Ashe, Earl of Emsworth, Aline, Mr.Peters, Joan, Freddie, George, Efficient Baxter all get together in this very well-woven plot.....a plot full of co-incidences , and a plot full of laughter...either because of the Larsen exercises or the clashings near the museum.....or....cause of the wonderful way of using words by P.G.Wodehouse.
On telling someone that I love reading, the topic came to P.G.Wodehouse and when I mentioned I had not read him...her reply (which I don’t remember now) made me want to hide my face (behind a book but);)
And so I got hold of P.G.Wodehouse and now I can’t wait to read every word written by him.
Emsworth, in his trade-mark absent mindedness takes the gem from Mr.Peter’s scarab collection. Now, Emsworth is Mr.Peter’s daughter Aline’s to-be-father in law. But the scarab is as much precious and thus he hires Ashe who disguises himself as his valet. Ashe’s friend Joan Valentine, disguised as Aline’s maid is also after the money offered. And we also have Jones, the clever guy behind the money.
They with the numerous relatives of Emsworth meet at Blanding’s Castle.
In the Blanding’s castle, we have Efficient Baxter, Emsworth secretary. He understands that the scarab is not a gift as said by Emsworth but a sad case of his absent-mindedness. Realisation also dawns on him that Ashe is after the scarab. This inturn makes him watch the next few dawns i.e. he keeps himself awake in the nights to catch Ashe red-handed even though he believes a 8 hour sleep is a must for ’apples and peaches complexion’. The hall near the museum where the scarab is peacefully lying (....Baxter would have turned red ) is a place full of activity... with people banging, chinas breaking and Baxter falling near a ’dead and cold body’.
Ashe and Joan used to stay in the same building and are now after the same gem of the collection. In the end, Ashe plays detective when the scarab is niether with him nor Joan. He follows the foot steps of the detective created by none other than him in his monthly writing of which Freddie, Emsworth son is a die-hard fan.
With tons of more co-incidences, references to life and fun and laughter, P.G.Wodehouse is laughter all the way.