An Early Twentieth Century Version of The Daily Show

Something tells me that Overlook is nearing the end of its project to publish the entire Wodehouse oeuvre.  The press’s latest offering is, in reality, two versions of the same piece.  The first, published in 1909, is the account of an invasion of Britain by numerous foreign powers who are thwarted by the Boy Scouts.  Less a book and more a novella, I zipped through it in record time, assisted by the fact that the text was punctuated by a number of illustrations (deeply unusual for modern printings of The Master).

The second version was the account of an invasion of America by numerous foreign powers that is thwarted by, you guessed it, the Boy Scouts.  This version, which is more a long short story, was published in 1915.  The date made me pause.  Of course, the significance of the date did not escape me.  World War I proper was raging, but the US had yet to make its appearance.  This work is yet another piece of evidence against the argument that Wodehouse was not politically aware.  The US (as Britain was in the earlier work) was mocked in this story for its lassiez-faire attitude as its shores were being breached by the Germans and Japanese.  That the security of an entire nation rode on the small shoulders of Boy Scouts, albeit a group led by a rather formidable one in the shape of Clarence Chugwater, is high satire indeed.  Jon Stewart, eat your heart out.

I must admit that I didn’t quite know exactly what Wodehouse was satirizing in the earlier piece.  Obviously, Archduke Ferdinand was still alive and kicking at that point.  Perhaps there was a general sense that the British were becoming lax in their enforcement of law and order in the Empire.  Maybe the government was taking a more relaxed stance towards the nation’s defense.  Whatever the cause, there is a feeling that Wodehouse could sense that Something was afoot that would be of global significance, and chose to write about it, not just once, but twice.*

*There are other instances of Wodehouse recycling plots, although this was one of the first instances of Overlook putting them in the same volume.