Another wonderful collection of stories from The Angler’s Rest. Here, for your enjoyment, are quotes from each tale:The Smile That Wins“There was enough of the financier to make two financiers. It was as if Nature, planning a financier, had said to itself: ‘We will do this thing well. We will not skimp.’”The Story of Webster“The real objection to the great majority of cats is their insufferable air of superiority. Cats, as a class, have never completely got over the snootiness caused by the fact that in Ancient Egypt they were worshipped as gods. This makes them too prone to set themselves up as critics and censors of the frail and erring human beings whose lot they share.”Cats will be Cats“Neither Lady Widdrington nor her mother, the aged Mrs Pulteney-Banks, actually struck Lancelot or spiked him with a knitting-needle. But there were moments when they seemed only by a miracle of strong will to check themselves from such manifestations of dislike.”The Knightly Quest of Mervyn“Mervyn tells me that he got a good laugh out of a photograph of the girl’s late father on the mantelpiece – a heavily-whiskered old gentleman who reminded him of a burst horsehair sofa.”The Voice from the Past“The last time she had seen Sacheverell, it must be remembered, he had been the sort of man who made a shrinking violet look like a Chicago gangster. And here he was now, staring her in the eye and shooting off his head for all the world as if he were Mussolini informing the Italian Civil Service of a twelve percent cut in their weekly salary.”Open House“Wittleford-cum-Bagsley-on-Sea, so I am informed by those who have visited it, is not a Paris or a pre-War Vienna. In fact, once the visitor has strolled along the pier and put pennies in the slot machines, he has shot his bolt as far as the hectic world of pleasure is concerned.”Best Seller“From far away in the distance came the faint strains of the town band, as it picked its way through the Star of Eve song from Tannhäuser – somewhat impeded by the second trombone, who had got his music-sheets mixed and was playing ‘The Wedding of the Painted Doll’.”Strychnine in the Soup“’You don’t know mother. The moment she got the picture postcard, she would come over to wherever we were and put you across her knee and spank you with a hair-brush. I don’t think I could ever feel the same towards you if I saw you lying across mother’s knee, being spanked with a hairbrush. It would spoil the honeymoon.’” Gala Night“She was seething with that febrile exasperation which, since the days of Eve, has come upon women who find themselves linked to a cloth-head.”If all that wasn’t cracking enough, this book also features a cat so supercilious that the man looking after it is forced to don full evening-wear every time he deals with it; as well as creating a world where female romantic novelists spout such saccharine nonsense in interviews that those journalists sent to meet them are frequently found afterwards broken and weeping.Brilliant!
PWG in top form, including a pair of stories about Webster, a black cat with a vicarish mien until he discovers a taste for whiskey and turns full on bohemian. Webster's natural enemy is a tabby named Percy: "Orange of body and inky black of soul, he lay stretched out on the rug, exuding arrogance and hate… One could picture him stealing milk from a sick tabby."Wodehouse delivers the goods early and often:"The Lady Bishopess pursed her lips, displeased. She was a woman of ample and majestic build. A friend of Augustine's who had been attached to the Tank Corps during the War, had once said that he knew nothing that brought back the old days more vividly than the sight of her. All she needed, he maintained, was a steering-wheel and a couple of machine-guns, and you could have moved her up into any Fron Line and no questions asked."
What do You think about Mulliner Nights (2005)?
In the bar-parlour of the Angler’s Rest the efficient barmaid Miss Postlewaite was asking if the reading public had had enough of the Mulliner family after ‘Meet Mr Mulliner’ and ‘Mr Mulliner Speaking’. A Gin and Tonic ventured that ‘it would be criminal if the story of Webster the cat and his influence over young Edward Mulliner was not brought to the public attention’, ‘Surely the tale of Sacheverell Mulliner and his phobia of Headmasters should be committed to the printed media?’ suggested a surly Port and Lemon, ‘Would the world wish to miss out on Evangeline and Egbert Mulliners chequered publishing career?’ questioned an aggressive half of Mild. ‘Surely,’ announced Mr Mulliner walking through the lounge bar door, ‘The question is weather I have tired of telling them rather than anyone should tire of hearing them.’ The bar pondered this while finding there respective outdoor coats and making their excuses before Mr Mulliner had time to remove his own coat and regale them with further stories of his family.This volume of stories also introduces us Oofy Prosser, of the Drones fame, whom would later hold a fascination for both Bertie Wooster and Bingo Little, in ‘The Knightly Quest of Mervyn’. The stories are, of course, up to the usual standard but the book suffers in comparison the ‘Mr Mulliner Speaking’ where Wodehouse made a feature of the stories of one Bobbie Wickham making the reader keen to continue to find out what Bobbie did next. That said the third instalment of the Mulliner clan is still a great testament to the Wodehouse wit.
—Ian Wood
Another lovely Wodehouse. This one is a collection of short stories told by Mr. Mulliner, as he sits in a little British pub, entertaining the patrons there. All the stories have to do with another Mulliner, an uncle, cousin, or whoever. Some of the stories I really loved and others not as much, but it was a great book. I'm kind of on a short story kick. I may never read a novel again. Short stories are just so gratifying. You can start and finish several in one night, and for me, it's a rare treat to actually finish something I've started in life.
—Elisha Condie
Un cuore allegro fa bene quanto una medicinaQuanto vorrei anch'io un sorsino di tonico Mulliner! Se non perdo la mia moltezza è grazie a libri come questo, che sono una vera e propria coperta di Linus. Le sere di Mulliner è una deliziosa raccolta di surreali siparietti, uniti dalla cornice del pub chiamato Anglers' Rest, in un Inghilterra tanto più preziosa in quanto inesistente. Qui il signor Mulliner si riunisce con alcuni compaesani che allieta raccontando storie di vita vissuta da qualche appartente al suo infinito numero di parenti. Spassoso!
—Roberta
