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Uncle Fred in the Springtime

Author: P.g. Wodehouse
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

6 reviews
Sales Rank: 525578

Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.6

ISBN: 014000971X
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780140009712
ASIN: 014000971X

Publication Date: May 31, 1979
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - Uncle Fred in the Springtime
•	Paperback - Uncle Fred: An Omnibus: Uncle Fred in the Springtime; Uncle Dynamite; Cocktail Time
•	Paperback - Uncle Fred in the Springtime (A Blandings Story)
•	Hardcover - Uncle Fred in the Springtime (A P. G. Wodehouse classic)
•	Audio Cassette - Uncle Fred in the Springtime: Complete & Unabridged
•	Audio Cassette - Uncle Fred in Springtime
•	Hardcover - Uncle Fred in the Springtime
•	Hardcover - Uncle Fred in the Springtime
•	Hardcover - Uncle Fred in the Springtime (Everyman Wodehouse)
•	Audio Cassette - Uncle Fred in the Springtime (Bestseller Collection)
•	Audio CD - Uncle Fred in the Springtime (Csa Word Classic)
•	Hardcover - Uncle Fred in the Springtime
•	Unknown Binding - Uncle Fred In The Springtime
•	Unknown Binding - Uncle Fred in the springtime
•	Unknown Binding - Uncle Fred in the springtime (A P. G. Wodehouse classic)
•	Unknown Binding - Uncle Fred in the springtime: A Blandings story
•	Hardcover - Uncle Fred in the springtime: [a novel]
•	Paperback - Uncle Fred in the Springtime

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Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

P G Tips May 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

There are certain books and certain authors one is coy about naming in the realms of favourites - Mr Wodehouse is one.

Ever since teenageness I've been drawn to the chaos of the phantom upper-class world he scratched out - less enamoured, I have to say, of the American excursions. What attracts is difficult to say - maybe the downright silliness of them.

Wodehouse was a writer of copious amounts - included lyrics for musical comedies (some 30 all told - around 250 songs). And therein lies the first clue to enjoying a Wodehouse - a good one will be like spending a couple of hours in the theatre - a `musical comedy' approach is necessary, a `between-the-wars', musical comedy approach in fact.

Love and ridiculous complications, mad uncles and tart aunts, rich old fogies and poverty stricken young things ... warm balmy, never to be repeated summer days, and policemen (who appear solely for the purpose of knocking their helmets off in order to be captured and dragged along to the local magistrate - who will turn out to be the offenders, as-yet-un-met father of newly affianced fiance).

Uncle Fred in the Springtime has most of these elements or a variation thereof - and the Blanding's Pig.

The story is not really essential - in this case it revolves around one Uncle, Fred, trying to get another Uncle, the Loony Duke of Dunstable, to behave in a reasonable manner and cough up lots of money to support his poetry writing nephew in the enterprise of an onion soup stall in Picadilly, which will facilitate the said poet's marriage - to the dance teaching daughter of a private detective. There is also the sub plot of preventing the removal of Lord Emsworth's pig by the poker wielding Duke, who is convinced Emsworth wishes to enter the pig in the Derby, and the supplying of even more money to Fred's nephew who is in danger of several broken limbs and a long stay in a hospital bed on account of debts unpaid.

Confused? - you are allowed to be. And yet there is a clarity in the confusion - you never get confused enough to lose track, (either that, or you are laughing too much to care) and something new pops up so quickly you do not notice any confusion in yourself whilst noticing it in the story.

And that's my next tip - take a chair into the garden, a bowl of strawberries (peppered) and an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne and one flute. Position yourself - and read. Don't `do' a Wodehouse in too many sessions - it's a two act-er rather than five. Just let the whole silly story flow over you and worryeth not about following every detail. Being tipsy helps.

Most Wodehouses have a central character around whom things fly (revolve is far too sedate a word). Here it is Uncle Fred - not surprising really, given the title.

He's a lovely old buffer - Shakespeare quoting, so an instant success with me - although not so with his nephew and niece, nor his fortunately absent wife. He has an aging Puck-like quality of solving problems in a way which causes maximum difficulties for all around, including `Uncle Fred'. Rarely does he doubt himself - everything will resolve satisfactorily, by magic it seems.

Fred is very `hands-on' - preferably his nephews or other gullible young tyke, or co-operative young tyke-ess (who knows a good plan when she sees it). Nice young things fall for him instantly - sour prunes not so (one is left with the suspicion his absent wife is more the former than latter - but plays a good part in appearing shrivelled).

Fred's biggest challenge is his contemporaries - who seem to have grown crabbed with age. Principle is Emsworth's wife - who is the sort of woman who'd take a hairbrush to the backside of some poor nephew at the drop of a cricket ball (through the greenhouse window). Her biggest weapon is knowledge - of Fred's wife - and access to a jungle telegraph more effective than e-mail. A minor danger, swiftly dealt with, is his neice - who is apprentice sour prune.

In a similar class to the niece, is the secretary - male. I suspect Wodehouse had problems with one of these early in life and consequently took a hatchet to the species whenever the opportunity arouse. Dishonest, devious, cowardly, ganging up with the united forces of vinegar-women and Loony-Dukedom. Fortunately he gets truly egged.

And there is the-passion-for-taking-money-off-other-people-with-a-card-game, Private Detective - who just happens to be the father of a wanna-be poet's bride.

How could a story fail with such a classic bunch of caricatures? Quite easily - but not on Wodehouse's typewriter. Lesser writers would find it very difficult to assemble an entertaining castle on such foundations.

Wodehouse's cement is a wit with language - and spare, effective, cutting dialogue (no doubt sharpened in the fifteen plays he joint wrote). It is not surprising adaptations of his novels and stories make such good television.

5 out of 5 stars

Uncle Fred Flits by Blandings January 31, 2008
If not the best then, at worst, `Uncle Fred in the Springtime' is one of the best Wodehouse novels. It is a sort of a `Best of Wodehouse' with Pongo Twistleton and his Uncle Fred, whom we met previously in `Young Men in Spats', flitting by Blandings Castle under an assumed name, as is traditional to first time visitors. The name in question belongs to Roderick Glossop, renowned psychiatrist, whom has had to pronounce Bertie Wooster certifiable on more than one occasion.

Also present at Blandings are Valerie Twistleton whom has become estranged from her fiancee, Horace Pendlebury-Davenport, whose Uncle, the Duke of Dunstable is determined to remove Lord Emsworth's beloved pig with the help of the efficient Baxter, Emsworth's discharged secretary. Polly Pott is also posing as a secretary to secure the funds she requires to marry her estranged fiancee, Ricky Gilpin, a further nephew of Dunstable.

Uncle Fred believes that it is his mission to spread sweetness and light throughout the world but to unite Valerie and Horace, Polly and Ricky whist separating Dunstable and the Empress and Baxter and Emsworth without driving Pongo to desertion will take all of his and Wodehouse's guile. The sweetness and light is infectious not just through Blandings Castle but is easily caught by the reader. The symptoms are so great only a fool would seek a cure.

4 out of 5 stars

I wish I had an uncle like Fred September 13, 2004
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

A hugely entertaining book. Uncle Fred cuts a dash as he nonchalantly waltzes through life, unstressed by the chaos around him. I'd love my uncle to have this magic touch and this slice of mischief. I don't think Fred is a mature gentleman at all. I think he is perpetually seventeen and a half with complete disdain for the old fuddy duddies who have a body the same age as his.

And, as always, Wodehouse has a wonderful mastery of the English language, making anything he writes a pleasure to read.

A literary classic without the boring bits.

5 out of 5 stars Hilarious! May 9, 2002
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is the first non Jeeves and Wooster book of Wodehouses's that I've read, and I'm pleased to report that the adventures and exploits of Uncle Fred (aka Lord Ickenham) are just as madcap and droll as those of his more renown duo. As with many of the Jeeves and Wooster stories, the plot revolves around (mis)engagements, misunderstandings, country houses, bonny baby contests, blustering pompous old men, duck ponds, and a constable. However, the difference here is that instead of an idiot (Bertie) getting into sticky situations and being rescued by a genius (Jeeves), we have Uncle Fred, who seems to relish creating havoc and then sorting it all out through a variety of impersonations, good natured lies and blackmail, with general irreverence for one and all. The matchmaking leads to all manner of wacky hi-jinks, and as per usual, Wodehouse's comic timing is impeccable. Of course, the real treat is the language, which sparkles as it amuses. The names are especially good in this one, with Pongo, Bill Oakshot, and Sally Potter leading the way. (Coincidentally, two characters share the names of prominent characters from the Harry Potter saga: constable Harold Potter and Hermonie Bostock.) Uncle Fred is the equal of any Wodehouse character, and look forward to tracking down the rest of his tales.

5 out of 5 stars The adventures of literature's youngest 70 year old! August 26, 2001
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Whenever I feel down, I pick up a Wodehouse: short story, novel, an essay, a lyric, it doesn't matter what, I am immediately transported by his magnificent words into an altogether much better world. Mind you, I'd pick up any Wodehouse around even when I don't feel down: there is nobody in literature who has written about such a wide range of characters, and fewer still in such a captivatingly funny way; so that Wodehouse remains as relevant a requirement in the 21st century as in the 20th.

The character who provides the highest and most consistent fun though- and by a lot more than a mere short head- is Uncle Fred. Even more than Gally and Psmith he is blessed with answers before anybody has a chance to absorb the problem. In this regard he is beyond even Jeeves, because Jeeves has never actually created the problem- in fact nor has anybody else apart from Uncle Fred: and whereas with all the others "doing good" is what they do, can you find another character-even Psmith-who almost deliberately creates problems, particularly in order to enmash Pongo, so that he can unravel the wonderful denoument in the most complicated and ribachingly funny way? Can anybody tell me why, in a world where even the most boring and relatively recently eatablished writers are studied for A levels and even at University, nobody, to my knowledge, has seen fit to set up a course in PG Wodehouse studies?!