I have been reflecting on the largish number of PG Wodehouse stories that feature animals and birds. Cats, dogs, pigs, parrots, canaries fairly throng the pages and I wondered if this might be an angle worth exploring.
Somebody, namely D. R. Bensen, blast him, got there first and produced an anthology, A Wodehouse Bestiary. There is plenty of material. I am re-reading Mulliner Nights and five of the first six stories have substantial animal content. What I find so satisfying about reading PGW are the wealth of literary allusions chucked in for free. Often it’s Shakespeare but often poets (yes, I know the bard is both poet and playwright) and it does credit to Dulwich College that he had this breadth of knowledge to draw on. Percy, Lady Widdrington’s marmalade cat is a nasty piece of work. “He had no music in his soul, and was fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.”
Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice says, “the man that hath no music in himself, nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.” To transpose that quotation into a feline hatchet job is indeed clever.
What I’m trying to get across is that there is a depth and richness in PGW’s writing that transcends the apparently light style in which he breezes through his well-plotted and deceptively lightweight books. My enjoyment is only limited by my inadequate literary vocab.