 brilliant writing, excellently read, 2008-06-17
Martin Jarvis is a delight as he invests every character with their own voice. He alternates smoothly between interpretations of the put upon butler Beach, the scheming investigator Pilbeam, the driven ex-secretary the Efficient Baxter and all the rest. The only one that he doesn't try is the Empress herself and I'm sure that he'd have carried it off in triumph if he had attempted it.
Wodehouse's story is, of course, top notch.
More Piggish Capers at Blandings Castle, 2004-12-23
Summer Lightning is one of the several delightful books in the Blandings Castle series by P.G. Wodehouse. Summer Lightning is better than many other P.G. Wodehouse books in that the plot and character development are more thorough than most which keeps the fun going longer.Clarence, the ninth Earl of Emsworth, is at home in his castle in Shropshire where he dotes on his famous prize-winning pig, the Empress of Blandings. Having dispatched his earlier secretary, Baxter, Clarence is at peace contemplating how his pig will win again when he learns from his brother Galahad (Gally) that the neighbor's pig man is offering 3:1 odds against the Empress. Clarence and Gally presume that their neighbor, Sir Gregory Parsloe is planning to knobble the Empress. Their worst fears are borne out when the Empress disappears! At the same time, Parsloe lives in fear that Gally will publish old stories about his wild younger days in Gally's new book. Clarence's and Gally's sister Connie wants to stop publication as well. Soon the castle is overrun with manuscript thieves! At the same time, love is in the air. Clarence's new secretary, Hugo Carmody, is secretly and unsuitably in love with Millicent Threepwood, niece to Clarence, Connie and Gally, and Millicent is in love with him. But they need to get some financial help to pull off the merger. Ronald Fish, a wealthy young man whose money is tied with Clarence, is also in love with an unsuitable person . . . one Sue Brown who is a chorus girl. Ronnie has proven himself to be a poor judge of investments in the past, and Clarence is skeptical of allowing any more money. It doesn't help when Clarence finds that Ronnie doesn't truly share his love of pigs! Will love win out? Of course! It's a P.G. Wodehouse book. But before love wins, humor will take the day in many silly scenes worthy of Shakespeare's best in the forest of Arden.
Summer lightning Strikes Home., 2007-11-25
`Summer Lightning' is the third novel in the Blanding's saga and the fist in which the residents of Blanding's themselves take centre stage. In `Something Fresh' Blanding's was a standard Wodehouse setting for a typical Wodehouse farce and in `Leave it to Psmith' the family and staff were acting as supporting roles for Psmith to bring home his typical `vim and vigour'. After writing `Leave it to Psmith' Wodehouse had written a series of magazine stories based on the Threepwood family which had clearly given him the confidence to use them as the major players in a novel.
In his preface to the book Wodehouse takes the criticism of his previous novel `Money for Nothing' that it contained `all the old Wodehouse characters under different names' with typical good humour, writing `He has probably now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have outgeneralled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.'
True to his word, as well as the residents of Blanding's, Wodehouse also serves us up, Pilbeam from `Bill the Conqueror' and Hugo Carmody and Ronnie Fish from `Money for Nothing'. In fact Ronnie Fish referring to his personal stock with the Family as `Fish Preferred' gave rise to the title the book was published under in America. The plot is, of course, as familiar as the cast. Hugo is in love with Millicent Threepwood but the family want her to wed Ronnie but he is in love with Sue Brown of the London chorus and attending Blanding's as one of many imposters. Galahad Threepwood endeavours to bring all these matters to a suitable conclusion whilst the efficient Baxter and Pilbeam try to obtain the manuscript of his memoirs to stop them from being published and embarrassing the neighbours and notably Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe.
Galahad brings about a typical Wodehouse solution which will not impress any professional critic but can only impress anyone reading the book for enjoyment or entertainment.
Hillarious, 2001-03-15
Although the one I read was an earlier edition, since the content is the same I can recommend this book to anyone who has no objection to laughing out loud when reading a novel. The novel is set in a bizarre aristocratic family circle and is about a prize winning pig called "Summer Lightening". More than once, when reading the novel, I couldn't stifle my laugh. I am surprised to see that nobody has written a review about this which I take as its not being widely read. If you like humour it's a must-read.
A very good, light read, 2003-11-21
What Ho! Anyone wanting to escape for a while to a pleasant little world full of bizarrly funny, yet lovable characters must read this. I too read an earliar version, in the "signiture series" i beleive, and it was an absolutley spiffing read. Jolly good and all that. It is set at Blandings castle, a large property owned by the rather forgetfull Lord Emsworth, whos only care is his prize winning pig, the Empress of Blandings. Along come many other great characters to disturb his little world, and chaos ensues. A jolly good read.
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