Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #110379 in Books
• Published on: 1981-09-24
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Synopsis
P.G. Wodehouse entices us into the demesne of Blandings Castle - an apparent paradise where it is eternal high summer, with jolly parties, tea on the lawn and love trysts in the rose garden. But for Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, there is always something to disturb this tranquil scene.

Customer Reviews

2nd-4th Books in the Blandings Castle Series
Blandings Castle comes alive when the Empress of Blandings arrives, which she does in Summer Lightning. All fans of romantic comedies will enjoy these books very much.

Be sure to begin the series by reading, Leave It to Psmith, which has an outstanding plot and introduces most of the major characters in the series

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.

Heavy Weather picks up where Summer Lightning leaves off. Ronnie Fish's jealousy gets Sue Brown and him into trouble when his mother, Lady Julia Fish, arrives to sunder the pair. Gally's manuscript continues to play a role throughout as does the Empress. This book would only be a three-stars book if you didn't read Summer Lightning first.

Classic Plum
The first story is perhaps a little too concerned with romance at the expense of pace and wit but is nevertheless hugely entertaining. The remainder of this compendium contains some of Wodehouse's finest writing. It blisters along like the 4:30 from Paddington with more twists than a poodle's coat. More chuckles per minute than even the finest Wooster stories. Heartily recommended.

Blandings - a sublime slice of old England
A hugely entertaining book. Blandings is a repository of sleepy, unimportant chaos. True love always prevails, the young men are good at tennis, and his Lordship is as eccentric as his pig is fat.

And, as always, Wodehouse has a wonderful mastery of the English language, making anything he writes a pleasure to read.

A literary classic without the boring bits.