‘Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.’
The Luck of the Bodkins (1935)
Following yesterday’s ‘Ridiculous Beginnings’, eminent Wodehouse reader Sudheer Tambe noted my omission of the above quotation, one of Wodehouse’s best loved opening lines. Why it slipped my mind when composing the previous post is beyond me. These things happen – and I’m always grateful for your feedback.
What are your favourite opening lines from the world of Wodehouse?
HP
Plumtopia 
I love that one…I can’t remember many beginnings off hand. But I always start Wodehouse with a smile. It’s just the expectation of entering a fun world.
I love Wodehouse and his sense of humor.
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Hi Nish. I always admire people who can recall and rattle off quotes, because I never can. I always have to look them up. You are absolutely right about beginning Wodehouse with a smile every time, whatever the opening lines.
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Currently reading Galahad at Blandings, which opens:
“Of the two young men sharing a cell in one of New York’s popular police stations Tipton Plimsoll, the tall thin one, was the first to recover, if only gradually, from the effect of the potations which had led to his sojourn in the coop.”
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