Strong Poison
Arthur Bradley
Here is dialog from the protagonist's first meeting with Harriet Vane. She is
in gaol, accused of murder. He attended the trial and has fallen in love with
her from afar. Peter is not a boy, by the way, but 42 years old.
Harriet: "You are Lord Peter Wimsey, I believe, and have come from Mr Crofts."
Peter: "Yes. Yes. I -- er -- I heard the case, and all that, and -- er
-- I thought there might be something I could do, don't you know."
Harriet: "That was very good of you."
Peter: "Not at all, not at all. Dash it! I mean to say, I rather enjoy
investigating things, if you know what I mean.
Near the end of the book there is a discussion of the case between Lord Peter,
a female assistant, and the police. A new point of speculation about a water
bottle has arisen, and Bunter, Wimsey's manservant, discreetly intervenes.
"Pardon me, my Lord, the possibility had already presented itself to my
mind." "It had?" Yes, my Lord." "Do you never overlook anything,
Bunter?"
"I endeavor to give satisfaction, my Lord."
"Well then, don't talk like Jeeves. It irritates me. What about the
bottle?"
"I was about to observe, my Lord, when this lady arrived, that I had
elicited a somewhat peculiar circumstance relating to the water bottle."
Wimsey is definitely not Wooster, but we know where Bunter came from!
Packy Franklyn
Frank R.A.J. Maloney
[deletions]
>Wimsey is definitely not Wooster, but we know where Bunter came from!
>
>Packy Franklyn
>
I have always found it suggestive that both Plum and Sayers have an Hon.
Freddie, both of whom are rather amiable asses -- not that there's anything
wrong with that.
Mortimer Rackstraw, the Great Boloni
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
fr...@aol.com
http://hometown.aol.com/frajm/default.htm
"All over the room throats were being strained and minds broadened."
The Mixer
>
> I have always found it suggestive that both Plum and Sayers have an Hon.
> Freddie, both of whom are rather amiable asses -- not that there's anything
> wrong with that.
>
> Mortimer Rackstraw, the Great Boloni
And both of the amiable asses in q. displayed somewhat surprising hidden
talents; Freddie T. as a dog biscuit merchant and Freddie A. as a stock market
wizard.
Then again I don't recall Lord Peter and Freddie A. having a conference at
their mutual club interrupted by the receipt of an unexpected bread roll or
flying sugar cube on the side of the head.
The Mixer
Neil Midkiff
>
> It has been noted here before that Dorothy L. Sayers was a Wodehouse fan.
>
> Wimsey is definitely not Wooster, but we know where Bunter came from!
>
> Packy Franklyn
But Lord Peter could, and often did, deliberately put on a silly-ass
demeanor reminiscent of Bertie, when he wanted to distract people and put
them at their ease. Being seen as "mentally negligible" is often a useful
stratagem for a detective.
The best example is in _Murder Must Advertise_, where Lord Peter pretends
to be his own (non-existent) cousin as an employee of the advertising
agency, and gets described, if I remember correctly, as a cross between
Ralph Lynn and Bertie Wooster. Ralph Lynn was a stage and film actor of
silly-ass roles in the 1920s and 30s, and may even have played Wooster at
one time or another; I don't have the reference books at hand.
-Neil Midkiff
Lord Droitwich
In article <20010413122208...@ng-fe1.aol.com>, klond...@aol.com (Arthur Bradley) writes:
>
>Wimsey is definitely not Wooster, but we know where Bunter came from!
He could be. Now that so many "etexts" are available it is the work of
a moment to "download" one and change the names.
As a fan of Bill Joy, I should type .,$s/Bunter/Jeeves/g
followed by .,$s/Lord Peter Wimsey/Bertie Wooster/g
and before you know it there is another Wodehouse novel.
Syd Price, for a change.
pissypantsaol.com
>to be his own (non-existent) cousin as an employee of the advertising
>agency,
Pimm's. (He wasn't pushing Slingsby's soups by the way!)
I was just about to bring up this quote as I just heard the radio adaptation
this very am... Wheels within wheels, What?
Patrick
Lyfwork
desou...@aol.compisspanz (pissypantsaol.com) writes:
>>The best example is in _Murder Must Advertise_, where Lord Peter pretends
>>to be his own (non-existent) cousin as an employee of the advertising
>>agency,
>
>Pimm's. (He wasn't pushing Slingsby's soups by the way!)
>
Pym's, I believe.
This marvelous work also includes the best written cricket match scene
outside of the Wodehouse canon...
Augustus Fink-Nottle
>This marvelous work also includes the best written cricket match scene
>outside of the Wodehouse canon...
You forget the village cricket match from "England, Their England". Surely
the most hilarious cricket scene ever - even better than Wodehouse's.
- Gussie
Lyfwork
*removethis*bhur...@pilot.msu.edu (Augustus Fink-Nottle) writes:
>You forget the village cricket match from "England, Their England". Surely
>the most hilarious cricket scene ever - even better than Wodehouse's.
I'm not familiar with it. Who wrote it? When? Is it in print now?
Rick Rashid
The book is by A. G. Macdonnell.
I posted the hilarious concluding portion of the cricket chapter on this NG back
in January 1998. Now that Google has restored the entire Dejanews archive, you
can find it. Go to http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search. Type in
Alt.fan.wodehouse for the group and "England, their England" for the keywords
and the article should appear.
To read the entire chapter, you probably need to look in some univrsity library.
I am afraid the book is long since out of print.
Merolchazzar
Augustus Fink-Nottle
Certainly.
"England, Their England" by A. G. MacDonnell. Sterling stuff.
His style is interesting. The village cricket match, for example,
is vaguely reminiscent (stylistically speaking) of Jerome K.
Jerome. Another chapter dealing with English diplomats
reminded me of Waugh's 'Envoy extraordinary' from "Black
Mischief". A most interesting author.
pip-pip,
Gussie
(When in doubt, agree with the French, or disagree with the
Italians; it's the same thing. - England, Their England)
Shirley Fowler
Wow! Get familiar with it at once! It is one of the finest
examples of comic writing in the English language, PGW not
excepted. I would recommend the version published in the
"Oxford Book of Comic Prose" ed. by the late Frank Muir.
Frank was also responsible for one of the best broadcast versions
of Wodehouse, featuring Ian Carmichael, a performance which
drew heady praise from Plum.
If you have not exhausted your taste for cricket then be warned
that almost every other description of village cricket known
to me has been copied from A.G. McDonnell, an honourable exception
being the match in "Love on a Branch Line"; which is one of the
few novels that bears comparison with Plum. Put it this way, if
my native language were not English, it would be worth learning
it just to read this book. The BBC made a superlative film of it
for Christmas a few years ago.
Ben
Shirley Fowler
rog...@georgie.uk.sun.com wrote:
> What Ho?
>
> In article <20010413122208...@ng-fe1.aol.com>,
> klond...@aol.com (Arthur Bradley) writes:
> >
> >Wimsey is definitely not Wooster, but we know where Bunter came from!
>
> He could be. ...
I am not so sure about that. Dorothy never said where Lord
Peter came from, but it is tolerably certain that he did
exist; given these facts he probably noe lies in an unmarked grave
in one the First War battlefields.
Ben.
AWILLIS957
Incidentally, has Rosie.M.Banks anything to do with Dorothy. L. Sayers? I
note, in "All`s Well With Bingo", that her lead character is called Lord Peter
Shipbourne?
Albert Peasemarch - on Shore Leave At Cannes.
Rick Rashid
>Incidentally, has Rosie.M.Banks anything to do with Dorothy. L. Sayers?
No. But oddly enough Rosie M. banks was based on a real life author back in the
30's called Ruby M. Ayers, a speacalist in the gooey mushy heart-throb type of
fiction that Mrs. Bingo turns out.
Merolchazzar
Boudewijn Rempt
When Dorothy L. Sayers met the Oxford Balliol College don Roy Ridly
she said that he was the _perfect_ Wimsey - and indeed, she had known
him before creating the character, and later admitted the inspiration.
Even later, she was getting throroughly annoyed by Ridley's constant
boasting of the Wimsey connection.
--
Boudewijn Rempt | http://www.valdyas.org | Christos Voskrese!
Shirley Fowler
> > Peter came from, but it is tolerably certain that he did
> > in one the First War battlefields.
>
> she said that he was the _perfect_ Wimsey - and indeed, she had known
> him before creating the character, and later admitted the inspiration.
> Even later, she was getting throroughly annoyed by Ridley's constant
> boasting of the Wimsey connection.
I have now located the biography of Dorothy L. Sayers by Barbara
Reynolds, and I realise that I must have been thinking of someone else.
In fact Dorothy wrote an account entitled "How I came to Invent the
Character of Lord Peter Wimsey"; an article which really ought to have
printed in "Milady's Boudoir".
Ben
Boudewijn Rempt
Absolutely. It's a pity that Lord Peter Wimsey forbade his man to talk
like Jeeves, by the way, Bunter was so dashed good at it...