Fate (short story)

"Fate"
Author P. G. Wodehouse
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Drones Club
Genre(s) Comedy
Publisher The Strand Magazine
Media type Print (Magazine)
Publication date May 1931

"Fate" is a short story by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. The story was published in both the UK in The Strand Magazine and in the US in Cosmopolitan in May 1931. It was titled "Compromised" in Cosmopolitan.[1] It was included in the 1936 collection Young Men in Spats.[2]

The story is the first in the main Drones Club canon, and stars Freddie Widgeon, who would become one of the two most prominent characters in the Drones Club series, the other being Bingo Little. In "Fate", Freddie tries to be helpful by carrying a suitcase for a girl to her apartment, but this gets him in trouble when the situation is misinterpreted by Freddie's fiancée and her father.

Plot

At the Drones Club, a Crumpet (a nondescript club member) says that Freddie Widgeon has returned from New York, where he lost the girl he loved. Freddie told the Crumpet that everything happened because of Fate, so there is no reason to worry about it. The Crumpet tells a Bean the following story about what happened.

In New York, Freddie is happily engaged to Mavis Peasemarch, an upstanding church-going girl and daughter of Lord Bodsham. One day, Freddie reads (and believes) scandal stories in a tabloid, and later sees a plain-looking girl struggling with a heavy suitcase. Freddie offers to help, and they go to her flat. Fatigued after carrying the suitcase, Freddie rests on a chair and talks to the girl, who is named Myra Jennings. Suddenly, the door bursts open, and three men enter. They remark that their case is open and shut now that they have discovered Mrs. Silvers with a man, and Freddie infers that they are private detectives. When Myra points out they are in the wrong flat, the detectives pay for the door and leave.

He squeezed her hand. His whole attitude towards her, he tells me, was that of a brother towards a suffering sister.
And at this moment the door flew open, and a number of large objects crashed in. Without any warning the air had suddenly become full of bowler hats.

— The detectives discover Freddie with Mrs. Silvers[3]

Freddie tells Mavis and her father what happened, and they become suspicious about Freddie seeing another girl. To clear himself of suspicion, Freddie plans to show Mavis that the girl he helped is plain-looking. He goes to Myra Jennings's flat, but she is out. Myra's neighbour, a beautiful woman wearing a negligee, complains that her room is too hot and persuades Freddie to help her open her window, which is stuck. Mrs. Silvers, as she turns out to be, tells Freddie how she is unhappy with her jealous husband. Freddie holds her hand sympathetically. At that moment, the door flies open, and the detectives appear again.

The detectives think Freddie is romantically involved with Mrs. Silvers, and say that Mrs. Silvers should be ashamed. Freddie, offended that they are aspersing a woman's name, injudiciously hits the head detective. He ends up in a prison cell. In the morning, he pays the court fifty dollars, and discovers the scandal of his being discovered with Mrs. Silvers in a newspaper. Deciding he could not convince Mavis or her father of the truth, he returns to England. As his boat docks at Southampton, he sees a very pretty girl drop her vanity bag. He ignores this, having given up on helping damsels in distress.

Background

The story takes place in New York, and was written and published while Prohibition was in effect in the United States. Prohibition essentially banned alcoholic beverages. While it is not directly referenced in the story, it is hinted at when Freddie Widgeon drinks from a flask hidden in his hip pocket, and when Mrs. Silvers drinks liquor that her husband made in a still.[4]

Freddie Widgeon tries to woo Mavis Peasemarch again in the 1939 short story "Bramley Is So Bracing".[5]

Publication history

Treyer Evans illustrated the story in the Strand.[6] James Montgomery Flagg provided illustrations for the story in Cosmopolitan.[7]

"Fate" was included in the 1982 collection Tales from the Drones Club.[8]

See also

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Midkiff (2017).
  2. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), pp. 70-71, A55.
  3. ↑ Wodehouse (2009) [1936], chapter 1, p. 28.
  4. ↑ Hodson, Mark (11 November 2002). "Young Men in Spats: Literary and Cultural References". Madame Eulalie. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  5. ↑ Garrison, Daniel H. (1991) [1989]. Who's Who in Wodehouse (Revised ed.). Constable & Robinson. p. 140. ISBN 1-55882-087-6.
  6. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 186, D133.171.
  7. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 148, D17.53.
  8. ↑ McIlvaine (1990), p. 126, B25a.
Bibliography
  • McIlvaine, Eileen; Sherby, Louise S.; Heineman, James H. (1990). P. G. Wodehouse: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Checklist. New York: James H. Heineman Inc. ISBN 978-0-87008-125-5.
  • Midkiff, Neil (7 December 2017). "The Wodehouse short stories". Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  • Wodehouse, P. G. (2009) [1936]. Young Men in Spats (Reprinted ed.). London: Arrow Books. ISBN 9780099514039.
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