Wodehouse
A Life
Will be published approx. on 6. August 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
576 pages
978-0-393-32751-9 (ISBN)
Description
To Evelyn Waugh he was simply "the Master." He wrote ninety novels and story collections, and among his immortal characters are Jeeves, Psmith, and the Empress of Blandings (who is, of course, a pig). Equally impressive is the range of his devotees: Dorothy Parker, John Updike, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Salman Rushdie, John le Carre, and Seamus Heaney. Wodehouse had an extraordinary Broadway career, working with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, and even dared to rewrite Cole Porter's Anything Goes for the London stage. Robert McCrum's magisterial biography chronicles the achievements and shadows of a gilded life. The ill-judged broadcasts from Berlin, where Wodehouse was interned during World War II, produced a violent backlash in England and tarred him, unfairly, as a Nazi sympathizer. His long love affair with America was compromised by endless acrimony with the IRS. This is the book all Wodehouse fans have been waiting for; it eclipses all previous accounts of his life. An Economist Best Book of 2004.
Reviews / Votes
"For as long as P.G. Wodehouse is read, this will be the seminal work of reference, the indispensable vade mecum. In other words-as the Master might say-'ripping.'" -- John le Carre "McCrum . . . has written a biography that, if the subject were a general or a politician, would be dubbed 'magisterial.' This is a magisterial biography: disinterested, but never detached, and always intriguing. Under the kindly and scholarly tutelage of McCrum, you might want to explore here the Wodehouse genius, the inconsistencies and downright silliness in the man's life." -- Frank McCourt - Globe and Mail "[An] absorbing and generous biography, which now takes its rightful place as 'the life.'" -- Christopher Buckley - Los Angeles Times Book Review "This book is a triumph. Not only should all P. G. Wodehouse fans read it, but it is a masterly picture of twentieth-century history." -- A. N. WilsonMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Illustrations
16 pages of black-and-white photographs
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Weight
780 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-393-32751-9 (9780393327519)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Robert McCrum is the associate editor of The Observer and lives in London with his wife, Sarah Lyall. His books include the bestselling The Story of English, My Year Off, Wodehouse: A Life, and Globish.