The Crime Wave at Blandings

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"The Crime Wave at Blandings"
Author P. G. Wodehouse
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s) Comedy
Publisher Saturday Evening Post (US)
Strand (UK)
Media typePrint (magazine)
Publication date10 and 17 October 1936 (US)
January 1937 (UK)

"The Crime Wave at Blandings" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse that first appeared in the United States in two parts, in the October 10 and October 17, 1936 editions of the Saturday Evening Post , and in the United Kingdom in the January 1937 issue of the Strand (as "Crime Wave at Blandings"). It was included in the collection Lord Emsworth and Others (1937), and provided the title to the U.S. equivalent of that collection. [1]

Contents

The story was a rewritten version of an older piece, entitled "Creatures of Impulse", which had appeared in the Strand in October 1914, and in the U.S. in McClure's that same month. [2]

"The Crime Wave at Blandings" is set at Blandings Castle, home of Lord Emsworth, and features several other recurring characters.

Plot introduction

Lord Emsworth's sister, Lady Constance has decided that Lord Emsworth's grandson George needs a tutor to keep him in line over the summer holidays—and chooses the efficient Rupert Baxter. Meanwhile, his niece Jane wants him to employ her fiancé, George Abercrombie, the position of Estate Manager at Blandings, much to the dismay of Lady Constance. Emsworth, who would rather be reading Whiffle's 'On the Care of the Pig', cannot imagine a way out, until an air gun confiscated from young Master George shows the way.

Publication history

"The Crime Wave at Blandings" was rewritten from "Creatures of Impulse", which was published in October 1914 in the Strand with illustrations by T. Victor Hall. [3] It was published in the same month in McClure's with illustrations by Lucius W. Hitchcock. [4] "Creatures of Impulse" was not published in book form until it was included in the 1993 collection Plum Stones , with commentary by Tony Ring.

The Blandings story was illustrated by Charles LaSalle in the Saturday Evening Post in October 1936. [5] It was illustrated by Gilbert Wilkinson in the Strand in January 1937. [6]

"The Crime Wave at Blandings" was collected in The Best of Wodehouse, a 1949 collection of Wodehouse stories selected by Scott Meredith, published in the US by Pocket Books. [7] It was included in the 1981 collection Wodehouse on Crime, published by Ticknor & Fields in the US, edited by D. R. Bensen with a foreword by Isaac Asimov. [8]

The UK anthology In Praise of Humour, published by Muller in 1949 and edited by Neville Hilditch, included an excerpt from "The Crime Wave at Blandings". [9]

Adaptations

A radio dramatisation of "The Crime Wave at Blandings" aired in 1939, with C. V. France as Lord Emsworth, Thea Holme as Jane, J. B. Rowe as Beach, Gladys Young as Lady Constance, Carleton Hobbs as Rupert Baxter, and Robert Holland as George. It was produced by John Cheatle. [10]

"The Crime Wave at Blandings" was adapted for television as an episode of The World of Wodehouse in 1967, under the title "Lord Emsworth and the Crime Wave at Blandings". [11]

In 1985, the story was adapted into two episodes of the Blandings radio series. [12]

"The Crime Wave at Blandings" was adapted for television again in 2013, as the fourth episode in the series Blandings . [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

Blandings Castle is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Lord Emsworth, home to many of his family and the setting for numerous tales and adventures. The stories were written between 1915 and 1975.

<i>Lord Emsworth and Others</i> 1937 short story collection by P.G. Wodehouse

Lord Emsworth and Others is a collection of nine short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 19 March 1937 by Herbert Jenkins, London; it was not published in the United States. The Crime Wave at Blandings, which was published on 25 June 1937 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, is a very different collection, sharing only three of its seven titles with the UK book. Penguin Books published a UK edition of The Crime Wave at Blandings in 1966. The stories in both books had all previously appeared in both British and American magazines.

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References

Notes
  1. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), pp. 72–73, A57–58.
  2. ↑ Midkiff, Neil (3 July 2019). "The Wodehouse short stories". Madame Eulalie. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  3. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 183, D133.36.
  4. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 152, D38.3.
  5. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 157, D59.94–95.
  6. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 186, D133.209.
  7. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 118, B8.
  8. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), pp. 125–126, B23.
  9. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 195, E57.
  10. ↑ "C. V. France". BBC Genome. BBC. 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  11. ↑ "Series 1, Episode 3 - Lord Emsworth And The Crime Wave At Blandings". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  12. ↑ "Blandings: 7: The Crime Wave At Blandings: Part 2". BBC Genome. BBC. 2019. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  13. ↑ "Series 1, Episode 4 - The Crime Wave At Blandings". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
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