All Things Expounded

Those of you who have read some P.G. Wodehouse know what I mean when I say he had a way with analogies, descriptions, and comparisons. He was so remarkable that someone once called him ‘English literature’s performing flea’.

For instance take the following examples:

Her departure left behind it the sort of quivering stillness you get during hurricane time in America, when the howling gale, having shaken you to the back teeth, passes on to tickle up residents in spots further west.

..

He had the look of an ostrich that had swallowed a door knob

..

Percy continued to stare before him like a man who has drained the wine cup of life to its lees, only to discover a dead mouse at the bottom

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Mr Waddington’s expression was now that of a cowboy who, leaping into bed, discovers too late that a frolicsome friend has placed a cactus between the sheets

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His demeanour was that of a Napolean who, suffering from toothache, sees his way to taking it out on one of his minor marshals

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He was white and shaken, like a dry martini

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It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine

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In the look he gave him as he entered there was something of the open dislike which a resident of India exhibits when he comes to take his morning bath and finds a cobra in the bathtub

If you haven’t read anything by Wodehouse, you ought to!