03-12-2013, 11:43 AM | #1 |
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'New' Jeeves and Wooster book coming
Not sure if anybody has posted this already, but as a keen Wodehouse fan I was interested to read this weekend that a Wodehouse family sanctioned Jeeves and Wooster book is being written by Sebastian Faulks.
Not sure what I expect from it, other than I shall read it with interest and, if it's half as good as the originals, I'll enjoy it immensely. Full story from the Guardian, here. |
03-12-2013, 11:57 AM | #2 |
Wizard
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I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I wouldn't hold out too much hope for this project. If he just writes a novel featuring Jeeves and Wooster, it might just be worth reading, but I doubt he'll be able to capture Wodehouse's turn of phrase.
As Robert McCrum said, it's "a bit like asking a devout Christian to come up with a fifth gospel". We'll see. Mike |
03-12-2013, 12:13 PM | #3 |
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Yes, it is a difficult one. Any attempt to duplicate the Wodehouse style is probably doomed to failure. A novel featuring the characters with a Wodehouse flavour is probably the best we can hope for.
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03-12-2013, 12:29 PM | #4 |
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It isn't just a question of style. It's also a matter of capturing the turns of thought and the perversity of the humor and ideas, all of which never read exactly as you remember them (unless you've committed several pages to memory).
The only hope would be if the author chose not to imitate Wodehouse. But then he'd be garroted by fans for inflicting the Trauma of the Unfamiliar. |
03-12-2013, 12:44 PM | #5 |
Now what?
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Hmmmm ... he's already penned a "new" James Bond novel (Devil May Care) that had widely mixed reviews. Now onto humor?
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03-12-2013, 09:25 PM | #6 |
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Why not keep reading the old ones?
They are essentially all the same. I'm fact, I am never sure when reading one if I have or have not read it already. It's part of their charms. |
03-12-2013, 09:50 PM | #7 |
Bah, humbug!
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I've read a Sherlock Holmes novel by Ellery Queen that I rather liked, and a Hitchhiker's Guide novel by Eoin Colfer that I thought fell a bit short. I'll take a wait and see on this effort to channel Wodehouse.
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03-13-2013, 05:08 AM | #8 | |
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Quote:
What makes Wodehouse unique is not the plots or even the characters, but the language. If he was alive today, he could write a Kindle user guide and make it funny. Mike |
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03-15-2013, 12:11 AM | #9 | |
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I won't expect too much from this. After all, when you read a book you touch the writer's mind. No one can successfully imitate that. Remember how anemic the 'new' Lucia book was?
Or more recently, P.D. James' attempt to bring back Jane Austen's world and characters. I've not seen this kind of thing reproduced by another mind convincingly. Quote:
Last edited by pendragginp; 03-15-2013 at 12:22 AM. |
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03-15-2013, 06:36 AM | #10 | |
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Quote:
/JB |
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03-17-2013, 06:39 PM | #11 |
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i'll try it, but i hated the new peter wimseys, which didn't capture any of the feel of the originals, while trying to mimic the speech patterns and doing a poor job. i disliked poodle springs, which felt just like another robert b. parker, and while i like spenser, i wasn't thrilled that marlowe sounded just like him. and i despised the gone with the wind sequel ***SPOILER ALERT*** scarlet learning magic? really???
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03-17-2013, 08:10 PM | #12 |
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When I heard this news, I just thought, "The guy who wrote angsty wartime melodrama Birdsong?" My mind just boggled.
But it was the Wodehouse estate that reached out to him, so they must have seen something in his writing that made them think he could do justice to the world of Wooster. Having read one of his books, I'm not sure what that was, but I'll be interested to see what he does with it. |
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