History Literature / BlandingsCastle

* BeMyValentine: The heroine of the very first Blandings novel, ''Something Fresh'' (1915), was named Joan Valentine.

The Blandings series has seen Clive Currie and Horace Hodges as Lord Emsworth in movie versions, and Fritz Schultz (in German), Sir Creator/RalphRichardson, Creator/PeterOToole and Creator/TimothySpall on television, although many regard the BBC radio Lord Emsworth, Richard Vernon (who also lent his voice to [[Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Slartibartfast]]), as definitive.

* OhCrap: In ''Pigs Have Wings'', when Wellbeloved realises that Binstead has fed slimming tonic to the wrong pig.

* KindHeartedSimpleton: Lord Emsworth is blessed with both a very kindly, good-natured heart and a brain that spends most of its time floating around somewhere in the Earth's exosphere.

Blandings, a castle which "has impostors the way other places have mice", is the home of the elderly and ineffectual Earl of Emsworth, a simple and amiable fellow whose ambitions in life rarely extend much further than tending to "The Empress of Blandings", his prize-winning pig, and avoiding his many domineering sisters or his terrifyingly efficient personal assistant, who generally have higher ambitions for him. This means that his house is routinely used by his many domineering sisters to imprison nieces or nephews intent on an unsuitable marriage. The would-be fiancé has to infiltrate the castle in disguise, often with help from the Earl's ne'er-do-well brother [[LovableRogue Galahad Threepwood]], and capable, sporting butler Sebastian Beach, or less often his good friend Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, Earl of Ickenham, who aims always to spread sweetness and light, and persuade Emsworth to overrule his sister. In general, the novels tend to position the Earl as more of a background figure occupying his own little subplot at most, whereas the short stories tend to revolve around his misadventures specifically.

Blandings, a castle which "has impostors the way other places have mice", is the home of the elderly and ineffectual Earl of Emsworth, which is routinely used by his many domineering sisters to imprison nieces or nephews intent on an unsuitable marriage. The would-be fiancé has to infiltrate the castle in disguise, often with help from the Earl's ne'er-do-well brother [[LovableRogue Galahad Threepwood]], and capable, sporting butler Sebastian Beach, or less often his good friend Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, Earl of Ickenham, who aims always to spread sweetness and light, and persuade Emsworth to overrule his sister.

* ShoutOut: In one book, as Galahad sees the happy ending approaching, he quotes a verse from Rudyard Kipling's ''The Three-Decker''.

* ''Plum Pie]]'' (1966) Short story collection with one Blandings story out of nine

* ''Sunset at Blandings'' (1977) -- Left unfinished due to [[AuthorExistenceFailure Wodehouse's death at the age of 93]] in February 1975

* TalksLikeASimile: Comedic similes are a staple of Wodehouse's writing. A particular good one comes when the narrator describes the silent calm at the castle being shattered "with a sound like G.K. Chesterton falling on a tin roof."

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Psmith is hired as Lord Emsworths' secretary at the end of the second both and then never heard form again.

* LowerDecksEpisode: The very first book, where Ashe and Joan arrive at the castle disguised as servants and thus spend time mingling with the castle's servants, almost none of whom are ever seen or mentioned again.

* ShoutOut: In one book, as Galahad sees the happy ending approaching, he quotes a verse from ''Literature/TheThreeDecker''.

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe commits ''one'' act of genuinely malicious, underhanded sabotage directed at Blandings Castle (hiring away Lord Emsworth's prized pig man right before a competition) and yet for the rest of the series Lord Emsworth and Galahad treat him as if he's a cross between [[Series/TheDukesOfHazzard Boss Hogg]] and [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Varys]], constantly being on the look-out for non existent plots by him, accusing him of anything that goes wrong and often inadvertently sabotaging his affairs.

* ButtMonkey: Freddie Threepwood.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Subverted at every opportunity -- if a child appears in a Wodehouse story, nine times out of ten he (it's usually a he) will be an obnoxious grubby little pest. The only kids portrayed sympathetically are Gladys and her brother Ern, little Cockney children in "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend" - even they are mischievous, but towards unsympathetic people.

* TheFool: Many of Wodehouse's protagonists.

* HenpeckedHusband: Downplayed with Lord Ickenham and his wife Jane; their marriage seems to be a happy one, but she's the one who sets the rules on what he is and isn't allowed to do.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In ''Something Fresh'', Beach is written as a positive hypochondriac who loves to talk about his symptoms; this disappears in later books.

Blandings Castle is the setting of a series of novels and stories by Creator/PGWodehouse.