P.G. Wodehouse, His Life, and His Works
Uploaded by sbcalimbas on Dec 01, 1999
Does an artist create a masterpiece without a source of inspiration? Does an architect construct a building without first looking at a blueprint? As with all great minds, writers also need a source of inspiration or a "Blueprint" for their literature. In the short story, "The Truth About George", author P.G. Wodehouse uses his own life experiences as a blueprint for creating George and the other characters in the story. There are influences from Wodehouse's childhood and his formative years in "The Truth about George", the story about a man named George struggling to find a cure for his speech impediment in order to win the affections of a woman.
P(elham) G(renville) Wodehouse, "Plum" to his friends(Babuser 1248). Was born to a well-to-do family in Surrey, England on Ocotber 15, 1881 in Guildford, England. He was educated at Dulwich, London and started writing at a young age. By the end of his life, PG Wodehouse turned out more than ninety stories and fifty other miscellaneous pieces of works such as film scripts, etc. (Jasen 1). During his childhood P.G. Wodehouse was abandoned by his parents and lived with various relatives.
Although, as David Damrosch notes, Wodehouse "always insisted that he had a happy childhood, including a relationship with a father who was 'normal as rice pudding'"(Damrosch 453). He moved from England to Hong Kong and to the United States. He was introduced and brought up by a variety of aunts, uncles, nannies, and schools. (Damrosch 453). He went through many things such as being captured by the Germans during WWII, where he made radio broadcasts in which he described his experiences as a prisoner and ridiculed his captors. (Bassett 1). After the war, Wodehouse moved to the United States, which he calls "the romance capital of the world" where he met his wife, Ethel Rowley (Babuser 1248). and settled, becoming a citizen in 1955. (Jasen 2). He lived out the rest of his life in Southampton, New York, where he wrote farces, short stories, and many other works of literature until his death on February 14, 1975. Wodehouse would later use his vast experiences to write his enormous collection of prose,etc. Wodehouse wrote many works of literature based on his life. He based his characters and stories around his own imagination.
Evelyn Waugh writes that Wodehouse's characters are "creations of...