Wodehouse and my grammar compunction
I have been indulging myself by reading P.G Wodehouse’s Leave It To Psmith (note that the P “is silent, as in phthisis, psychic, and ptarmigan.”). In his beautifully debonair style, Wodehouse has delivered a fascicle of wit, with memorable characters and jocose scenes.
On an as-yet-unrelated note, I have endeavored for months to desist from ending my sentences with prepositions. However, I have begun to question this goal, as it can lead to rather stilted circumlocution. The tipping point came when I read the following sentence in Wodehouse’s tome:
‘Have you considered that the tenancy of such a position throws you into the constant society of Comrade Beach, than whom it would be difficult to imagine a more delightful companion?’ [asked Psmith]
Although this is a paragon of proper preposition placement, it took three readings for me to correctly parse it. Consequently, I am seriously considering tolerating the dangling preposition so that my listeners/readers can more easily understand the sentences which they are used in. Yech. That sounded horrible. We’ll see about this. In the meantime, I think many people would enjoy reading Wodehousian stories, despite his overt erudition (Firefox’s dictionary tooltip can alleviate this problem, though I have taken to simply putting my book on top of my dictionary when I read).