Old nobility does not rust

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Old nobility does not rust (original title: The Code of the Woosters ) is a novel by the British-American writer PG Wodehouse . As a serialized story, the novel appeared between July 16 and September 3, 1938 in the American Saturday Evening Post and from September 14 to October 6 in the London Daily Mail . The novel was first published in book form on October 7, 1938 in Great Britain and shortly afterwards in the USA.

Old nobility does not rust is the third novel by PG Wodehouse with two of its most famous protagonists, namely Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves . The novel is now considered a classic of 20th century British humor. The British newspaper The Guardian included Old Adel Is Not Rusting in its list of 1000 must-read novels in 2009 alongside a number of other Wodehouse novels. In 2015, 82 international literary critics and scholars voted it one of the most important British novels . The literary critic Robert McCrum, however, decided a year earlier in the list of the 100 best English-language novels published in the Guardian for the Wodehouse novel Without Me, Jeeves! as the best in the work of this author.

The novel is a sequel to Then Just Not, Jeeves (first published in 1934), which described the burgeoning relationship between Bertie's friend Gussie Fink-Nottle and Madeline Bassett . The continuation of the engagement of these two is of great importance to Bertie - the sentimental Madeline, who believes the stars are God's daisies and is convinced that a baby will be born if a fairy sneezes, otherwise he will marry him. A silver milk jug in the shape of a cow, which has to be stolen in any case, also plays a major role. PG Wodehouse introduced two characters with Sir Watkyn Bassett and Roderick Spode, later Lord Sidcup, who also played a role in later novels.

action

Starting position

Bertie is recovering from a bachelorette party he gave the night before for his old friend, the fish-faced, pig-loving Gussie Fink-Nottle. While he is still recovering, his favorite aunt Dahlia summons him to his home. She wants Bertie to go to an antique shop in central London and look contemptuously at a silver milk jug in the shape of a cow. That should shake the trust of the shop owner in the quality of this collector's item - in the worst case it is a modern piece from Holland. The hopefully falling price is supposed to put Dahlia's husband Tom Travers, who absolutely wants to own this piece, at ease. Aunt Dahlia needs him in good spirits because she has to approach her husband again for funding for her magazine “Milady's Boudoir”. Bertie has few options to evade this wish: If he does not fulfill her order, she will in future deprive him of her affection and with it the cuisine of her French celebrity chef Anatole.

Bertie dutifully goes to the antique shop. There he meets Sir Watkyn Bassett , another collector of old silver. He is accompanied by Roderick Spode, whose aunt Sir Watkyn intends to marry. It's not Bertie and Sir Watkyn's first encounter. Watkyn once fined him five pounds sterling for stealing a police helmet. Even now Bertie does not manage to take Sir Watkyn over. At first he gives the impression that he is trying to steal Sir Watkyn's umbrella, a little later it looks as if he is trying to steal the silver jug ​​from the shop.

The silver jug ​​is reserved for Tom Travers until 3 p.m. Clever tricks by Sir Watkyn ensure that Tom Travers misses this deadline - in the joint club Watkyn ensures that Tom Travers spoils his stomach with cold lobster and cucumber salad. Watkyn buys the silver jug ​​and will be exhibiting it at his country estate Totleigh Towers from now on. Aunt Dahlia makes it unmistakably clear that she now expects Bertie to steal this very little silver jug. This makes Bertie , who has already been beaten with the terrifying Aunt Agatha , philosophize about how happy and calm his life would be without aunts and how little sense it makes to differentiate between good and bad aunts. At heart they would all be the same: sooner or later their horse's foot would show itself .

Aunt Dahlia's assignment is not the only reason why Bertie now has to leave for Totleigh Tower as a matter of urgency: there seems to have been a falling out between his friend Gussie and Madeline Bassett. Bertie knows that breaking this engagement will mean that Madeline wants to marry him: since Bertie forwarded Gussie's marriage proposal to her, she has had the impression that Bertie has fallen in love with her. However, the Wooster's honor forbids Bertie to clarify this misunderstanding to Madeline. If the engagement fails, he will inevitably go to the altar with Madeline.

On Totleigh's Tower

Sir Watkyn is amazed to find Bertie, whom he classifies as a notorious thief, as a guest at his country house. Since Bertie is there at the invitation of Sir Watkyn's daughter Madeline, the courtesy forbids him to unload Bertie again. Through Madeline, Sir Watkyn also learns of the family relationships between Bertie and Tom Travers. It is now clear to Sir Watkyn that Bertie has dishonest intentions with regard to the coveted silver jug. From now on, the silver jug ​​is not only guarded by Roderick Spode, but the village policeman is also watching over it. When Aunt Dahlia also manages to be accepted as a house guest in Totleigh Towers, the security is tightened. Roderick Spode makes it unmistakably clear to Bertie Wooster that he will beat him like a nappy if the silver jug ​​disappears in any way.

It doesn't stop at this entanglement: Gussie has lost a notebook in which he has noted everything that he thinks about Sir Watkyn and Roderick Spode to be absurd and grotesque. He did this on the advice of Jeeves, so that he would get rid of his nervousness if he was to give his speech as the bridegroom in the presence of these two people at the wedding reception. The notebook fell into the hands of Sir Watkyn's anarchic ward Stiffy Byng, who decided to marry Vicar Harold Pinker. This is not without its challenges: it is not likely that Sir Watkyn will consent to his ward's marriage to a destitute vicar. So Stiffy Byng got it into her head that Bertie faked a break-in on Totleigh Tower, which was aimed at the silver jug, and that her secret fiancé Harold Pinker prevented it. She is convinced that Sir Watkyn will then accept the wedding out of gratitude. Only then will she hand the notebook over to its rightful owner. She also gives her fiancé an impossible task. Because, in their opinion, the village policeman has annoyed her black Aberdeen Terrier unnecessarily , Harold Pinker is supposed to steal his police helmet. Stiffy Byng's intentions lead to a number of further entanglements: When searching in vain for the notebook in Stiffy Byng's room, Bertie and Jeeves must seek shelter on the furniture in order to avoid the teeth of the energetic Aberdeen Terrier. And the prime suspect of the theft of a police helmet is of course Bertie Wooster - Sir Watkyn makes it unmistakably clear to him that he will not get away with a fine this time, but that, in his role as justice of the peace, this time he will sentence him to 30 days imprisonment as soon as he meets Bertie convicted of the theft of the helmet.

Resolution of Entanglements

Bertie desperately describes his tricky situation to Jeeves:

  • If he doesn't steal the silver jug ​​and don't hand it over to Aunt Dahlia, he will no longer be able to participate in the unsurpassed skills of Aunt Dahlia's celebrity chef Anatole.
  • However, if he carries out her wish, Spode will beat him as soft as a diaper.
  • If he steals the milk jug without handing it over to Stiffy Byng, Spode will not only turn him into a soft nappy, but Stiffy will also hand the notebook over to Sir Watkyn. This will then forbid the marriage between Madeline and Gussie, which will result in Bertie having to lead Madeline to the altar.

The situation only resolves with the intervention of Jeeves. Jeeves first finds a way how to get Sir Watkyn to agree to a marriage between Stiffy Byng and Harold Pinker: Stiffy threatens her guardian that she will marry Bertie Wooster if she is not allowed to marry Harold Pinker. Sir Watkyn clearly prefers the destitute Harold Bertie, as Jeeves predicted.

Thanks to his membership in the Junior Ganymede Club, the club of butlers and valets, Jeeves also succeeds in discovering the dark secret in Roderick Spode's life. The secret is closely related to "Eulalie" - and the use of this word makes Spode astonishingly docile. So he is ready to take on the theft of the police helmet, the act of which Bertie Wooster is so strongly suspected that he is locked in his room at Totleigh Hall and the village policeman outside his window watches that Bertie does not abseil out of it : Bertie does not seem to be able to avoid a prison sentence. Aunt Dahlia is so appalled that she first offers Sir Watkyn the release of her celebrity chef Anatole in exchange for Bertie's release. Bertie vehemently rejects this exchange: What is thirty days imprisonment against the participation in Anatole's culinary skills. An elaborate menu should greet him when he returns from custody.

Spode's surprising (and false) admission of the police helmet theft makes such heroic sacrifices unnecessary. The false accusation and the fixing of Bertie in his room at Totleigh Hall is the lever to approve Sir Watkyn's consent to Gussie and Madeline's marriage. Although Sir Watkyn now knows the contents of the notebook, he is facing charges of defamation and imprisonment and so he not only agrees to his daughter's marriage. The cleverly appropriated silver jug ​​also goes back to Tom Travers.

As a thank you to Jeeves, Bertie will now embark on a trip around the world aboard a cruise ship - a trip that Jeeves has been promoting since the beginning of the novel. It is also revealed which dark secret is behind the woman's name "Eulalie". It's by no means a dark woman's story as Bertie suspected for so long. Spode's secret passion is designing women's underwear, which he successfully sells in a London shop. This dark secret, however, would jeopardize the political career that Spode aspires to.

Trivia

PG Wodehouse leaned Roderick Spode closely to Oswald Mosley , who became known as the founder of the fascist party British Union of Fascists (BUF) . In his novel, Wodehouse mocks, among other things, the black shorts in which the followers of Spode appear. No shirt colors would have been available any more, so black shorts were chosen as the party uniform of the “savior of Great Britain”.

Despite this ridicule, PG Wodehouse gained a reputation for political proximity to fascism. PG Wodehouse, who was arrested by the Nazis in France in 1940 and was almost 60 years old at the time, was released from prison when he was in Berlin in 1941 on radio programs that were broadcast in the USA. The broadcasting department of the Foreign Office (Kult R) , which is responsible for propaganda abroad, hoped that broadcasting such a program would have a positive effect within the USA, which is not yet at war. In a total of five speeches by Wodehouse, Wodehouse humorously describes life during his internment. Participation in the radio programs was resented by Wodehouse in Great Britain - because of the completely apolitical content of his speeches, Wodehouse had naively not expected such a reaction. The fierce reactions in the UK to these speeches resulted in Wodehouse never returning, settling in the United States and taking US citizenship in 1955.

literature

  • Frances Donaldson: PG Wodehouse: A Biography . London 1982, ISBN 0-297-78105-7 .
  • Richard Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. Overlook, Woodstock / NY 2003, ISBN 1-58567-441-9 .

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ↑ McIlvaine, E., Sherby, LS and Heineman, JH (1990) PG Wodehouse: A comprehensive bibliography and checklist . New York: James H. Heineman, ISBN 087008125X . Pp. 74-76.
  2. ↑ 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read: The Definitive List , accessed April 17, 2016.
  3. ↑ The best British novel of all times - have international critics found it? The Guardian , accessed February 6, 2016
  4. ↑ PG Wodehouse, The Code of the Wooster , p. 15.
  5. ↑ PG Wodehouse, The Code of the Wooster , p. 16.
  6. ↑ PG Wodehouse; The Code of the Wooster . P. 39
  7. ^ PG Wodehouse: The Code of the Wooster . P. 106.
  8. ↑ PG Wodehouse: The Code of the Wooster , p. 153
  9. ↑ Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. P. 174.
  10. ↑ PG Wodehouse: The Code of the Woosters . P. 66.
  11. ↑ Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. P. 3.