Recipes and Recommendations for Imbibing Beauty through Books and Beverages
By Annie Nardone
Pages, Pints, and Pours celebrates the joy and joviality of the Christmastide season! Step into the posh elegance of 1920s England and revel in the highbrow humor as only P. G. Wodehouse could write.
THE PAGES: RIGHT HO, JEEVES BY P.G. WODEHOUSE
““Now the end of writing is the production in the reader’s mind of a certain image and a certain emotion. And the means towards that end are the use of words in any particular language; and the complete use of that medium is the choosing of the right words and the putting of them into the right order. It is this which Mr. Wodehouse does better, in the English language, than anyone else alive . . .”
—Hilaire Belloc, Introduction to Week-End Wodehouse
In Hamlet, Shakespeare writes that “Brevity is the soul of wit,” referring to precision in word choice and metaphors. British author and humorist P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) was a master of prose and dashingly sharp wit; his writing embodied the art of brevity. Hilaire Belloc said Wodehouse’s “object is to present the laughable, and he does this with such mastery and skill that he nearly always approaches, and often reaches, perfection.”
Specifically, Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster series achieves that comedic perfection. The stories are set in the elegant era of 1920s London and nearby countryside estates. Young Bertie Wooster is the affluent and somewhat waggish bachelor. Jeeves, his valet and butler, is his perfectly elegant foil. There is no emotional heavy lifting, deep meaning, scandalous situations, or coarse language in the stories; just a delightful cast of highbrow characters making their way in and out of awkward situations with Jeeves cleverly untangling the social snarls.
Bertie’s first-person accounts of comedic tribulations are funny, but Wodehouse’s writing shines brightest in the dialogue, which easily accounts for over half of the book’s contents. Bertie draws you immediately into page one, scene one, by addressing the reader: “I don’t know if you were in Cannes this summer . . .” Then he explains his purchase of a white dinner jacket, Jeeves’ irritation with the garment, and the romantic pursuit of Miss Bassett by his friend Gussie Fink-Nottle. Plots are amusingly complicated by Bertie’s Aunt Agatha (from whom he receives a generous living allowance) and assorted (and slightly daft) young men who are perpetually in love with a variety of lovely (and quite calculating) young women.
I believe in the adage, The book is better than the movie, but I encourage you to find the BBC’s film series Jeeves and Wooster starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, whether on a streaming service or a collectible DVD. Watching the rapid-fire Brit repartee between the prim and mostly proper cast of characters enlivens Wodehouse’s words on the pages, and introduces you to the nuances of the dialogue.
There are 15 books in the series, beginning with My Man, Jeeves (1916), then The Inimitable Jeeves (1923), ending with Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (1974). I also recommend Week-End Wodehouse—noted as “required reading at country house parties in the late Thirties”—as an excellent introduction to the wit of Wodehouse. This extensive volume includes a collection of humorous extracts from Jeeves, The Blandings, other short stories, memorable quotes, and the Introduction by Hilaire Belloc. All of these titles bring a delightful dose of wit and merriment to your holiday reading!
“It was perfectly amazing, the way her mere presence seemed to wipe speech from my lips—and mine, for that matter, from hers. It began to look as if our married life together would be rather like twenty years among the Trappist monks.”
—P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves
PINTS AND POURS
Gin was a key cocktail ingredient in the 1920s and The Bee’s Knees is acknowledged as the favorite libation of the time. The new varieties of Zero-proof gin make the perfect base for a festive mocktail!
THE BEE’S KNEES
2 oz. London Dry Gin (Beefeater, Tanqueray No. Ten, or go authentic with The London N°1 gin distilled in London!)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
Twist of lemon peel
Pour ingredients into cocktail shaker and stir to dissolve the honey. Fill with ice, shake vigorously, then strain into chilled coupe glass. Garnish with lemon peel.
JEEVES’ JEST
JEEVES’ JEST
3 oz. zero-proof gin
¾ oz. grenadine syrup
¾ oz. lime juice
seltzer
Combine zero-proof gin, syrup, and juice in an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously and pour drink and ice into a tall glass. Fill to top with seltzer and garnish with maraschino cherries.
Annie Nardone is a lifelong bibliophile with a special devotion to the Inklings and medieval authors. She is a Fellow with the C.S. Lewis Institute and holds an M.A. in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Christian University. Annie is a writer for Cultivating Oaks Press and An Unexpected Journal. Her writing can also be found at Square Halo Press, Rabbit Room Press, Clarendon Press U.K., Calla Press, and Poetica. Annie is a Master Teacher with HSLDA and Kepler Education and strives to help her students see holiness in everyday life and art. She lives in Florida with her husband and six cats, appreciates the perfect cup of tea, an expansive library, and the beach with family.
[All quotes from P.G. Wodehouse, Right Ho, Jeeves (The Overlook Press, 1962) and Week-End Wodehouse (Pimlico-London, 1993).]
