Empress of Blandings

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The Empress of Blandings (original name: Empress of Blandings ) is a fictional fattening pig who plays a role in a series of short stories and novels by the British-American writer PG Wodehouse . It belongs to the absent-minded Lord Emsworth , who discovers pigs as a passion after long trying to raise award-winning pumpkins. To his pride, the enormously large and fat Berkshire pig has won multiple awards in the "Finisher" category at the local Shropshire agricultural show. Her success at the exhibition, but also the possibility of blackmailing Lord Emsworth with it, resulted in the Empress von Blandings being kidnapped several times.

The Empress von Blandings first played a role in the novel Sommerliches Schlossgewitter , published in 1929 . It is mentioned in the 1977 published fragment of the novel Sunset at Blandings , on which Wodehouse was working at the time of his death.

Lord Emsworth and his pigkeepers

One of Lord Emsworth's favorite pastimes is to sit quietly by the enclosure of the comfort house of his beloved fattening pig and to listen to the loud feeding noises or the deep, regular breaths when it sleeps. If he cannot be around, he deals with works such as “Caring for pigs in good and bad days”. Its peaceful existence is not only constantly messed up by relatives:

“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. "

In the course of the series of novels set at Blandings Castle , Lord Emsworth entrusts the care of the Empress to a number of very different pigkeepers. Most of them have a very strong smell of pork.

  • The cross-eyed George Cyril Wellbeloved is the first to be entrusted with the care of the Empress von Blandings. He turns out to be slightly unreliable - not only is he inclined to drink, he also lacks any loyalty to his aristocratic employer. So he temporarily changes to the camp of Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, who, however, worried about his success at the next agricultural exhibition, puts him on alcohol withdrawal, returns to Blandings and finally betrays Lord Emsworth again.
  • James Pirbright is the pigkeeper in the novels Summer Castle Storm and His Lordship and the Pig . He looks after the empress very reliably and takes a resolute stance against potential pig kidnappers. However, he emigrates to Canada.
  • Edwin Pott is an older, gnomish man whose smell of pigs is so intense that it can be perceived from a distance and whose language is almost incomprehensible. His question “What are you doing there?” Can only be heard as an incomprehensible “Wah mahni na?”. PG Wodehouse gives different reasons for this: in pigs or non-pigs, a missing roof of the mouth is to blame for the speech defect, in a full moon over Blandings Castle it is a missing dentition. Regardless of the cause of his speech impairment, he can withdraw into private life after winning the soccer pool.
  • At the urging of Lord Emworth's energetic sister, Lady Constance Keeple, Monica Simmons is also employed as a pigkeeper. She is a tall, young woman who looks like a freestyle wrestler, is the daughter of a country pastor and disrespectfully calls the precious animal entrusted to her the marzipan pig . Worse, she turns out to be the niece of Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, Lord Emsworth's antagonist for the awards at the Shropshire Agricultural Show. Overall, however, she is a reliable carer of the precious animal and after her appearance in Pig or Not Pig takes over her post a second time in the novel Wealth Protects From Love, only to run away with one of Lord Emsworth's nephews.
  • Cuthbert Price replaces Monika Simmons in the meantime in the novel A Pelican in the Castle .

adventure

In the short story "Pig-hoo-ooo-ey" the Empress von Blandings is mentioned for the first time in a short story by PG Wodehouse. She mourns the loss of her pigkeeper Wellbeloved, who has to sit in prison for a while. Lord Emsworth is concerned about her progressive weight loss as the Shrewsbury Agricultural Show is approaching. However, in James Belford there is a pig whisperer who uses a special call technique to get her to approach her feeding trough again, and for the first time she is awarded the Silver Medal, the first prize at the agricultural exhibition.

A little later, Wellbeloved leaves Lord Emsworth's services to hire Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, whose own fattening pig, Matchingham's pride, will also compete in the fattening pig category for the prize of the agricultural show. However, the short story A Man for Gertrude reports that this act does not go entirely unpunished. Lord Emsworth ensures that the pastorate at Matchingham Hall is filled with Rupert Bingham, a very strenuous minister in his intrusive helpfulness.

In Summer Castle Storm , the Empress is kidnapped by Blandings for the first time. Ronnie Fish, who has drawn the wrath of his uncle Lord Emsworth for throwing tennis balls at the animal's back, is the first to get hold of her. He is convinced that if he "finds" the animal again, his reputation will rise again with Lord Emsworth. The pig lives temporarily in the hut of a gamekeeper and is looked after by Butler Beach , who stands at the side of the nieces and nephews of his employer in many of the novels and stories.

In his lordship and the pig the Empress von Blandings also finds in her trough the scandalous memories of the Honorable Galahad Threepwood , which she dutifully consumes. It prevents the publication of the scandalous memoirs of Lord Emsworth's brother, a fun-loving bachelor and always a welcome guest in variety theaters, on racecourses and in all restaurants where something is going on. A little later she finds herself in the trunk of Ronnie Fish, who threatens her kidnapping if Lord Emsworth does not provide him with sufficient means so that he can run away. Both the Galahad and Lord Emsworth suspect, however, the machinations of their constant opponent Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe behind everything.

In Uncle's Awakening , she is kidnapped again and this time hidden in a bathroom by the Duke of Dunstable. She successfully frees herself after Lord Bonham fires a rifle near her.

In the full moon over Blandings Castle , Bill Lister is hired twice to make a portrait of the award-winning sow. The portrait is controversial - Lord Emsworth's sister Lady Constance thinks a portrait of the pig is a waste of money. On the other hand, Lord Emsworth's brother Galahad thinks that the Empress of Blanding deserves a place in the ancestral gallery of Blandings Castle, as she is the only one in the family who has ever achieved fame. In this novel, too, the Empress is not allowed to make herself comfortable in her stable. She is locked in the bedroom of Veronica Wedge, Lord Emsworth's most beautiful niece, and thus helps Veronica Wedge to become engaged to the millionaire she has fallen in love with. A little later, the Empress of Blandings finds herself in Matchingham Hall, Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe's country residence. The two competitors for the top award at the Shropshire Agricultural Show have stolen each other's pig. It will be rediscovered early enough to finally win the first prize at this exhibition for the third time.

In Always at Service, she fools a group of youths with a potato tied to string, and the Duke of Dunstable tries to kidnap them again. He plans to sell her to Lord Tilbury. It is Uncle Fred who prevents the kidnapping attempt here.

In Wealth Doesn't Protect Against Love , it is the devious Huxley Winkworth who diagnoses the Empress of Blandings as obese and plans to free her and give her some clearance. When he finally succeeds in outsmarting the always vigilant Monica Simmons, he finds out that the Empress von Blandings is suffering from a hangover: Wilfred Allsop accidentally emptied a flask full of whiskey into her trough the day before. The disgruntled Empress bites Winkworth's finger. Lord Emsworth's fear that his precious animal has contracted an infection as a result turns out to be unfounded.

In Sunset at Blandings , Wodehouse's last unfinished novel, a storyline is taken up that already played a role in Full Moon over Blandings Castle : One of Lord Emsworth's numerous nieces has lost her heart to a penniless young man who is under Galahad Threepwood brought to Blandings Castle on the pretext that he would paint the portrait of the award-winning fattening pig.

Novels and short stories featuring the Empress von Blandings

  • 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
  • " Pig-hoo-ooo-ey " (1927), short story. Published in book form in Blandings Castle and Elsewhere , 1935. German title Herr auf Schloß Blandings
  • Company for Gertrude (1928), short story. German title: A man for Gertrude . Published in book form in Blandings Castle and Elsewhere , 1935. German title Herr auf Schloß Blandings
  • Uncle Fred in the Springtime ; German title: Schloss Blandings in the storm of feelings
  • Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend
  • Full moon ; German title: Full moon over Blandings Castle
  • Pigs have wings ; 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 - Wodehouse was working on the novel when he died in 1975. Edited in 1977 by Richard Usborne, the fragment of the novel contains Wodehouse's detailed notes on how the renewed entanglements at Blandings Castle turned for the better.
  • Professor van Dusen lets the pig out , radio play by Michael Koser , RIAS 1988, uses the motif. The Pig is a three-time award-winning Berkshire aristocrat named the Marquise.

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. ↑ PG Wodehouse: The Pumpkin . Short story, first published in 1924.
  2. ^ Donaldson: PG Wodehouse: A Biography . P. 351.
  3. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Full moon over Blandings Castle . P. 16
  4. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig . P. 6
  5. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig
  6. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig , p. 12.
  7. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Full moon over Blandings Castle , p. 194.
  8. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Full moon over Blandings Castle . P. 192
  9. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig , p. 13.
  10. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Pig or not pig , p. 12.
  11. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Full moon over Blandings Castle , p. 50.
  12. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Full moon over Blandings Castle , p. 146.
  13. ↑ Usborne: Plum Sauce. A PG Wodehouse Companion. P. 207.