Freddie Threepwood
Encyclopedia
The Honourable Frederick Threepwood is a fictional character
in the Blandings
stories by P. G. Wodehouse
. A member of the Drones Club
affectionately known as "Freddie", he is the second son of Lord Emsworth
, and a somewhat simple-minded youth who brings his father nothing but trouble.
Freddie has one brother, George, and a sister, Mildred.
for "breaking out at night and roaming the streets of Windsor
in a false mustache", and was sent down
from Oxford
, where he had been good friends with "Beefy" Bingham, for "pouring ink from a second-story window on the junior dean of his college". Despite two years at an expensive London crammer
's, he failed to qualify for the army. During this time he gathered a wide circle of shady and dubious friends, mostly involved in the turf, including the unpleasant Mr R Jones, and an equally broad set of gambling debts.
When Lord Emsworth is required to pay off £500 worth of said debts, Freddie is recalled to Blandings Castle
, the family's traditional prison for straying youth, where he is kept for his own safety, despite the discomfort this causes his father; this is where we find him when we first meet Freddie, at the start of Something Fresh
.
Freddie is an amiable chap, though not the sharpest of minds. He is fond of the cinema
, and indeed at one point writes a film scenario, which he successfully sells to the Super-Ultra-Art Film Company for $1000. He is also a great lover of detective fiction
, and is awed to meet Ashe Marson, creator of Gridley Quayle, Investigator.
A fan of a pretty face, at some point in his London days he fell for a girl on the stage, Joan Valentine, and bombarded her with letters and poetry to little avail, a fact which threatens to cause some embarrassment when he becomes engaged to American heiress Aline Peters. This engagement, miraculous in the eyes of the family, comes to nothing, however, as Freddie invites George Emerson, Aline's other suitor, to Blandings, and loses her to him.
Freddie's eye for a pretty girl is once again in evidence in Leave it to Psmith
, where he is enamoured of Eve Halliday, another girl he loses to a better man, but in "The Custody of the Pumpkin
" he woos and elopes with Aggie Donaldson, daughter of Donaldson the American dog-biscuit king.
He moves to America to work for his father-in-law, becoming a successful part of the Dog-Joy empire, only returning occasionally to attend weddings or to push his products in the English market. Freddie and Aggie (short for "Niagara", where her parents honeymooned) now live in Great Neck, New York
, on the North Shore
of Long Island
. (Wodehouse himself lived in Great Neck for a time, beginning in 1918. )
Freddie's good fortune and business success changes his personality completely. When his father visits in the story "Birth of a Salesman
", set three years after Freddie's marriage, Emsworth finds that "in those three years some miracle had transformed [Freddie] from a vapid young London
lizard into a go-getter, a live wire and a man who thought on his feet and did it now." Freddie talks of nothing but Donaldson's Dog Joy -- its health benefits for the modern dog, and his own part in spreading the word to eager dog owners. Emsworth is rattled by the thought that "after years of regarding this child as a drone and a wastrel, the child as now regarding him as one. A world's worker himself, Freddie eyed with scorn one who, like Lord Emsworth, neither toiled nor spun... And if there is one thing that pierces the armour of an English father of the upper classes it is to be looked down on by his younger son." Stung, Emsworth regains his confidence by helping a young woman sell richly bound encyclopedias of Sport door to door.
Freddie is also mentioned briefly in the fourth chapter of the Jeeves
novel, The Code of the Woosters
, in which Bertie Wooster
refers to both Freddie and Blandings.
and broadcast in 1967, Freddie was played by Derek Nimmo
. Unfortunately, none of the episodes featuring Freddie remain in the BBC archive.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the Blandings
Blandings Castle
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 setting for numerous tales and adventures, written between 1915 and 1975.The series of stories which take place at the castle,...
stories by P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
. A member of the Drones Club
Drones Club
The Drones Club is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a gentlemen's club in London. Many of his Jeeves and Blandings Castle stories feature the club or its members....
affectionately known as "Freddie", he is the second son of Lord Emsworth
Lord Emsworth
Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth, or Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of the large Threepwood family...
, and a somewhat simple-minded youth who brings his father nothing but trouble.
Freddie has one brother, George, and a sister, Mildred.
Life and character
Freddie's youth was a rather wild and reckless time. He was expelled from EtonEton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
for "breaking out at night and roaming the streets of Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
in a false mustache", and was sent down
Expulsion (academia)
Expulsion or exclusion refers to the permanent removal of a student from a school system or university for violating that institution's rules. Laws and procedures regarding expulsion vary between countries and states.-State sector:...
from Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, where he had been good friends with "Beefy" Bingham, for "pouring ink from a second-story window on the junior dean of his college". Despite two years at an expensive London crammer
Cram school
Cram schools are specialized schools that train their students to meet particular goals, most commonly to pass the entrance examinations of high schools or universities...
's, he failed to qualify for the army. During this time he gathered a wide circle of shady and dubious friends, mostly involved in the turf, including the unpleasant Mr R Jones, and an equally broad set of gambling debts.
When Lord Emsworth is required to pay off £500 worth of said debts, Freddie is recalled to Blandings Castle
Blandings Castle
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 setting for numerous tales and adventures, written between 1915 and 1975.The series of stories which take place at the castle,...
, the family's traditional prison for straying youth, where he is kept for his own safety, despite the discomfort this causes his father; this is where we find him when we first meet Freddie, at the start of Something Fresh
Something Fresh
Something Fresh is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published as a book in the United States, by D. Appleton & Company on September 3, 1915, under the title Something New, having previously appeared under that title as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post between June 26 and August 14,...
.
Freddie is an amiable chap, though not the sharpest of minds. He is fond of the cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, and indeed at one point writes a film scenario, which he successfully sells to the Super-Ultra-Art Film Company for $1000. He is also a great lover of detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
, and is awed to meet Ashe Marson, creator of Gridley Quayle, Investigator.
A fan of a pretty face, at some point in his London days he fell for a girl on the stage, Joan Valentine, and bombarded her with letters and poetry to little avail, a fact which threatens to cause some embarrassment when he becomes engaged to American heiress Aline Peters. This engagement, miraculous in the eyes of the family, comes to nothing, however, as Freddie invites George Emerson, Aline's other suitor, to Blandings, and loses her to him.
Freddie's eye for a pretty girl is once again in evidence in Leave it to Psmith
Leave it to Psmith
Leave it to Psmith is a comic novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on November 30, 1923 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on March 14, 1924 by George H. Doran, New York. It had previously been serialised, in the Saturday Evening Post in the U.S...
, where he is enamoured of Eve Halliday, another girl he loses to a better man, but in "The Custody of the Pumpkin
The Custody of the Pumpkin
"The Custody of the Pumpkin" is a short story by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. It first appeared in the U.S. in the 29 November 1924 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, and in the UK in the December 1924 issue of Strand Magazine...
" he woos and elopes with Aggie Donaldson, daughter of Donaldson the American dog-biscuit king.
He moves to America to work for his father-in-law, becoming a successful part of the Dog-Joy empire, only returning occasionally to attend weddings or to push his products in the English market. Freddie and Aggie (short for "Niagara", where her parents honeymooned) now live in Great Neck, New York
Great Neck, New York
The term Great Neck is commonly applied to a peninsula on the North Shore of Long Island, which includes the village of Great Neck, the village of Great Neck Estates, the village of Great Neck Plaza, and others, as well as an area south of the peninsula near Lake Success and the border of Queens...
, on the North Shore
North Shore (Long Island)
The North Shore of Long Island is the area along Long Island's northern coast, bordering Long Island Sound. The region has long been the most affluent on Long Island, as well as the most affluent in the New York metropolitan area, which has earned it the nickname "the Gold Coast." Though some...
of Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. (Wodehouse himself lived in Great Neck for a time, beginning in 1918. )
Freddie's good fortune and business success changes his personality completely. When his father visits in the story "Birth of a Salesman
Birth of a Salesman
"Birth of a Salesman" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United States in the 26 March 1950 issue of This Week magazine...
", set three years after Freddie's marriage, Emsworth finds that "in those three years some miracle had transformed [Freddie] from a vapid young London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
lizard into a go-getter, a live wire and a man who thought on his feet and did it now." Freddie talks of nothing but Donaldson's Dog Joy -- its health benefits for the modern dog, and his own part in spreading the word to eager dog owners. Emsworth is rattled by the thought that "after years of regarding this child as a drone and a wastrel, the child as now regarding him as one. A world's worker himself, Freddie eyed with scorn one who, like Lord Emsworth, neither toiled nor spun... And if there is one thing that pierces the armour of an English father of the upper classes it is to be looked down on by his younger son." Stung, Emsworth regains his confidence by helping a young woman sell richly bound encyclopedias of Sport door to door.
Appearances
Freddie appears in four Blandings novels and seven short stories:- Something FreshSomething FreshSomething Fresh is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published as a book in the United States, by D. Appleton & Company on September 3, 1915, under the title Something New, having previously appeared under that title as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post between June 26 and August 14,...
(1915) - Leave it to PsmithLeave it to PsmithLeave it to Psmith is a comic novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on November 30, 1923 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on March 14, 1924 by George H. Doran, New York. It had previously been serialised, in the Saturday Evening Post in the U.S...
(1923) - "The Custody of the PumpkinThe Custody of the Pumpkin"The Custody of the Pumpkin" is a short story by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. It first appeared in the U.S. in the 29 November 1924 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, and in the UK in the December 1924 issue of Strand Magazine...
" (1924, collected in Blandings CastleBlandings CastleBlandings 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 setting for numerous tales and adventures, written between 1915 and 1975.The series of stories which take place at the castle,...
) - "Lord Emsworth Acts for the BestLord Emsworth Acts for the Best"Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United Kingdom in the June 1926 Strand Magazine, and in the United States in the 5 June 1926 issue of Liberty...
" (1926, collected in Blandings CastleBlandings CastleBlandings 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 setting for numerous tales and adventures, written between 1915 and 1975.The series of stories which take place at the castle,...
) - "Company for GertrudeCompany for Gertrude"Company for Gertrude" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United Kingdom in the September 1928 Strand, and in the United States in the October 1928 issue of Cosmopolitan...
" (1928, collected in Blandings CastleBlandings CastleBlandings 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 setting for numerous tales and adventures, written between 1915 and 1975.The series of stories which take place at the castle,...
) - "The Go-getterThe Go-getterCosmopolitan, and in the United Kingdom in the August 1931 Strand. Part of the Blandings Castle canon, it features the absent-minded peer Lord Emsworth, and was included in the collection Blandings Castle and Elsewhere , although the story takes place sometime between the events of Leave it to...
" (1931, collected in Blandings CastleBlandings CastleBlandings 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 setting for numerous tales and adventures, written between 1915 and 1975.The series of stories which take place at the castle,...
) - Full MoonFull Moon (novel)Full Moon is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States by Doubleday & Company on May 22, 1947, and in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins on October 17, 1947...
(1947) - "Birth of a SalesmanBirth of a Salesman"Birth of a Salesman" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United States in the 26 March 1950 issue of This Week magazine...
" (1950, collected in Nothing SeriousNothing Serious (short stories)Nothing Serious is a collection of ten short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United Kingdom on 21 July 1950 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 24 May 1951 by Doubleday & Co., New York.-Overview:...
) - "Sticky Wicket at BlandingsSticky Wicket at Blandings"Sticky Wicket at Blandings" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared, under the title "First Aid for Freddie", in the United States in the October 1966 issue of Playboy magazine, and in the United Kingdom in the April 1967 issue of Argosy...
" (1966, collected in Plum PiePlum PiePlum Pie is a collection of nine short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on September 22, 1966 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on December 1, 1967 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York....
) - "Life with Freddie" (1966, collected in Plum PiePlum PiePlum Pie is a collection of nine short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on September 22, 1966 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on December 1, 1967 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York....
) - Sunset at BlandingsSunset at BlandingsSunset at Blandings is an unfinished novel by P. G. Wodehouse.-Publication history:The book was first published in the United Kingdom on November 17, 1977 by Chatto & Windus, London and in the United States on September 7, 1978 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York. The book was republished by...
(1977)
Freddie is also mentioned briefly in the fourth chapter of the Jeeves
Jeeves
Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character in the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, being the valet of Bertie Wooster . Created in 1915, Jeeves would continue to appear in Wodehouse's works until his final, completed, novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, making him Wodehouse's most famous...
novel, The Code of the Woosters
The Code of the Woosters
The Code of the Woosters is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York...
, in which Bertie Wooster
Bertie Wooster
Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse. An English gentleman, one of the "idle rich" and a member of the Drones Club, he appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose genius manages to extricate Bertie or one of...
refers to both Freddie and Blandings.
Television
In several adaptations of Blandings shorts, made by the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and broadcast in 1967, Freddie was played by Derek Nimmo
Derek Nimmo
Derek Robert Nimmo was an English character actor. He was particularly associated with upper-class "silly-ass" roles, and clerical roles.-Career:...
. Unfortunately, none of the episodes featuring Freddie remain in the BBC archive.
External links
- "Blandings Castle" (1967) at the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
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