Wodehouse once described his way of working as 'making a musical comedy without the music' - which, as is typical of his phrasing, is literally true, but suggests another world of possibility. His books sing with the music of words, a light playfulness and an absolute mastery of ironic shadow. It's a joy in a language for its own sake that's evident here, in addition to a high level of comic skill.Take this, for example:"Sudden joy affects different people in different ways. Some laugh and sing. Some leap. Others go about being kind to dogs."This is three-point list joke, the last item on the list subverting what went before. Woodhouse extends it by greatly shortening the second item: 'some leap' and then, the really smart touch, he deploys 'going about' in the last part. Not only does he suddenly insert the random 'kindness to dogs' factor, he also implies that it is something which requires organisation, planning and dedication. At the same time, this sudden 'going about being kind to dogs' is apparently an automatic response, an almost biological reaction to sudden joy. And all of this in just four lines.The other thing Wodehouse does well is plotting and structure. His works are like jigsaw puzzles, where every incident, no matter how small, will eventually slot in and play its role on the way to the resolution. The complexity of his story structures, and the way he ties it all together is an object-lesson in how to construct a novel, and 'Pigs Have Wings' is no exception.Woodhouse sits on a tradition of English comic literature that stretches back to Shakespeare vis Oscar Wilde. Both writers are acknowledged in this story. Wilde's notion of the 'Bunberry', a relative invented to excuse otherwise forbidden excursions, is re-invented by Woodhouse in this story, which also owes a lot to the structure of Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' except that the identity transference issue here is with pigs, not people.Reading the book is like listening Mozart. It is an experience that is engaging, playful, deceptively easy and yet complex, with hidden depths beneath.
Evelyn Waugh had it right when he wrote, "For Wodehouse there has been no fall of man ... the gardens of Blandings Castle are the original gardens of Eden from which we are all exiled." True it is! The very idea of ten or more novels centered around the love of a dotty old earl for his prize pig sets one's mind areel!P.G. Wodehouse is probably one of the funniest writers who have ever lived -- only S.J. Perelman can compare with him -- and some of his inventions still stick in my mind after thirty years of uproarious reading, such as Jeeves's infamous hangover cure, Buck-U-Uppo.Pigs Have Wings is one of the more intricately plotted of Wodehouse's comic masterpieces, with wonderful scenes such as the following:He paused, and said "Er."There was another longish silence."The moon," said Lord Emsworth, indicating it."Yes," said Maudie."Bright," said Lord Emsworth, paying it a well deserved tribute."Yes," said Maudie."Very bright," said Lord Emsworth. "Oh, very,very bright," and seemed for a moment to converse with easy fluency. But inspiration failed him, and with a "Quite, quite. Capital," he disappeared again.Where ever was there a love scene to match this, unless it us the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet?Think of this book as the ultimate example of Musical Pigs in all of comic literature. Read it and you will see what I mean....
What do You think about Pigs Have Wings (2000)?
Finding that while all of the Blandings Castle books run on the same spool I can still enjoy, laugh out loud, not regret moments of indulgence therein. I've also had some glimpses of influence Wodehouse had upon Rowling. "Constant Vigilance" used as a defense against pig-stealing instead of dark wizards notwithstanding, the phrase is always wonderful.My ratings on these books reflect pure entertainment and the amount of joy received. --"With a hollow groan Sir Gregory took another for-full of smoked salmon. A blinding light had shone upon him, and he realized how unjustified had been those hard thoughts he had been thinking this woman all these years. He had supposed that she had betrayed him with a cold, mocking callousness which had shaken his faith in the female sex to its foundations. He saw now that had had happened had been one of those unfortunate misunderstandings which are so apt to sunder hearts, the sort of thing Thomas Hardy used to write about." (145)
—K.
Two gentlemen with big manors face off in a legendary fat pig growing contest, and right in the middle is the brother of one of the men, Gally Threepwood. Of course, there’s some confusion with mis-matched lovers, a farce involving an uptight butler and stolen pigs, and an awful lot of bally great language. A few thoughts:- I don’t like these quite as much as the Jeeves and Wooster novels. Gally Threepwood isn’t quite as goofy or dopey as Bertie Wooster, and Beach is no Wooster. Of course, I should probably read more before I pronounce judgment, but there it is.- Vocab: pre-phylloxera – wine from before the great French wine blight. “Beach helped himself to a third glass of port. It was pre-phylloxera, and should have had him dancing about the room, strewing roses from his hat, but it not so much as bring a glow to his eye.” (194) Apparently wine made after the plague was less heady or something.- Favorite phrase from the book: “Penny seemed listless… It may have been merely maiden meditation but it looked to Gally more like the pip.” I love the phrase “the pip,” which means “to be angry, or depressed.”There are perhaps some class issues to write about with regard to these books, but really, Wodehouse books are just darn fun.
—Brendan
In a previous review, I divided Wodehouse's output into the best, the good, and the weak. Pigs Have Wings is in the second category. I might have put it into "the best" until the last few chapters; there the action becomes rushed and uninspired. But up to that point, there's a lot to enjoy. The setting is Blandings Castle, so of course, there are imposters afoot, and the long-suffering Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth's prize pig, is kidnapped. Worth a read, if you have read some of Wodehouse's best.
—Jeff Crompton
