Gussie Fink-Nottle

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Augustus "Gussie" Fink-Nottle is a fictional character who appears in several of P. G. Wodehouse's novels. A lifelong friend of Bertie Wooster, he is "a teetotal bachelor with a face like a fish", wears horn-rimmed spectacles, and devotes his life to the study of newts; his eccentric behavior is reminiscent of a person with Asperger syndrome.

Gussie met Bertie at Malvern House Preparatory School, where they were schoolmates; growing up, he took up residence in a remote part of Lincolnshire to pursue his beloved newt studies. When, in Right Ho, Jeeves, he first sees Madeline Bassett, he falls immediately in love with her; however, too shy to tell her himself, he convinces Bertie to break the news for him. Madeline misunderstands Bertie, thinking that he loves her and is trying to tell her indirectly, and when, later in the book, she becomes engaged to Gussie, she promises to marry Bertie if ever Gussie leaves her. Consequently, Bertie spends a great deal of time keeping Gussie engaged to Madeline. Interestingly, in the TV series, both Gussie and Madeline have lisps.

A threat to their continued engagement is the constant presence of Roderick Spode, a friend of Madeline's father Sir Watkyn Bassett. Having loved her in silence for years, but convinced of his unsuitability for her, Spode is nevertheless anxious to protect her from heartbreak or wrongdoing by any of her fiancés, and eager to beat any man to a pulp who does not treat her properly. Gussie feels Spode's wrath on several occasions. Gussie never actually marries Madeline, instead eloping with the daughter of an American millionaire, Emerald Stoker (who was working as a cook at the Bassett mansion).

The scene in Right Ho, Jeeves in which Gussie, thoroughly inebriated due to Jeeves and, later, Bertie Wooster lacing his orange juice with a sufficient amount of gin, as well as his own massive drink of whisky, gives a speech at the Market Snodsbury Grammar School is often cited as among the finest vignettes of English comic literature. The diatribe goes on for several pages, and concludes with Gussie hinting darkly at illicit relations between the Headmaster of the Market Snodsbury Grammar School and the mother of the recipient of the prize he is awarding. He had previously hinted that the individual concerned was also well known to the police, much to the discomfort of Bertie Wooster and the amusement of Jeeves. The incident was only concluded by timely intervention of the choir singing the National Anthem.

Gussie also appears in The Code of the Woosters, The Mating Season, and Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.

[edit] References

  • Usborne, Richard (2003). Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 108–109. ISBN 1-58567-441-9.