(Disclaimer- I make no claims to being an expert literary critic. I am just a lay reader who has been reading books in English for over seventy years. This is my take on why PG Wodehouse will never become dated and will always retain his appeal)
Reading- both fiction and non-fiction, is my principal hobby. I read for pleasure, rarely for profit. I have enjoyed the works of many over the years : Edgar Wallace, Sapper, HG Wells, Somerset Maugham, Lawrence Durrell, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Daphne Du Maurier, John Le Carre’, Harold Robbins, Kingsley Amis, Ian Fleming, Salman Rushdie, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Bronte sisters, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, PG Wodehouse, Dean Swift, Oscar Wilde, Leon Uris, James Clavell, Aldous Huxley and Pearl Buck- to name some.
I have been blessed with the rare opportunity of traveling physically to many of the locales which figured in their books- London, rural England, Paris, Switzerland, Egypt, Turkey, USA, Salinas County, Hamburg, Odessa, Moscow, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Teheran, Damascus, Baghdad, Tokyo etc. I could recall the vivid descriptions of places and people in the books and connect to them when I visit them.
Like most, I have also gone through phases in my literary diet; an Edgar Wallace phase, A Lawrence Durrel Phase, a Somerset Maugham Phase, a Du Maurier phase etc. when I tried to lay hands on every book they wrote. I still admire their work.
But there are only two authors who I loved at first reading and continue to love today- John Le Carre’ and (of course) PG Wodhouse.
They operated in vastly different genres- mystery and spy novels as opposed to airy, breezy romances laced with humor. Both wrote (Le Carre is still active!) wrote superb English. Le Carre’s world is somber and brooding while PGW is sunny and cheerful. They endure in my esteem, because their characters are real human beings and not super heroes who stretch credibility. George Smiley is believable, James Bond is a cartoon figure. The same is true of Wodehouse’s characters. Despite the settings in mythical rural England, London or the US, the protagonists are believable real and fallible humans.
Let us confess to the truth. Most of us are closer to Mr. Bean than James Bond, in real life! At least I am. In real life, ugly ducklings grow up to become ugly ducks only, never beautiful swans! (It is a different matter that some clever ugly ducks acquire Harvard MBAs, make killings in the Wall Street and have a succession of swan girlfriends!)
There are no super heroes in PGW books. Yes, there were a few assertive men- Rodrick Glossop, Psmith and Rupert Baxter and women like Aunt Agatha and Lady Constance Keeble. Actually, most of us are (at least I am) closer to Bertie Wooster! His villains are credible and not unreal caricatures unlike Stavro Blofeld, Professor Moriarty or Carl Petersen.
If we are not bullied by our butlers like the amiable idiot Wooster by Jeeves, we are bossed around by our wives! We frequently confront situations which baffle us and are beyond our control. We somehow survive.
Peel away the romanticized setting of English stately homes, American business men and gangsters, rowdy clubs like Drones- the characters are real and believable. They are human and fallible. That is why Wodehouse continues to be loved across continents, cultures, creeds and age groups.
Writers may come and go,
But Plum goes on forever.
(Captain Mohan Ram, ex Naval designer, eventually moved to the automobile industry where, if one may hazard a guess, he might have been designing some amphibian vehicles. His career trajectory followed the Peter’s Principle. He rose to senior positions, until finally retiring recently at the age of eighty four. He is currently cooling his heels, writing inane posts on Facebook.
His permission to reproduce this piece here is gratefully acknowledged.)
ashokbhatia 
Thanks for forwarding the post.
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Reproduced here is a comment made by Rick Blaine on the FB page ‘Fans of P G Wodehouse.’
‘A point of detail. Saying Wodehouse’s works contain no super heroes, highlights the essential stasis of his oeuvre. By the time in the mid to late thirties that super heroes per se appeared, Wodehouse’s style had already been well and truly set, some might say “frozen”. There could be no improvement on the perfection he early achieved, there could only be recapitulation. Bertie goes on uttering clever impossible phrases ad eternum; in an ahem ineffectual way Bertie is forever becoming engaged and disengaged to a baker’s dozen of the same kind of imaginary awful female. Attempted petty crime by various grifters adds the pepper to Wodehouse’s formula, as he himself stated in a number of places. In a world where nothing is ever consumated, there is always nevertheless an impossible happy ending, until the next story starts again.’
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Lovely post about two of my favourite authors LeCarre and PGW. Both wrote of very different worlds, one sombre and second light and humorous, but both so alike, mainly of an old English world and sensibility, with excellent control of language.
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True! Thank you for going through and commenting!
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Well considered notes and comments by a widely read gentleman!
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Yes, indeed.
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Reblogged this on ashokbhatia.
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