Something Fresh
Encyclopedia
Something Fresh is a novel
by P. G. Wodehouse
. It was first published as a book in the United States
, by D. Appleton & Company
on September 3, 1915, under the title Something New, having previously appeared under that title as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post
between June 26 and August 14, 1915. It was published in the United Kingdom
by Methuen & Co. on September 16, 1915.
The novel introduces Lord Emsworth
of Blandings Castle
, whose home and family reappear in many of Wodehouse's later short stories and novels; in a new preface added to Something Fresh in 1969, Wodehouse dubbed this series of stories "the Blandings Castle Saga".
belonging to an American millionaire, absent-mindedly purloined by Lord Emsworth. Once within the Castle's idyllic walls, despite impersonating servants, romance cannot help but blossom; meanwhile, Freddie Threepwood
, engaged to the millionaire's daughter, is worried about some incriminating letters.
Meanwhile, Freddie Threepwood, the younger son of the 9th Earl of Emsworth
, is engaged to be married to Aline Peters, the daughter of American millionaire
J. Preston Peters. Freddie pays a visit to his friend R. Jones, hoping to "recover" some letters he sent in the past to a certain chorus-girl, feeling they might be dangerous in her hands, especially following the recent embarrassment of his cousin Lord Percy Stockheath. He pays Jones £500 to sort things out for him.
Clarence Threepwood
, the elderly Earl of Emsworth, calls on J. Preston Peters, Aline's father, a passionate collector of Egyptian scarabs
. Peters shows him the most precious piece in his collection: a 4th dynasty Cheops
. Mr. Peters is called to the telephone, and the absent-minded Earl, forgetting all about the scarab, puts it in his pocket.
Aline Peters has lunch with her old friend George Emerson, a Hong Kong
police officer who wishes to marry her. He proposes to her once more, and tells her that, having befriended Freddie Threepwood, he has been invited to Blandings.
Mr Peters discovers the disappearance of his scarab, and suspects the Earl, but cannot confront him for fear of endangering his daughter's marriage. The Earl has already forgotten everything that happened, and thinks the scarab was a gift of Mr Peters.
R. Jones finds the address of Freddie's ex-sweetheart, Joan Valentine, who tells him she has long since destroyed any letters she may have had from Freddie. As he is leaving, Aline Peters, a close friend of Joan, arrives on a visit, allowing the suspicious Jones to listen at the door. He hears Aline's father is offering £1,000 to anybody that can retrieve his scarab. Joan decides that she will go herself to Blandings Castle, posing as Aline's maid, recover the scarab and scoop the reward.
Ashe, following Joan's advice, scours the adverts in the newspaper, and seeing one which grabs his attention, he goes along to an interview with Mr. Peters, who is looking for somebody to pose as his valet
and steal the scarab. Ashe, showing Peters some pep, gets the job.
Ashe tells Joan about this, and they both take the train to Blandings. During the trip Joan warns Ashe of the highly complicated system of etiquette
observed among servants of a large house. She hopes her words will persuade him to give up his quest, but he resolves to do his best.
After their arrival, Ashe meets Baxter
, the Earl's efficient and suspicious secretary, on the way to Mr Peters' room, addressing him in a highly un-valet-like manner. He finds that Mr Peters, like Beach, has problems with his stomach
, so persuades him to do some exercise and stop smoking cigar
s.
At night, Ashe and Joan are both trying to get at the scarab when the watchful Baxter hears them. Ashe, with his prepared excuse of reading to the insomnia
Mr Peters, helps Joan escape. Next morning, Ashe and Joan decide to become allies and, after flipping a coin, that Ashe will take first try at steaing the scarab.
Aline is following the same diet of her father, composed mainly of legumes, and George, worrying she is suffering from malnutrition, prepares a feast to bring it to her at night. As he makes his way to her room, he and Ashe in the dark hall of the castle, and start a noisy fight. Baxter rushes in, but by the time the lights come on Ashe and George have fled, leaving Baxter surrounded by food and broken china. He is blamed for waking everyone and roundly criticised by his employer Lord Emsworth.
The next night is Joan's turn, but the scarab is already gone. The following morning, Ashe finds that Freddie needs money to pay R. Jones for the letters to Joan; he confronts Freddie, who confesses, and Ashe gets the scarab and gives it to the rightful owner, Mr Peters.
George Emerson, recalled to Hong Kong
, sadly wishes Aline good luck with Freddie; Aline, her mothering instinct finally aroused by his disappointment, decides to leave Freddie and elope with him. Ashe and Joan finally realise they are made for each other, and enter Mr Peters' employ. Lord Emsworth agrees to let Freddie return to London, on condition he doesn't make a fool of himself again.
Something New includes a lengthy scene in which Baxter finds a paint-splashed lady's shoe in the library after the theft and attempts to identify its owner: this scene was omitted from Something Fresh; Wodehouse had previously used the same sub-plot in the second part of the school novel, Mike
.
In Something New, Ashe Marson, Joan Valentine and George Emerson are Americans; Ashe (who comes from a town called "Hayling", near Boston, Massachusetts) and Joan (who was born in New York) are living in England, while George is a member of a New York law firm. Because of the change of nationality, there are numerous consequential changes in descriptive passages and, particularly, in the dialogue.
Hayling Island
is a peninsula on the South Coast very near to Emsworth.
The 1972 US paperback edition published by Ballantine (still titled Something New) contains the text of the original UK edition of Something Fresh.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
. It was first published as a book in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, by D. Appleton & Company
D. Appleton & Company
D. Appleton & Company was an American company founded by Daniel Appleton , who opened a general store which included books.- Timeline :* 1813 Relocated from Haverhill to Boston and imported books from England...
on September 3, 1915, under the title Something New, having previously appeared under that title as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
between June 26 and August 14, 1915. It was published in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by Methuen & Co. on September 16, 1915.
The novel introduces Lord Emsworth
Lord Emsworth
Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth, or Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of the large Threepwood family...
of Blandings Castle
Blandings Castle
Blandings Castle is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Lord Emsworth , home to many of his family, and setting for numerous tales and adventures, written between 1915 and 1975.The series of stories which take place at the castle,...
, whose home and family reappear in many of Wodehouse's later short stories and novels; in a new preface added to Something Fresh in 1969, Wodehouse dubbed this series of stories "the Blandings Castle Saga".
Plot introduction
Young neighbours and fellow-writers Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine, newly met and both in need of a change of direction, find themselves drawn down to Blandings, for various reasons attempting to retrieve a scarabScarab artifact
Scarabs were popular amulets in ancient Egypt. According to ancient Egyptian myths, the sun rolls across the sky each day and transforms bodies and souls. Modeled upon the Scarabaeidae family dung beetle, which rolls dung into a ball for the purposes of eating and laying eggs that are later...
belonging to an American millionaire, absent-mindedly purloined by Lord Emsworth. Once within the Castle's idyllic walls, despite impersonating servants, romance cannot help but blossom; meanwhile, Freddie Threepwood
Freddie Threepwood
The Honourable Frederick Threepwood is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. A member of the Drones Club affectionately known as "Freddie", he is the second son of Lord Emsworth, and a somewhat simple-minded youth who brings his father nothing but trouble.Freddie has...
, engaged to the millionaire's daughter, is worried about some incriminating letters.
Plot summary
The novel begins with Ashe Marson, a young writer employed by the Mammoth Publishing Company, the creator of the popular "Gridley Quayle" detective novels, doing his daily exercises. Joan Valentine, a young girl living in the same apartment building, looks on and laughs at him. Thus she and Ashe meet, discover that they work for the same publishing house, and Ashe is encouraged to look for a new opportunity among the newspaper ads.Meanwhile, Freddie Threepwood, the younger son of the 9th Earl of Emsworth
Lord Emsworth
Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth, or Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of the large Threepwood family...
, is engaged to be married to Aline Peters, the daughter of American millionaire
Millionaire
A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. It can also be a person who owns one million units of currency in a bank account or savings account...
J. Preston Peters. Freddie pays a visit to his friend R. Jones, hoping to "recover" some letters he sent in the past to a certain chorus-girl, feeling they might be dangerous in her hands, especially following the recent embarrassment of his cousin Lord Percy Stockheath. He pays Jones £500 to sort things out for him.
Clarence Threepwood
Lord Emsworth
Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth, or Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of the large Threepwood family...
, the elderly Earl of Emsworth, calls on J. Preston Peters, Aline's father, a passionate collector of Egyptian scarabs
Scarab artifact
Scarabs were popular amulets in ancient Egypt. According to ancient Egyptian myths, the sun rolls across the sky each day and transforms bodies and souls. Modeled upon the Scarabaeidae family dung beetle, which rolls dung into a ball for the purposes of eating and laying eggs that are later...
. Peters shows him the most precious piece in his collection: a 4th dynasty Cheops
Khufu
Khufu , also known as Cheops or, in Manetho, Suphis , was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom. He reigned from around 2589 to 2566 BC. Khufu was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He is generally accepted as being the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of...
. Mr. Peters is called to the telephone, and the absent-minded Earl, forgetting all about the scarab, puts it in his pocket.
Aline Peters has lunch with her old friend George Emerson, a Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
police officer who wishes to marry her. He proposes to her once more, and tells her that, having befriended Freddie Threepwood, he has been invited to Blandings.
Mr Peters discovers the disappearance of his scarab, and suspects the Earl, but cannot confront him for fear of endangering his daughter's marriage. The Earl has already forgotten everything that happened, and thinks the scarab was a gift of Mr Peters.
R. Jones finds the address of Freddie's ex-sweetheart, Joan Valentine, who tells him she has long since destroyed any letters she may have had from Freddie. As he is leaving, Aline Peters, a close friend of Joan, arrives on a visit, allowing the suspicious Jones to listen at the door. He hears Aline's father is offering £1,000 to anybody that can retrieve his scarab. Joan decides that she will go herself to Blandings Castle, posing as Aline's maid, recover the scarab and scoop the reward.
Ashe, following Joan's advice, scours the adverts in the newspaper, and seeing one which grabs his attention, he goes along to an interview with Mr. Peters, who is looking for somebody to pose as his valet
Valet
Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer.- Word origins :In the Middle Ages, the valet de chambre to a ruler was a prestigious appointment for young men...
and steal the scarab. Ashe, showing Peters some pep, gets the job.
Ashe tells Joan about this, and they both take the train to Blandings. During the trip Joan warns Ashe of the highly complicated system of etiquette
Etiquette
Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...
observed among servants of a large house. She hopes her words will persuade him to give up his quest, but he resolves to do his best.
After their arrival, Ashe meets Baxter
Rupert Baxter
Rupert Baxter is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Often called The Efficient Baxter , he is Lord Emsworth's secretary, and an expert on many things, including Egyptian scarabs...
, the Earl's efficient and suspicious secretary, on the way to Mr Peters' room, addressing him in a highly un-valet-like manner. He finds that Mr Peters, like Beach, has problems with his stomach
Stomach
The stomach is a muscular, hollow, dilated part of the alimentary canal which functions as an important organ of the digestive tract in some animals, including vertebrates, echinoderms, insects , and molluscs. It is involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication .The stomach is...
, so persuades him to do some exercise and stop smoking cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
s.
At night, Ashe and Joan are both trying to get at the scarab when the watchful Baxter hears them. Ashe, with his prepared excuse of reading to the insomnia
Insomnia
Insomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...
Mr Peters, helps Joan escape. Next morning, Ashe and Joan decide to become allies and, after flipping a coin, that Ashe will take first try at steaing the scarab.
Aline is following the same diet of her father, composed mainly of legumes, and George, worrying she is suffering from malnutrition, prepares a feast to bring it to her at night. As he makes his way to her room, he and Ashe in the dark hall of the castle, and start a noisy fight. Baxter rushes in, but by the time the lights come on Ashe and George have fled, leaving Baxter surrounded by food and broken china. He is blamed for waking everyone and roundly criticised by his employer Lord Emsworth.
The next night is Joan's turn, but the scarab is already gone. The following morning, Ashe finds that Freddie needs money to pay R. Jones for the letters to Joan; he confronts Freddie, who confesses, and Ashe gets the scarab and gives it to the rightful owner, Mr Peters.
George Emerson, recalled to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, sadly wishes Aline good luck with Freddie; Aline, her mothering instinct finally aroused by his disappointment, decides to leave Freddie and elope with him. Ashe and Joan finally realise they are made for each other, and enter Mr Peters' employ. Lord Emsworth agrees to let Freddie return to London, on condition he doesn't make a fool of himself again.
Characters in Something Fresh
- Ashe Marson, a writer of detective novels
- Joan Valentine, Ashe's neighbour, who writes stories for a gossip magazine
- Aline Peters, an old friend of Joan Valentine
- J. Preston Peters, Aline's father, a wealthy Scarab collector
- The Earl of EmsworthLord EmsworthClarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth, or Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of the large Threepwood family...
, absent-minded master of Blandings- Freddie Threepwood, his younger son, engaged to Aline
- Lady Ann Warblington, Emsworth's widowed sister, chatelaine of Blandings
- Rupert BaxterRupert BaxterRupert Baxter is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Often called The Efficient Baxter , he is Lord Emsworth's secretary, and an expert on many things, including Egyptian scarabs...
, Lord Emsworth's very efficient secretary - Sebastian BeachSebastian BeachSebastian Beach is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. He is the butler at Blandings Castle, seat of Lord Emsworth and his family, where he serves for over eighteen years.- Background and character :...
, dignified head butler at Blandings Castle- Mrs Twemlow, housekeeper at the Castle
- George Emerson, a Hong Kong police officer, in love with Aline
- R. Jones, an obese bookmaker, a friend of Freddie Threepwood
Something New
There are some significant differences between the US edition and the later UK edition, though they do not affect the main plot.Something New includes a lengthy scene in which Baxter finds a paint-splashed lady's shoe in the library after the theft and attempts to identify its owner: this scene was omitted from Something Fresh; Wodehouse had previously used the same sub-plot in the second part of the school novel, Mike
Mike (novel)
Mike is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 15 September 1909 by Adam & Charles Black, London. The story first appeared in the magazine The Captain, in two separate parts, collected together in the original version of the book; the first part, originally called Jackson Junior, was...
.
In Something New, Ashe Marson, Joan Valentine and George Emerson are Americans; Ashe (who comes from a town called "Hayling", near Boston, Massachusetts) and Joan (who was born in New York) are living in England, while George is a member of a New York law firm. Because of the change of nationality, there are numerous consequential changes in descriptive passages and, particularly, in the dialogue.
Hayling Island
Hayling Island
-Leisure activities:Although largely residential, Hayling is also a holiday, windsurfing and sailing centre, the site where windsurfing was invented....
is a peninsula on the South Coast very near to Emsworth.
The 1972 US paperback edition published by Ballantine (still titled Something New) contains the text of the original UK edition of Something Fresh.
External links
- An analysis of the book, with annotated text, synopsis, lists of characters and locations, and selected quotes
- The Russian Wodehouse Society's page, with photos of book covers and a full list of characters
- Fantastic Fiction's page, with details of published editions, photos of book covers and links to used copies