Summer Moonshine

By: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrated by: Jonathan Cecil

The hideous Walsingford Hall is home to an odd assortment of coves…The vile premises belong to Sir Buckstone, who is in a little financial difficulty. So for a little monetary help he puts a roof over the heads of people like (among others) Tubby Vanringham, the adoring slave of cold-hearted Miss Whittaker. His brother Joe has fallen head over heels for Sir Buck’s daughter, Jane. She, however, only has eyes for Adrian Peake, who has already formed a liaison with the terrifying - but superbly wealthy - Princess Dwornitzchek. Is there no end to the confusion?

Public Domain (P)2012 AudioGO

wonderful

A comedic romp with just enough spine to keep it interesting. There is a plot. There are heroes and villains. There are The usual suspects and a reliance on money solving problems. It was written in 1937 after all. The charm is how Wodehouse manages to introduce a whole cast of characters, of various stations in life and make them all fulfilled and relevant to the story. A modern audience will find opportunity to take offense if they don't check expectations of rewriting the past at the door.

Delightful!!

There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- that is not perfect about the combination of Wodehouse and Cecil!!

So fun!

A perfect afternoon’s entertainment! So witty and enjoyable weaving of words and characters! Top notch!

Very satisfying Wodehouse

Full of verve and laugh out loud funny in many places. Only for those who want to enjoy themselves.

They used the N word way too often

Funny as hell. But one of the American characters is keen on the N word. It shocked me and rubbed me the wrong way. I’m just not into it. I know it’s a different era. But f* it. It was hurtful.

Really enjoyable Wodehouse and great reader!

Another excellent performance of Wodehouse by Jonathan Cecil. He captures the humor and the understatement beautifully. Wodehouse stirs up the plot til it bubbles over and we have a happy ending. Perfect antidote for stressful times!

Madcap and delightful

Every time you think you know what’s going to happen in this novel Wodehouse makes it funnier and wilder. Lots of characters doing insane and lovable things, and some classic Wodehouse one-liners that made me laugh out loud. Cecil does a good job with totally distinct voices for each character. Just delightful.

A Somewhat Un-Wodehousian Wodehouse

Of early Wodehouse novels I have observed—and I’m sure others have, too—that they show the author moving from the then-popular, sentimental yet more “real” world of human emotions and tragedies toward his signature style of persiflage, tempests in teapots and sheer physical comedy. But even after that mature style has asserted itself, we can have relapses. And I think Summer Moonshine (1937) is one of them. Perhaps it is the only one. (Perhaps not; The Coming of Bill, 1920, also stands out as an aberration in the canon.)

I don’t mean to say that the whole book is sloppily sentimental, a sort of Rosy M. Banks saturnalia. On the whole it is the usual Wodehouse fun. There is a young mutton head who can’t say no to girls, a Kensington-educated secretary who says “quate” instead of “quite”, a shilling-less baronet whose American brother-in-law insists on addressing as “your lordship”, and an irrepressible young man named Joe Vanringham who, with his endless persiflage and unsinkable good humor, strikes you—or at least me—as a sort of two-fisted, American version of Psmith. But there are also passages—and in particular one character—that we don’t run up against in any of the other later, mature works.

Her full name is Princess Heloise von und zu Dwornitzchek. And I can’t think of anyone whom I’d rather not run up against. Richard Useborne, in his Plum Sauce, a P. G. Wodehouse Companion, agrees: “The Princess, wicked stepmother and not a bit funny, is the most un-Wodehousian character in all the books.” Her stepson, Joe concurs:

“The effortless ease with which she overrode all obstacles and went complacently through life on the crest of the wave offended his sense of dramatic construction. She was so obviously the villainess of the piece that it seemed inevitable that eventually the doom must overtake her. But it never did. Whoever had started that idea that Right in the end must always triumph over Wrong had never known the Princess Dwornitzchek.

“He watched her as she sat there smoking and smiling quietly at some thought that seemed to be amusing her, and tried to analyze the murderous feelings which she had always aroused in him. She was, as he had said, undefeatable, and he came to the conclusion that it was this impregnability of hers that caused them. She had no heart and a vast amount of money, and this enabled her to face the world encased in triple brass. He had a sense of futility, as if he were a very small wave beating up against a large complacent cliff. No doubt the officials of the United States treasury Department felt the same.”

Yes, there is the little, the very little smile (and a wry smile at that) at the end. But where else in Wodehouse have we read the word “murderous” written in earnest? What other character besides Joe Vanringham has felt this frustrated about someone this appallingly real? Earlier in the book we learn that that murderous feeling took root as Joe watched the princess “killing” his father:

“Oh, I don’t mean little-known Asiatic poisons. A resourceful woman with a sensitive subject to work on can make out quite well without the help of strychnine in the soup. Her method was just to make life hell for him.”

True, Lady Constance Keeble can menace the peace of her brothers (and I defy you to find another subject as sensitive as the ninth earl). Lady Julia Fish is capable of anything from heavy-handed irony to outright rudeness when it comes to breaking up her son, Ronald, and his chorus girl fiancée Sue Brown. And Bertie’s Aunt Agatha is always ready to marry him off to some frightful female or other. But we end up laughing at all three. After all, they are routed by, in the first two cases, the adroit staff work of the Hon. Galahad Threepwood, and in the latter case by the fish-fed intellect of the best gentleman’s personal gentleman in London, Jeeves. Watching them try to make life hell for the men in their lives is fun because we know they won’t succeed. Besides, these women have a redeeming what-is-it about them. Sometimes they are even right—Lord Emsworth shouldn’t have come down with a brass paper fastener serving in place of a missing shirt stud. Lady Julia earns the grudging admiration from her brother Galley, “there are the seeds of greatness in that woman”.

But the princess is uniquely, horribly different. Unlike Mrs. Rosalinda Banks Bessemer Spottsworth, another Wodehouse female worth millions, the princess uses her wealth as a weapon. And she is what we would now call now a cougar. But what makes her truly awful is that there is no Galahad or Jeeves to slip a well-aimed stick in her spokes. Her designs are not frustrated. She “wins”.

Fittingly, her paramour Adrian Peake also reminds us uncomfortably of unpleasant, manipulative, self-centered people we have known all too well in real life.

But all this is just a long way of saying that while there are elements in this novel that diverge from the usual Wodehouse romp, Summer Moonshine is still a satisfying, reliable romp. In fact, the princess and her twerp Peake provide an interesting counterpoint to the general Wodehousian fun, making it, if anything, more piquant. It seems to stand as an alternate universe to the self-absorption and destructiveness of the princess and her slimy consort. You get the distinct feeling that neither one of them would enjoy reading or listening to the Master’s works. People who take themselves too seriously seldom do.

A final word: Jonathan Cecil is pitch-perfect on this outing. His vocal portrayal of the princess—something between a spoiled Persian cat and a roused rattlesnake—is at times a little chilling.

One of Wodehouse’ best

A glorious old fashioned romantic romp. One of my new favorites, alongside the Jeeves series.

Just what you'd expect from Wodehouse

As humorous as any other Wodehouse story. my go-to when I need a break from the stresses of life!