H. P. G. Wodehouse
Did that name bring a smile to your face? No? Then this book isn't for you. The name is an amalgam of American horror/fantasy writer H. P. Lovecraft and English comedy writer P. G. Wodehouse. If you're not familiar with both authors, this book isn't for you. However, if your literary mind is salivating over the possibilities of having the idle rich of Edwardian England stumbling across the eldritch nameless horrors of Yog-Sothoth, then this book is worth taking a look at.
Author Peter Cannon first published these stories in Lovecraft journals/fanzines, and self-published them as a collection in 1994. Available at science fiction and fantasy conventions and online, the book contains three stories that combine the Wodehouse and Lovecraft milieu. "Cats, Rats, and Bertie Wooster" insert Bertie and his capable manservant Jeeves into "The Rats in the Walls." Lovecraft's "Cool Air" and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" become "Something Foetid" and "The Rummy Affair of Young Charlie," respectively. You don't have to know the specifics of the original Lovecraft stories to get a chuckle out of these pastiches, but unless you know Bertie and Jeeves, and have a general idea of the Lovecraftian canon, this collection won't make much sense. Padding out the book is Cannon's essay, "The Adventure of the Three Anglo-American Authors: Some Reflections on Conan Doyle, P. G. Wodehouse, and H. P. Lovecraft."
Additional sources:
Cannon, Peter. Peter Cannon Official Web Site. <http://www.herebedragons.co.uk/cannon/> (20 June 2002)
Necronomicon Press Online Catalog. <http://www.necropress.com/catalog/index.cgi?product=misc&cart_id=6018927.31227> (20 June 2002)