6 ms·

PG Wodehouse secures redemption as British Library acquires priceless archive

92 points by samclemens 10y ago

whowalrus 10y ago
This news item is an eye-opener for me. As a Wodehouse fan I'd always assumed the Nazi broadcast incident was a small blip in his life. Did not realize it had such a major impact on his life.
- roter 10y ago
  George Orwell wrote in 1946 a reasoned defence of Wodehouse[0]. In particular the final paragraph: > In the desperate circumstances of the time, it was excusable to be angry at what Wodehouse did, but to go on denouncing him three or four years later — and more, to let an impression remain that he acted with conscious treachery — is not excusable. Few things in this war have been more morally disgusting than the present hunt after traitors and Quislings. At best it is largely the punishment of the guilty by the guilty. In France, all kinds of petty rats — police officials, penny-a-lining journalists, women who have slept with German soldiers — are hunted down while almost without exception the big rats escape. In England the fiercest tirades against Quislings are uttered by Conservatives who were practising appeasement in 1938 and Communists who were advocating it in 1940. I have striven to show how the wretched Wodehouse — just because success and expatriation had allowed him to remain mentally in the Edwardian age — became the corpus vile in a propaganda experiment, and I suggest that it is now time to regard the incident as closed. If Ezra Pound is caught and shot by the American authorities, it will have the effect of establishing his reputation as a poet for hundreds of years; and even in the case of Wodehouse, if we drive him to retire to the United States and renounce his British citizenship, we shall end by being horribly ashamed of ourselves. Meanwhile, if we really want to punish the people who weakened national morale at critical moments, there are other culprits who are nearer home and better worth chasing. [0] http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/plum/english/e_plum http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/plum/english/e_plum
  - sriram_sun 10y ago
    Thank you! As someone who grew up in India and inherited a significant number of the Wodehouse collection from my Grandfather, I wasn't aware of any of this. Not all of my friends were into this kind of humor, but to me it was the British literary equivalent of the Three Stooges! There was a time when I'd read paragraphs over and over just rotfl.
gadders 10y ago
He really is one of the funniest writers ever in the English language.
- wyclif 10y ago
  One of the greatest writers, even beyond considerations of humour. Reading PGW for reasons other the pleasure is probably misguided, but if you want to improve your English prose there is gold in those pages. This possibly explains his enduring popularity in India.
  - luckydude 10y ago
    There are some authors where you can read their work only once, it's just not fun the second time around. Wodehouse is the opposite of that, the way he strings words together is just laugh out loud fun every time you read them. One of my favorite authors, worth a read if you haven't already.
  - not_that_noob 10y ago
    Condescending much? There is a sophisticated and voracious readership of English in India. And it has given the world many great writers with unparalleled output in English - see http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/ojs/index.php/JLCMS/article/viewFile/26/25 http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/ojs/index.php/JLCMS/article/viewF... And the writer RK Narayan, with his distinct characters and humorous stories, is the Indian response to Wodehouse. PGW is read, as he is all over the world, for his humo(u)r, wit and brilliance.
    - Veen 10y ago
      I'm British and I make a living as a writer. I wouldn't find it condescending to be told that I can learn something from Wodehouse - his prose is sublime. Perhaps you overreacted to what was an innocent and general comment about learning from Wodehouse's prose, rather than a condescending suggestion that Indians could benefit in particular.
    - grzm 10y ago
lake99 10y ago
> long tarnished by charges of Nazi collaboration Is that an American or a British thing? I know quite a few diehard fans of Wodehouse in India. One of them even sent me transcripts of his radio broadcasts. The broadcasts seemed entirely innocuous to me. And my friends who don't like Wodehouse's writings are not aware of the broadcasts at all, suggesting that that's not the reason they don't read his works.
- neaden 10y ago
  British thing I believe, at least I've never heard it mentioned Stateside, though Wodehouse isn't very famous here. I think a lot of people were angry at him at the time is happened and stayed mad for the rest of his life.
- mattmanser 10y ago
  It's further in the article: It was largely innocent stuff...[but]...[h]is timing could not have been worse. June 1941 was a low point in the Allies’ conduct of the war. The Nazis, with tank divisions storming across Soviet Russia, seemed on the brink of victory. Wodehouse’s “treachery” became the object of hysterical warmongering in the British media, led by an alliance of the Daily Mirror and the BBC.
- jnbiche 10y ago
  > The broadcasts seemed entirely innocuous to me. Well, the point was that he did them at all.
- abritinthebay 10y ago
  Honestly it rarely comes up as anything but a historical footnote in modern times. But back then... it was a huge deal.

92 points by samclemens 10y ago

This news item is an eye-opener for me. As a Wodehouse fan I'd always assumed the Nazi broadcast incident was a small blip in his life. Did not realize it had such a major impact on his life.

roter 10y ago
George Orwell wrote in 1946 a reasoned defence of Wodehouse[0]. In particular the final paragraph: > In the desperate circumstances of the time, it was excusable to be angry at what Wodehouse did, but to go on denouncing him three or four years later — and more, to let an impression remain that he acted with conscious treachery — is not excusable. Few things in this war have been more morally disgusting than the present hunt after traitors and Quislings. At best it is largely the punishment of the guilty by the guilty. In France, all kinds of petty rats — police officials, penny-a-lining journalists, women who have slept with German soldiers — are hunted down while almost without exception the big rats escape. In England the fiercest tirades against Quislings are uttered by Conservatives who were practising appeasement in 1938 and Communists who were advocating it in 1940. I have striven to show how the wretched Wodehouse — just because success and expatriation had allowed him to remain mentally in the Edwardian age — became the corpus vile in a propaganda experiment, and I suggest that it is now time to regard the incident as closed. If Ezra Pound is caught and shot by the American authorities, it will have the effect of establishing his reputation as a poet for hundreds of years; and even in the case of Wodehouse, if we drive him to retire to the United States and renounce his British citizenship, we shall end by being horribly ashamed of ourselves. Meanwhile, if we really want to punish the people who weakened national morale at critical moments, there are other culprits who are nearer home and better worth chasing. [0] http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/plum/english/e_plum http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/plum/english/e_plum
- sriram_sun 10y ago
  Thank you! As someone who grew up in India and inherited a significant number of the Wodehouse collection from my Grandfather, I wasn't aware of any of this. Not all of my friends were into this kind of humor, but to me it was the British literary equivalent of the Three Stooges! There was a time when I'd read paragraphs over and over just rotfl.

gadders 10y ago

He really is one of the funniest writers ever in the English language.

wyclif 10y ago
One of the greatest writers, even beyond considerations of humour. Reading PGW for reasons other the pleasure is probably misguided, but if you want to improve your English prose there is gold in those pages. This possibly explains his enduring popularity in India.
- luckydude 10y ago
  There are some authors where you can read their work only once, it's just not fun the second time around. Wodehouse is the opposite of that, the way he strings words together is just laugh out loud fun every time you read them. One of my favorite authors, worth a read if you haven't already.
- not_that_noob 10y ago
  Condescending much? There is a sophisticated and voracious readership of English in India. And it has given the world many great writers with unparalleled output in English - see http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/ojs/index.php/JLCMS/article/viewFile/26/25 http://www.inflibnet.ac.in/ojs/index.php/JLCMS/article/viewF... And the writer RK Narayan, with his distinct characters and humorous stories, is the Indian response to Wodehouse. PGW is read, as he is all over the world, for his humo(u)r, wit and brilliance.
  - Veen 10y ago
    I'm British and I make a living as a writer. I wouldn't find it condescending to be told that I can learn something from Wodehouse - his prose is sublime. Perhaps you overreacted to what was an innocent and general comment about learning from Wodehouse's prose, rather than a condescending suggestion that Indians could benefit in particular.
  - grzm 10y ago

lake99 10y ago

> long tarnished by charges of Nazi collaboration Is that an American or a British thing? I know quite a few diehard fans of Wodehouse in India. One of them even sent me transcripts of his radio broadcasts. The broadcasts seemed entirely innocuous to me. And my friends who don't like Wodehouse's writings are not aware of the broadcasts at all, suggesting that that's not the reason they don't read his works.

neaden 10y ago
British thing I believe, at least I've never heard it mentioned Stateside, though Wodehouse isn't very famous here. I think a lot of people were angry at him at the time is happened and stayed mad for the rest of his life.
mattmanser 10y ago
It's further in the article: It was largely innocent stuff...[but]...[h]is timing could not have been worse. June 1941 was a low point in the Allies’ conduct of the war. The Nazis, with tank divisions storming across Soviet Russia, seemed on the brink of victory. Wodehouse’s “treachery” became the object of hysterical warmongering in the British media, led by an alliance of the Daily Mirror and the BBC.
jnbiche 10y ago
> The broadcasts seemed entirely innocuous to me. Well, the point was that he did them at all.
abritinthebay 10y ago
Honestly it rarely comes up as anything but a historical footnote in modern times. But back then... it was a huge deal.