A Wodehouse Bestiary, P.G. Wodehouse, edited and with a preface by G.K. Bensen, Foreword by Howard Phipps, Jr.
As well as being a talented novelist and lyricist, P.G. Wodehouse created memorable characters—Jeeves and Wooster, Psmith, Mr. Mulliner, and the zany inhabitants of Blandings—and humor that still provokes laughter. And in addition to all that, he was an animal lover, especially fond of dogs.
This collection selects fourteen short stories, each of which features some species and tons of graceful prose and hilarious situations, people, and critters. Jeeves and Wooster appear in “Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch” (a salmon from Harrods and a small herd or flock of cats), “Comrade Bingo” (Ocean Breeze, a racehorse so slow that he might come in first in the race after the one he’s in), “Jeeves and the Impending Doom” (a fiendish swan whose eyebrows meet in the center), and “Jeeves and the Old School Chum” (More race horses, thought this one presses the outer limit of “bestiary” rather far). All are wonderful, and “Jeeves and the Impending Doom” is splendid.
Blandings Castle is represented by “Pig Hoo-o-o-o-ey!” (the splendidly obese Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth’s prize-winning and much-beloved sow), the quintessential tale of man and pig. Freddy Threepwood of Blandings gets involved with a woman who keeps fourteen dogs in “The Go-Getter.’ The loquacious raconteur Mr. Mulliner narrates ‘The Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court’ (the Peke Reginald, plus -rabbits and ex-rabbits), ‘Something Squishy’ (a snake), “Monkey Business” (a fearsome but talented and quite personable gorilla, once you get to know him), “Open House” (cats, canaries, and other dumb chums), and ‘The Story of Webster” (the cat Webster). Ukridge the entrepreneur starts a college for dogs in, rather naturally, “Ukridge’s Dog College.”
I won’t go through every story, but all are amusing and some are treasures. I must mention “Uncle Fred Flits By,” a glorious tale of confusion in which a gray parrot plays a significant role, and “The Mixer,” narrated by a charming young but inexperienced watchdog.
Dogs, and Pekes in particular, often appear. The foreword, by the President of the New York Zoological Society, recalls Plum’s warmth toward animals and provokes a smile when he mentions that the author is memorialized in the name of the P.G. Wodehouse Shelter in Westhampton, Long Island. Wodehouse and his wife were seldom without a dog—one comfortable dachshund, and many Pekes—and if a man who likes dogs can’t be all bad, a man whom dogs like must be quite good indeed. Recommended.
