A Pelican at Blandings

Who doesn't like Wodehouse? It's situational and narrative humor at its best. But you really have to be in the mood for it, and even then, I'll go so far as to say Wodehouse is best consumed in short story form. It's hard enough to sustain the humor for a novel length book at Wodehouse's madcap pace, but it's been harder to sustain the laughs. After a few chapters a reader can become inured to the comedy, and start to feel a bit numb, especially when character development is necessarily thin-to-non-existent, and the plotting not much more complex than the characters. This isn't a criticism; humor succeeds where both are pushed to the background.

Short or long length though, Wodehouse is a genius.

Rather a large cast of characters and several subplots running alongside each other. The story includes a broken engagement, a valuable painting, a large pig, and various people who would like to remove or exchange the painting. The inhabitants of Blandings Castle are well known to those who have read others in the series, so although this book stands alone it's probably better to have read at least one or two of the earlier books in the series first.

Dry, intellectual humour that made me smile in a few places; I love Wodehouse's use of language, though it's not to everyone's taste, and his upper-class settings don't appeal to everyone. But for all who like his style, I would definitely recommend this.

Longer review here: show more target="_top">https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-pelican-at-blandings-by-pg-wodeho... show less

Here we have another enjoyable visit to Blandings Castle.

Lord Emsworth yet again confirms his place as my favourite Wodehouse character. The Duke of Dunstable is also highly entertaining, albeit nowhere near as likable as the earl.

Although not the funniest in the series, “Pelican” has enough humour for my tastes. Bless my soul, it does.

Expect plenty of mishaps and misunderstandings, plus a couple of complicated love stories, and Lord Emsworth’s usual obsession with his pig.

A capital read. Capital, yes, capital, capital.

I didn't find Frederick Davidson's narration to be quite as good as Jonathan Cecil's reading of Wodehouse. I did appreciate his snorts and "hrmphs" as the Duke of Dunstable. This 11th entry in the Blandings castle was still a lot of fun if you like Wodehouse's brand of craziness!

I read this last year and the details are a bit blurred, and anyways all Wodehouse's books have a sameness after awhile. Though in his case, that's not a bad thing; the formula more than works. I remember it being as funny and enjoyable as every other Wodehouse title I've devoured.

Satisfactory. This being my first Wodehouse, I think that I approached it expecting something wonderful given the number of times that I'd heard of Wodehouse's brilliance. I came away a little disappointed, but with nothing that I can pin down as the reason.

This is a late entry in the 'Blandings Castle' cycle: the last before the unfinished Sunset at Blandings. It features Gally as the principal protagonist, organising the life of his godson John Halliday who has just become engaged at the same time as uncovering a tricky situation related to the art gallery in which he has invested the bulk of his money. Gally takes a trip to Blandings at the behest of Halliday, joining a growing house-party of assorted guests who are connected in a show more number of ways that form the plot twists. Each character is well drawn; sufficiently sketched such that the work stands easily alone even though it forms part of an extended series. However, perhaps my lack of knowledge of the back-stories of the characters was one of the factors that made me think that there was something missing at the core of the book.

The pacing is fine and the setting is almost timeless (somewhat necessary for a series written over a period approaching 45 years). The language rarely introduces words and phrases that are outside the normal lexicon, and there were only a couple of times that I struggled with the sentence structure. However, such minor inconsistencies were sufficient for me to get a bit annoyed given the high standard that I was expecting.

So, my criticisms are all minor, but this wouldn't stop me recommending the work as something that can safely be tested as a stand-alone work within the Wodehouse cannon, to see if the style suits. show less

Classic Wodehouse, if I may say so, although I have only read two of this books. Humourous writing, hilarious description, it is a good and relaxing read.