Something New: Blandings Castle, Book 1

Ashe, a popular fiction writer, falls in love with a lady's maid, and both find themselves in Blandings Castle. Unlikely people and events somehow seem believable mixed with Wodehouse humour and fast-moving dialogue. Delightful.

A other priceless work by PGWodehouse meandering through chapters of plots and gags captivating me right to the end, leaving me wanting for more.

Wodehouse is delightful and the narrator does a fantastic job.

For me Wodehouse has so far been Jeeves and Wooster - now I’m trying another series. This is the first of The Blanding Castle-novels. Good to try “something fresh”, although I miss my two inseparable companions.We are mostly at Blanding Castle where the senile Earl of Emsworth is residing. He has by a mistake “stolen” a valuable egyptian scarab from the father of his soon-to-be daughter in law. By a distraction put it in his pocket and assumes now it was a gift. This is bit of a mess. A man is hired to steal the scarab back - a woman he has a crush on arrives at the castle with a plan also to steal it for a reward. Emsworth’s secretary tries to prevent it. The absent-minded master of Blandings is happily ignorant of all what is happening. A lot of fun of hide and seek.

This review is for this audiobook edition only. For my thoughts on the book, see my Kindle edition. I love Jonathan Cecil's narration for Wodehouse & this is no exception. One aspect I noticed is that Chapter 9 & 10 differed a fair amount from the text in my Kindle edition from Project Gutenberg -- I wonder if the Gutenberg edition was a revised 'American' edition...

Moderately amusing very light easy read, well worth a dabble over a couple of days.

Some wonderful and funny character interactions happen during the quest to return an Egyptian scarab to a passionate collector. A witty and enjoyable read!

This is a farce, so you have to accept some absurdity and coincidences. Once you do, it is an amusing tale.Unabridged audiobook:Well read by Phoebe Judge as part of the Phoebe Reads a Mystery podcast.There is a roll-in intro for each chapter (almost every chapter is a separate podcast episode). There is also a roll-out pitch for another podcast after the book ends with the final chapter. I would prefer the end of a book to give some silent space for contemplation instead.

Digital audiobook performed by Jonathan Cecil.Book One in the Blandings Castle series, featuring the elderly Lord Emsworth, his son Hon. Freddie Threepwood, and his trusty secretary, Baxter. The basic plot involves Lord E’s neighbor, the wealth American, Mr Peters, and his prize collection of scarabs. Ashe Marson is a writer of a popular mystery/adventure series, who is in need of inspiration – and funds. Joan Valentine is Marson’s lovely neighbor – a young woman who is struggling to find herself and soon takes a “position’ as lady’s maid to her old school chum, Aline Peters (daughter of Mr Peters, and engaged to Hon. Freddie T.) Wodehouse excels are writing ridiculously plotted societal comedies that poke fun at the aristocracy and just about everyone else as well. There are unlikely disguises, attempts at hiding identities, and a variety of funny missteps along the way. Of course, true love will win out and everyone will be happy in the end. I had grown tired of the Jeeves series and stopped reading Wodehouse, but I’m glad I gave the author another try. This was a delightful romp and crime caper/comedy. Just great fun to read … or listen to.Johnathan Cecil does a fine job performing the audiobook. He has a lot of characters to deal with and is up to the task. I particularly like the way he voices Lord Emsworth, the Hon Freddie, and the blustery Mr Peters.

The first Blandings book introduces Lord Emsworth. His son, Freddie Threepwood, is engaged to Aline Peters, but really loves another. Aline is pursued by George Emerson, a policeman on leave from Hong Kong. Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine, a school friend of Aline's, both try to steal the scarab that Lord Emsworth absentmindedly took from Aline's father, who is willing to pay whoever can return it to him. Baxter, Lord Emsworth secretary, loses many nights of sleep guarding the scarab, now the prize exhibit of Lord Emsworth rather eclectic museum. R. Jones, a dubious friend of Freddie's, agrees to get love letters that Freddie wrote to Joan when she was a chorus girl; he doesn't tell Freddie that he really didn't need to give him any money, since Joan had destroyed the letters long ago. Ashe and Joan both write bad stories for the Mammoth Publishing Company; Ashe does a monthly story about Gridley Quayle, a really bad detective, who is, nonetheless, greatly admired by Freddie. Joan and Ashe both pretend to be servants in order to get close to the scarab; this is easier for Joan, who was a lady's maid at one time, and understands the strict rules and pecking order of those who work in large English country houses.Joan is a feminist and admirable. (See p. 150). Aline is made of less stern stuff; George, who loves her, wants to protect her---their union would not be a marriage of equals.

Take an absent-minded English earl, his not-too-bright younger son, the son’s American heiress fiancee and her brash father, a rival for the heiress’s affections, a couple of penniless pulp fiction writers, a con artist, assorted relatives and domestics, and a missing Egyptian scarab, and throw them all in an English country estate, and you have all the makings for an entertaining farce. Wodehouse is a master of the genre. The audio version read by Frederick Davidson is laugh out loud funny.

Something Fresh was surprisingly fresh for its age. It even featured quite a feminist heroine (or as close as the story got to having a heroine, at any rate). Funny how sometimes something written as recently as the 1970s, say, can seem so dated, but this little gem from 101 years ago can seem so up-to-date in tone. Sure, the characters have maids/valets/butlers/footmen, but the style is sprightly and modern.

Not laugh-out-loud funny (I've only read five books that did that for me: the Lucia series, Joe Keenan's Blue Heaven, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Young Visiters, and any Dorothy Parker collection, but I smiled throughout. A delight.

First of the Blandings Castle stories, apparently. In this one, Lord Emsworth is plagued with houseguests disturbing the peace of his Castle because his worthless son, the Honorable Freddie, has gotten engaged to an American heiress. While on a visit to the bride's dispeptic father, Emsworth absentmindedly pockets a priceless piece of the man's beloved scarab collection. Schemes to recover the scarab bring other young people to Blandings and hilarity ensues until most of them pair off. It's a stressful time for Emsworth's personal secretary, the Efficient Baxter.

Another classical tales . I actually love Wodehouse in audio books more than reading them. They seem to be meant to be "acted" out. I had only read his Jeeves books before (and of course watched the Fry & Laurie series about 4 times). I was actually surprised this was one of his earlier books. The characters, particularly the women, seemed more developed and less "types" than the characters in the Jeeves books. Of course, most of the plot points are familiar, but Wodehouse has an enormous capacity to make the same storyline fresh, funny and touching no matter how many times he uses it. He is one of the great comic writers in the English language and a great observer and interpreter of human foibles.

This story would make an excellent script for a comedy movie. In reading it however it is a bit slow although the style is still fresh. 3.5 stars really.

Aware that the Blandings Castle series has a good reputation for classic comedy, apparently P.G. Wodehouse's second best efforts after Jeeves, I find myself slightly disappointed in this novel.Think this is owing to the extensive amount of third-person narrative passages, which P.G. Wodehouse doesn't do as good a job with as he does with his superb dialogue exchanges.Didn't feel myself drawn to any of the characters, nor was I gripped by the plot, but as there were some moments that stood out in a positive manner I feel the book deserves three stars, as opposed to two.Anyway, I'll still intend reading the rest of the series over time, as in general I find P.G. Wodehouse's fiction variable in quality. When he's good, he's very good.

A comedy of manners and misunderstandings, Something Fresh by P.G. Wodehouse was a light, playful read that lifted my mood and brought more than a few smiles to my face. This is the first book in the Blandings Castle series, and as in all his works, it is witty, amusing and just slightly silly.This episode introduces the readers to the Earl of Emsworth and the plot is centered on his son the Hon. Freddy Threepwood’s engagement to a rich American heiress The Earl, who is very absentminded accidentally pockets a valuable scarab that belongs to the heiress’ father. With a superb sense of timing, the author gathers an assortment of characters together at Blandings and with the scarab as the target, lets the mayhem begin.Originally published in 1915, this story retains it’s slapstick humour and envelopes the reader in a delightful, whimsical and very upper class English setting.

Nice, boþ as a romantic comedy & as ðe firſt inſtallment of the Blandiŋs caſtle ſeries.

Wodehouse writes farces, and he writes them well. I can't bring myself to give it five stars, no matter how well he works his craft, but I did enjoy listening to this book.Jonathan Cecil narrated the book, and his voice was perfect for some of the older, stodgier members of the cast of characters, but was quite irritating in the beginning. He so often sounds as though he is speaking with a mouth of saliva that needs expectoration!

Early Wodehouse and the first in the Blandings series, Something Fresh suggests to me the author trying on something new for size and gradually making himself comfortable. Particularly at the beginning of the book there is rather more descriptive chit-chat than I associate with the later works, and, of course, he is developing the cast of characters at Blandings that fans will come to love - Beach, Freddie Threepwood, the Efficient Baxter and Lord Emsworth himself. All four are immediately recognisable even if Beach is to become less hypochondriacal, Freddie marginally less vacuous, Baxter more Machiavellian and Clarence obsessed with fat pigs. We expect some characters to appear briefly on the stage to be replaced in later books by others of their ilk - the ingénue roles, the fat crooked investigator, the dyspeptic American millionaire - but other apparently established characters don't make the cut. The chatelaine of Blandings is Lady Anne Warblington, a sister of Emsworth's and an indistinct figure beside sister Connie who succeeds her. They do share a tendency to retire to their bedrooms at the first sign of trouble. The housekeeper, Mrs Twemlow, an important domestic figure, only makes one more brief appearance in the saga. McAllister must be in post but gets only one line, unnamed, as the "autocrat from Scotland". There are two 'young men in spats' visiting Blandings, Percy, Lord Stockheath, a cousin of Freddie and Algernon Wooster, a cousin of Percy, who plays billiards. Neither is heard of again: a pity as they might have helped to place Bertie in his extended family.Something Fresh was first published in America as Something New, with Ashe and Joan, hero and heroine, being cast as Americans. PGW rewrote the characters as English for the retitled UK issue. He didn't bother to change a couple of references to the US dollar - the rent for a room (with breakfast) in a court just off Leicester Square was $5 / week and half a dollar would buy you a roast dinner at Simpsons in the Strand. David Jasen in his Readers Guide to the Wodehouse oeuvre suggests that this book is often forgotten when discussing Blandings, possibly because it was published by Methuen rather than Herbert Jenkins.Other reviewers have described the plot more than adequately. It is well constructed but does rely on various coincidences and eavesdroppings: PGW takes a little dig at himself by having his hero, Ashe Marson, who earns his living by writing penny-dreadful crime stories, confess that all his own plots hang on such unlikely events. The other feature that deserves mention is the great detail with which PGW describes life below stairs. Fans of 'Upstairs, Downstairs' and 'Downton Abbey' would enjoy reading the book for that alone.

This is an excellent novel, Wodehousian in every way and thoroughly enjoyable. Souffle-light, witty to the nth degree and an absolute pleasure.

Well worth the full five stars, even if, and I agree about this, we are not here in the masterpiece league of the Jeeves and Wooster series.

Also, if you're coming to this from the latest BBC 'Blandings' series, beware: Lady Ann makes no appearance; the Empress is not, I think, even mentioned; Lord Emsworth takes only a minor role. All these delights await in future novels in the series ...

bookshelves: amusing, winter-20132014, published-1915, series, radio-4x, fradio, treasureRecommended for: BBC Radio ListenersRead from January 29 to February 01, 2014Description: One thing that constantly disrupts the peace of life at Blandings is the constant incursion of impostors. Blandings has impostors like other houses have mice.Now there are two of them - both intent on a dangerous enterprise. Lord Emsworth"s secretary, the efficient Baxter, is on the alert and determined to discover what is afoot - despite the distractions caused by the Honorable Freddie Threepwood"s hapless affair of the heart.R4x1/2 Two imposters are after a valuable scarab at Blandings Castle, unknowingly acquired by dotty Lord Emsworth. Stars Ioan Gruffudd and Helen McCrory.2/2 Ashe and Joan's battle to secure the precious scarab is becoming intense. Baxter is in hot pursuit, and Lord Emsworth is on alert for midnight marauders. With Ian Ogilvy.Listen here!3* The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves, #2)5* Carry on, Jeeves (Jeeves, #3)4* Right Ho, Jeeves (Jeeves, #6)3* The Mating Season (Jeeves, #9)4* Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (Jeeves, #15)TR Leave It to Psmith4* Joy in the Morning4* A Damsel In Distress3* Uncle Fred in the Springtime3* Summer Lightning3* Love Among the ChickensTR The Man With Two Left Feet3* Service with a Smile3* Summer Moonshine3* Eggs, Beans And Crumpets3* The Small BachelorTR Barmy in Wonderland4* Something Fresh

Another delightful Wodehouse book that introduces Blandings Castle, Lord Emsworth and the efficient Baxter, although they are the backdrop for the main story, which revolves around fellow-writers Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine, who live in the same boarding house in London. As is the way with coincidences in Wodehouse stories, they both go down to Blandings Castle to recover a valuable Egyptian scarab for Preston Peters (an American millionaire) after Lord Emsworth absent mindedly pockets the scarab when admiring the millionaire's collection and, because he cannot really remember how he acquired it, put it in his own museum as a gift from Preston Peters!As ever, there is much to enjoy, although by its nature, the characters are not as fully realised in the later stories. I found the book fascinating as it was published in 1915 and so has interesting social comments too, such as the cinema being open two days a week above the butchers (I recall) and comments on the enfranchisement of women, which was obviously topical, with women (over 30) not receiving the vote until 1918.

P. G. Wodehouse, you've done it again. You've made me laugh while reading your book in a public place, thereby exciting comment among the bystanders (one of whom asked me outright what was so funny). I can't take you anywhere!Something Fresh, the first installment in what became the Blandings Castle Saga, was first published in 1915 and introduces such iconic characters as the vague Lord Emsworth, the efficient Baxter, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood, and the dignified butler Mr. Beach. There is also a host of other minor characters like Ashe Marson, a hack detective story writer who is thoroughly sick of his job; Joan Valentine, a fellow sufferer with Ashe in her choice of an authorial profession; George Emerson, the very definition of a manly man; and J. Preston Peters, the American millionaire and accidental Egyptian scarab enthusiast.When Lord Emsworth absentmindedly purloins one of Peters's prize scarabs, the solution would seem simple: Peters should do a little slick purloining of his own. But when one considers that Peters' daughter Aline is engaged to Lord Emsworth's son Freddie, complications arise. It is precisely this sort of domestic intrigue that calls for the assistance of an outside party. Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine both jump at the job, but who will snatch the scarab first and claim the reward? And can love bloom amidst such unpropitious (and frankly, competitive) circumstances?Wodehouse's introduction is wonderful. In it he tells how Something Fresh (originally titled Something New) was published — it must have been because he signed himself Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, in that age of triple-barrelled authorial nom de plumes, and "no self-respecting editor would let a Pelham Grenville Wodehouse get away from him." He also warns young writers about to embark upon a series to be very coy about committing themselves to dates. For you never know when you may want to write thirteen more volumes of something and are restrained from doing so by the inevitable aging of your characters.Swedish exercises that provide endless amusement to lookers-on; fictional detectives who are loathed by their authors; dastardly night-time doings of a larcenous nature; and of course, Mr. Beach's stomach lining. It's all here. Don't miss Something Fresh — but I do advise reading it in private. The aforementioned bystanders looked quite blank when I attempted to explain the cause of my involuntary giggles.