tags from @dathen: #okay that explains SO much about how ace bertie is
Oh, there's a lot more where that came from, please do allow me!
Wodehouse contracted a bad case of mumps at nineteen which is widely supposed, including in this book, to have resulted in sterility and possibly caused or contributed to his asexuality. Regardless of whether it was "caused" by anything, sex was clearly not a topic he was interested in or comfortable with: "Wodehouse admitted that he couldn’t handle ‘sex scenes’ properly and speculated that his large sales in Sweden, where all sorts of pornography are on rampant sale, were because his books were not dirty. The nearest Wodehouse ever got to joking about sex was ‘I’m all for incest and tortured souls in moderation, but a good laugh from time to time never hurt anybody’." (Phelps, pp. 111)
By all accounts, his relationship with his wife Ethel was very solid and affectionate, but almost certainly completely sexless, and from some of the descriptions in this book sounds almost like it might've been closer to queerplatonic than romantic:
Ethel had "men friends" who would essentially take her out on dates when Plum didn't feel like going out, and he didn't seem at all bothered by this: "Whatever the role of Bobby and Ethel’s many other men friends such as Gerard Fairlie, they never caused Wodehouse concern and had no effect on the strength of his relationship with Ethel. Wodehouse was generous to Denby, allowing him to live with his family for some years and to act as an ad hoc agent, but only within limits."
So there you go! I like reading about Plum's relationship with Ethel, because the more you read the more you can see the clear influences on the way he wrote Bertie's relationship with Jeeves. This passage, for example, reminds me of the much-discussed scene at the end of Bingo and the Little Woman where Bertie can't stay mad at Jeeves when he walks into the flat and finds everything exactly the way he likes it:
Ethel was a strong-willed person who liked to give advice and took on the role of shielding her writer husband from the outside world so he could focus on doing what made him happy. "A woman of striking looks and strong personality; a reassuring combination of aunt, nanny and wife; a sense of security. It must have been obvious to him, even on so short an acquaintance, that a man married to Ethel would not have to deal with the boring and time-consuming matters of everyday life that keep a man away from his typewriter. If the outside world came knocking on the door wanting to get at Plum when he was writing, Ethel would clearly send it away with a flea in its collective ear." She was a stylish dresser and had sporting blood in her veins. She helped Plum come up with plots for his stories.
On her side of the relationship, "What Ethel saw in Plum was the kindness and strength of the man. A perceptive woman, she probably saw his acute intelligence too, which many of his friends underestimated. After two short-lived marriages she finally met the right man. Then for richer or poorer, for better or for worse and as long as they both did live she had a doting and devoted husband giving her, until their last years, the happiness she had never known before."
Does this. Sound familiar. To anyone
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