Like I said last week, a few of these will require context (which I will happily provide) and some won't require context at all. Some of these will require a bit more experience in reading classic lit to be able to fully appreciate, so I hope by now, after 4 weeks of becoming acclimated to the style and diction of older literature, hopefully you'll be able to better understand how all of this is amusing :)
1)
Okay, so if this isn't slightly funny to you right off the bat, you're probably already prejudiced against old books....If this is kinda funny to you from the get go, then hey! I'm in a much better position to explain this to you.......So, a bit of context:
Bertie Wooster, the narrator/speaker here, is watching someone's son for a bit while the mother travels the coast to learn about prisons (sounds a little like Alexis de Tocqueville....). Well, as it turns out, Wooster isn't such a good babysitter to the son, who happens to be wild. The boy has ended up in prison, (not Wooster's fault) and the mother has come back a few days early to collect her son and return home. She enters at an hour far too early for Wooster, and so Wooster, though tired, was trying to be a gracious host and offer this guest breakfast:
(Wooster as narrator, re his guest) There was something sort of bleak about her tone, rather as if she had swallowed an east wind. This I took to be due to the fact that she probably hadn't breakfasted. It's only after a bit of breakfast that I'm able to regard the world with that sunny cheeriness which makes a fellow the universal favourite. I'm never much of a lad till I've engulfed an egg or two and a beaker of coffee.
WOOSTER: "I suppose you haven't breakfasted?"
LADY MALVERN: "I have not yet breakfasted."
WOOSTER: "Won't you have an egg or something? Or a sausage or something? Or something?"
LADY MALVERN: "No, thank you."
(Wooster as narrator) She spoke as if she belonged to an anti-sausage society or a league for the suppression of eggs. There was a bit of silence.
Ta-da.......Hopefully you found that at least slightly amusing; my fellow classic lit friends will have enjoyed it a bit....
2) I don't think this one will need much explanation: I'll just introduce the characters and situation.....
1) Wooster's friend, Gussie, has just returned from an unsuccessful marriage proposal.
2) Gussie loves newts. And when I say loves, I mean, Gussie is obsessed with newts. Breeds them. Studies them. Moved to the countryside to better focus on their well being.
3) Wooster is terrible at giving advice. Just now, he has suggested that Gussie just try proposing again. Here is what ensues:
GUSSIE: "And I should get cold feet if I tried again. It's no good, Bertie. I'm hopeless, and there's an end of it. Fate made me the sort of chap who can't say 'bo' to a goose."
WOOSTER: "It isn't a question of saying 'bo' to a goose. The point doesn't arise at all. It is simply a matter of-----"
GUSSIE: "I know, I know. But it's no good. I can't do it. The whole thing is off. I am not going to risk a repetition of last night's fiasco. You talk in a light way of taking another whack at her, but you don't know what it means. You have not been through the experience of starting to ask the girl you love to marry you and than suddenly finding yourself talking about the plumlike external gills of the newly-born newt."
(I bolded the part I find particularly funny so you don't miss it in case you aren't paying attention.)
What's great about Jeeves and Wooster is that not only are the books hilarious in their own right, the show does an incredible job of portraying the characters and humor. And most of them are on Youtube (hint hint nudge nudge)...Here's one of my favorite episodes:
Jeeves and Wooster: Arrested in a NightClub
Jeeves and Wooster: How Does Gussie Woo Madeline
Yup. They're all beautiful. Watch as many as you can and become acquainted with the impeccable style of humor that PG Wodehouse provides
Next week I'll continue the humor section, with more Jeeves and Wooster and some other samples as well.
Claire
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