Wodehouse’s Honeysuckle Cottage

Sir Pelham Grenville
 Wodehouse, 1881-1975

Ghost stories have been popular for centuries.

When the Spiritualist movement began in the 1880s, they became even more popular.

At this same time, the “short story” format came into its own.

P.G. Wodehouse was a British comic writer that used the short story format successfully during this period.

Wodehouse wrote an excellent ghost story entitled, Honeysuckle Cottage. It was first published in January of 1925, in the Saturday Evening Post in the U.S. and then a month later in the Strand Magazine in the UK.

Saturday Evening Post
January 24, 1925 edition

Honeysuckle Cottage is both a charming and humorous story.

Today, a belief persists that all ghost stories are meant to be “terrifying”-- this notion is wrong.

Most ghost stories that are considered classic instead use subtlety. These stories often focus on the living and their trials and tribulations than on the ghosts in the story.

The concept of what a ghost represented broadened during Wodehouse’s time. Many creative writers brought spirits into their plots in nontraditional ways. For instance, a ghost might just be a memory or a place.

Wodehouse’s Honeysuckle Cottage is about a “place,” in this case. A country cottage that is haunted by the numerous romance novels that the main character’s aunt wrote while she lived there.

When this aunt, Leila J. Pinckney, dies, she bequeaths this cottage to her nephew, James Rodman.

He, like his aunt, is a successful writer, but this is where the similarity between the two ends, for Rodman holds the romance genre in contempt. He, unlike his aunt, writes “serious” suspense thrillers that embody ruthless characters.

No glutinous sentimentality for him, no thanks.

A stipulation in his aunt’s will states that for Rodman to inherit the 5000 pounds, she left him, he must agree to live in the cottage for at least 6 months out of the year.

When he complies, a comedy of errors ensues. Rodman finds the cottage has a surprising effect upon his writing. Perplexed, he finds he has a strong urge to place a beautiful female character into his latest story. Even worse, he discovers his book has become “romantic drivel.”

Are unseen forces at work?

Just as he is resolving this issue, he finds himself confronted with a “pretty young lady” who, because of an untimely accident, must stay at the cottage until she recovers.

Rodman, a “confirmed bachelor,” now must face an onslaught of unseen forces, plus the lady’s doctor and his housekeeper all insinuating that romance is in the air.

Wodehouse deftly manipulates his plot through several more twists and leaves the reader wondering if Rodman will succumb to love or stay on his chosen path.

This story is narrated by a "fictional distant cousin" of Rodman by the name of Mr. Mulliner, who loves to tell a good story. It is a quick and fun read.

You can buy the story. Meet Mr. Mulliner here. This collection of short stories includes the tale Honeysuckle Cottage.

There is one free copy of the story online here. The reader has to scroll down to story lX Honeysuckle Cottage 267. Some words are obscured in this text.