Florence and Stilton

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

Book canon question, for a fic I'm working on: can anyone tell me whether Florence Craye and Stilton Cheesewright broke up in a really final way towards the end of the Saga? As in Stilton eloping with another girl, a la Gussie Fink-Nottle, or any other form of split that indicated they really wouldn't get back together - barring divorce or any other kind of non-Wodehousian drama?

I know in "J. and the T that B." she's fancy free and ready to get herself riveted to Bertie yet again. That is, she's free after she dumps Ginger Winship for failing as a politician, having already dumped Percy Gorringe for doing the bad adaptation of her novel. (Is it just me, or has Florence been engaged almost as many times as Bertie? XD ) What I can't remember is how, previous to hooking up to Gorringe, she and Stilton go kaboolie. I think it's in "J. and the F. S." but my copy is still boxed up somewhere from my move. Help?

Comments

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

As I recall, Florence and Stilton break up in the book with Gorringe. She first gets upset with him for refusing to grow a moustache ala Bertie, then he gets upset when she has Bertie take her to a low nightclub (atmosphere for a novel) after Stilton refuses. The nightclub is raided, Florence runs off, Bertie trips the policeman who chases after her, earning him a night in jail and a fine from Stilton's uncle the magistrate. Stilton finds out and hard words ensue, despite his agreement to grow a moustache. She announces that she's going to marry Bertie instead, Stilton threatens to rearrange Bertie's internal organs, but then he meets another female author (a species Wodehouse never treated with much respect) and falls for her instead, telling Bertie he's welcome to Florence. Florence discovers that Gorringe pawned his mother's necklace to pay for producing her play, and Bertie graciously "releases" her from the engagement so she can hook up with Gorringe. In a later book this engagement falls through because she blames him for the failure of the play.

Stilton and the other female novelist haven't married by the end of that book (nor even announced an engagement), so love's lute can still develope a rift, etc. if that's what you want.

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

another female author (a species Wodehouse never treated with much respect)

This is true, and it's a shame. To a large extent, I think, Wodehouse had a fixed dislike of what he saw as literary pretension, so he tends to be highly judgmental of the vers libre poets and the Bloomsbury Group types (cf. Florence). On the other hand, he was also not particularly fond of the stickily sentimental commercial novel (increasingly so as he got older and moved away from it in his own writing, I think. Some of the early novels are saccharine beyond belief.) I think he's a little more tolerant, usually, of the latter category; Rosie M. Banks's books may be bilge, but they're presented as readable bilge, and Rosie herself is a likable character, in contrast to the self-involved and snooty High Literature types. The preference of someone who wrote for a living for other people who do the same, I suspect.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

Wodehouse definitely had no tolerance for pretension, especially literary pretension. Gorringe himself is shown much more positively when it's revealed that he writes mystery/thriller novels under a pseudonym. There are a small handful of other "hack" writers (I'm not using hack pejoratively, but rather for someone who treats writing as a creative job, not a life-style) as characters in Wodehouse, and he treats them all quite affectionately, really. Rosie Banks is another hack writer, and as long as she stays away from the pretense she's always treated as well as any of the male hack writers. There's another female author in one of the Mulliner short stories who becomes very pretentious after publishing her first novel, but becomes a regular person again after she acknowledges that it's work to write another.

[derien.livejournal.com]

And what IS the name of that story? I looked up and down for that one a while back and could not locate it.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, I believe. Novel, not short story.

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

*points to adina_alt* What she said.

I'm especially annoyed that I can't find my copy right now because it's the book with one of my all-time favorite Bertie conversations, with Florence in the nightclub, trying desperately to convince her that she should get back together with Stilton while she grumps and refuses to play along with Bertie's flights of fancy.

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

*is far too excited at the hint of new ficcage to answer the question coherently*

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

*blushes, pats your head* Now, now. Don't get too excited, it's not... *looks around furtively* the Spy!Jeeves story...I'm afraid. Though it's vaguely that kind of crossover-with-real-world sort of approach. This is definite gen this time around. The other's still in the works, though. One of these days...

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

I care not what you write, old thing, as long as you WRITE. Am fully available for brain-picking, beta-reading, and whatever else you might need to aid the process.

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

Aww. *beams* Well, I may be taking you up on that. But again, this is gen, and it's not even from Jeeves or Bertie's perspective.

[veronamay.livejournal.com]

That's fine with me! I'm rediscovering a love for gen lately. Just poke me if/when you want discussion or whatever. :)