- Blandings Castle is also the name of a
collection of Wodehouse's short stories.
In the stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, Blandings
Castle is the seat of Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth as
well as the name given to the series of books which take place at the castle and its immediate environs.
Lord Emsworth's nine sisters, his brother Galahad, his sons
Freddie and Thomas, and his numerous nieces, nephews, and in-laws inhabit the castle from time to time,
as does his prize sow, the Empress of Blandings. For the
Threepwood family, relatives, and their friends, the castle is forever available for indefinite residence, and is occasionally
used as a temporary prison – known as "Devil's Island" or "The Bastille" – for love-struck young men and ladies to
calm down.
Blandings's ever-present butler is Sebastian Beach, and its other
domestic servants have at various times included Mrs Twemlow the housekeeper, an under-butler named Merridew, Scottish head gardeners Angus McAllister and
Thorne, chauffeurs Slingsby and Alfred Voules, and a number of footman. Emsworth has employed a series of secretaries, notable
among them Rupert Baxter and Ronald Psmith, and numerous pig
caretakers, especially George Cyril Wellbeloved and James Pirbright.
Lady Constance Keeble,
Emsworth's sister, was chatelaine of the castle before she married American
millionaire George
Schoonmaker.
Blandings Castle, located in Shropshire, England, is two miles the town of Market Blandings, home to at least nine pubs, most notably the Emsworth Arms. The tiny hamlet of
Blandings Parva lies
directly outside the castle gates and the town of Much Matchingham, home to Matchingham Hall, the residence of Sir Gregory
Parsloe-Parsloe, is also nearby.
Books
Blandings Castle serves as the setting for eleven novels and nine short stories, written between 1915 and
Wodehouse's death in 1977.
- Something Fresh (1915)
- Leave it to Psmith (1923)
- Summer Lightning (1929)
- Heavy
Weather (1933)
- Blandings Castle (1935) – Twelve short stories, six of which are about Blandings: "The Custody of the Pumpkin", "Lord
Emsworth Acts for the Best", "Pig-Hoo-o-o-o-ey", "Company for Gertrude", "The Go-getter", and "Lord Emsworth and the Girl
Friend". Written from 1926 to 1928, they occur before the events of Summer Lightning.
- Lord Emsworth and Others (1937) – Despite its title, only one of the nine stories, "The Crime Wave at Blandings", takes
place at Blandings.
- Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939)
- Full Moon
(1947)
- Nothing Serious (1950) – One story of ten, "Birth of a Salesman"
- Pigs Have Wings
(1952)
- Service with a
Smile (1961)
- Galahad at
Blandings (1965)
- Plum Pie (1966) – One story
of nine, "Sticky Wicket at Blandings"
- A Pelican
at Blandings (1969)
- Sunset at
Blandings (1977)
Wodehouse worked on Sunset at Blandings until his death, writing even in his hospital bed. It was unfinished and
untitled when he died, and was subsequently edited and released in its incomplete form with extensive notes on the content.
References
- Usborne, Richard (2003). Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion. New York: The Overlook Press. pp. 37–45,
96–127. ISBN 1585674419.
- Kuzmenko, Michel (2005). "Bibliography (http://wodehouse.ru/bibssty.htm)." The Russian Wodehouse Society. Accessed on January 7, 2005.
External link
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