For anyone who is a fan of the English language and hasn’t read any Wodehouse, I recommend it – particularly the Jeeves and Wooster books. They contain lovely turns of phrase such as:
“Well upon my word, Spode, this is just too much. Just that little bit above the odds that compels a man to take drastic action.”
“I don’t think Totley Towers is renown for its prandial jocundity, sir.”
My favourite Wodehouse quote, though, is one by the man himself responding humorously to a critic:
“A certain critic — for such men, I regret to say, do exist — made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained ‘all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.’ He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have out-generalled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.”
Sums up his humour perfectly.