Blandings Castle
Blandings Castle is a fictional manor in the stories of the British-American writer PG Wodehouse .
As the primary residence of the shabby Lord Emsworth in the English county of Shropshire , Blandings Castle plays a role in a total of eleven novels and nine short stories written by PG Wodehouse between 1915 and 1975. In 1969, when the first novel set on Blandings Castle was reprinted, PG Wodehouse formed the umbrella term Blandings Castle-Saga for these stories . Evelyn Waugh , who is one of the Wodehouse fans, called the garden around Blandings Castle in a radio show, which was later published as an essay, "the garden from which we are all driven". The characters from Wodehouse get angry, get drunk, kidnapped, smuggled and blackmailed, but they always do it without real brutality in a fantasy world of unspoilt paradisiacal innocence. The castle grounds are said to be inspired by Weston Court , the infrastructure of Sudeley Castle (both in the Cotswolds ), and some features of Corsham Court in Wiltshire .
Essential residents of Blandings Castle
Members of the Threepwood family
Lord of the castle at Blandings Castle is the almost 60-year-old, very absent-minded Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth, who is usually referred to as Lord Emsworth by those around him. In its eccentricity, eating, sleeping and dreaming of pigs, of which the Empress de Blandings is his favorite pig, is his main occupation. According to his only brother's assessment, Lord Emsworth's IQ is about thirty points below that of a poorly gifted tadpole, Lord Emsworth is doing well at Blandings Castle:
"He enjoyed excellent health ..., a large income and a first-class inherited property with gravel paths in an idyllic park landscape and with all modern comforts ..."
His happiness in life is disturbed by his numerous relatives, who regularly settle at Blandings Castle for long periods of time. His younger brother, the fun-loving Honorable Galahad Threepwood , lives regularly at Blandings Castle when he has to relax from his London experiences. When he has had enough of his happy life in London, he returns to visit Blandings Castle. He then appears with the expression of a "affable monarch who walks happily around his kingdom after years of struggling with pagans in distant lands". However, not all joy awaits him there. Besides him, his sisters also regularly stay at Blandings Castle, all of whom consider Galahad to be the black sheep of the family. Lady Constance Keeble is particularly critical of him , who during her widowhood at Blandings Castle often takes on the role of the lady of the castle and sometimes dreams of how beautiful her life would have been if Galahad had not been saved from drowning by the gardener as a child.
Lord Emsworth's eldest son, Lord Bosham, spends most of his time outside of Blandings Castle - a correspondingly minor role in the novels. He made a bigger appearance in Uncle's Awakening , where he tried to hunt down a supposed impostor trio alongside Lady Constance. The younger son of Lord Emsworth was completely different:
“Unlike the male cod, who annually father three million five hundred thousand small cod and love them all equally, British aristocrats manage to look curiously at their younger sons. And Freddie Threepwood was one of those young sons who called for such a look. It seemed to the head of the family that he had fathered these offspring only to his constant annoyance. If he let him live alone in London, that worthlessness quickly piled up a mountain of debt, and when he brought him back to Blandings Castle, he would idle around the property, moping. Prince Hamlet must have been just as entertaining for his stepfather in Elsinore. "
A marriage to the daughter of a US dog biscuit manufacturer, which was very surprising for Lord Emsworth, ensures that Fred spends most of his time abroad. Any return Freddies to Britain is of immediate concern to Lord Emsworth that his youngest son would return to Blandings Castle.
For Lord Emsworth's numerous nieces and nephews, Blandings Castle is regularly the place to come to their senses when considering tying the knot with a wholly unsuitable partner.
Employees and servants
Blandings Castle's butler is Sebastian Beach , whose appearance suggests he is on the verge of suffering a stroke. PG Wodehouse compares his voice to that of Tawny Portwein , who has become audible. In addition to Butler Beach, Mrs. Twemlow as housekeeper, the second butler Meridew and the servants James and Alfred are employed at Blandines Castle. In addition, Blandings Castle has the numerous servants that characterized a very wealthy Edwardian household: kitchen maids, laundresses, maids, housemaids, chauffeurs, shoeshine boys and stable boys. The extensive gardens require the care of a large number of gardeners - headed by the Scottish head gardener Angus McAllister, who is so assertive that the meek Lord Emsworth is afraid of him.
Because of the great importance that the Berkshire Pig Empress of Blandings has in the life of Lord Emsworth, the pig keepers also have an important role at Blandings Castle. The cross-eyed George Cyril Wellbeloved is the first to be entrusted with the care of the Empress von Blandings and whose imprisonment even means that the pig stops eating. However, he lacks any loyalty to his employer and he becomes the pigkeeper of Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe , Lord Emsworth's neighbors and constant rivals for medals at the agricultural show. Edwin Pott, an older, gnomish man, whose smell of pork is so intense that it can be noticed from a distance and whose language is almost incomprehensible, is one of the Empress's other carers. His question “What are you doing there?” Can only be heard as an incomprehensible “Wah mahni na?”. It is due to the intrigues of Lady Constance that the pig is finally entrusted to a woman. Monica Simmons disrespectfully describes the precious animal entrusted to her as a marzipan pig . and turns out to be Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe's niece. In Wealth Doesn't Protect Against Love , one of the last novels in the Blandings Castle saga, she eventually runs away with one of Lord Emsworth's nephews.
Not least at the urging of his sister Lady Constance, Lord Emsworth frequently employs secretaries to help him carry out his duties. Rupert Baxter stands out among them: Lady Constance considers him an extremely efficient and intelligent young man and the best secretary Lord Emsworth ever employed. She relies on his support when faced with unsolvable tasks. This leads to Rupert Baxter showing up at Blandings Castle long after he left his service there. Lord Emsworth, on the other hand, believes that Rupert Baxter's state of mind has suffered severely under his workload: Baxter not only threw clay pots at windows, hid under beds, but even has reason to suspect that a Baxter who ran amok threatened guests and family members . Successors to the post of secretary are Ronald Psmith and later Hugo Carmody, who also uses his position to successfully woo one of Lord Emsworth's nieces.
Visitors
Blandings Castle regularly hosts a large number of guests: The numerous family members regularly host parts of their extensive circle of friends at the castle or invite one of the more extensive family members. For example, residents of the castle are sometimes the slightly angry Alaric, Duke of Dunstable, who sometimes smashes the furniture in outbursts of anger, but who is nevertheless accommodated by Lady Constance in the most elegant guest room, the "Garden Suite". The guest is also the leading neurologist, Sir Roderick Glossop, who also represents the connection to PG Wodehouse of other great series of novels: His medical advice is also sought in the Wodehouse novels about Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves . Another welcome guest is the fun-loving Fifth Earl of Ickenham , whom many simply refer to as Uncle Fred.
Uncounted are the visitors who come to Blandings Castle under the pretense of a false identity - seldom this is done with dark intent, often love is the reason: in Summer Castle Storm, the revue dancer Sue Brown pretends to be the millionaire daughter Myra Schoonmaker at Blandings Castle to be close to her fiancé Ronnie Fish, one of Lord Emsworth's numerous nephews. Maudie Stubbs, on the other hand, is hired as a private detective by Galahad Threepwood and taken to Blandings Castle by Freddie Threepwood as the alleged friend of Freddie Threepwood's father-in-law. Maudie Stubbs is also characterized by what is termed "adults only" and even throws Lord Emsworth into amorous entanglements. However, she eventually marries Lord Emsworth's (alleged) opponent Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe and thus becomes Lady Parsloe, who resides in Matchingham, the country estate in the neighborhood of Blandings Castle.
Novels with Blandings Castle as the setting
- Something Fresh (1915); German title: In old freshness
- Leave It to Psmith (1923); German title Psmith macht alles ; A lord in need
- Summer Lightning (1929); German title: Sommerliches Schlossgewitter
- Heavy Weather (1933); German title: His Lordship and the Pig (translated by Christiane Trabant-Rommel); Be and pig
-
Uncle Fred in the Springtime ; German title: Schloss Blandings in the storm of feelings
- New edition: Onkels Erwachen , newly translated by Thomas Schlachter, Edition Epoca, Zurich 2010 ISBN 978-3-905513-53-0
- Full moon ; German title: Full moon over Blandings Castle
- Pigs Have Wings (1952); German title: Schwein oder nichtschwein
- Service with a Smile (1961); German title: Always at your service
- Galahad at Blandings (1965); German title: Wealth does not protect against love
- A Pelican at Blandings (1969); German title: A pelican in the castle
- Sunset at Blandings
Short stories with Blandings Castle as the setting
-
Blandings Castle and Elsewhere (1935); German title Herr auf Schloss Blandings (collection of short stories)
- The Custody of the Pumpkin, German title Der Kürbis
- Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best, German title: Lord Emsworth mediated
- Pig-hoo-ooo-ey, German title: Schweinchen, ko-oo-om
- Company for Gertrude, German title: A man for Gertrude
- The Go-getter, German title: Hundekuchen
- Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend, German title: Lord Emsworth and the girl .
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 .
Single receipts
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Foreword to the 1969 reprint of Something Fresh . PG Wodehouse literally writes: " Something Fresh was the first of what I might call - in fact, I will call - the Blandings Castle Saga."
- ^ Donat Gallagher (Ed.): The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh , Essay: "An Act of Homage and Reparation", Methuen Publishing, 1983.
- ^ Evelyn Waugh, The Sunday Times Magazine . July 16, 1961
- ^ Robert McCrum: Will PG Wodehouse's Blandings work on TV? ( English ) In: The Guardian . January 12, 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig , p. 83.
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Full moon over Blandings Castle , p. 110.
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig . P. 6
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Full moon over Blandings Castle , p. 117.
- ↑ PG Wodehouse. Pig or not pig , p. 153.
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: The pumpkin in Lord at Blandings Castle, p. 8. Translated by Annemarie Arnold-Kubina.
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: In old freshness .
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig-hoo-ooo-ey . (1927), short story. Published in book form in Blandings Castle and Elsewhere , 1935. German title Herr auf Schloß Blandings .
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Full moon over Blandings Castle , p. 194.
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Full moon over Blandings Castle . P. 192
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig , p. 12.
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Summer Castle Storm .
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: A Lord in Need .
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Summer Castle Storm .
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Uncle's Awakening .
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Bertie in wild anticipation .
- ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig , p. 75.