Celebrate the Author: PG Wodehouse

Love Among the Chickens by PG Wodehouse
3.5 stars


Reasons for reading: I lurve PG Wodehouse and am celebrating his October 15, 1881 birthday for the Celebrate the Author Challenge


Description: "Jeremy Garnet has never particularly liked chickens, but his friend Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge is convinced that they are the route to certain fortune. Needing a bit of a break from London, Garnet is talked into accompanying Ukridge to his new poultry farm in Dorset. Unfortunately, when Ukridge is around things never seem to go according to plan, and with the additional complications of angry professors, threatening creditors, misbehaving chickens - oh, and true love to boot - Garnet's holiday in the country is looking less restful by the minute!"


First line: "'A gentleman called to see you when you were out last night, sir,' said Mrs Medley, my landlady, removing the last of the breakfast things."


My thoughts: The description states that this is the novel that first made Wodehouse famous. Huh, I had no idea! I would've thought it was the first Jeeves book. But this was still a fun romp, if not as excellent as Jeeves and Wooster. The Wodehousian language is there, I particularly enjoyed a section where Garnet refused to be sneered at by a chicken.

Ukridge is an oaf and an occasionally wise fool. He gets to be a bit much, but he's pretty amusing. It's hard to believe that he gets people to go along with his schemes, but he must have some kind of charm. Garnet is a bit bumbling but fairly normal. I liked that he was an author, there were some funny bits involving the faint praise accorded his novels by the newspapers. There are typically Wodehousian scrapes involving locked houses, tipped boats, and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And there's love at first sight, who can resist that?

The verdict: Spend some time chuckling among the chickens.