Meddling is a trait I have found many females fond of when in comes to improving the lives of others. Improvement is almost always the female aim, like the supporting actress walking onto a rehearsal stage and telling the already floundering director, “You could write me in a line, something really funny, and we can work it up into a big comic scene!” Meddling has its inevitabilities. There will be the inevitable considerers who welcome the interference and inevitable revilers who refuse admission. Pelham Grenville Wodehouse sparks an exhibit of this classic female meddling and the subsequent fallout with his loveably, altruistic character, Sally Nicholas, specifically as she says quite tritely by a wire, sent from aboard the homeward-bound White Star Liner to her new half-scrum English acquaintance to remind him of her squiggling-nosed lecture, “Remember. Death to the Family. S.” This little meddle is placed with the self-labeled-sisterly intention of encouraging the always-making-a-hash-of-it Ginger, aptly named, to trek out on his own and make something of himself without the manipulative funding of the oppressive "Family." Pelham, in true comedic fashion, rapidly pens in three suitors for the piece-of-mind-sharing Sally, and soon all bets are off as she meddles, meddles, and meddles again.
Sally Nicholas and her brother, Fillmore, have waited years to have access to their somewhat substantial trust money, and in refined fashion, Sally passed the time by forging friendships at an affordable boarding house in New York. Memorable characters such as the talented Elsa Doland, the eloquent and aging Mr. Faucet, and the impervious boarding-house manager, Mrs. Meecher, commend Sally’s ever considerate and generous nature. Meanwhile, Fillmore, having no lack of ideas on how to invest and expand his cut of newfound wealth, hugs to the opposite end of the acid test strip with a success-hunting and wealth-parading nature. So when Sally opts for a wandering European vacation as her first investment, the reader can easily envision Fillmore’s eye rolling and lack of support. Sally, settling in Roville, France, for the latter part of her European tour, is put in proximity by chance to Ginger, who she discovers is brilliant in his hair color and complexion and not much else. At the same time, Bruce Carmyle, Ginger’s cousin, makes his first and lasting impression on the same dog-ransacked beach. Both take a liking to Sally for her looks and frank manner, however both have approaches to success as opposite as pandas and grizzly bears, or in Ginger’s case, his approach to his lack of success.
Though being a comical critique of the common female meddler, The Adventures of Sally also presents the popularly picked on male flaw that all men are obsessed with succeeding at all costs. What better counterbalance to meddling than a proud capitalist, like Fillmore, Bruce, or Sally's fiancée, Gerald, egging for wealth and acclaim. What P.G. Wodehouse does better than in many of his other novels is putting restraint on each of these competitive displays to keep them from dipping into the realm of hyperbole. Instead by a treatise of observation and no shortage of intriguing dialogue, Pelham feeds the flame of these conflicting female and male tendencies like Mrs. Meecher proudly overfeeds her rat of a dog.
This 1921 fictional novel is satisfyingly enjoyable and still culturally applicable, and apart from the occasional, characteristic Wodehouse vulgar language, normalized smoking habits, and figurative references to sorcery, I recommend shelving The Adventures of Sally in the epic must read category. The flippant and tightly-knitted plot moves fluidly, and not a single chapter jumps off the leash stray, which is what I have come to expect from P.G. Wodehouse.
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