Wodehouse and the Use of Language

There's no substitute for reading a P.G. Wodehouse story, but I hope my readers (all two of you) will enjoy these snippets of his wording. I was pleased to see recently that C.S. Lewis shared my opinion that "Right-Ho Jeeves" was "the funniest thing I've ever read".

The Aberdeen terrier gave me an unpleasant look and said something under his breath in Gaelic.

Sir Roderick Glossop ... is always called a nerve specialist, because it sounds better, but everybody knows that he's really a sort of janitor to the looney-bin.

I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.

...he uttered a stricken woofle, like a bulldog who had been refused cake.

``Man and boy, Jeeves, I have been in some tough spots in my time, but this one takes the mottled oyster.'' ``Certainly a somewhat sharp crisis in your affair would appear to have precipitated, sir.''