Fans of Wodehouse readily accept that his stories are drivel. Nonetheless they are avid in their worshipping of him. The call him The Master. But what is he the master of? Wodehouse has an extraordinary ability to create word images, which are surreal and compelling. The two examples below are a good brief sample. If you are still dubious (Why not?) try the YouTube archive. They have the wonderful Fry and Laurie ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ series in their entirety from 1990. Basically you need to park your brains and wallow in the magic. Believe me its worth it.

1) “Mike nodded. A sombre nod. The nod Napoleon might have given if somebody had met him in 1812 and said, “So, you’re back from Moscow, eh?”

P.G. Wodehouse, Mike and Psmith

2) “Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal soul-sadness which afflicts one of Tolstoy’s Russian peasants when, after putting in a heavy day’s work strangling his father, beating his wife, and dropping the baby into the city’s reservoir, he turns to the cupboards, only to find the vodka bottle empty.”

P.G. Wodehouse, The Best of Wodehouse: An Anthology