Surprising Revelations ~or~ If I Were You*

Within the last year, my Facebook feed started to include offerings from The Guardian.  For those who don’t know, that newspaper is the bastion of liberalism in the UK.  They have been embroiled for the last ten years in a lawsuit against the government to release some letters written by Prince Charles to members of Parliament.  The Guardian is of the firm opinion that the content of these letters would demonstrate that the prince, who like all members of the royal family is supposed to be politically neutral, was trying to exert his influence in an improper fashion.  It has been whispered by those in the know that the implications of this could lead to a succession crisis upon QEII’s death, which is bound to happen any decade now.

I would not have thought that Wodehouse had much in common with The Guardian.  After all, a large number of his characters are either aristocratic, well-to-do, or trying to become one, the other, or both.  While Plum does lampoon those people, he does so in a very gentle manner.  It is not as though the members of the lower classes are immune from his light satiric touch.  So I was drawn up short while reading If I Were You.  The plot of the novel, as the back of the book tell us, is a common changeling theme that was popular during Victorian times.  The jist is that Tony Droitwich, the heir of Lord Droitwich, is not Tony Droitwich.  Instead, he was born Syd Price and was switched at birth.  When Mr. Price, the true Droitwich heir, happens upon this piece of news, he turns up at the manor and asserts his rights.

At this point, I would have suspected that, once lives were switched, the real Syd Price would have been miserable taking up residence in a London barber shop, having been removed from wealth and privilege, and the real Tony Droitwich would swoon upon being taken up into the lap of luxury.  Instead, the opposite happens; at the end, Tony Droitwich reluctantly agrees to reassume his identity and Syd Price happily retreats back to London. 

There are some interesting implications behind this.  Wodehouse implies that nature does not necessarily make the man and that a strong argument can be made in favor of nurture.  Taken to its extreme, it can be implied that, given the right circumstances, almost anyone can be an aristocrat.  The other interesting observation is that not everyone is thrilled to be in control of money and estates, and that sometimes, a life in a prosperous business in London is the way to go.  The book was originally published in 1931, which meant that the real effect of the super tax and the heavy death duties that were imposed a decade or so earlier were really beginning to have their effects on landed estates.  Wodehouse was starting to point out that all was not strawberries and cream in the lives of the wealthy.  While Wodehouse certainly was not calling out for the abolishment of the monarchy, he certainly was beginning to share The Guardian’s suspicions that all was not well. 

*This book was read in November 2014.