This image is from P.G. Wodehouse's 1934 novel Thank You, Jeeves. In it, Bertie Wooster has taken up playing the banjolele and Jeeves' aversion to it is so great that he leaves Wooster's employ and goes to work for Bertie's friend Lord "Chuffy" Chuffnell. It so happens that Bertie's former fiancee, American girl Pauline Stoker, has arrived with her wealthy father J. Washburn Stoker on his yacht, because he is considering buying Chuffy's crumbling manor and fixing it up. Chuffy and Pauline fall in love, but Chuffy is unwilling to propose while his finances are so shaky. Bertie thinks that Chuffy and Pauline suit each other admirably and wants to help further their romance. Unfortunately, being as Jeeves terms it "intellectually negligible" Bertie contrives to go about this in the most idiotic way possible: he decides to kiss Pauline in front of Chuffy to make him jealous and spur him into proposing. But it is Pauline's father who witnesses the kiss instead of Chuffy and, after a series of misunderstandings/mishaps, Bertie finds himself locked in a cabin on the yacht with J. Washburn Stoker grimly determined to force Bertie to make an honest woman of his daughter. Naturally, it is Jeeves to the rescue.
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“The game of chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it… Life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with.” – Benjamin Franklin Turns out that I can still beat my nephew at chess, but I can see the day is coming- probably sooner rather than later- when this will not be the case. “One doesn’t have to play well, it’s enough to play better than your opponent.” – Siegbert Tarrasch Related Posts:I much prefer reading actual books to ebooks, but I do own a Kobo and admittedly, it's very easy to slip it into my purse and take a plethora of books along with me to work or wherever else I'm headed. As usual, I'm currently reading a number of different authors at the same time- one of them being L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle- obviously, since I'm reviewing it. This is the only real, hold-it-in-your-hand volume I'm using at the moment, everything else I'm reading presently being on my Kobo. I've been on a bit of a Wodehouse jag lately; as I mentioned last week, I was listening to an audiobook of P.G.'s The Code Of The Woosters. That is, of course, a Jeeves and Wooster book. At the same time, I had downloaded one of Wodehouse's stand alone novels which I hadn't read before: Laughing Gas. I'll post a review on it soon- probably next week. It was quite enjoyable but a very quick read, so I decided to continue on with another Woodhouse classic: The Inimitable Jeeves, a volume of Jeeves and Wooster short stories which are some of his best. I'm reading this on my Kobo as well, but I also own an actual copy of the book. I always buy physical copies of my favourite books. I try to intersperse my fiction reading with non-fiction; it's always a good idea to keep learning new things and Wodehouse, though delightful in every way, isn't exactly deep. On the contrary, his works are so charming because they are so fun, frothy, and frivolous. The non-fiction book I'm currently immersed in is Mark Steyn's Broadway Babies Say Goodnight, which is a history of musical theatre from early operettas to the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber and beyond. It's a fascinating read and one I've been meaning to pick up for some time. A couple of weeks ago I was cleaning out a drawer and found a Chapters Indigo gift card which I had been given as a birthday present and forgot about. I used this to purchase Broadway Babies, and I'm glad I did. I'll have more to say about it when I finish reading: I'm about halfway through at the moment. Related Posts: In this segment of the novel, Valancy continues her rebellion against her old life; she breaks with her family physically now as well as mentally. She does this by accepting a job as housekeeper/nurse at Roaring Abel's house, caring for Cissy Gay who is slowly dying of tuberculosis. Her family naturally assumes that she's run mad and try- unsuccessfully- to snatch the branch from the burning, so to speak. On one hand, I can understand her family's alarm. After all, she's moving into the house of an unrestrained alcoholic to care for his disgraced daughter, where a man who they are convinced is a degenerate criminal is known to hang about. But they aren't concerned for Valancy's safety, as I would be- what's to stop the old drunk from dropping a lamp and burning everyone in their beds? Rather, they are concerned about the disgrace and embarrassment that Valancy will cause the family by her actions, so my sympathy for the Stirling clan is very limited. Ironically, through her rebellion Valancy has become important to her family in a way she had never been before. Previously she had been overlooked, ignored, and mocked by her family. Well, no one's laughing now, and they're spending an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to solve a problem like Valancy. Meanwhile, as her family stews, Valancy is finding it a heady thing to be free and independent, earning her own living for the first time in her life. Supporting oneself just naturally increases one's self confidence and self-reliance. This new-found confidence allows her to deal surprisingly well with Roaring Abel's, uh... roaring. This is just a further illustration of how much she has changed: the girl who used to quail before her mother's sulks and querulous demands now stands toe to toe with Abel and gives as good as she gets. Valancy is also experiencing actual friendship for the first time in her life. Cissy is sort of the anti-Olive, Valancy's self-satisfied cousin who maintained a false friendship with "Doss" to keep her around as a foil to her good looks. Cissy actually values Valancy's presence and the two become close- close enough that Valancy tells Cissy about her fantasy Blue Castle. Cissy remarks that she thinks everyone has a Blue Castle- a rosy dream of what they would like their life to be like, an escape from the mundane reality of their existence. It is at this time that Valancy actually meets Barney Snaith, the man on whom, perhaps unconsciously, she has modelled the knight in her Blue Castle. The real man however, is of a lot more practical use than the fantasy one as he makes a point of stopping on his way into town to ask what supplies they need and delivers them on his way back. This again shows the hypocrisy of many of the townspeople; they constantly badmouth Snaith, but he shows a level of practical compassion of which they seem incapable. It's of course been evident since the beginning that Valancy rather fancies Barney; this feeling deepens as she watches his kindness to Cissy and listens to him talk eloquently of the places he's travelled, and discuss books with Roaring Abel, when the old coot is sober enough to do so. While she is getting to know Barney better through these visits, they also deepen the mystery surrounding him: namely, why would a man of his obvious education and intellect bury himself in the wilderness for years on end? Valancy concludes that he must have, at one time, done something illegal which resulted in him living a secluded life in Muskoka. She also concludes that she doesn't care. Roaring Abel, who by times seems an almost Falstaffian character, is of course often amusing, as when he's tossing Uncle James into the asparagus bed, or making crass insinuations to the self-righteous minister Dr. Stalling. This does not alter the fact, however, that he is not a good man. He is a talented carpenter and, as we see from his discussions with Barney Snaith, a well-read man. Yet he wastes most of his time and a good deal of his money drinking and carousing. His behaviour put his wife in an early grave and ruined his daughter's life, and still he carries on like this. Why does Barney have to bring groceries to Cissy and Valancy? Because Roaring Abel is generally too drunk to remember to pick them up. It's nothing but selfishness and self-indulgence, which Abel excuses in himself by saying that everything is determined by predestination. I don't intend to discuss the intricacies of five point Calvinism here but suffice to say, whether you believe in unconditional election or not there's no excuse for being an unapologetic drunk who doesn't take care of his family. This is something he chooses for himself. Related Posts: Continuing with our "night" theme, my choir is working on this extremely fun piece: Yo Paso Las Noches, a traditional Mexican song arranged by Ramon Noble. The melody just dances and it's really enjoyable to sing, which is why I was a bit shocked when I read the translated lyrics (I don't speak Spanish) because they were not quite so light and frivolous as one might assume from the music they are set to. Here are the lyrics:
Yes, well... um, the music is really fun!
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