Wodehouse

A Life

6 August 2010

Description

"An invaluable portrait, thanks to a broad, incisive and complex understanding of Wodehouse's psyche." --Janet Maslin, New York Times

To Evelyn Waugh he was simply "the Master." He wrote ninety novels and story collections, and among his immortal characters are Jeeves, Psmith, and the Empress of Blandings (who is, of course, a pig). Equally impressive is the range of his devotees: Dorothy Parker, John Updike, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Salman Rushdie, John le Carre, and Seamus Heaney. Wodehouse had an extraordinary Broadway career, working with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, and even dared to rewrite Cole Porter's Anything Goes for the London stage. Robert McCrum's magisterial biography chronicles the achievements and shadows of a gilded life. The ill-judged broadcasts from Berlin, where Wodehouse was interned during World War II, produced a violent backlash in England and tarred him, unfairly, as a Nazi sympathizer. His long love affair with America was compromised by endless acrimony with the IRS. This is the book all Wodehouse fans have been waiting for; it eclipses all previous accounts of his life. An Economist Best Book of 2004.

Reviews

"For as long as P.G. Wodehouse is read, this will be the seminal work of reference, the indispensable vade mecum. In other words—as the Master might say—‘ripping.’" — John le Carré

"McCrum . . . has written a biography that, if the subject were a general or a politician, would be dubbed ‘magisterial.’ This is a magisterial biography: disinterested, but never detached, and always intriguing. Under the kindly and scholarly tutelage of McCrum, you might want to explore here the Wodehouse genius, the inconsistencies and downright silliness in the man’s life." — Frank McCourt, Globe and Mail

"[An] absorbing and generous biography, which now takes its rightful place as ‘the life.’" — Christopher Buckley, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"This book is a triumph. Not only should all P. G. Wodehouse fans read it, but it is a masterly picture of twentieth-century history." — A. N. Wilson

Awards

Winner — New York Times Notable Selection, 2005

Also By: Robert McCrum

Globish: How English Became the World's Language
Robert McCrum
Paperback, 2011
“A fascinating study not only of the roots and growth of our own language but of its future.”—Bloomsbury Review
Just Enough Jeeves: Right Ho, Jeeves; Joy in the Morning; Very Good, Jeeves
P. G. Wodehouse, Robert McCrum
Paperback, 2010
Irresistible comic masterpieces—two novels and a story collection—from the author Christopher Hitchens calls "the gold standard of English wit."
Globish: How the English Language Became the World's Language
Robert McCrum
Hardback, 2010
How English conquered the world: a Guns, Germs, and Steel argument based on the power of the word.
Globish: How English Became the World's Language
Robert McCrum
E Book, 2010
“A fascinating study not only of the roots and growth of our own language but of its future.”—Bloomsbury Review
My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke
Robert McCrum
Paperback, 1998
A frank and moving memoir of the stroke that felled the author at his peak of vigor and achievement.