A part of me does think I might find his style a little too self-conscious to be funny. I generally admire extreme deliberation in writing but I wonder if there’s a certain point where it just sucks the life out of the jokes.

A part of me does think I might find his style a little too self-conscious to be funny. I generally admire extreme deliberation in writing but I wonder if there’s a certain point where it just sucks the life out of the jokes.

Sort of doubt it. Waugh makes me laugh, and I find Saki and Max Beerbohm pretty amusing, just to name two writers even older than Wodehouse. Dahl has his moments too, though I guess he might be considered mid-century.

Sort of doubt it. Waugh makes me laugh, and I find Saki and Max Beerbohm pretty amusing, just to name two writers even older than Wodehouse. Dahl has his moments too, though I guess he might be considered mid-century.

I guess, but I have hard time believing that his millions of legions of fans are all intimately familiar with the tropes of inter-war Great Britain. And I think Waugh is funny too, so that couldn’t be the reason anyway.

I guess, but I have hard time believing that his millions of legions of fans are all intimately familiar with the tropes of inter-war Great Britain. And I think Waugh is funny too, so that couldn’t be the reason anyway.

That wasn’t the way I originally phrased the post. My first title was something like “is Wodehouse worth reading if I didn’t like this one book” or something, but that doesn’t fall under the rules apparently.

That wasn’t the way I originally phrased the post. My first title was something like “is Wodehouse worth reading if I didn’t like this one book” or something, but that doesn’t fall under the rules apparently.