflict on her poor old brother at Blandings Castle. I think it's probably safest to assume that the only thing that really matters is that these sartorial notes are funny and help conjure up that magical inter-war world. But in Wodehouse, it just seems too much like over-explaining the joke, like attaching too much weight to an admirably light book. Why does he present Lord Emsworth "mould-stained and wearing a deplorable old jacket"? When we first meet Psmith, is it important that we are treated to the sight of "a very tall, very thin, very solemn young man, gleaming in a speckless top hat and a morning coat of irreproachable fit"? If this were Shakespeare I'd be looking for great significance in the similar descriptions that run throughout the book. Maybe it's possible to make something of the hilarious moral qualities Wodehouse ascribes to clothing. The truth is that I'd feel like I was attacking a soufflé with a pickaxe if I were to start hacking around for deep themes, dark images and political implications. ![]()
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