Summer Lightning
Encyclopedia
Summer Lightning is a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 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...

, first published in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on 1 July 1929 by Doubleday, Doran, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, under the title Fish Preferred, and in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 on 19 July 1929 by Herbert Jenkins
Barrie & Jenkins
Barrie & Jenkins was a small British publishing house that was formed in 1964 from the merger of "Herbert Jenkins" and "Barrie & Rockcliffe". One of their most notable authors was P. G...

, 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...

. It was serialised in Pall Mall magazine (UK) between March and August 1929 and in Collier's
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....

 (US) from 6 April to 22 June 1929.

It forms part of the 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,...

 saga, being the third full-length novel to be set there, after 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,...

(1915) and 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...

(1923). Heavy Weather
Heavy Weather (novel)
Heavy Weather is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on July 28, 1933 by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, and in the United Kingdom on August 10, 1933 by Herbert Jenkins, London...

(1933) forms a semi-sequel to the story, with many of the same characters involved.

Plot introduction

Gally
Galahad Threepwood
The Honourable Galahad "Gally" Threepwood is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Lord Emsworth's younger brother, a lifelong bachelor, Gally was, according to Beach, the Blandings butler, "somewhat wild as a young man"...

 is down at Blandings and writing his memoirs, to the horror of all who knew him in their wild youths, particularly 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...

's neighbour and pig-fancying rival Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe. While sinister forces, including the efficient Baxter
Rupert Baxter
Rupert Baxter is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Often called The Efficient Baxter , he is Lord Emsworth's secretary, and an expert on many things, including Egyptian scarabs...

 and the unpleasant Percy Pilbeam
Percy Frobisher Pilbeam
Percy Frobisher Pilbeam is a fictional character in the works of P. G. Wodehouse. A journalist turned detective, he is a rather weak and unpleasant man, generally disliked by all...

, scheme to put a stop to the book, Ronnie Fish and his old pal Hugo Carmody are entangled in difficult relationships, which require much subterfuge, some pig-theft and a little imposter-ing to resolve...

Plot summary

Hugo Carmody, who became secretary to 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...

 following the failure of The Hot Spot, the night club he ran with Ronnie Fish, is conducting a secret affair with Millicent Threepwood, Emsworth's niece. They hide this from Lady Constance
Lady Constance Keeble
Lady Constance Keeble is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being Lord Emsworth's most formidable sister, a strikingly handsome woman, with a fair, broad brow, and perfectly even white teeth...

, who is distracted with worries that the book of memoirs her brother Galahad
Galahad Threepwood
The Honourable Galahad "Gally" Threepwood is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Lord Emsworth's younger brother, a lifelong bachelor, Gally was, according to Beach, the Blandings butler, "somewhat wild as a young man"...

 is working on will bring shame to the family.

Ronnie, meanwhile, is secretly engaged to Sue Brown, a chorus girl and an old friend of Hugo. When they run into Lady Constance in London one day, Ronnie introduces Sue as Myra Schoonmaker, an American heiress he and his mother Lady Julia recently met in Biarritz
Biarritz
Biarritz is a city which lies on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast, in south-western France. It is a luxurious seaside town and is popular with tourists and surfers....

.

Ronnie travels to Blandings, where Baxter
Rupert Baxter
Rupert Baxter is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Often called The Efficient Baxter , he is Lord Emsworth's secretary, and an expert on many things, including Egyptian scarabs...

 has just returned, called in by Lady Constance to steal the memoirs. Hoping to get money out of Lord Emsworth, his trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...

, Ronnie claims to love pigs, but his uncle has seen him bouncing a tennis ball
Tennis ball
A tennis ball is a ball designed for the sport of tennis,approximately 6.7 cm in diameter. Tennis balls are generally bright green, but in recreational play can be virtually any color. Tennis balls are covered in a fibrous fluffy felt which modifies their aerodynamic properties...

 on the Empress
Empress of Blandings
Empress of Blandings is a fictional pig, featured in many of the Blandings Castle novels and stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Owned by the doting Lord Emsworth, the Empress is an enormous black Berkshire sow, who wins many prizes in the "Fat Pigs" class at the local Shropshire Agricultural Show, and is...

' back, and is enraged. Ronnie, inspired, steals the pig, planning to return it and earn his uncle's gratitude, roping in Beach
Sebastian Beach
Sebastian Beach is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. He is the butler at Blandings Castle, seat of Lord Emsworth and his family, where he serves for over eighteen years.- Background and character :...

 to help; they hide her in a cottage in the woods.

Hugo is sent to London to fetch a detective; the job is refused by Percy Pilbeam
Percy Frobisher Pilbeam
Percy Frobisher Pilbeam is a fictional character in the works of P. G. Wodehouse. A journalist turned detective, he is a rather weak and unpleasant man, generally disliked by all...

. Hugo takes Sue out dancing, but when Ronnie arrives at the club
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 he sees Pilbeam, who admires Sue, sat at her table. He runs amok, and spends a night in jail, and in the morning snubs Sue, who he believes has betrayed him. Millicent, feeling the same about Hugo, breaks off their engagement also. Meanwhile Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, worrying about the memoirs, hires Pilbeam to retrieve them; Pilbeam agrees, realising he can use the pig-finding job to get into the castle.

Sue heads to Blandings, posing as Myra Schoonmaker. Gally soon finds out the truth, when he has a meeting with Mortimer Mason, Sue's erstwhile employer, and he sees her in the gardens. Percy Pilbeam arrives, recognises Sue, and tries to get her help in his memoir-stealing scheme. Baxter, meanwhile, has grown suspicious that the pig was stolen by Carmody as a means of insuring his job; he spots Beach heading off to feed the pig, and follows him, just as the storm breaks.

Beach reaches the cottage to find Hugo and Millicent, gone there to shelter from the rain. Their relationship is healed, Hugo having explained about Sue and Ronnie, and Beach, protecting Ronnie, claims he stole the pig for Hugo to return and win Lord Emsworth's favour. Beach leaves, as Carmody takes the pig to a new hiding spot.

Baxter accuses Beach in front of Emsworth, and the three of them head to the cottage, Emsworth growing ever warier of Baxter's sanity. They find no pig, Carmody having moved it to Baxter's caravan, where Pilbeam, also caught in the rain, saw him stow it. While Emsworth, Lady Constance, Gally and Millicent go to dinner with Parsloe-Parsloe (lured away to leave the memoirs unguarded), Ronnie Fish confronts Pilbeam, and learns that Sue was indeed out in London with Carmody, and that she has come to Blandings to be near Ronnie.

Pilbeam gets tipsy, and tells Beach about Sue, and then tells Carmody that he saw him hide the pig. Carmody, in a panic, calls Millicent at Matchingham Hall, and is advised to tell Emsworth where the pig is at once. He does so, Emsworth is overjoyed, and agrees to their marriage, much to Lady Constance's disgust.

Meanwhile, Baxter receives a telegram from Myra Schoonmaker in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and goes to the imposter Sue's room to retrieve a note he sent her, criticising Lord Emsworth. Trapped by Beach bringing her dinner, he hides under the bed while she and Ronnie are reunited. Ronnie spots Pilbeam climbing into the room to steal the book, and chases him downstairs; the returning dinner party assume they are fleeing Baxter, now confirmed as mad by the presence of the stolen pig in his caravan, and Emsworth charges into Sue's room with a shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

. Baxter crawls out from under the bed, flustered and enraged by his experience and Emsworth's harsh words, reveals Sue's deception and storms off.

Galahad, hearing that Sue Brown is Dolly Henderson's daughter, reveals that he loved her mother and views her as a kind of honorary daughter. He tells Lady Constance that he will suppress his book if she agrees to sanction Sue and Ronnie's marriage, and to persuade her sister Julia to do likewise. Pilbeam, hearing this as he once again climbs the drainpipe, and gives up his mission, leaving Galahad to tell Sue the story of Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe and the prawns...

Characters in Summer Lightning

  • 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...

    , absent-minded master of Blandings Castle
    • Lady Constance Keeble
      Lady Constance Keeble
      Lady Constance Keeble is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being Lord Emsworth's most formidable sister, a strikingly handsome woman, with a fair, broad brow, and perfectly even white teeth...

      , his domineering sister, châtelaine at the castle
    • Galahad Threepwood
      Galahad Threepwood
      The Honourable Galahad "Gally" Threepwood is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Lord Emsworth's younger brother, a lifelong bachelor, Gally was, according to Beach, the Blandings butler, "somewhat wild as a young man"...

      , Emsworth's brother, visiting the castle to write his memoirs
    • Ronnie Fish, Emsworth's vertically challenged nephew
      • Sue Brown, an enterprising chorus girl engaged to Ronnie
        • Mortimer "Pa" Mason, theatrical impressario, Sue's employer
    • Millicent Threepwood, Lord Emsworth's niece
      • Hugo Carmody, Millicent's fiancé, currently Lord Emsworth's secretary
  • Rupert Baxter
    Rupert Baxter
    Rupert Baxter is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. Often called The Efficient Baxter , he is Lord Emsworth's secretary, and an expert on many things, including Egyptian scarabs...

    , formerly Lord Emsworth's secretary
  • Percy Frobisher Pilbeam
    Percy Frobisher Pilbeam
    Percy Frobisher Pilbeam is a fictional character in the works of P. G. Wodehouse. A journalist turned detective, he is a rather weak and unpleasant man, generally disliked by all...

    , head of a detective agency, who greatly admires Sue
  • Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, Lord Emsworth's neighbour and rival pig-rearer
  • Beach
    Sebastian Beach
    Sebastian Beach is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. He is the butler at Blandings Castle, seat of Lord Emsworth and his family, where he serves for over eighteen years.- Background and character :...

    , butler at the castle

Adaptions

The novel has twice been adapted for the screen, with the 1933 version Summer Lightning
Summer Lightning (film)
Summer Lightning is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Ralph Lynn, Winifred Shotter, Chili Bouchier and Horace Hodges. It is based on the novel Summer Lightning by P.G...

directed by Maclean Rogers
Maclean Rogers
-Selected filmography:Director* The Third Eye * The Mayor's Nest * Up for the Derby * The Crime at Blossoms * Trouble * Summer Lightning * It's a Cop * Virginia's Husband...

 and featuring Ralph Lynn
Ralph Lynn
Ralph Lynn was a British stage and screen actor.Lynn was born in Manchester and began his acting career in Wigan in 1900 in King of Terrors. After years spent touring regional theatres and a spell in America he made his West End debut in 1915 at the Empire theatre in By Jingo...

 as Hugo Carmody , Chili Bouchier
Chili Bouchier
Chili Bouchier , later known as Dorothy Bouchier, was a British film actress who achieved success during the silent film era, and went on to many screen appearances with the advent of sound films, before progressing to theatre later in her career.She made her first appearance as a child dancer at a...

 as Sue Brown, Esme Percy
Esme Percy
Saville Esme Percy was an English film actor. He appeared in 40 films between 1930 and 1956. He was born in London and died in Brighton.-Selected filmography:* Murder! * The Lucky Number...

 as Baxter and Miles Malleson
Miles Malleson
William Miles Malleson was an English actor and dramatist, particularly known for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Towards the end of his career he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in The Brides of Dracula as the...

 as Beach. A 1939 Swedish
Cinema of Sweden
Swedish cinema is known as producing many critically acclaimed movies, and during the 20th century was the most prominent of Scandinavia. This is largely due to the popularity and prominence of the directors Ingmar Bergman, Victor Sjöström, and more recently Lasse Hallström and Lukas...

 adaptation, under the title Blixt och Dunder, was directed by Anders Henrikson
Anders Henrikson
Anders Henrikson was a Swedish actor and film director. He appeared in 57 films between 1913 and 1965. He also directed 30 films between 1933 and 1956.-Selected filmography:Actor* Den starkaste...

 and starred Olof Winnerstrand
Olof Winnerstrand
Carl Olof Magnus Winnerstrand was a Swedish actor.-Biography:Born in a bourgeois home in Stockholm, Winnerstrand was a son of the well-known Stockholm goldsmith and jeweller C.A. Winnerstrand, and started out in his father's footsteps, learning the trade...

 and his wife Frida Winnerstrand
Frida Winnerstrand
Karolina Alfrida Winnerstrand, née Kumlin, January 23, 1881 – December 1, 1943 was a Swedish actress.-Biography:Born in Lövsta, Järfälla, Stockholm, Frida Winnerstrand made her debut 1896 in the Anna Lundbergs Theatre Company and later studied acting at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting...

.

A stage play, adapted by Giles Havergal
Giles Havergal
Giles Pollock Havergal CBE is a Scottish theatre director, actor, and playwright. He was artistic director of Glasgow's Citizens Theatre from 1969 until he stepped down in 2003, one of the triumvirate of directors at the theatre, alongside Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald.-Early...

, was first performed at Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

's Citizens Theatre in 1992; a 1998 revival starred Helen Baxendale
Helen Baxendale
Helen Victoria Baxendale is an English actress of stage and television, possibly best-known for her roles in Cold Feet, Friends and Cardiac Arrest.-Early life:...

 as Sue Brown. The play was recently performed at Keswick
Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park...

's Theatre by the Lake in 2009.

See also

Percy Pilbeam first appeared in Bill the Conqueror
Bill the Conqueror
Bill the Conqueror is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on November 14, 1924 by Methuen & Co., London, and in the United States on February 20, 1925 by George H. Doran, New York, the story having previously been serialised in the Saturday Evening Post from May 24 to...

(1924). Hugo Carmody and Ronnie Fish had previously been introduced to readers in Money for Nothing
Money For Nothing (novel)
Money for Nothing is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 27 July 1928 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 28 September 1928 by Doubleday, Doran, New York...

(1928), while the Empress appeared in the shorts "Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey
Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey
"Pig-Hoo-o-o-o-ey" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United States in the 9 July 1927 issue of Liberty, and in the United Kingdom in the August 1927 Strand...

" and "Company for Gertrude
Company 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...

", the latter also featuring the devious Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe.

Most of the cast would remain at Blandings for the excitements of Heavy Weather
Heavy Weather (novel)
Heavy Weather is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on July 28, 1933 by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, and in the United Kingdom on August 10, 1933 by Herbert Jenkins, London...

(1933).

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK