Read Along,  Show Notes

Episode 171: “Code of the Woosters,” Part 3, Ch. 10-14

Welcom back to The Literary Life Podcast and our discussion of P. G. Wodehouse’s Code of the Woosters. This week Angelina, Thomas, and Cindy finish up the book, covering chapters 10-14. After sharing their commonplace quotes, they start the chat by talking about what exactly the “Code of the Woosters” is for Bertie. Cindy brings up Wodehouse’ good experience in boarding school and how that comes out in his stories. Angelina reminds us again of the Roman comic structure that sets the form for this type of story. Thomas highlights some connections between Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde, and P. G. Wodehouse. They also enjoy recounting the moments when Bertie thinks of himself of a detective and compares himself to Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, et al.

Find annotations for the slang, quotes, etc., for The Code of the Woosters here.

To find out more about Thomas’ summer class on G. K. Chesterton and sign up for that, go to houseofhumaneletters.com. To register for Cindy’s summer discipleship session, visit morningtimeformoms.com.

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Commonplace Quotes:

The books that should be set before children are books of play and ceremonial, and pomp and war: the whole gloria mundi, the whole pageant of history, full of blood and pride, may safely be told them–everything but the secret of their own incomparable influence. Children need to be taught primarily the grandeur of the whole world. It is merely the whole world that needs to be taught the grandeur of children.

G. K. Chesterton, from The Speaker, November 24, 1900

Each be other’s comfort kind:

Deep, deeper than divined,

Divine charity, dear charity,

Fast you ever, fast bind.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, from “At the Wedding March”

I find that my personal animosity against a writer never affects my opinion of what he writes. Nobody could be more anxious than myself, for instance, that Alan Alexander Milne should trip over a loose boot-lace and break his bloody neck, yet I re-read his early stuff at regular intervals with all the old enjoyment and still maintain that in The Dover Road he produced about the best comedy in English.

Did you read Milne’s serial in the Mail? I thought it good. Nothing happened in it, but the characters were so real. I wonder how a book like that sells. Do people want a story or not?

P. G. Wodehouse

Pippa’s Song

by Robert Browning

The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven—
All’s right with the world!

Books Mentioned:

P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters edited by Sophie Ratcliffe

Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

Oscar Wilde

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2 Comments

  • David Lawrence

    Hello,
    I was enjoying your episodes on PG Wodehouse, and also appreciating all the discussions about Chesterton. Given that you all enjoy Chesterton, I thought you might be interested that he has a crater named after him on the planet Mercury (see here for more details: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/multimedia/messenger_orbit_image20120918_1.html ).

    For a bit of back story – every planetary body in the solar system has a “theme” for the names of various features. For example, craters on the moon are named after dead scientists. The theme for Mercury is craters are named after famous (and dead) artists. Some of the craters on the north pole of Mercury are special as they are thought to contains large amounts of water ice, and Chesterton crater is one of those craters. You will also note in the above link that it is close to Tolkien crater. There was an attempt to name the third crater in that trio after CS Lewis. However, there is already a “Lewis” crater on the Moon (presumably after a scientist named Lewis), and the International Astronomical Union states that names for features in the solar system cannot be doubled up.

    Anyways, I thought you all might appreciate that Chesterton (and Tolkien) are honored with a special place in the solar system.

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