P G Wodehouse

[Oldposts]

If BW Wooster delights us with his stupidity Psmith does that with, as meera points out above, his grandiloquent style.
You should read that episode in "Leave it to Psmith" and see how he manages to find an umbrella for a strange girl who is held up in a bus-stop because of rain.
Psmith notices her stranded just as he came out of his club. He goes back to the cloak room of the club and picks the best umbrella, unmindful of the attendant's protests, and hands it over to that girl.

When it chances that he runs into her later in the same day that unknown girl thanks him and requests him to allow her to keep it until she reaches her home. He tells her not to bother about returning it. After she insisted upon returning it he gives the address to be returned as " Walderwick, ...."
The girl says "thank you Mr Walderwick" and Psmith is confused by her addressing him so and tells her
his name.
"Do you mean to say you are giving away the umbrella of another person?"

His reply is one of the best digs on communism.
"yes, While other people are content with mere talk of redistribution of property, I go one step further and practise it"
And that is not the end of that episode. When that Walderwick demands that Psmith return his umbrella
(or parasol) he consoles him saying how his name will be etched in the annals of history (by this act of donating the umbrella, although by proxy) along with the great names of people known for their kind deeds.

The whole book is hilarious.