Austen and Sayers and Wodehouse

Oh, my.

I've been reading a lot of P.G. Wodehouse lately. I've also been dipping into books about him, and in so doing, I noticed that he appeared to have borrowed a few names from Miss Austen. Bingley and D'Arcy (Darcy), no less.

His style influenced so many people and writers, too. That is, the knuts and others whom Wodehouse kept alive in his time live on now because of his brilliant way of turning a stereotype into a character that fascinates.

Dorothy L. Sayers was a scholar, in every way. But she loved humor, and it shows in the Lord Peter Wimsey books. (Wimsey, for heaven's sake, as a surname.) For the most part she keeps it subtle, barring the opening of the first book, but she can't resist letting a character describe Lord Peter in Murder Must Advertise as "Bertie Wooster in horn-rims". He's in disguise, thus the glasses.

One of the slackers hanging out in the secretaries' offices is reading Wodehouse, too. Even immediately after Peter is at his most serious some of Bertie's mannerisms will creep in; I love that.

I think it's time to re-read the Wimsey canon chronologically again.

In even more frivolous news, I present you with a sample of my contribution to the ornament exchange: