Big Money
by
P. G. Wodehouse
Literary and Cultural References
This is part of an ongoing effort by the contributors to Madame Eulalie’s Rare Plums to document references, allusions, quotations, etc. in the works of P. G. Wodehouse. These notes, a work in progress, are by Neil Midkiff, with contributions from others as noted below.
The novel initially appeared as a serial in magazines; see this page for details. The first US hardcover edition was issued by Doubleday, Doran & Co., New York, on 30 January 1931; the UK edition was issued by Herbert Jenkins Ltd. on 20 March 1931.
Page references below refer to the 1973 Penguin paperback, in which the text runs from pages 5 to [240]. For users of other editions, a table of correspondences between the pagination of several available editions will open in a new browser tab or window upon clicking this link.
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Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 |
Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 |
Chapter 1
Drones Club in Dover Street (p. 5)
Godfrey, Lord Biskerton (p. 5)
As the firstborn son of an earl, Godfrey has a courtesy title, one of his father’s subsidiary titles, which gives him status but no actual rights. He is presumably a viscount (compare Lord Bosham) but this is not explicitly mentioned in this book.
the City … Cornhill (p. 5)
Here the City is a metonym for London’s financial district, as opposed to its use for the historic Roman settlement and the present-day local government body with its own Lord Mayor (all roughly coterminous). The Bank of England and the original Royal Exchange site are at the corner of Cornhill and Threadneedle Street in the City.
performing fleas (p. 5)
See Right Ho, Jeeves.
strayed from the fold (p. 5)
See Biblia Wodehousiana.
scenario (p. 5)
See Sam the Sudden.
as close as the paper on the wall (p. 5)
sermon on Brotherly Love (p. 5)
See Biblia Wodehousiana.
“Why, in the days when I was with him, old Heppenstall never used to preach under half an hour, and there was one sermon of his on Brotherly Love which lasted forty-five minutes if it lasted a second.”
“The Great Sermon Handicap” (1922; in The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923)
With a little sigh of rapture, Anselm cleared his throat and gave out the simple text of Brotherly Love.
“Anselm Gets His Chance” (1937; in Eggs, Beans and Crumpets, 1940)
the summer Peanut Brittle won the Jubilee Handicap (p. 5)
Here a racehorse is named Peanut Brittle after a typically American confection with salted peanuts embedded in a thin layer of hard-cooked caramel candy, broken into chunks after cooling.
Soon, perhaps because he was an unquenchable optimist, but more probably because it was his job, he would patrol the train offering for sale the peanut brittle and the road maps of Long Island which nobody ever bought.
On the Long Island Rail Road in Uneasy Money, ch. 25 (US version only, 1916)
The Jubilee Handicap was once the name of a prestigious horse race run on a one-mile course at Kempton Park, begun in the late 19th century and renamed for commercial reasons in 2000; the flat course has been abandoned in favor of a synthetic track in recent years and is now overgrown.
Wodehouse was fond of using constructions such as the quotation above to give his fiction a sense of historicity without naming a specific year. Typically the winning horse is fictional but the race was a real one.
She married my Uncle Thomas—between ourselves a bit of a squirt—the year Bluebottle won the Cambridgeshire…
“Clustering Round Young Bingo” (1925; in Carry On, Jeeves, 1925)
“Believe me, Muriel, if you can really get seven to two, you are onto the best thing since Buttercup won the Lincolnshire.”
“The Reverent Wooing of Archibald” (1928; in Mr. Mulliner Speaking)
“It was at Ascot, the year Martingale won the Gold Cup . . .”
Summer Lightning, ch. 19 (1929)
She married old Tom Travers the year Bluebottle won the Cambridgeshire, and is one of the best.
“Jeeves and the Song of Songs” (1929; in Very Good, Jeeves, 1930)
In the autumn of the year in which Yorkshire Pudding won the Manchester November Handicap, the fortunes of my old pal Richard (‘Bingo’) Little seemed to have reached their—what’s the word I want? He was, to all appearances, absolutely on plush.
“Jeeves and the Old School Chum” (1930; in Very Good, Jeeves, 1930)
She is the one, if you remember, who married old Tom Travers en secondes noces, as I believe the expression is, the year Bluebottle won the Cambridgeshire, and once induced me to write an article on What the Well-Dressed Man is Wearing for that paper she runs—Milady’s Boudoir.
Right Ho, Jeeves, ch. 4 (1934)
“You remind me of my little boy Percy, who took the knock the year Worcester Sauce won the Jubilee Handicap.”
“All’s Well with Bingo” (1937; in Eggs, Beans and Crumpets, UK edition, 1937)
Gally, who had been comparing Freddie to his disadvantage with a half-witted whelk-seller whom he had met at Hurst Park the year Sandringham won the Jubilee Cup, stopped in mid-sentence.
Full Moon, ch. 9.1 (1947)
Add brother Lancelot, who got jugged for passing bad cheques the year Hot Ginger won the Cesarewitch, and the roster of Monty’s connections was complete.
Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin, ch. 11 (1972)
He made but one exception, the sixth Earl, who he said reminded him of a charming pea and thimble man with whom he had formed a friendship one afternoon at Hurst Park race course the year Billy Buttons won the Jubilee Cup.
Sunset at Blandings, ch. 4 (1977)
the luck of the Conways (p. 6)
Wodehouse titled a 1933 short story “The Luck of the Stiffhams” (collected in Young Men in Spats, 1936), but this was just the beginning of a series of references to inherited good fortune, including the title of his 1935 novel The Luck of the Bodkins.
It was too late to back out now, and he watched the proceedings with a bulging eye, fully cognizant of the fact that all that stood between him and a very sticky finish was the luck of the Stiffhams.
“The Luck of the Stiffhams” (1933; in Young Men in Spats, 1936)
However, the luck of the Widgeons saw them through and eventually they came, still afloat, to the unfrequented upper portions of the stream.
“Trouble Down at Tudsleigh” (1935; in Young Men in Spats, UK edition, 1936, and in Eggs, Beans and Crumpets, US edition, 1940)
“Only the luck of the Littles saved him from taking a toss which threatened to jar his fat trouser seat clean out of the editorial chair, never to return.”
The Crumpet speaking of Bingo Little in “The Editor Regrets” (1939; in Eggs, Beans and Crumpets, 1940)
The luck of the Duffs, he felt, was in the ascendant.
Quick Service, ch. 10 (1940)
“The luck of the Widgeons has turned, and affluence stares me in the eyeball.”
Freddie in Ice in the Bedroom, ch. 1 (1961)
A man of liberal views, he had no objection whatsoever to a little gentlemanly blackmail, and here, you would have said, the luck of the Dunstables had handed him the most admirable opportunity for such blackmail.
Service with a Smile, ch. 7 (1961)
“On no account to allow yourself to be alone with the female whom, but for the luck of the Emsworths, you might have married twenty years ago.”
Gally to Clarence in Galahad at Blandings, ch. 10.3 (1965)
In the final issue the luck of the Stickneys had held.
Company for Henry/The Purloined Paperweight, ch. 3.3 (1967)
Valley Fields (p. 6)
See Sam the Sudden.
old family retainer (p. 6)
Many of the young men in Wodehouse’s stories find themselves oppressed by old nurses as well as by landladies with overly motherly interference.
J. Willoughby Braddock in Sam the Sudden (1925) is supervised by his former nurse Martha Lippett, who still calls him Master Willie.
Frederick Mulliner in “Portrait of a Disciplinarian” (1927) feels the old commanding nature of Nurse Wilks.
Berry Conway in the present book is fussed over by his former nurse Hannah Wisdom.
Lord Droitwich in If I Were You (1931) finds himself in an awkward position due to the interference of “Ma” Price.
Jeff Miller in Money in the Bank (1942) and John Halliday in A Pelican at Blandings (1969) each have Ma Balsam as an inquisitive and interfering landlady at Halsey Chambers, Mayfair.
Bingo Little’s childhood faults are recalled by his former nannie Sarah Byles, nurse to young Algernon Little in “The Shadow Passes” (1950).
Cosmo Wisdom in Cocktail Time (1958) hears nothing but gloom from his landlady, Mrs. Keating.
Johnny Pearce in Cocktail Time (1958) is trying to get rid of his onetime nurse Nannie Bruce, but lacks the cash to pension her off.
fingered his bread (p. 6)
A sign of nervousness or embarrassment.
It was one of those jolly, happy, bread-crumbling parties where you cough twice before you speak, and then decide not to say it after all.
“The Aunt and the Sluggard” (1916; in Carry On, Jeeves, 1925)
His wife crumbled bread.
Alice, Mrs. Reggie Byng, in A Damsel in Distress, ch. 21 (1919)
Wally crumbled his roll.
Jill the Reckless/The Little Warrior, ch. 15.2 (1920)
Mr. Hammond crumbled his bread.
Bill the Conqueror, ch. 17.3 (1924)
He gave a groan and began to crumble my bread.
“The Letter of the Law” (1936; in Lord Emsworth and Others, 1937)
There was none of this sort of thing about Madeline Bassett and Gussie. He looked pale and corpselike, she cold and proud and aloof. They put in the time for the most part making bread pills and, as far as I was able to ascertain, didn’t exchange a word from start to finish.
The Code of the Woosters, ch. 6 (1938)
Sitting next to Florence, who spoke little, merely looking cold and proud and making bread pills, I had ample leisure for thought during the festivities, and by the time the coffee came round I had formed my plans and perfected my strategy.
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, ch. 11 (1954)
‘At dinner last night I noticed that he was refusing Anatole’s best, while she looked wan and saintlike and crumbled bread.’
Aunt Dahlia speaking of Spode and Madeline in Much Obliged, Jeeves, ch. 9 (1971)
Vicky was pale and cold, and Jeff crumbled a good deal of bread.
Sunset at Blandings, ch. 11 (1977)
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Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
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Wodehouse’s writings are copyright © Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate in most countries;
material published prior to 1930 is in USA public domain, used here with permission of the Estate.
Our editorial commentary and other added material are copyright
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