All things Fine and DANDY

  Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post   April 11, 1925 'Beau Brummell is the Fairest'   by Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874 - 1951)

  "There are too many Smiths, and I don't care for Smythe. My father's content to worry along in the old-fashioned way, but I've decided to strike out a fresh line. I shall found a new dynasty". So began the search for distinction of P.G. Wodehouse's 'Ronald Eustace Smith' over the course of several storylines. (And always with a silent 'P' - "as in psychic") In the way of Evelyn Waugh who basked in the inspiration of dandies at Oxford, Wodehouse was gifted Psmith - in all his exquisite nuances: "The character of Psmith, of whom you are about to read (unless you decide on reflection to watch television instead) is the only thing in my literary career which was handed to me on a plate with watercress around it . . . Rupert D'Oyly Carte was long, slender, always beautifully dressed and very dignified.  His speech was what is known as orotund, and he wore a monocle. He habitually addressed his fellow Wykehamists as "Comrad