P. G. Wodehouse Volume 2

The Blandings Collection

De: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrado por: Stephen Fry

Audible Studios presents the second volume of the best-selling PG Wodehouse collection. In this volume, Stephen Fry lends his voice to the Blandings stories. This collection contains:

Summer Lightning

Heavy Weather

Blandings Castle and Elsewhere

Lord Emsworth and Others

Uncle Fred in the Spring Time

Stephen Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter, film director and all-round national treasure. Whilst at university, Fry became involved with the Cambridge Footlights, where he met his long-time collaborator and friend, Hugh Laurie. As half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. Fry’s acting roles include Blackadder, Kingdom, Bones, V for Vendetta, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and The Hobbit trilogy. He has written and presented several documentary series and as a proudly out gay man, the award-winning Out There, documenting the lives of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender people around the world is part of his 30-year advocacy of the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. Fry has written four novels: The Liar, The Hippopotamus (made in to a feature film in 2018), Making History and The Stars’ Tennis Balls. Translated into many languages, they have never been out of print. The most recently published works are Mythos, Heroes and Troy, a trilogy retelling the Greeks myths from the Creation to the aftermath of the Trojan War.

Public Domain (P)2021 Audible, Ltd

Fulfills a need

Stephen Fry is doing so much voice work these days that we may get tired of him, but that said he does a very serviceable job on this (incomplete) Blandings Castle collection which also includes some unrelated short stories. He doesn't quite reach the level of my favorite Wodehouse narrators, Frederick Davidson and Jonathan Cecil, but it's still pretty good. Most importantly, this provides full competent performances of two core chapters of the Blandings saga that were MIA on Audible U.S. The only other version of "Summer Lightning" on Audible by someone named John Wells is perhaps the worst Wodehouse narration I have come across - he so overexaggerates the characters as to make them ludicrous and incomprehensible. Fry's narration is subtle and on-point by comparison. And the other version of "Heavy Weather" by Martin Jarvis is - horror of horrors - abridged!

A well-performed audiobook of P.G. Wodehouse is one of life's true pleasures. This is a good addition, but if you don't know the Blandings Castle stories, you might want to start at the beginning with "Something Fresh" and "Leave it to Psmith"

(A point of interest: Fry's versions of "Summer Lightning" and "Heavy Weather" seem to be an hour or two longer than audiobook versions I have listened to in the past, and to include passages I don't remember from those other versions. I haven't compared to the published text, but it makes me think that Fry's readings of these core Wodehouse novels may be more complete versions than have been available on audiobook in the past, even if those earlier ones were also listed as unabridged.)

Wodehouse + Frye = Priceless!

The language, the voice and the laughs are beyond the best that literature has to offer.

Fun!

Very long and I tired a little of some of the characters’ stories. I took it in small doses and enjoyed it that way.

Happy Memories

I am about 10 yrs older than Stephen Fry and my first aquaintance with Wodehouse was a battered paperback of Summer Lightning in my Grandfather's Library. I chose a selection from this to read to my form 2 class for a competition. I won. The other fellow was the better reader but I chose the best material. In this instance Audible has chosen both the best reader and the best material. I had never come across the Hollywood, or the golfing extracts before,but enjoyed them immensely. They also brought happy memories of my Grandfather. Who played golf for fun and lawn bowls as a science. Born in 1882 and widowed in the late 1930s certain aspects of his life when I knew him rather resembled Uncle Fred off the leash. Happy memories and thank you Stephen Fry.

Pure Joy

Stephen Fry is exquisite, a consummate voice actor. The stories are hilarious, as Wodehouse is. A pure delight.

Fabulous

Stephen Fry is an accomplished narrator - a pleasure to listen to. He brought to life each of PGW’s unique characters. Male, female, pig…their personalities came through. Perhaps British ears may find fault with his various accents but to my American ears they sounded great. The plots are delightful farces, romance prevails. No violence, no one dies. Wonderful.

Hilarious!

Wodehouse's humor, wit and command of language are masterful. Stephen Fry has a great voice and style. Put together the experience is wonderful! I finished the volume within a week of getting it

It is P.G Wodehouse!

He's astounding, no one could dislike the Plum. Plum's his nick name. I highly suggest everyone's attention.

A must have. Simply brilliant. More!

Thoroughly enjoyed it. You will too. I don't think anyone can do justice to Wodehouse work more than Stephen Fry. Want more of his work presented by the narrator.

Fun Stories, Great Performance

First and foremost I must compliment Stephen Fry's wonderful renderings of these stories, keeping all of the characters in line for 45 hours. This was my introduction to Wodehouse, and I found the stories to be mostly quite fun, though also repetitive. I suppose this much listening/reading of one author in a row would bring about the same reaction. But the stories are all a series of bad decisions mostly regarding money or marriage. One wonders if the British aristocracy were all such bad decision makers, how on Earth they ever put together an empire. The stories set in Hollywood I didn't like as much as those set in England, even though there was a good ending to them. All in all, I can recommend this production, but also suggest that the listener take breaks and maybe listen to something else in between. That would keep the stories more fresh.