P. G. Wodehouse

Adventures of Sally

Colleen

3 Stars

The Adventures of Sally is the story of a young woman who inherits a significant sum of money and all of the events that arise because of it. The story is sort of like a weird mash-up between a spoofy Howards End and The Importance of Being Earnest.
 

  ”A man’s subconscious self is not the ideal companion. It lurks for the greater part of his life in some dark den of its own, hidden away, and emerges only to taunt and deride and increase the misery of a miserable hour.”

Written during and set in the Roaring Twenties, The Adventures of Sally provides an interesting look at the times and classism. One thing I love about reading classics is that it shows you how much things change (mainly technology) and yet how much things stay the same (human follies). People tend to act like their lifetime is the first anyone ever experienced love or heartbreak or the hardships of life, but none of that is new. The period slang was entertaining at times and baffling at others. Although some of that was intentionally done, particularly comparing the U.S. and England slang of the day.
 
I started out listening to the audio book but had to switch to the print version because of the horrible narration. Frederick Davidson idea of Sally’s voice sounded like a bad impression of a woman in low budget prono – all breathy, high-pitched, and trying (yet failing) to sound sexy. And the attempts to do the various accepts were also painful to listen to. It literally made me cringe.
 
The best part was the wry humor. Wodehouse was great at looking at the idiosyncrasies of different personalities. And there were some snappy comebacks in the dialogue. A couple of times, I couldn’t help but think, “Wow! What a burn!”
 
Sadly, the characters didn’t live up to the wittiness of the narration or even their own dialogue. While they certainly made their points about human nature, I did not connect to any of the characters. Sally was particularly annoying which was disappointing since she is the main character. If I had to describe her in one word, it would be flibbertigibbet. Despite everyone else describing her as kind and beautiful, I found her to be a flighty, naive, brainless twit.
 
The word “adventure” in the title was misleading. I was hopeful at first because the story starts off with Sally touring Europe. But other than one short, funny scene describing French men swimming, her Grand Tour quickly devolves into meet the men. Sally, gorgeous as she apparently is, apparently is like catnip to men. She quickly becomes tangled up with at least three different men. Love rectangles simply are not my idea of adventure. And the romance in the book was disingenuous and cheesy. Sally continuously showed how flighty she was which got old very quickly. In the end, I didn’t care who she ended up with, because she was already skating along the TSTL line.
 
All of that was followed by an abrupt and not very satisfying ending. So while the writing style was entertaining, the characters were annoying and the plot was boring. It’s a short novella, so it is a quick read that’s still worth it if you like witty writing and glimpses of the past.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 2 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Adventures of Sally

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