ABSTRACT

P. G. Wodehouse is as secure in the matrix of the tradionally English and ethically Christian as C. S. Lewis himself — the more so in that, unlike Lewis, his ethics have no basis in religion, in which he disclaimed all interest. Lewis drew from this distinction the doctrine that to examine one's own consciousness is a necessarily falsifying act. 'The enjoyment and contemplation of our inner activities are incompatible.' Wodehouse slips in smartly at that point, puts wildcats into the fold and draws the actual power — Byron's power — off to his own uses. It is not surprising that T. S. Eliot admired Wodehouse. Wodehouse's language, his characters' modes of thought, and their natures, are all three pervaded by this duality of acceptance and sharp criticism. It seems that in the writing of individual books it is the plot that had to be contrived first, and the language then flowed.