Florence Craye
Encyclopedia
Lady Florence Craye is a fictional character
who appears in P. G. Wodehouse
's Jeeves
stories and novels. Lady Florence, the daughter of Percy Craye, Earl of Worplesdon
and elder sister to Edwin, a nasty little runtish type of lad, is the sometime fiancee of Bertie Wooster
. At the opening of the first-occurring story, "Jeeves Takes Charge
," Bertie is (unusually for him, as later stories show) quite enthusiastic about this state of affairs, citing Florence's "wonderful profile," repeatedly, and even undertaking to read a book titled "Types of Ethical Theory," which she has foisted upon him. However, the friendly relations soon deteriorate, as Bertie discovers that she was a little too controlling for his liking, and had dark plans afoot to try to make him read Nietzsche
.
It is later revealed that her staff refer to Lady Florence as "Lady Caligula
". In all subsequent stories, Florence is regarded by Bertie as a dangerous threat to his happy bachelor life, and on multiple occasions he also attempts to detach from her such friends of his who fall prey to her overbearing charms. She is described as tall, willowy, blond, and "seen from the side, most awfully good-looking," but her manner is forceful and spectacularly icy whenever her will is crossed. A little of this seems to go a long way with most of Bertie's saner friends.
Lady Florence Craye is the authoress of one literary novel, Spindrift, which receives some critical applause, and evidently allows her admittance to the Bloomsbury Group
. Bertie is unimpressed by the book, while Jeeves
delicately characterizes it as a "somewhat immature production," but it is apparently reasonably well-received in literary circles, as Bertie states that Florence is "like ham and eggs with the boys with the bulging foreheads round Bloomsbury way." One of Florence's admirers, Percy Gorringe, adapts "Spindrift" for the stage; the production promptly flops. Florence's literary endeavours are referenced in several books, notably in a scene in "Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
," when she induces Bertie to take her to a garish nightclub for research purposes, and then manages to get him arrested when the club is raided.
She becomes engaged to the burly police officer, ex-school chum D'arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright; nevertheless, on more than one occasion, Bertie accidentally becomes engaged to her again, much to the irritation of Stilton, who threatens repeatedly to break his spine in an increasing number of places. Bertie is eventually able to break the engagement with the help of a scheme thought up by Jeeves
; Florence and Stilton, however, part company for good in a late novel. A series of other young men, foes and chums of Bertie's alike, also become entangled - Florence seems to get engaged almost as often as Bertie himself - but a mutual friend, Zenobia "Nobby" Hopwood, gives it as her opinion that it's Bertie she's always really wanted to marry. Any breaking of her current engagement therefore inevitably puts Bertie in dire peril of matrimony. In the same novel, "Joy in the Morning
," he describes her as the worst of the worst of all his prospective fiancees.
Midway through the Saga, her father marries Bertie's Aunt Agatha
, and Florence develops a close relationship with this most terrifying member of the Wooster clan; Bertie observes that even when he was deep under the ether of attraction, he had had the unnerving feeling sometimes that Florence was like someone in training to be an aunt.
In the television series Jeeves and Wooster
, Florence was also the niece of Sir Watkyn Bassett, although this wasn't the case in the original stories.
As a sort of footnote: Florence already makes an appearance in the Reggie-Pepper-story "Disentangling Old Duggie". It was published earlier than the Jeeves books (in 1912, according to 'Gutenberg', can be found in what Gutenberg calls a 'Wodehouse Miscellany'), but Florence is years older. She has two brothers, Edwin and Douglas, both old enough to get married. Florence is the same bossy type, but Edwin is very different from the boy scout in the Jeeves books. And Florence's father is very far from marrying Aunt Agatha. He spends a number of years in France and, after returning, marries a young lady, a palmist, who had been engaged to both brothers before. It is obvious that Wodehouse disregarded this early story when writing about Bertie and Jeeves.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
who appears in P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
's Jeeves
Jeeves
Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character in the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, being the valet of Bertie Wooster . Created in 1915, Jeeves would continue to appear in Wodehouse's works until his final, completed, novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, making him Wodehouse's most famous...
stories and novels. Lady Florence, the daughter of Percy Craye, Earl of Worplesdon
Lord Worplesdon
Percival "Percy" Craye, later Earl of Worplesdon, is a recurring fictional character from the Jeeves stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being Agatha Gregson's second husband, who would have been her first but for Agatha's discovering that he had behaved shamefully at a ball at Covent...
and elder sister to Edwin, a nasty little runtish type of lad, is the sometime fiancee of Bertie Wooster
Bertie Wooster
Bertram Wilberforce "Bertie" Wooster is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse. An English gentleman, one of the "idle rich" and a member of the Drones Club, he appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose genius manages to extricate Bertie or one of...
. At the opening of the first-occurring story, "Jeeves Takes Charge
Jeeves Takes Charge
"Jeeves Takes Charge" is a short story written by P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United States in The Saturday Evening Post on November 18, 1916, and in the United Kingdom in the April 1923 edition of Strand Magazine. Its first book publication was in Carry on, Jeeves in 1925...
," Bertie is (unusually for him, as later stories show) quite enthusiastic about this state of affairs, citing Florence's "wonderful profile," repeatedly, and even undertaking to read a book titled "Types of Ethical Theory," which she has foisted upon him. However, the friendly relations soon deteriorate, as Bertie discovers that she was a little too controlling for his liking, and had dark plans afoot to try to make him read Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
.
"The root of the trouble was that she was one of those intellectual girls, steeped to the gills in serious purpose, who are unable to see a male soul without wanting to get behind it and shove." - Joy in the MorningJoy in the Morning (1946 novel)Joy in the Morning is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on August 22, 1946 by Doubleday & Co., New York, and in the United Kingdom on June 2, 1947 by Herbert Jenkins, London...
It is later revealed that her staff refer to Lady Florence as "Lady Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
". In all subsequent stories, Florence is regarded by Bertie as a dangerous threat to his happy bachelor life, and on multiple occasions he also attempts to detach from her such friends of his who fall prey to her overbearing charms. She is described as tall, willowy, blond, and "seen from the side, most awfully good-looking," but her manner is forceful and spectacularly icy whenever her will is crossed. A little of this seems to go a long way with most of Bertie's saner friends.
Lady Florence Craye is the authoress of one literary novel, Spindrift, which receives some critical applause, and evidently allows her admittance to the Bloomsbury Group
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...
. Bertie is unimpressed by the book, while Jeeves
Jeeves
Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character in the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, being the valet of Bertie Wooster . Created in 1915, Jeeves would continue to appear in Wodehouse's works until his final, completed, novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, making him Wodehouse's most famous...
delicately characterizes it as a "somewhat immature production," but it is apparently reasonably well-received in literary circles, as Bertie states that Florence is "like ham and eggs with the boys with the bulging foreheads round Bloomsbury way." One of Florence's admirers, Percy Gorringe, adapts "Spindrift" for the stage; the production promptly flops. Florence's literary endeavours are referenced in several books, notably in a scene in "Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit
Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on October 15, 1954 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on February 23, 1955 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, under the title Bertie Wooster Sees It Through...
," when she induces Bertie to take her to a garish nightclub for research purposes, and then manages to get him arrested when the club is raided.
She becomes engaged to the burly police officer, ex-school chum D'arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright; nevertheless, on more than one occasion, Bertie accidentally becomes engaged to her again, much to the irritation of Stilton, who threatens repeatedly to break his spine in an increasing number of places. Bertie is eventually able to break the engagement with the help of a scheme thought up by Jeeves
Jeeves
Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character in the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, being the valet of Bertie Wooster . Created in 1915, Jeeves would continue to appear in Wodehouse's works until his final, completed, novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, making him Wodehouse's most famous...
; Florence and Stilton, however, part company for good in a late novel. A series of other young men, foes and chums of Bertie's alike, also become entangled - Florence seems to get engaged almost as often as Bertie himself - but a mutual friend, Zenobia "Nobby" Hopwood, gives it as her opinion that it's Bertie she's always really wanted to marry. Any breaking of her current engagement therefore inevitably puts Bertie in dire peril of matrimony. In the same novel, "Joy in the Morning
Joy in the Morning (1946 novel)
Joy in the Morning is a novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on August 22, 1946 by Doubleday & Co., New York, and in the United Kingdom on June 2, 1947 by Herbert Jenkins, London...
," he describes her as the worst of the worst of all his prospective fiancees.
Midway through the Saga, her father marries Bertie's Aunt Agatha
Aunt Agatha
Agatha Gregson, née Wooster, later Lady Worplesdon, is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being best known as Aunt Agatha, Bertie Wooster's least favourite aunt, and a counterpoint to her sister, Bertie's Aunt Dahlia...
, and Florence develops a close relationship with this most terrifying member of the Wooster clan; Bertie observes that even when he was deep under the ether of attraction, he had had the unnerving feeling sometimes that Florence was like someone in training to be an aunt.
In the television series Jeeves and Wooster
Jeeves and Wooster
-External links:*—An episode guide to the series, including information about which episodes were adapted from which Wodehouse stories.*—Episode guides, screenshots and quotes from the four series....
, Florence was also the niece of Sir Watkyn Bassett, although this wasn't the case in the original stories.
As a sort of footnote: Florence already makes an appearance in the Reggie-Pepper-story "Disentangling Old Duggie". It was published earlier than the Jeeves books (in 1912, according to 'Gutenberg', can be found in what Gutenberg calls a 'Wodehouse Miscellany'), but Florence is years older. She has two brothers, Edwin and Douglas, both old enough to get married. Florence is the same bossy type, but Edwin is very different from the boy scout in the Jeeves books. And Florence's father is very far from marrying Aunt Agatha. He spends a number of years in France and, after returning, marries a young lady, a palmist, who had been engaged to both brothers before. It is obvious that Wodehouse disregarded this early story when writing about Bertie and Jeeves.