Summer castle thunderstorm

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Sommerliches Schlossgewitter (original British title: Summer Lightning ; original US title: Fish Preferred ) is a cheerful novel by the British-American writer PG Wodehouse , which first appeared in Collier’s and the British Pall Mall Magazine in 1929 as a sequel and on July 1, 1929 in was published in book form in the USA and on July 19, 1929 in Great Britain.

It is Wodehouse's third novel to be set at Blandings Castle : Galahad Threepwood writes his memoir there, which is particularly worrying for those among his fellow citizens who knew Galahad from a young age. Castle neighbor Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe , who has led the life of a respectable citizen for years, but looks back on a wild past , is particularly concerned . Theft of the manuscript is supposed to get the problem out of the way. Lady Constance, on the other hand, tries again to prevent members of the family from entering into a marriage bond with spouses who are unsuitable from her point of view.

Even if the publication of the memoir in Sommerliches Schlossgewitter was finally prevented, Galahad's memoir again played a role in the Wodehouse novel Sein und Schwein , published in 1933 .

action

The absent-minded Lord Emsworth , lord of Blandings Castle and brother of Galahad Threepwood, employs Hugo Carmody, a friend of his nephew Ronnie Fish, as the new secretary. He was previously an unsuccessful nightclub operator with Ronnie and is now secretly engaged to Millicent Threepwood, one of Lord Emsworth's numerous nieces. Most of all, this is to be kept a secret from Lord Emsworth's sister, Lady Constance, whose main concern at the moment is that the publication of Galahad's memoirs will bring disgrace to the family. Gahalahd, the younger brother of Lord Emsworth, is a fun-loving bachelor just under 60 and has always been a welcome guest in vaudeville shows, on racing courses and in all restaurants where something is going on.

Ronnie is also secretly engaged - his choice fell on Sue Brown, a revue dancer and old friend of Hugo's. When the two happened to meet Lady Constance in London, he introduced his aunt to his secret fiancée as Myra Schoonmaker, an American millionaire's daughter whom he and his mother had met a few weeks earlier in Biarritz .

When Ronnie returned to Blandings Castle, Lord Emsworth's old secretary Rupert Baxter was already there: Lady Constance invited him against Lord Emsworth's opposition because she wanted to involve him in the removal of the Galahad memoirs. Ronnie, on the other hand, hopes to find financial support from Lord Emsworth. Pigs are key to Lord Emsworth's heart, as Lord Emsworth is an avid pig farmer who takes pride in the multi-award-winning Empress of Blandings , a Berkshire pig of enormous proportions. However, Ronnie has drawn his uncle's wrath for throwing tennis balls against the animal's back. Ronnie therefore decides to kidnap the Empress von Blandings - he is convinced that he can count on his uncle's gratitude if he "happens to find the pig again". Sebastian Beach , the venerable butler of Blandings Castle, is one of the culprits in this kidnapping .

Totally shaken by the disappearance of his pig, Lord Emsworth sends Hugo to London to hire the private detective Percy Pilbeam. Like numerous detective agencies before, however, he refuses to take on an assignment that consists of finding a missing pig. To comfort himself over his failure and enjoy London, Hugo persuades his old friend Su Brown to go dancing with him in a nightclub. The private detective Pilbeam is also an admirer of Sue, is also a guest at the nightclub and uses his chance to flirt with Sue. Ronnie Fish happened to witness this film attempt. His fit of jealousy earned him a night in jail and led to the breakup of his engagement to Sue the next morning. At the same time, Percy Pilbeam receives the order from Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe to have the Galahad manuscript disappear. Pilbeam gains access to Blandings Castle by pretending to have changed his mind and is now ready to search for the missing Empress of Blandings.

To save her engagement, Sue Brown travels to Blandings Castle and pretends to be Myra Schoonmaker - the real Myra Schoonmaker is informed by telegram that a visit to Blandings Castle is currently not advisable due to a measles epidemic. However, Galahad quickly discovers Sue's true identity. As in numerous other Blandings Castle tales, however, he takes the side of the lovers and does not reveal them. Pilbeam also recognizes Sue Brown and tries unsuccessfully to blackmail her to help with the theft of the manuscript. Baxter, however, suspects that the Empress of Blandings was stolen by Hugh Carmody because he wanted to secure his employment with Lord Emsworth. He follows Butler Beach when he goes out to feed the pig. At this moment a summer thunderstorm breaks out.

Hugo and Millicent also found shelter from the summer thunderstorm in the hunting lodge in which the pig is hidden and discovered the Empress von Blandings there. To protect Ronnie, Butler Beach pretends he abducted the pig so that Hugo could find the pig and thus convince Lord Emsworth that he was a worthy partner for Millicent. Beach leaves the cabin and Hugh takes over to house the pig in a new hiding place. Hugh and Millicent decide as a new hiding place for the trailer with which Rupert Baxter arrived and which is now empty because Lady Constance has put Baxter, whom she so admires, into the castle. They are observed by Pilbeam.

Baxter accuses Beach, in the presence of Lord Emsworth, of kidnapping the Empress of Blandings and locking it in the hunting lodge. There is no pig there, however - Lord Emsworth, who has doubts about Baxter's mental state since the incident in which Baxter threw clay pots against his window, reassures Baxter and gives little to his accusation. In the evening he leaves together with Galahad, his niece Millicent and Lady Constance an invitation to Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe. His sister blackmailed him into doing it, who is very much interested in a good neighborly relationship with Sir Gregory. With the invitation, however, Sir Gregory clears the way for everything for Pilbeam, who can now search for the manuscript in the castle largely undisturbed.

Pilbeam waits for the gong to sound for dinner and is so generously supplied with aperitifs from Butler Beach that Pilbeam gets increasingly drunk. In his exuberant mood, a little later, Pilbeam explains Beach about Sue's real identity and tells Hugo that he saw him hide the pig in the trailer. In his panic, Hugo calls Millicent at Sir Gregory's country house. With the presence of mind, Millicent decides to inform her uncle that the pig has been "found". Overjoyed, Lord Emsworth, to the horror of his sister, agrees to Millicent and Hugo's marriage.

Meanwhile, Baxter takes a call from the telegraph office at Blandings Castle: It transmits a message from the real Myra Schoonmaker, who is currently in Paris. Baxter, who wrote a letter to the alleged millionaire daughter Sue, wooing her and questioning Lord Emsworth's state of mind, goes to Sue's room to retrieve the letter. Sue is not at dinner, as he suspects, but is on the balcony. Before he can escape from the room, Beach arrives, who brings Sue a tray with sandwiches and Baxter has to hide under the bed. Shortly afterwards, Ronnie and Sue make up. Ronnie accidentally witnesses Pilbeam climbing up a rain pipe to get to the room where he suspects the manuscript is hidden. There is a chase of Pilbeam by Ronnie, which is interpreted differently by the returning evening party. After actually finding the Empress von Blandings in Baxter's trailer, they realize that Baxter has mental health problems. The chase of Pilbeam by Ronnie is interpreted as an escape from a running amok Baxter. Lord Emsworth armed himself with a rifle and forced Baxter to come out from under Sue's bed - upset by his experience and Lord Emsworth's harsh words, he clarified Sue's true identity to the evening party.

Galahad now realizes that Sue Brown is Dolly Henderson's daughter. Dolly was once the great love of Galahad, his family ended the relationship by sending the young Galahad abroad for several years. Dolly then married an officer of a respected regiment and Sue is the daughter of this connection. Galahad is so touched by the meeting with Sue that he assures his sister that he will refrain from publishing his memoirs if she agrees to Sue and Ronnie's marriage.

Trivia

  • Scandalous memoirs, which have to be made to disappear before their publication, not only play a role in Sommerliches Schlossgewitter and the serial novel Sein und Schwein . PG Wodehouse took up this idea in the short story Jeeves Takes the Rule , published in 1916 . Here Bertie Wooster's fiancée Florence Craye makes it a condition of marriage that Bertie's uncle's memoirs not be published. Bertie's valet Jeeves , who thinks Florence Craye is an unsuitable partner for his employer, ensures that the memoirs reach the publisher successfully.

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, pp. 56-57. ISBN 087008125X
  2. ↑ PG Wodehouse: Full moon over Blandings Castle , p. 50.
  3. ↑ PG Wodehouse: A Lord in Need , first published in 1923.