The Luck of the Bodkins. By P. G. Wodohouse. (Herbert
Jenkins. 7s. lid. ) IT is impossible to describe in a few words exactly what happened during the meniorable voyage of the R.M.S. 'Atlantic,' which Mr:P. G. Wodehotise has chosen as the subject of his latest work. Competent students of world affairs state that it can claim to have ended the depression in the North Atlantic, while credible rumour has it that the amalgamation of the Cunard and White Star lines was influenced by the reports of the unnerving imbrolligo that occurred during the six days crossing from Southampton (via Cherbourg) to New York.
An imbrolligo, we should, perhaps, explain, is, in the words of 'Albert Peaseniareh, state-room steward, ,a technical term for " an argle bargle." The voyage, it should be further explained, was not one long argle bargle so much as a series of related argle bargies, or as some people say, argles bargle.• • Their origin can be traced by those who have made a careful study of Mr. Wodehouse's scholarly texts of the Blandings Saga to the early days of Montague Bodkin's courtship of Gertrude Butterwick. Bodkin, it will be remembered, was for a brief period secretary to Lord Enisworth 'at-Blandings, Castle, Butterwiek plre having insisted on his .having a job before handing over the daughter. At the beginning of the present volume, Bodkin is still technically one of the skilled birds of Percy Pilbeam's Private Enquiry Agency, the post he had purchased when an unfortunate argle bargle with Ronnie Fish compelled him to leave Blandings.. His presence on board the 'Atlantic' has nothing to do with his professional' Career ; he is there simply because Gertrude is there ; and Gertrude is there in her capacity as centre-forward of the All England Ladies' Hockey Team. With her, but in other capacities, are her two cousins, the brothers Tennyson, Reggie. of " The Drones "—" one of those young men whom the ravens feed "—and Ambrose, bound for Hollywood to write for the Superba-Llewellyn Motion Picture Corporation. Ivor (Ikcy) Llewellyn, president of the Corporation, temporarily under the impression that Ambrose is the Tennyson, author, as Peasemarch observed, of " The Boy stood on the burning deck," is accompanied by his wife's sister, whose business it is• to force 'key, under pain of divorce, to smuggle an immensely valuable pearl necklace through the New York Customs. The passenger list. is complete with Lottie Blossom, the film star, betrothed, eeteris panbus, to Ambrose.
The trouble begins when Llewellyn discovers that Brother Bodkin is a detective. It continues when Lottie scrawls graffiti in lip-stick on Monty's bathroom wall, and the Butter- wick discovers them. It is at this point that the reader must be left to unravel the intrigue for himself: For, it is quite, impossible, as we have said, to analyse briefly the absurd consequences of Albert Peasemarch's indiscretions, of Lottie'S predilection for chumming up with gentlemen whose affections are elsewhere engaged, of Ikey's discovery that Ambrose is the, wrong horse, of the theft of a large plush Mickey Mouse and of Reggie's good intentions. We can only say that an enjoy- able time is had by all.
Apart from its intrinsic merits as a historical document The Luck of the Bodkins is of some bibliographical importance We need not dwell on Mr. 'Vitrodehouse's masterly treatment of the new material he has brought together, though it is perhaps worth noting that the humour is more diffused through the whole book and less patchy than in some of the work he has undertaken outside the Blandings and Wooster Sagas. What we wish to draw attention to is the position of this book in the Wodeliouse canon. ,There are obvious points of contact between it and Hot Water and the American studies in Blandings and Elsewhere. But more important than these is the direct link between it and Heavy Weather and so, indirectly with the whole of the great Blandings Saga. Finally, is it too much to assume that the Sieur Pharamond de Bodkyn fought at Agincourt with Bertrand de Wooster ? If this daring: conjecture is allowed there is evidence that the Blandings and Wooster Sagas had a common origin.
JOHN WAYWARD.
Previous page
