Lord Emsworth - Life and Character

Life and Character

Lord Emsworth is consistently presented just shy of sixty;since Wodehouse wrote about him for over half a century, in novels more or less set in the present, this means that his dates vary depending on what one is reading. As a child he once took a dead pet rabbit to bed with him; at the age of fifteen, he smoked his first cigar, and he has rarely been called on to think quickly since hearing his father's footsteps approaching the stable-loft where he sat that day. Never the brightest of minds, at Eton College they called him "Fathead", and by the time we meet him his slowness of thought has become a byword; he is prone to distraction and misunderstanding, but generally amiable. His simple outlook makes him an excellent sleeper, and for twenty years he has rarely got less than his eight hours, usually managing ten (he is particularly fond of sleeping at the start of train journeys). In Something Fresh he keeps a revolver by his bed, with which to fire wildly at burglars or Rupert Baxter.

Lord Emsworth has ten sisters (one deceased), two brothers (one deceased), two sons, at least one daughter, and many in-laws – for a full list of his family members, see the Threepwood family list. He was once married, but his wife died some years before we meet him: "he was a man who since the death of his wife some twenty years ago had made something of a life's work of avoiding women." (Pigs Have Wings, 1952).

He is a long, thin, bald old man with a tendency towards scruffiness, generally found in a worn old tweed jacket and trousers that bag at the knees. He wears pince-nez on a string around his neck, which he nevertheless often loses. He resents being forced to dress up smartly, especially when he is also called on to address crowds, and most of all loathes having to visit London when the sun is shining. In "Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best", he grows a rather ragged beard, little realising the peril this puts his castle in, but soon realises that it is better to remove it.

In his later years, the main troubles of his life stem from his many sisters, particularly the formidable Connie, who despair at his eccentric appearance and distracted ways, and his younger son Freddie, who he longs to see safely married off and out of trouble; his joy at seeing him finally paired off with Aggie Donaldson knows no bounds.