Wodehouse, Sir P.G.

Wodehouse, Sir P.G.

▪ British author
born Oct. 15, 1881, Guildford, Surrey, Eng.
died Feb. 14, 1975, Southampton, N.Y., U.S.

      English-born comic novelist, short-story writer, lyricist, and playwright, best known as the creator of Jeeves, the supreme “gentleman's gentleman.” He wrote more than 90 books and more than 20 film scripts and collaborated on more than 30 plays and musical comedies.

      Wodehouse was educated at Dulwich College, London, and, after a period in a bank, took a job as a humorous columnist on the London Globe (1902) and wrote freelance for many other publications. After 1909 he lived and worked for long periods in the United States and in France. He was captured in France by the Germans in 1940 and spent much of the war interned in Berlin. In 1941 he made five radio broadcasts from there to the United States in which he humorously described his experiences as a prisoner and subtly ridiculed his captors. His use of enemy broadcasting facilities evoked deep and lasting resentment in Britain, however, which was then practically under siege by Germany. After the war Wodehouse settled in the United States, becoming a citizen in 1955. He was knighted in 1975.

      Wodehouse began by writing public-school stories and then light romances. It was not until 1913 (in Something New; published in England as Something Fresh, 1915) that he turned to the farce, which became his special strength. He had a scholar's command of the English sentence. He delighted in vivid, far-fetched imagery and in slang. His plots are highly complicated and carefully planned. Whatever the dates of publication of his books, Wodehouse's English social atmosphere is of the late Edwardian era. The young bachelor Bertie Wooster and his effortlessly superior manservant, Jeeves, were still together, their ages unadvanced, in Much Obliged, Jeeves (1971), though they first appeared in a story in The Man with Two Left Feet (1917).

Additional Reading
Biographical and critical works include David A. Jasen, P.G. Wodehouse, new rev. ed. (1981); Benny Green, P.G. Wodehouse: A Literary Biography (1981); and Owen Dudley Edwards, P.G. Wodehouse: A Critical and Historical Essay (1977).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Wodehouse, Sir P(elham) G(renville) — (15 oct. 1881, Guildford, Surrey, Inglaterra–14 feb. 1975, Southampton, N.Y., EE.UU.). Novelista, cuentista, dramaturgo y escritor de letras de canciones estadounidense, de origen inglés. Después de 1909 Wodehouse vivió por largos períodos en… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Wodehouse, Sir P(elham) G(renville) — born Oct. 15, 1881, Guildford, Surrey, Eng. died Feb. 14, 1975, Southampton, N.Y., U.S. English born U.S. novelist, short story writer, lyricist, and playwright. He lived for long periods in the U.S. and France after 1909, and he settled in the U …   Universalium

  • sir — /serr/, n. 1. a respectful or formal term of address used to a man: No, sir. 2. (cap.) the distinctive title of a knight or baronet: Sir Walter Scott. 3. (cap.) a title of respect for some notable personage of ancient times: Sir Pandarus of Troy …   Universalium

  • Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet — (c. 1714 21 May 1777), was a British Member of Parliament.Wodehouse was the son of Sir John Wodehouse, 4th Baronet, and Mary Fermor. He was elected to the House of Commons for Norfolk in 1737, a seat he held until 1768. In 1754 he succeeded his… …   Wikipedia

  • Sir John Wodehouse, 4th Baronet — (23 March 1669 ndash; 9 October 1754), was a British Member of Parliament.A member of an old Norfolk family, Wodehouse succeeded his grandfather in the baronetcy in 1681. In 1695 he was elected to the House of Commons for Thetford in 1695, a seat …   Wikipedia

  • Sir Jacob Astley, 1st Baronet — (c. 1639 ndash; 17 August 1729) was an English politician.The son of Edward Astley and Elizabeth Astley was educated in Christ Church, Oxford and matriculated on 19 June 1659. On 7 September of the same year on the death of his paternal uncle Sir …   Wikipedia

  • Wodehouse —   [ wʊdhaʊs], Sir (seit 1975) P. G. (Pelham Grenville), englischer Schriftsteller, * Guildford 15. 10. 1881, ✝ Southampton (N. Y.) 14. 2. 1975; ab 1955 amerikanischer Staatsbürger; war Bankangestellter, ab 1903 freier Schriftsteller, lebte ab… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Sir Hugh Wyndham — SL (1602 – 24 December 1684), of Silton, English judge, was born at Orchard Wyndham, Somerset, the eighth son of Sir John Wyndham (1558–1645) of Orchard Wyndham, and his wife, Joan, daughter of Sir Henry Portman. The judge Sir Wadham Wyndham was… …   Wikipedia

  • Sir Charles Mordaunt, 6th Baronet — (1697? 11 March 1778), of Walton d Eiville in Warwickshire, was an English landowner and Tory Member of Parliament (MP).He was the eldest son of Sir John Mordaunt, 5th Baronet, and succeeded to the baronetcy on 6 September 1721. The Mordaunts… …   Wikipedia

  • Wodehouse — [wood′hous] Sir P(elham) G(renville) 1881 1975; U.S. novelist & humorist, born in England …   English World dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”