Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe

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Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, 7th Baronet is a recurring, fictional character in short stories and novels by British-American writer PG Wodehouse . Sir Gregory is the constant adversary of the absent-minded Lord Emsworth . Both compete with each other for awards for pumpkins and fattening pigs.

characterization

Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe first appears in the short story The Pumpkin , which appeared in the US Saturday Evening Post in 1924 . He's a heavy person there, a little over 50 years old. For three years he won first prize for pumpkin cultivation at the Shrewsbury Agricultural Show with his pumpkins, a prize that Lord Emsworth now disputes and ultimately wins:

“For all of those readers who did not have the opportunity to attend the last Shrewsbury Agricultural Show, let us briefly summarize what happened at that show. Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe of Matchingham Hall was present as always, but the attentive observer could see that his demeanor was by no means as presumptuous as in previous years. As he walked through the vegetable tent, he is said to have bitten his lip and looked very gloomy. But at least Sir Gregory was a gentleman. The Parsloes were fair losers. Therefore, when he reached the middle of the tent, he stretched out a friendly hand to his rival "

The relationship between Lord Emsworth and Sir Gregory is not yet as strained as it is in later short stories and novels in the Blandings Castle saga . Starting with this story, PG Wodehouse has further developed the character according to the needs of the farce-like actions of his stories.

PG Wodehouse gives the greatest insight into Sir Gregory's wild past in the novel Sommerliches Schlossgewitter , which first appeared in 1929. An essential part of the plot is the scandalous memoir that the Honorable Galahad Threepwood , younger brother of Lord Emsworth, wrote. Many of these memories relate to Sir Gregory: Galahad reports that Sir Gregory even thrown out of the ill-reputed Cafe de l'Europe because he wanted to auction his pants there at the bar to buy a bottle of champagne. No less scandalous is his behavior in Romano's restaurant , where he marched on the table with a soup tureen on his head and a celery stalk in hand, claiming to be the guard at Buckingham Palace.

His life has calmed down since a cousin died and he inherited the baronet title. Sir Gregory now lives in the Shrophshire village of Much Matchingham and resides at Matchingham Hall, just a few miles from Blandings Castle. Lady Constance, who often spends long periods there, hopes that her two brothers, Lord Emsworth and Galahad Threepwood, will one day befriend this neighbor. However, both brothers are deeply convinced that Sir Gregory is up to bad luck. Lord Emsworth in particular fears the worst of Sir Gregory:

“There was a snake in his Garden of Eden, a dead leaf on his rose bed, a grain of sand in the spinach of his mind. He enjoyed excellent health ..., a large income and a first class inherited property with gravel paths in idyllic parkland and with all modern conveniences, but all this blessing was nullified that the pure air of the district in which he lived , was poisoned by the presence of a man like Sir Gregory Parsloe - a man who, he believed, was plotting evil against that glorious pig, the Empress of Blandings . "

Butler Beach at Blandings Castle even compares the neighbor to Professor Moriarty , the villain from the Sherlock Holmes stories.

It is undisputed that Sir Gregory succeeded in luring Lord Emsworth's pigkeeper George Cyril Wellbeloved, who was once Lord Emsworth's favorite pig, the Empress of Blandings, into his camp with the prospect of a higher salary. Galahad also suspects Sir Gregory that many years ago Sir Gregory overfed his dog with onion beef roast before a rat competition and thus won the competition.

Sir Gregory suspects his neighbors of not always using honest means - this is how mutual pig kidnapping occurs in the novel Pig or Not Pig . At the end of this novel, however, Sir Gregory is well on his way to becoming Butler Beach's nephew. Beach's niece Maudie doesn't just send her uncle ambiguous postcards. It is also characterized by a lot of what can be described as "only for adults". She worked as a barmaid under the name Maudie Montrose and inherited a private detective agency from her first husband. So great is her attraction that even Lord Emsworth asked for her hand in writing. During her time as a barmaid, she also had Gregory, who was then still penniless and untitled. The two not only had a relationship with each other, but also wanted to get married and only a misunderstanding prevented this marriage. In the course of the complex novel plot of pig or not pig , both discover that their feelings for each other are far from extinguished.

Short stories and novels starring Sir Gregory

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

  1. ↑ PG Wodehouse: The pumpkin in Lord at Blandings Castle. P. 23. Translated by Annemarie Arnold-Kubina.
  2. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig, p. 73.
  3. ↑ Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. P. 118.
  4. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig. P. 6.
  5. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig, p. 108.
  6. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig. P. 11.
  7. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig. P. 75.
  8. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig. P. 149.