P.G. Wodehouse introduced Chesterton into his fiction in a couple of humurous references. For instance, from Mr Mullner Speaking:
At that moment, however, the drowsy stillness of the summer afternoon was shattered by what sounded to his strained senses like G.K. Chesterton falling on a sheet of tin.
Another Wodehouse reference to Chesterton is found in The Clicking of Cuthbert.
"Flesho!" cried Mrs. Jane Jukes Jopp triumphantly. "I've been trying to remember the name all the afternoon. I saw about it one of the papers. The advertisements speak most highly of it. You take it before breakfast and again before retiring, and they guarantee it to produce firm, healthy flesh on the most sparsely-covered limbs in next to no time. Now, will you remember to get a bottle tonight? It comes in two sizes, the five-shilling (or large size) and the smaller at half-a-crown. G.K. Chesterton writes that he used it regularly for years."
P.G.Wodehouse also used Chesterton as the name of a small hamlet, with only one shop, in the conversation between Milton and Trevor in "The Gold Bat" (1904), chapt.19.
ReplyDeleteAgain, in "The Autograph Hunters" (Pearsons feb 1905) Chesterton appears as the name of the village where Mr.Watson has his big white house. Later on reprinted in "The politeness of Princes" (2008).
Interesting....Thanks for the information. :-)
ReplyDeleteI do seem to remembe GKC mentioned some place named Chesterton that he never actually visisted, because the thought was too awful to him, that of a man named Chesterton entering into Chesterton. lol. :-)