Do Butlers Burgle Banks?: PG Wodehouse - 1968 ***

 

 

"Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in". I think Evelyn Waugh's quote best sums up PG Wodehouse's work in all senses. His stories do delight us still, and there is nothing that cannot be solved after reading a few pages of one of his books. In this relatively overlooked little treasure, butlers and burglers are getting mixed up, robbing banks without intending to, taking jobs they aren't entitled to, proposing to girls they really shouldn't, and generally making a pig's ear out of every possible step they make. The strength of Wodehouse in my opinion isn't just the laughs you get from reading him, but also it's the marvel of how he manages to weave so many characters into his work, and then remembers to mix them all up in a controlled way, only to mix them all up again (and the names he comes up with for his characters are sheer bliss). I think his books are pure magic and always will be.