''Hot Water'' is a novel by

P.G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

, first published on August 17, 1932, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and on the same date in the United States by

Doubleday, Doran Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed th ...

, New York. The novel had previously been serialised in the American magazine ''

Collier's ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Coll ...

''. The story takes place at the Château Blissac, near the town of St Rocque in

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

. Packy Franklyn, an American millionaire and sportsman, is engaged to Lady Beatrice Bracken and is staying in England. A chance meeting with the great Dry legislator Senator Ambrose Opal and the senator's daughter Jane Opal leads to Packy becoming involved in much mischief at St Rocque in France in order to recover a compromising letter.

Plot

J. Wellington Gedge lives with his rich wife (who inherited a fortune from her first husband) at the Château Blissac, near St Rocque, Brittany. She wants them to live in France although he longs to return to his hometown,

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from 191,719 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth-larges ...

. Mrs Gedge is going on a short trip to London, but has invited some guests: the American Senator Opal and his daughter, and the Vicomte de Blissac. Mrs Gedge wants them to make Mr Gedge the American Ambassador to France, an idea which appalls Mr Gedge. At the nearby Hotel des Etrangers are two American criminals,

confidence trick A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers h ...

ster Gordon "Oily" Carlisle and safe-blower "Soup" Slattery. Oily admits that he and his wife, "Gum-Shoe Gertie", had a falling-out a year prior. Soup tries to rob Mr Gedge, but Gedge has no money. They bond over their losses in the

stock market crash A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a major cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic selling and underlying economic factors. They often foll ...

. Gedge mentions that he was rich when he married and gave his wife sixty thousand dollars' worth of jewels, which are usually kept in a safe. Soup plans to rob the safe, with Oily acting as the inside man (which they call "working the inside stand"). American millionaire Patrick "Packy" Franklyn is engaged to the beautiful but austere Lady Beatrice Bracken. He sees his old friend, the fun-loving Vicomte de Blissac. Beatrice wants Packy to befriend the intellectual novelist Blair Eggleston. She is going to see her family in the country and is certain that Packy would get into trouble or "hot water" of some kind if left to himself. Packy goes to a barbershop, but the staff are on strike. For fun, Packy acts as barber for Senator Ambrose Opal, famous for supporting Dry legislation far stricter than the

Volstead Act The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was an act of the 66th United States Congress, designed to carry out the intent of the 18th Amendment (ratified January 1919), which established the prohibition of alcoholic d ...

. Packy does a bad job and flees from the angered senator. This upsets Jane, since now her father will be especially unreceptive to the news that she is engaged to the impecunious Blair Eggleston. Packy apologizes to Jane, and encourages Blair to approach Senator Opal, who assumes Blair is his new

valet A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, valet de chambre was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "valet ...

. Jane wants Blair to keep up the act and win the senator's favour. Senator Opal accidentally sent a letter meant for his bootlegger to Mrs Gedge, and she threatens to publicize it unless he makes Mr Gedge ambassador. The senator agrees to consent to Jane marrying whomever she likes if she recovers the letter. Packy charters a yacht and follows them to St Rocque to help Jane. Soup, Packy, the Vicomte (in a parrot-like lizard costume), and Mr Gedge (dressed as an "Oriental potentate") enjoy St Rocque's annual fancy dress carnival, the Festival of the Saint. Packy helps Soup escape the police after a fight, and Soup offers to help him. Both the Vicomte and Mr Gedge get very drunk at the festival, and the next day, Packy, hoping to help Jane, lies to each man that he mortally injured the other in a brawl; each man agrees to avoid trouble by having Packy visit the Château pretending to be the Vicomte. Jane, disappointed in Blair for not helping her obtain the letter, is glad to see Packy. Senator Opal believes Packy is Jane's secret fiancé, and approves since Packy is a millionaire and former

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

star. While locating the safe in Mrs Gedge's room, Senator Opal is spotted by Mrs Gedge's lady's maid Medway. He suspects Medway is a detective, and orders Blair to find out. Oily has befriended Mrs Gedge under the alias of the Duc de Pont-Andemer. Playing their roles, Packy and Oily feign speaking French to each other in front of Mrs Gedge's secretary, Miss Putnam. Oily recognizes Medway, who is actually Gertie. Mrs Gedge returns and places her jewels and letter in her safe, but Soup refuses to rob the room while a woman is sleeping there. Packy claims he is a detective and gets Mrs Gedge to change rooms, though Miss Putnam, who is actually a detective hired by Mrs Gedge, knows Packy is lying. Blair, acting on Packy's advice, tells Medway he is a detective to see if she admits to being one, but this causes the thieves Medway and Oily (who have reconciled and plan to betray Soup) to tie him up and leave him in a boathouse for a while. Lady Beatrice appears, hears about Packy and Jane, and ends her engagement to Packy. Soup, who was forced by Senator Opal to sit on a window-sill for hours after being caught burgling, has misgivings about helping the senator but still decides to help Packy get the letter. The Vicomte and Mr Gedge see each other and happily get drunk again. Packy realises that he loves Jane but resolves to help her marry Blair anyway. Soup, Oily and Gertie, and Packy and Jane attempt to burgle the safe at about the same time. Gertie knocks out Soup and Oily manages to open the safe, but Kate Putnam shows up with a pistol. Oily and Gertie escape empty-handed. Packy eats the letter before Mrs Gedge can take it. Soup recognizes her as his old partner in crime, Julia. Packy uses this to blackmail Mrs Gedge into taking Mr Gedge back to Glendale, and finds Blair in the boathouse. Blair is finished with Jane's schemes and leaves her. Packy and Jane confess their feelings for each other. Soup, having made off with five pieces of jewellery from Mrs Gedge's safe, decides to retire and start a farm.

Allusions to other novels

The book features Gordon "Oily" Carlisle and his wife Gertie, who appear again in the book '' Cocktail Time'' (1958), and Blair Eggleston, who also appears in " Jeeves and the Greasy Bird" (1965). The fictional French resort town of St Rocque appears again in '' French Leave'' (1956).

Publication history

The novel was serialised in ''

'' from 21 May to 6 August 1932, illustrated by Floyd M. Davis. The book is dedicated "To Maureen O'Sullivan, with love from Ethel, Leonora, Miss Winks, John-John, and The Author".

Maureen O'Sullivan Maureen O'Sullivan (17 May 1911 – 23 June 1998) was an Irish-American actress, who played Jane in the ''Tarzan'' series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. She performed with such actors as Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo, William ...

was a friend of the Wodehouse family. (Ethel and Leonora were Wodehouse's wife and step-daughter respectively, while Miss Winks and John-John were both female Pekingese dogs, the latter of which belonged to O'Sullivan but was looked after by the Wodehouses.) The first US edition included six illustrations by

Rea Irvin Rea Irvin (August 26, 1881 – May 28, 1972) was an American graphic artist. Although never formally credited as such, he served de facto as the first art editor of '' The New Yorker''. He created the Eustace Tilley cover portrait and the ''New ...

Adaptations

The novel was adapted for the stage by Wodehouse and his long-time collaborator

Guy Bolton Guy Reginald Bolton (23 November 1884 – 4 September 1979) was an Anglo-American playwright and writer of musical comedies. Born in England and educated in France and the US, he trained as an architect but turned to writing. Bolton preferred ...

as ''The Inside Stand''. The play opened at the Saville Theatre in London on 21 November 1935 and ran for 50 performances. Produced by Jack Waller and directed by Geoffrey Norman, the play starred

Ralph Lynn Ralph Clifford Lynn (8 March 1882 – 8 August 1962) was an English actor who had a 60-year career, and is best remembered for playing comedy parts in the Aldwych farces first on stage and then in film. Lynn became an actor at the age of 18 ...

and

Olive Blakeney Olive Blakeney (August 21, 1894 October 21, 1959) was an American actress. Early years Blakeney was born in Kentucky and attended the Cincinnati School of Expression. Career Blakeney played as a super in visiting stage shows at $1 per perfor ...

References

External links

The Russian Wodehouse Society's page
with a list of characters

in ''Hot Water'' {{P. G. Wodehouse Novels by P. G. Wodehouse English novels 1932 British novels Works originally published in Collier's Novels first published in serial form Novels set in Brittany Herbert Jenkins books Doubleday, Doran books British comedy novels McClelland & Stewart books