Episode 170: Code of the Woosters, Part 2, Ch. 5-9
This week on The Literary Life Podcast our hosts, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks, continue discussing P. G. Wodehouse\u2019s Code of the Woosters together, covering chapters 5-9 today. They share some similarities in Wodehouse\u2019s work to Shakespearean and Roman comic characters. Some of these stock characters are the couple, the helpful servant, the unhelpful servant, the irritable old man, and more. Angelina shares her take on Wodehouse\u2019s ability to complicate the comedic form. Cindy makes a comparison between the ease created by habits in life and form in stories. Delighting in Wodehouse\u2019s skill to turn a phrase, our hosts share many humorous passages throughout this episode, so be sure to stay tuned to the end to catch it all.
Find annotations for the slang, quotes, etc., for The Code of the Woosters here.
To find out more about Thomas\u2019 summer class on G. K. Chesterton and sign up for that, go to houseofhumaneletters.com. To register for Cindy\u2019s summer discipleship session, visit morningtimeformoms.com.
Commonplace Quotes:The gentleness and candour of Shakespeare\u2019s mind has impressed all his readers. But is impresses us still more the more we study the general tone of sixteenth-century literature. He is gloriously anomalous.
C. S. Lewis
He wrote to Sheran: What do you find to read these days? I simply can\u2019t cope with the American novel. The most ghastly things are published and sell a million copies, but good old Wodehouse will have none of them and sticks to English mystery stories. It absolutely beats me how people can read the stuff that is published now. I am reduced to English mystery stories and my own stuff. I was reading Blandings Castle again yesterday and was lost in admiration for the brilliance of the author.
P. G. Wodehouse, as quoted by Frances Donaldson
You notice that popular literature, the kind of stories that are read for relaxation, is always very highly conventionalized\u2026Wodehouse is a popular writer, and the fact that he is a popular writer has a lot to do with his use of stock plots. Of course he doesn\u2019t take his own plots seriously; he makes fun of them by the way he uses them; but so did Plautus and Terence.
Northrop Frye
Fashion\u2019s Phases\u2026when you go to his residence, the first thing you see is an enormous fireplace, and round it are carved in huge letters the words:\xa0TWO LOVERS BUILT THIS HOUSE. Her idea, I imagine. I can\u2019t believe Wells would have thought of that himself.
P. G. Wodehouse, in a letter to William Townend
by P. G. Wodehouse
When first I whispered words of love,\xa0
When first you turned aside to hear,\xa0
The winged griffin flew above,\xa0
The mammoth gaily gamboll\u2019d near;\xa0
I wore the latest thing in skins\xa0
Your dock-leaf dress had just been mended\xa0
And fastened-up with fishes fins \u2013\xa0
The whole effect was really splendid.\xa0
Again \u2013 we wondered by the Nile,\xa0
In Egypt\u2019s far, forgotten land,\xa0
And we watched the festive crocodile\xa0
Devour papyrus from your hand.\xa0
Far off across the plain we saw\xa0
The trader urge his flying camel;\xa0
Bright shone the scarab belt he wore,\xa0
Clasped with a sphinx of rare enamel.\xa0
Again \u2014 on Trojan plains I knelt;\xa0
Alas! In vain I strove to speak\xa0
And tell you all the love I felt\xa0
In more or less Homeric Greek;
Perhaps my helmet-strap was tight\xa0
And checked the thoughts I fain would utter,\xa0
Or else your robe of dreamy white\xa0
Bewildered me and made me stutter.\xa0
Once more we change the mise-en-scene;\xa0
The road curves across the hill;\xa0
Excitement makes you rather plain,\xa0
But on the whole I love you still,\xa0
As wreathed in veils and goggles blue,\xa0
And clad in mackintosh and leather,\xa0
Snug in our motor built for two\xa0
We skim the Brighton road together.\xa0
English Literature in the Sixteenth Century by C. S. Lewis
P. G. Wodehouse, A Biography by Frances Donaldson
The Educated Imagination by Northrop Frye
Arabian Nights trans. by Burton Richard
The Renaissance Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater
Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sayers
Support The Literary Life:Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the \u201cFriends and Fellows Community\u201d on\xa0Patreon,\xa0and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support!
Connect with Us:You can find Angelina and Thomas at\xa0HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram\xa0@angelinastanford,\xa0and on Facebook at\xa0https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/
Find Cindy at\xa0morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram\xa0@cindyordoamoris\xa0and on Facebook at\xa0https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out\xa0Cindy\u2019s own Patreon page\xa0also!
Follow\xa0The Literary Life\xa0on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let\u2019s get the book talk going!\xa0http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB