One of the King Georges of England—I forget which—once said that a certain number of hours’ sleep each night—I cannot recall at the moment how many—made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory. Baxter agreed with him.
Not long ago I reviewed P.G. Wodehouse’s novel A Damsel in Distress, which I described (with my customary insight) as an embryonic work in which the attentive reader might discern elements that would eventually flower in his Blandings Castle series.
Something New (published in England, for peculiar reasons, as Something Fresh), is a 1915 publication which constitutes the next step in the process. Because this is in fact the first bona fide Blandings Castle book. Several familiar elements are here – the castle and estate themselves, of course. The dreamy, absentminded Clarence, Earl of Emsworth. The efficient Baxter, his private secretary. And the presence of imposters in the house.
But much remains only potential. Lord Emsworth, at this stage, is still enamored of his flower gardens – he has yet to discover the delights of pig-keeping. He is also obsessed with repainting his furniture, a trait bestowed on him, I suspect, solely to provide a plot point. The Efficient Baxter is a valued employee here, not the living torment he will later become to his employer, motivating Emsworth to fire him and hire a succession of other secretaries, all imposters. Instead of the earl’s sister Lady Constance, who bullies him and effectively runs the household in later stories, the only sister present in this book is Lady Ann Warblington, a retiring sort who is given little to do in the story.
That said, the plot is amusing enough for an early work. Ashe Marson, a struggling writer in London, falls in love with Joan Valentine, a former chorus girl and current magazine writer. By coincidence they learn (separately) that Lord Emsworth has “stolen” a priceless Egyptian scarab from the collection of the American millionaire J. Preston Peters (he in fact slipped it into his pocket absentmindedly, and then forgot about it). Mr. Peters offers a large reward for the scarab’s recovery, and the two young people both travel to Market Blandings, installing themselves as servants in the castle. Rivals at first, they later decide to go into partnership, as love blossoms.
There are several other plot lines, especially concerning Lord Emsworth’s son Freddie having gotten engaged to Mr. Peters’ daughter, though she is being pursued persistently by another young man who has loved her for many years (he’s staying at the castle too; I forget on what pretext). The high point of the story is a slapstick nighttime scene where Ashe, creeping out to burgle the scarab, collides with Baxter on the hall stairway, breaking furniture and rousing the whole household from their beds.
Another interesting feature of this book is the glimpse it gives us into “downstairs” life in a stately household. The author delights in describing the rigid class snobbery of the upper servants, and the strict protocol they observe in seating arrangements. This element is touched on in later stories, but I don’t think Wodehouse ever again spends so much time on it.
Something New is a very funny and likeable book. I laughed more than once. It only hints at the greatness to come, but it’s definitely worth reading for its own sake.